Food and Shelter

When the Dineh first came to the Southwest, they survived in the rugged, dry environment as nomadic bands of hunter-gatherers. Along with their kinsmen, the Apache, they launched raids on the agricultural Pueblo Indians for food, property, women, and slaves. Throughout most of their history, the Navajo were feared by Indian, Spanish, Mexican, and American inhabitants of the Southwest. Although they continued their raiding activity, the Dineh, through contacts with Pueblo Indians, gradually adopted new customs. From the other Indians, they learned farming, weaving, and sandpainting. They probably also learned how to make pottery and new basketmaking techniques from the Pueblo Indians. The Navajo acquired sheep and goats from the Spanish. But they did not use up

Their supply for food, as the Apache did. Instead, they raised them to increase their herds, which they kept for meat, milk, and wool. Livestock, especially sheepherding, soon became essential to Dineh economy. The Dineh first acquired horses at about the same time they acquired sheep and goats—the mid - to late 1600s. Horses gave them greater mobility on their raids.

The Dineh lived in shelters called hogans. These were generally cone-shaped, but later they were built with six or eight sides. Logs and poles were used for the frame-

Dineh hogan (facing east)

Work, which was covered with bark and earth and, in later years, with stone or adobe. The doorways of the hogans faced east.