Call number: NAU.OH.74.2.7
Collection name: James Biglin
Narrators: Allen Woody (on behalf of Ruth T’sesiinii).
Interviewed by Unknown person
Interviews conducted in Navajo and English
Date of interview: 1974
Place of interview: Tuba City, Arizona
Translated and transcribed by Bahe Katenay NOTE: This interview was conducted in the Dineh (Navajo) language and these are translations.
Interviewer: The lady, Ruth T’sesiinii [Tsinnie], had her documents with the questionnaire that I gave her was completed earlier. The paramount portion, in regards to the traditional way of Dineh life, but she has stated she has no knowledge about that and she preferred to avoid that (subject). She eventually ‘ran out’ [left]. However, her son in-law is still here and he was willing to briefly speak on her behalf, and that I accepted. Now, this gentleman, Allen Woody, will be allowed to briefly state on her behalf. I am uncertain how this will be considered and if you feel this is not acceptable then you can withdraw his name. Allen Woody:
ALLEN WOODY INTERVIEW
ALLEN (?) WOODY: The information about the old traditional ways of life is that people once had lived in ‘cave’ [in English] and this I learned from stories of my grandfather. The goose foot, wild bitter orange berries and the yucca fruits were eaten then. The wardrobes included woven juniper bark as footwear and some also wore deerskin leather which was stitched into clothing. The hunting was mostly done with sharpened wooden lances. Also the bow and arrows were used to hunt such animals like the cotton-tail rabbits were killed. Slings [b44’11d77’t[88’] were said to have been used in hunting and this with a circular spinning [dz7[m1z7’g0h’], it was used to killed deer.
The way of life of the Dineh [Navajos] and the Anglos, a comparison can be made by placing the Anglos’ alongside (Dineh ways) will create differences. However, the Anglos have given us their shoes and clothes which they dressed us up with. Our old style of clothing which we have now discarded/put away, and so the ways of the Anglos is how we are proceeding forth. About the children, the old stories they have no knowledge of. They should be allowed to keep that knowledge and ‘with this, they shall be casting the future paths’ [yi[’, yiidii[d0h’l44[’].
Ten years since and today, the ‘bus’ [in English] are ‘running about everywhere’ [route schedules]. The schools even have upper-level schools being built. The one called, Peter Macdonald, (is responsible for) the houses being built which are for the people.1 Homes that have running water inside them, they have bathrooms, bedrooms, and food preparation areas. This we are very appreciative for. We do not need to haul water from a far in wooden barrels or have it like in a time when, ‘One Which the Baby Goat was Extracted From’ [assumed Narrator refers to a goatskin water sack] was used and that which the donkeys hauled. Now, water can flow out from within.
1 Former Navajo Tribal Chairman (1970 – 1988), Peter MacDonald first came onto the scene in 1965 after President Johnson’s Great Society program went into effect. Then tribal chairman, Raymond Nakai, appointed MacDonald to direct this anti-poverty initiative on the reservation and it was known as the Office of Navajo Equal Opportunity (ONEO). MacDonald took away the controls from the federal government, and “where poverty was deepest.., ONEO appeared with money and jobs. All of it was given in the name of Peter MacDonald.” (Mother Jones, 1982)
Colorado Plateau Archives
