The Navajo: A History from Beginning to Present

The Navajo, or Diné (“the people”), are the single largest group of Native American people in North America. Their traditional homeland, the Diné Bikéyah, stretched across the vast landscapes of present-day Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, defined by four sacred mountains that symbolized their spiritual and physical world. Yet their language and culture suggest that the Navajo actually originated in present-day Canada before migrating south toward New Mexico.

While living in the Southwest during the sixteenth century, the Navajo first encountered Europeans and other indigenous people who had contact with white explorers and settlers. This contact seems to have fundamentally and permanently changed the Navajo way of life. They adopted livestock, farming, and the horse. As white settlers pushed relentlessly westward in the nineteenth century, the Navajo faced trials that threatened their very existence. Yet, unlike many other Native American groups, the Navajo endured, adapted, and even thrived. This book explores their history from ancient times until today. This is the story of the Navajo.