The Strength of a Woman

     When I was cleaning out a cupboard, I ran across a book about the Navajo Indians' struggle for survival...a book I kept thinking I would read but just never got around to doing til now.    She Who Hears The Sun, a historical novel written by Pamela Jekel, tells the story of four generations of women beginning in 1846.  Prior to that time, "The People" migrated to various grazing lands to feed their animals but always returned to their permanent homes.  

     The women of the Navajo tribe owned the herds of sheep and goats, the pastures, the hogans (homes), and they attended the council meetings.  A smart man stayed on the good side of his wife since he might be married to 1 or 2 other women at the same time who had adjoining pasture land.   The wife could end the marriage by simply placing all of the husband's belongs outside her hogan door. 

     It was a free life until 1846 when the white man arrived with the intention of taking over the land by pressuring the Indians into signing treaties and making promises the army failed to keep.  Eventually, the Navajos were hunted down and forced to die or move to a distant reservation where they would be provided with food, seeds, tools, etc..  The surviving Navajo tribe members were allowed to return to their homes in 1868 when the government finally realized they couldn't take care of them.  The Navajos  agreed to send their children to a white school, not fight with the other tribes, become farmers, and stay on the new reservation which was part of their old home lands.

Indian Wisdom Art Quilt

   In this book, Deezbaa is a wise old Grandmother who thinks that the mind is like a garden.  We must plant and tend only those things which will nurture us.

    Her daughter, Ayoi, doesn't have the strength of will which Deezbaa posesses.  The strongest in this line of women is Ayoi's daughter, Pahe who helps the Navajo tribe continue living when they've nearly all given up hope of ever being allowed to return to their homes.  Pahe becomes the stable influence the tribe needs.

     Although this isn't the best book I've ever read, Ms. Jekel writes in a way that made me feel some of the anguish these women must have felt as they lost many of their family members, friends, homes, and their way of life.  Through Pahe there is a glimpse of the strength it took to survive and even prosper again. 

     So, remember the women!
                 
                             Carol