From Old Wisdom to New Knowledge

This research will focus on the traditional teaching that has been in existence by the
beliefs of our grandfathers and grandmothers and their grandfathers and grandmothers. It is their
teachings that has made me ponder on this topic. My research is about the teaching of the
traditional hair Knot (Tsiiyeel). I wanted to research this topic for a long time. I finally went
back and looked into it. I also wanted to research a topic that is meaningful and useful to me.
Something that I will be able to use in my teaching. I also selected this topic because it is one of
our identification with Mother Earth, articulated through the oral tradition in the sacred stories of
our beginnings, as well as in the stories or teachings about our sacred principles, our relationship
to the earth and all of life. This research will only bring out the woman aspect of traditional hair
knot.

This research will relate to conversation that took place between my mother, and my
grandfathers and grandmothers by clans. I chose to write about their stories because they are
wise and they know what they are talking about.

The teaching of the traditional hair is like our cornfield or our children. We have to take
time to nurture it. If we are neglecting or abusing it it will have no body or shine. Just like a
cornfield, if we are lazy our cornfield will not harvest. But if we take care of our cornfield by
watering it and making sure there are no weeds, it will look good at harvest time. Our hair has the
same purpose of life.

Our hair represents the darkness of the cloud right at the beginning of the rain (niltsa
naajiin). Our hair is our mental and physical being. How we care for our mental and physical
being is up to each individual from birth into old age. Our grandparents' teaching is to take care
of our hair and let it grow long. The longer our hair is the wiser and knowledgeable we will be. In
the traditional teaching, it is said the holy gods have already established and developed our roots
from birth to old age. It is up to us, however, to bring these out and learn how to use them. We
are blessed with many things that protect us, strengthen us, and help us continue to grow
mentally and physically. We are taught with much blessings and that blessing is all around us.
We must find them and use them wisely. Our hair roots is blessed with nature and the natural
basic elements - fire, water, air, wind, prayers and songs, clans, our name, language and values,
and our hogan, etc.


Our hair is part of us to help us achieve and be creative in life. Achievement and
creativity must come from within our own creative being. It helps us to have an open mind to
our own intelligence so that we may show respect, be discipline, and understand the purpose of
our life.


If we cut our hair we have cut off some of your wisdom and knowledge. They say when
you cut your hair you have harmed your mental and physical being. This means you have created
disharmony with Mother Earth and the Holy Gods. You will get confused and frustrated with
the things that may come our way. Furthermore, we have asked for powerful forces of
unhappiness, poverty, and our purpose of life becomes dim and unclear. Our dreams become
signs of bad luck. In the traditional teachings, it is said that you should never cut your hair unless
you are rebounding from sickness or other health problems that hindered your life greatly. In
order to create harmony again, we must use the Blessing way Ceremony. In this way we will
have a clear mind and thought process. Our hair should never be worn down, unless we are
attending a funeral or a burial service. The deceased will be buried with their hair down. The
only other time we can wear our hair down is during our monthly (menstrual) thing.


Our knowledge increases as we go from birth to youth hood to adult hood to old age. For
example, when a girl reaches puberty, she is given a traditional hair brush as one of her tool to
care for her hair. The hair brush is part of nature. The brush is made from tall wild wheat grass
tied into a bunch. It represents Mother Earth - white shell, turquoise, abalone shell and black jet
and is a protection against evilness.


As our knowledge increases and how we care for our mental and physical being we mature
and age, when we reach adulthood we are fully mature with skills and knowledge ready to make
life. From this day forward we continued to address our mental and physical being into old age.
If we don't violate a natural or ethical law, our frame of mind is clear, strong, and beautiful. The
learning acquired is passed on from generation to generation. This learning of knowledge will
never grow old. The knowledge is relearned and continued. As we are all educators and learners.


Our hair is also equipped with a sunbeam. It is the string that holds our knowledge and
wisdom together. In Navajo it is called bighaal - long and short range planning. It represents the
sunbeam. The sunbeam is to see and observe with. It gives us a sense of direction of where we
are going. It is something that needs a plan and action. It is up to us if we believe in ourselves
and know that we can do it, we accomplish any goals we set forth.


When a baby is born, it will have no hair or it will cover the head a little bit. Every
individual is different, some will have thin hair, while others are blessed with thick hair. This is
where we address all the teachings, taking time out for our children, actually washing their hair
for them, teaching them why they need to be clean. The child will be given their first hair tie as
soon as their hair is long enough to be tied. Some children start as young as three or four years
old.



The string is the representation of the dawn in the Talking God's song. He wears the
dawn on his back, so as we wear the hair string we walk and journey in life as the child and
grandchild of Talking God, who is the dawn. He will recognize us by our hair tie and our
footprints when we wear the moccasins. In the teachings, it is said he will say, I see the
footprints of my child or grandchild. So we have to be very cautious, we have to watch where
we go and what we do. We must only go to good places and seek good things that will benefit
our life in a good way. We must abide by his law because we are Sa'anaaghai boy and
Bekehozoon girl.


It is also significant that a hair string be made from the sheep wool because a sheep has a
home -corral, it's gate faces the east, and all its main posts have songs and prayers, even the
sheep orphan. They are the pets of the Sun who also have great powers of songs and prayers.
When we herd sheep, the dust made by their feet causes the dust to rise as we walk behind the
sheep, the dust covers us. It is said that the dust hides us from evilness, so it protects us.


The first hair string is made with only four strings, representing us as a child and
grandchild of the dawn, blue twilight, yellow evening twilight and folding darkness, within each of
the cardinal directions. This is the four sacred mountains adorned with good strong thinking,
planning, life, hope, strength, Materialistic soft goods and hard goods. As the child or grandchild
matures the strings goes from six, twelve, sixteen, and to twenty four strings depending on how
much knowledge of prayers and songs. The knowledge depends on the length and thickness of
the hair.


The hair string is cut to the length of the arm. The hair string is wrapped around the hair
always in a clockwise direction. The tie is tied in a square knot. It is said that only a deceased
person's hair will be tied in an opposite direction and tied crisscross. Sometimes in a person's
life if they were not addressing the physical and mental being, their health might be hindered and
they become ill or sick. This is when a Wind way, Mountain Chant, or a male shooting way. is
performed. The medicine man will then tie a white shell to the female's hair string and turquoise
to the male's hair string. This is done so that the Holy People and Holy Winds People can
recognize us. This elements must never be removed through out the person's life time. No one
must borrow or wear the hair string. This is the same teaching for the moccasins. It must be
worn each time the person is having a ceremony. When the person dies, the hair string is not
buried with them. It is returned to one of the four sacred mountains.


Kinaalda also has a special hair string. She wears an unwounded buckskin, cut from the
tip of the nose to the tip of the tail. The buckskin is put in half. The right side of the buckskin is
put on the right side and left side of the buckskin is put on the right side of the Kinaalda. It is
then wrapped four times in a clockwise direction from the right hand side. The father is one who
acquires the unwounded buckskin for their daughters. The Kinaalda's hair is parted in the center
where the Air people entered her body at birth. The front center is left hanging down during the
ceremony so the girl may never grow old. This part represents the blessing of the male and
female rain. It is the teaching, that only the Kinaalda may run into the dawn with their hair down
as she is in the most delicate stage of mental and physical being. She will be blessed by the Holy
Air people and Holy Mist people.


As everything begins with birth, to youth hood, to adult hood and than into old age.
There are twelve levels of knowledge just as there are twelve Holy People. In the teaching, it is
said that there is one to twelve folds when making a traditional hair bun. This represents age one
to twelve. Each fold is molded with the natural laws of the Holy People. These laws are beliefs
and teachings of our performance all the time and every minute of our life. We don't make these
laws. We are put on this earth to understand and respect the knowledge and wisdom of our
beliefs and teachings. For this reason, it is very important to nurture and care for our youths'
positive thinking and behavior during this fragile stage of age one to twelve. Every youth needs
know the power of worth because this is how they understand their mental abilities and roles in
life.



Today we have all kinds of youth problems: health, mental, social issues, and learning
disabilities. These are only a few areas of some of the common problems. Often they seem
small, but actually they are big problems. Adults can not figure out a way to solve these
problems. Yet, they continue to label them - stupid, crazy, and mentally ill, etc. They build
institutions to keep them there - they strip them of their pride, dignity, and power, etc.


In the teachings, it is said the Holy People made us as children. They placed certain
types of control on our lives. We have needs and wants immediately after we are born. Those
needs and wants are fulfill with teachings of good or bad. Many times the good teachings will
turn bad. This is when the mind goes out of control. In order to harmonize this bad, a ceremony
is performed to harmonize the mental and physical being. If the child continues to live with the
bad, then the child's mental and physical being will continue to be out of control.


It will depend on how well we take care of our physical and mental being. As said, earlier
when a girl reaches puberty, she is given a brush as her tool. The brush is for her to take care of
her hair. The brush will wear down as the years go by just as her hair will thin out too. The hair
will wear down from the center point from age twelve into old age.


It is said, that like the two Twin Warriors, Enemy Slayer and Child Born of the Water,
has journey through monstrous, dangers, obstacles and powers that are beyond their being. As
we journey in life, we are like those two Twin Warriors faced with all kinds of social ills,
pressure, hungry of all kinds, poverty of all kinds, and stresses. Then when they defeated the
monsters. The obstacles and misbalance in their life, is said to be the same as the experiences of
us not eating and sleeping right because we worry, we experience pain, sorrow, death, divorce,
physical and verbal abuses, evilness, envy, the up and downs of our careers.


The disharmony normally is evident by hair loss, lacks shine and body, and color change.
In order to rebalance our spiritual being, we must heal ourselves through songs and prayers. Our
left side of the body is the Enemy Way and Beauty Way on our right hand side. The Enemy
Way side lies all the ceremonies that will address us in protection way, male way. The right hand
side of the body lies the Beauty Way. We must take care of both sides so that our mental and
physical being is peaceful, healthy and beautiful. Otherwise, we are losing focus on the purpose
of life.


There are songs for everything in life so we know the truth purpose in life. The combing
of the hair song, the tying of the hair song, the brushing song, the hair string song, and there is
hard goods and Materialist soft good songs. There are also songs for the unwounded buckskin,
mountain and traveling songs for journeying in beauty of life, thinking, teaching, children, sheep,
hogan, horses, earth, stars, dawn and talking gods, and leadership to help us stay focus and
respect for all things.


The hair can not be thrown away into the trash can, into the water, and out into nature.
When we cut our hair, we should ask for the hair and take back with us. There is a bush called
snake brush. This bush has a long strong root. This is what we should use to burn our hair with.
We don't need to burn all the hair, only about a spoonful. The ash is what we rub between our
hands and then rub it to our hair. As we rub it to our hair we pray or sing. This will give us long
healthy hair and restore our mental and physical being. It is said, if we throw our hair to nature,
rodents, reptiles, insect, birds, wind and lightening may get it. These are spirit - good and bad.
Often it is bad because it will alter our health and mind.

It is important that a prayer or song is performed once we have cut our hair. In the
teaching, it is said that most of the knowledge and wisdom is at the bottom tip of our hair. It is
that part that first began to appear right after birth and where the Air people entered the body at
birth. This is the part we must protect because it is the first step in purpose of life - our
education, thinking, behavior, feeling, thought and observation. This is the reason why in the
traditional teachings, we are encouraged to keep our hair long.


It is also said that a woman who has their monthly, should not cut hair. It will effect our
mental and physical being in a negative direction. It is even caution not to let stranger touch our
hair or cut our hair. When cutting our hair or our children's hair we should always think
positively - a song or prayer.


In conclusion, our body is sacred from the bottom of the sole of our feet to the top of our
head to the tip of our hands, adorned with sacred songs and prayers. Every part of our body
internally and externally is sacred. Prayers and songs are the key to Dine way of thinking,
learning, thought, feeling and observation because the Holy People wanted us to be beautiful
people. There certainly are many sacred stories or teachings. They are all about the purpose of
life. They are all from the Holy Peoples' teaching handed down to our great grandparents. It is
the teaching that gives us the power to live it and use it. In this way, we will not rely on others
to do our thinking and the doing for us. It will be up to us to think and do for ourselves. There is
hope and understanding. This will help us to believe in ourselves and help us maintain and
protect our culture and values.


This is only one story. I was told to take what I have learned and build upon it as I go
about my life. It was a true challenge for me to learn this story because the Navajo language is a
unique value. It was strong and often I was criticized my elders when I had to ask what look like
silly questions to them. My mother reminded me that I needed to be patient and understanding.
It is a very sacred story to them. In order to understand, you must pray and sing about it. It will
come to you easily, were her very words. I now understand why many youths fall short of
relearning, valuing, understanding, and appreciating these teachings. They must never been taught
a prayer or song to overcome obstacles.


I was told this portion of the story is only a small part of the teaching. But what I was
interested in was the significant part of how it relates to our way of life. I am not done as my
mother says, its a life long story because all the teaching intertwine with the purpose in life
according to the Holy People's natural laws. My mother tells me that I should not want to learn
the whole story and put an end to it. She says, it does not work this way. As you age, you
learn a little bit every time. She says, its a journey and you have to be patient. But you should
never give up. Like a Navajo basket, once you begin you must finish it. You can never leave it
undone. Otherwise you are asking for illness or disharmony in life. Now you must say a prayer
or chant a song giving thanks to the Holy People for the story. They will protect you until you
seek the next part.