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Article: Navajo
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of World Cultures
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 The Gale Group, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Navajo
ETHNONYMS: Apaches de Nabaju, Dine, Dineh, Dinneh, Navaho, Nabajo, Nabaju
Orientation
Identification.
The Navajo are a large American Indian group currently located in Arizona and New Mexico. In sixteenth-century Spanish documents the Navajo are referred to simply as "Apaches," along with all the other Athapaskan-speaking peoples of the New Mexico province. The more specific designation "Apaches de Nabaju" appears for the first time in 1626 and sporadically thereafter until the end of the seventeenth century. From about 1700 on, the people are always called "Navajo" (or "Nabajo") in Spanish documents, and the name has been retained throughout the Anglo-American period. The ...