Hogan next to Canyon de Chelly Visitor Center
My introduction to Navajo culture was on the first day of our PSU trip to the Colorado Plateau. At the Four Corners Outdoor School of Education in Monticello, Utah, the founder Janet Ross, gave us a tour of the facility. As we approached a beautiful, symmetrical structure with the door facing east, Janet informed us the multisided, usually hexagonal, wooden building was a Hogan, the traditional Navajo home.
Janet piqued my interest in Hogans when she explained the Navajo people believe if a death occurs in a Hogan the structure must be abandoned. Most of the time the Hogan is destroyed with fire so no one can live in the structure again. The deceased body is buried in the Hogan or a hole is made in the north side of the structure so the body can be carried out through the hole (1). From this point I became intrigued with learning more about the Navajo culture and in particular the Hogan.
Ceiling of a Hogan
The Hogan is usually made of wood logs and covered with earth. There are two main types: the original style called the forked pole Hogan, just described, and the more modern of the two, the stacked log Hogan. The two types of Hogans are also known as the female and male Hogan. The forked pole style is said to be male, protecting its inhabitants like a father. The stacked log Hogan is female and is said to care for its people like a mother. The female style Hogan is much more prevalent, coming into existence when the Navajo people started prospering and needed more room for bigger families. Both types of Hogans can be found side by side on the San Juan River near the town of Mexican Hat; our PSU group floated by these on our last day right before our take out.
Some of our PSU group members had a chance to visit and learn more about Hogans on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. There was a model with interpretive signs next to the Visitor Center in Canyon de Chelly National Monument, and also at a small open museum in the town of Kayenta, Arizona. Some of the elementary schools we visited on the Reservation also had a Hogan as part of their facility. One of the most interesting Hogans we observed was the one in the bottom of Canyon de Chelly, which had a sign posted requesting hikers not to photograph the Hogan as it was someone’s home.
There is always a cookstove in the center of a Hogan
The Navajo culture is full of symbolism, much of it emphasizing balance. The Hogan, as we first learned from Janet, is no exception. The dome roof symbolizes the sky, the floor the earth, and the word Hogan translates in Navajo as “place home.” The Navajo consider their home, the Hogan, to represent the earth. “A hogan is more than a shelter. To build a hogan is to make sense of the world, to live in harmony with the cycles and forces affecting all life.” (1) To me, the Hogan symbolizes the core of the culture and beliefs of the Navajo. All of the Hogans faced the same direction and had the same basic shape. Wherever we went the Hogan was a familiar and repeating presence on the Navajo Reservation. Our PSU group traveled to the Colorado Plateau to learn about diverse cultures, and the Hogan was one distinct, visible feature that differentiated the Navajo from the Ute tribes.
References:
1. (The Hogan by Scott Thybony).
2. (http://www.kstrom.net/isk/maps/houses/hogan.html).
