A Journey of Striving: Literary and Creative Expressions of Diné (Navajo) Becoming

FAIN: HB-289473-23

Jeffrey D. Berglund
Northern Arizona University (Flagstaff, AZ 86011-0001)

Research and writing of a book on how Diné (Navajo) principles of homeland, kinship, beauty, harmony, and shared memories are reflected in their literature, music and film. 

"A Journey of Striving: Literary and Creative Expressions of Diné (Navajo) Becoming" examines, in the context of central cultural philosophies, the significant, yet undertheorized, contributions of Navajo literature. Sa’ah Naagháí Bik’eh Hózhóón (SNBH), “one’s journey of striving to live a long, harmonious life,” forms what Lloyd Lee has referred to as a Diné matrix for life. As poet Rex Lee Jim explains in his essay, “A Moment in My Life”: “Our responsible actions bring beauty into this world . . . The beauty comes from within us: Hózhóón, then, is our inner self singing and dancing in the physical world.” The book's chapters are oriented around key Navajo principles of homeland, kinship, beauty/harmony (hózhó) and the shared cultural memories and reckonings with the trauma of Hwééldi/the Long Walk (1864-1868) to represent the trajectory from disruption to a rebalancing and harmonization of ways of being engaged in the journey of striving to be Diné in the contemporary world.