hogan/hooghan

A caravan of tourists encounter a Diné group of women, children, and sheep herders on horseback, visit a hogan, and have lunch in Monument Valley.

Story includes a sympathetic, if patronizing, profile of the family life of Navajo people in Northeastern Arizona in the mid-1950s. Focuses mainly on poverty.

Home movie footage of a Navajo woman weaving under a sun shade as a toddler girl learns/plays alongside, exterior of Monument Valley Tour jeep and driver, Navajos and tourists entering a hogan, talking to a woman, a group lining up for a photo, horses...

A medicine man and assistants conduct a sandpainting ceremony to cure an ill man. Story includes the family coming to him for help, the creation of the painting, and the healing ceremony.

Major themes briefly covered: Daily life, rug weaving, social life, courtship, wedding customs, sheepherding, preparing food, harvesting corn, carding and spinning wool, rug weaving, trade, silversmithing, social dances, and constructing a hogan.

The narrative follows the daily routines of two Tohono O’odham children, their family and their community. Includes cooking, tending their fields, water gathering, picking prickly pairs and attending bible study and church.

Navajo activities depicted include silversmithing jewelry and bow guard, grinding corn meal and baking bread, eating a meal, ploughing and planting, family life, and wrapping a baby into a cradleboard. Views of Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly.

Theme: overview of Navajo/Diné agricultural practices, moving from winter to summer hogans and other seasonal activities. Story: follows a family including two children, Little Bow and Dark Eyes.