Diné Culture YÁ’ÁT’ÉÉH, PEOPLE.
By Karen Strickholm 12/18/2025
Navajo culture – aka Diné – is rich, sophisticated, robust, ancient.
As a lily-white woman from northern New Jersey, this nursing home, with its many Navajo employees from the nearby reservation, is the closest I’ve ever been to the Diné world. It’s been an honor and a privilege.
Video of Navajo Life
There is so much grace to behold.
The Diné presence here is immersive. It’s heard in the native tongue spoken amongst Navajo nurses, aides, residents. The gentleness with elders, especially the Navajo ones. It’s in the sharing of childhood memories growing up on the reservation, family histories with tales of WW2 code talkers.The turquoise and silver, the textiles. A vibrant media. Complex, intertwined familial relationships defined by the clan system. The history is rich and deep, some of it fraught.
Navajo Churro Sheep
I’ve learned about historic injustices, like the slaughter of sheep herds and the native boarding schools – two massive woundings to the collective psyche.
For half a millennium, the Diné had massive flocks of churro sheep, first brought to these lands by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493, followed by Hernán Cortéz in 1519, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado in the 1590s, and Juan de Oñate in 1598.
Navajo Woman and Infant, Canyon de Chelle, Arizona (Canyon de Chelly National Monument), 1933 – 1942 – NARA – Photo: Ansel Adams. Public Domain
Across high seas in wooden galleons, each introduced a genetically distinct breed with origins in various regions of Old Spain. Together, these four distinct breed lines merged to become the renowned Navajo Churro of the southwest.
In the 1930s, these massive herds were slaughtered without tribal permission because of “erosion.” Herds were reduced from over two million to less than 450 sheep by the 1970s. It’s a financial and cultural wound from which the Navajo people are still recovering.
Now, conservation efforts have revived the Navajo Churro, and herds are popping up all over the southwest, on and off the reservation. Churro wool is sold at local yarn shops for all kinds of fiber work, including a revival in the weaving of prized Navajo rugs.
Shot of long lines of children at the Native American boarding school
Video of Native American Boarding School
Another infamous chapter involved the federally funded Native American boarding schools. Many western tribes had their children “enrolled.” These facilities were established by FDR to exorcise all traces of Native American language and ways.
My nurse Manny was one such kid. Sent off at age 7, she spent 5 years in the boarding school system. While she has some happy memories of outings and sports, there is much bitterness too.
The boarding system was extremely rigid and militaristic, in every respect. When it was time to eat, all the kids (Navajo plus other tribes) had to form a single long line. Each child was identified not by their name, but by a number. Manny was number 59. When called, it meant she was to step forward to take her meal tray.
At night, they were sent en masse to the showers. After, Manny had to stand in line to be powdered, again stepping forward when her number was called. Manny still remembers this as a nightly ritual of ickiness – Shivering in her little 7-year old wet, chilled body in front of an uncaring school worker, the nightly powder was carelessly tossed all over her. Manny still remembers the clumps on her damp skin.
Get caught speaking Diné in the boarding school system? Lordy, that was bad, truly rough, she told me. Harsh punishments were common – hours on end standing in a corner, ceaselessly mopping long hallways in the huge buildings constructed to mainstream native children.
These days, Diné culture is thriving in cuisine, entertainment, design, media and American culture writ large. Diné youth study and uphold the old ways. Rite of passage ceremonies are still practiced, tribal leadership is highly engaged, and sweat lodges are commonplace.
Another example – The common practice of “smudging” or “saging” comes to us directly from the per-contact era. Sage bundles can now be purchased at Walmart. And “Dark Winds” is a hit police procedural on Netflix, based on Tony Hillerman’s popular book series following the Navajo Tribal Police in the 1970s.
The Diné influence is everywhere. Curious to know more? Try Yá’á-té’éh. It means “hello” in Diné. Always a good place to start. 💞
Diné Links
Ya’ateeh defined
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xQM-9uoSV6beNGoqSYKGDZ64kFsrVQWK/view?usp=drivesdk
Clan System
https://bit.ly/NavajoClanSystem
Navajo Grandma On Clans
Dark Winds
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15017118/
Sage & Smudging (Google AI search results)
https://share.google/aimode/Y6BnGswrRrRaeStKo
ICT News
Life on the reservation – an accurate report
Navajo Textiles
Navajo Jewelry
Navajo Code Talkers
https://bit.ly/WW2CodeTalkers -and- https://youtu.be/Cwi6_oktIU4?si=qrUIPubprbTo0nmT
Spanish Galleon
Navajo Smudging & Saging
https://bit.ly/NavajoSmudgingSaging
Native Shopping Chee’s
Native American Restaurant
The Yummy Shack
The Fancy Navajo
https://youtube.com/@thefancynavajo2247?si=_RtWOOb4rjvG4lmX
Navajo fry bread
Lamb stew
Navajo law enforcement in a sovereign nation
Tribal rights
PS: Your Amuse Bouche…
AI animated music video
Next Episode: THE CARE & FEEDING OF YOU. FINAL TALE FROM THE NURSING HOME
Previously:
CHAPTER THREE. MEDICAL CRASH AND BURN
About this series…
Karen Strickholm had a hidden brain tumor on her pituitary gland. The tumor she didn’t know she had until she was about 50, wound up taking her health and all she had built in life. Her tumor, diagnosed in 2008, caused a tsunami of symptoms and eventually forced her into long-term care in a nursing home and a series of hospitals.This is America, the only developed nation that does not have universal healthcare, and the only developed nation where medical debt can force you into bankruptcy.
Karen became one of the financial statistics due to her medical debt, and the fact that she couldn’t get Medicare unless she was literally penniless.
What made Karen different from many other people was her relentless optimism and belief that she was going to get better, would walk out of the nursing home to build a new life. She was smart, a good writer and she left behind a number of digital artifacts, which have been collected into this series. Karen relates, in her own words, her journey through the American healthcare system and the reality living penniless in a nursing home long term.
Karen Strickholm died 5 April 2026 in a hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, of sepsis and pneumonia. She was 67.
This multimedia documentary series is her story.
Medical bankruptcy
• Approximately 66.5% of non-business personal bankruptcies in the U.S. were attributed to medical reasons in 2019.
• 1 in 10 U.S. adults (10.5 million) have experienced medical bankruptcy since 2001.
• 78% of bankrupt individuals in 2022 cited medical expenses as their primary cause.
• Medical bankruptcy rates increased by 21% from 2010 to 2020, even as overall bankruptcy rates declined
• The average interest rate on medical debt from bankruptcies is 21% (2022)
https://worldmetrics.org/medical-bankruptcies-statistics/
Nursing home stats
• On any given day, more than 1.3 million individuals receive care in a nursing home or skilled nursing facility, and a total of more than 4 million receive care each year.
• 6 out of 10 residents (64%) are short-stay patients who remain in a skilled nursing facility for an average of 25 days.
• Nearly four out of 10 residents (36%) are long-stay residents. These individuals often have multiple health conditions. Their average age is 76.
• Nursing homes employ about 1.5 million people.
• Nearly 90% are women, and 60% are people of color.
• One out of every five nursing home workers is an immigrant.
• There are around 15,000 nursing homes in the United States.
• The average size of a nursing home is 109 beds.
• Medicaid covers the cost of care for nearly two out of every three residents (63%).
https://www.ahcancal.org/Data-and-Research/facts/Pages/default.aspx