Diné Becoming Bahá'í : Through the Lens of Ancient Prophecies
Material type:
TextProducer: Springfield, MO : Missouri State University 2011Subject(s): Online resources: Abstract: Most American Indians have remained traditional to their cultural belief systems and have not converted to an outside religious system without prior coercions of some sort, historically embedded in the colonization effect. Yet in 1962 over three hundred Navajos, or, more correctly, Diné Indians, became members of a little-known eastern religion, the Bahá'í Faith. I argue that those Diné became Bahá'í for three primary reasons: 1) the new religion's theology fulfilled ancient Diné prophecies; 2) its teachings applied through its institutions provided autonomy and empowered Diné Bahá'ís individually and as a people; and 3) through the religion's principle of the protection of culture, Diné Bahá'ís can practice most of their traditional ways without opposition or disapproval from non-Diné Bahá'ís. The Diné have two oral prophecies that Diné Bahá'ís believe are fulfilled by the new religion. I examine those narratives from a religious, psychological, anthropological, and sociological standpoint in the historical context of the impact that the Diné's Long Walk and imprisonment at Bos Redondo (1863-1868) had on the Diné, and subsequent federal mandates on Diné culture that included the boarding school system of education and the failed sheep/land policies-both of which may have provided impetus for consideration of the new religion. Methodology include archival research at the National Bahá'í Archives in Wilmette, Illinois, and ethnographic fieldwork on the Navajo Reservation from 2007-2009.
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Most American Indians have remained traditional to their cultural belief systems and have not converted to an outside religious system without prior coercions of some sort, historically embedded in the colonization effect. Yet in 1962 over three hundred Navajos, or, more correctly, Diné Indians, became members of a little-known eastern religion, the Bahá'í Faith. I argue that those Diné became Bahá'í for three primary reasons: 1) the new religion's theology fulfilled ancient Diné prophecies; 2) its teachings applied through its institutions provided autonomy and empowered Diné Bahá'ís individually and as a people; and 3) through the religion's principle of the protection of culture, Diné Bahá'ís can practice most of their traditional ways without opposition or disapproval from non-Diné Bahá'ís. The Diné have two oral prophecies that Diné Bahá'ís believe are fulfilled by the new religion. I examine those narratives from a religious, psychological, anthropological, and sociological standpoint in the historical context of the impact that the Diné's Long Walk and imprisonment at Bos Redondo (1863-1868) had on the Diné, and subsequent federal mandates on Diné culture that included the boarding school system of education and the failed sheep/land policies-both of which may have provided impetus for consideration of the new religion. Methodology include archival research at the National Bahá'í Archives in Wilmette, Illinois, and ethnographic fieldwork on the Navajo Reservation from 2007-2009.