Name: Navajo Teachings: The Truth About Turquoise
Uploaded: 2024-09-07T15:53:49.000Z
Duration: 6 min 12 s
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Adverbs of degree

The teaching among my people concerning turquoise and jewelry is that the color blue or turquoise is very important to remind us of the existence in the second world, and that's the world before coming into this world, the turquoise world or the blue world.

And it is that that existence that we lived in as spirit beings, we had to retain certain types of information, and so we still have that information, but it is that here in this life in the third world we have to wear the turquoise, and so the turquoise is always there to remind us that we came from a previous existence in the world of the turquoise world or the blue world.

Basic passive voice

It is also that the necklace is worn to let the holy people know that we understand that we came from their presence and we are their children, their actual offspring.

We call this necklace Yor, but anything of value and anything that symbolizes something sacred, we call it Yodah, Yodah is the name that is given to sometimes wealth, but I think that's misleading because it is something of value and something of sacred significance.

So we wear jewelry that has turquoise in it, that might be a ring, a bracelet, earring, but the necklace has very special significance, and when we refer to it as Yor, it is thought of in a way that it is the umbilical cord symbol, in a way that it is a part of us.

So when we pray, we wear jewelry that is sometimes in the form of a necklace, and it is that this particular necklace that I wear has two loops down at the bottom, and these two loops symbolize the male and the female, and also the actual strands of the necklace itself has two strands as well, which is to symbolize male and female.

And between each turquoise on the necklace, generally it was fashioned or made in a way that it had two shells, beads between each turquoise, symbolizing also the male and the female, the four shells on the strand, and this is for a very special purpose as well, to remind us that everything in this world is based on a sacred number four, and so there's a lot of significance to the idea of us wearing the jewelry, especially the turquoise necklace.

The two strands or the two loops down at the bottom, right at the top there are two beads that are coral, and these coral also have a very spiritual significance as well.

When you look at the rainbow, the top color of the rainbow is red, and that's very significant.

We wear the red moccasin, and we use the red paint in ceremonial settings, special ceremonial settings that symbolize the journey from this world into the next world.

And so the red is the red color of the top color of the rainbow, and so it is that when we journey from this existence into the next world, it is on that red path to the fourth world.

This necklace was given to me by a group of people that I made a special presentation to, and rather than providing me with currency, they chose to give me a necklace.

And so it was that the idea of providing me with a necklace was their gesture in thanking me.

Also, I might mention that whenever anybody that was not Diné and became a part of the Diné family, an individual that might have come from another tribe or another part of the world, when a necklace was put about their neck, they would say, they adopted that person.

Yo pah ne liya, is what they call that particular occasion, which is to adopt that person into their family and into their clan.

Many times, people talk about the protection offered by the turquoise.

I think that the protection actually comes from the prayer that you make as a child of the holy people.

And so it is that that is the protection that they talk about, and to make sure that you offer up your prayer.

In the teaching of our people, turquoise was not something to be dug into the ground to acquire.

I know that a lot of the present-day turquoise comes from many of these areas where there are mining operations going on in the history of our people.

Down in Marenzi, Arizona, they had a time when they were first opening up that mine, and the miners had no regard for the turquoise.

And of course, they didn't understand the value of the turquoise, and so they removed it and regarded it as just garbage in a way.

And the native people, especially the Navajos, went down there with their buckets and filled up all these buckets with these turquoise that had been pushed aside.

And so it is of special significance that it was removed from the earth by someone else, and then they figured it was given to them.

So they took it until the miners realized that the turquoise had great value.

But as Diné, we can't go digging into the ground and taking from Mother Earth, which she does not give up freely for us to take.

And even then, in the traditional way, the turquoise was not yours, but it was that it was put into your care.

 And so those are also the things that we have been told.