Navajo Indians?

Question

What is the Navajo symbol for the sun? First correct gets 10!

Answer 1

The actual symbol used by the Navajo to represent the sun was the swastika.

Answer 2

The sun, the life giver. Warmth, growth, and all that is good & well. The Navajo symbol for the sun is a figure composed of a circle from which four points radiate. These points made up of four straight lines of varying length personify the number most often used by the giver of all good. It's known as the zia sun symbol where it originated. Check:
http://www.governor.state.nm.us/MEDIA/PDF/ziasunsymbol.pdf
When New Mexico became a State, in 1912, the Zia was adopted as the symbol for the State Flag. It appears as the sun in red, honoring the Indian Nations, on a yellow field.
TRIVIA: How did the Navajos determined that the winter solstice had arrived?
Near the east end of Chaco Culture NHP lies a rock with several Navajo sun symbols etched into its surface. Viewed from a particular flat stone "seat", on the winter solstice, the sun rises in a notch created where the stone meets the farther horizon. The edge of the stone lies at an angle against the sky. This angle is the same as that of the sun's rising, so that as the sun climbs into the sky it follows the edge of the stone for about 40 minutes. Clouds may come and go, but at anytime during the sun's ascent in that 40 minutes, if there is even a moment of clear sky, a watcher can determine the winter solstice has arrived.

Answer 3

The above posters are referring to symbols (like the zia and kachinas) used by the pueblo people (Zuni, Hopi, Acoma, etc) of the southwest and NOT the Navajo. The Navajo are a different culture with a different language, history, lifestyle and artistic/symbolic traditions. In fact, the Navajo and pueblo cultures were often enemies.

The Navajo were mostly nomadic and they did not make a lot of pottery (unlike the pueblos where much of the symbols are associated with pottery decorations). Their main art forms (where symbols were used) was weaving and especially sandpainting which made the greatest use of symbols. Also jewelry making and metal working, but that is a relatively recent craft.

Sandpaintings are designs created by carefully pouring streams of colored sand over the ground by hand to create pictures and designs (often depicting spirit beings). They were done as part of ceremonies with the sandpainting (often taking many hours to create) being destroyed and wiped away after the ceremony. Modern Navajo also make and sell sandpaintings (done on a piece of wood and glued in place) that have slight intentional 'flaws' in the design so the spirits are not trapped.

In sandpaintings, the sun is usually represented as a circle, often with an abstract face in it, surrounded by a series of lines and feather-like objects extending from it that make the entire symbol look something like a sunflower. Navajo also sometimes created petrogyphs on rock faces. Sun symbols here occasionally look like a simpler version of the sandpainting or even a more simple basic circle. I have also seen variations of the above sun symbol in their metal work.

Note that Navajo symbols (like many traditional Native American symbols, stories and ceremonies) were rarely consistent in all details across different artists/practioners. Different regions and clans, and even individuals, often evolved different variations in design and meaning.

Answer 4

The Zia (named after Zia Pueblo) - a circle with 4 extended rays signifying the 4 directions

Answer 5

the zia symbol?

Answer 6

the face of a kachina mask