Son of Old Man Hat: A Navaho Autobiography

by Left Handed

Son of Old Man Hat is the autobiography of a Navaho Indian from childhood to maturity. With a simplicity as disarming as it is frank, it tells of his birth in the spring "when the cottonwood leaves were about the size of my thumbnail," of how he first shared family tasks by guarding the sheep near the hogan, of his sexual awakening. As he grows older, into the story come accounts of life in the open, of nomadic cattle-raising, farming, trading, communal enterprises, tribal dances and ceremonies, love-making and marriage. Free though it is, it is a life founded upon as Son of Old Man Hat grows in understanding as well as in stature, the accumulated wisdom of his race is made known to him. He learns the necessity of honesty, foresightedness, self-discipline. The style in which the narrative is clothed is almost biblical in its rhythms; but biblical, too, in many respects,is the "savage" way of life which it recounts.

Genres: Native American, Biography, History, Nonfiction, Native Americans, Anthropology, Autobiography

392 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1967

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes it's totally unfair to rate a book based solely on the author's work, and I believe that this is one of those instances. To begin with, Left Handed didn't actually write the book: he related it in segments which were subsequently translated and the whole edited and written by Walter Dyk. Dyk, as far as I am concerned, is the author of record. None of Dyk's writing abilities come to the fore except in the Preface, as the book is written pretty much just the way Left Handed related it. It is therefore repetitive and confusing in places.

Having that preamble out of the way, I feel that this is a very important book. It gives us a chance to sit on a sheepskin near the embers in a hogan and listen to the tale of the first 20 years of life of a Navajo lad in the waning years of the 19th century. Left Handed has a remarkable memory and is completely, sometimes painfully, honest. One thing that impressed me about the Navajo lifestyle was the amount of hard work involved...up before the sun to herd sheep or water horses or grind corn. And that he did it without complaint from early childhood is amazing, especially if you compare the attitude of that time compared to the attitude prevailing in young men of his age in today's society.

I learned that in the Navajo society of that time a traveller could go up to a stranger's house with every expectation of being fed and bedded down for the night, and probably would depart with a gift in the morning. Also, if there was any major endeavour undertaken, such as sheep shearing or corn harvesting, one could certainly expect help from one's neighbours. Count on it, in fact.

Navajo women seemed to be the equals of their male counterpart. Their duties were shared, and if she wanted a divorce could just say "I'm tired of this nonsense" and pack her bags. And she could take half his stuff, so nothing has changed there. Adultery was common, but in a polygamous society that would seem to be no big deal. The cuckolded husband could ask you to pay him a blanket or kill you, depending on his disposition.

Left Handed is almost awkwardly honest at times, admitting to being a liar and a thief and a sneak. One instance that will remain in memory is the one where he challenged three girls to a peeing contest to see which one could launch urine the farthest. He lost, but subsequently had to sneak away when he saw a male rider approaching...an indication that he knew his behaviour wasn't quite kosher. A Navajo Georgie-Porgie, running away when the boys came out to play. I think I would have left that episode out, if I were the one telling the tales. Left Handed is definitely more a lover than a fighter, and though he lived in an era in which some of his contemporaries were still engaged in the odd skirmish with Mexicans and US Cavalry, Left Handed's conquests were strictly sexual.

Titillation aside, the book is an excellent source for detailed accounts of Navajo customs, rites, and marriage and funeral rituals. Their clan system was confusing, and Left Handed referred to so many people as "mother" and "father"" that the reader could be forgiven for not knowing exactly who was who in the zoo insofar as his progenitors were concerned. Don't even try to figure out the uncles and nephews! Highly recommended reading for anyone who would like to learn about the day to day comings and goings of a Navajo lad.

[Carson Hollis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book to read. It kinda felt like I was reading a historical fiction at times as you followed along with the life of Left Handed. He recounts his life from being a young child to adolescence. It’s amazing how detailed his descriptions are of certain events in his life. I really enjoyed all the insights into what life was like for him and for all the Navaho at that time. My favorite thing about this book is probably all the philosophy about life. Left Handed recounts a lot of things that his elders would tell him about life and a lot of it is very insightful.

[Dany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really beautiful, honest book. My favorite kind. As the recorder/translator, Walter Dyk, puts it in the intro, "May this narrative of his life help allay once and for all that strange and monstrous apparition, the "Primitive Mind."

[Rianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book told in the Navajo speech style, slow and precise. I suppose I'm a little biased being that I've grown up hearing my grandparents tell me stories using the same linguistic pattern. For those who are seriously looking to read something authentic I recommend you read this as it was probably told, with great patience and sincere reverence.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Autobiography of a Navajo born in 1868. He speaks simply but with a detailed memory. He would have been about 70 when he dictated his memories of early childhood until around 20 years old. He was born during the return from internment in Fort Sumnter and Fort Defiance. Given this it is amazing to me that within 20 years his family had probably a thousand sheep and around 70 horses as well as some cattle... Especially if you know what the high desert of Arizona is like, How can they sustain so many animals? They are constantly on the move and Left Handed remembers clearly their movements. My impression is that modern Dine often have a summer home and winter home but are not quite that nomadic. When the book ended I wanted to know more. How did he get along with his wife? Did he have children? There were many changes beginning at the turn of the century, beginning to make silver and turqoise jewelry, more weaving of rugs.... How did he see these changes? I felt like I got to know this person and suddenly, that's it...

[Jessica Cornett Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though I'm giving it a 3 (for sometimes dragging) it was totally worth reading for the perspective. It lends a great sense for what it's like growing up without formal school system in a more nomadic lifestyle. Totally impressive endeavor for one to tell his own story from start to end and also for the anthropological endeavor of translation of this experience.

[Bob Newman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Navaho Life in the Late 19th Century

Left Handed was born in 1868 at the time when the Navahos had just been released from enforced exile at the hands of the US Army. They returned to their lands in Arizona and New Mexico where they resumed their usual life. I’m not going to say “traditional life” because over the centuries since the Spaniards first met them, they had become semi-nomadic herders of sheep and goats, they owned horses, they had peach orchards, and engaged in some agriculture which they had learned before from the Pueblo Indians who preceded them in the area. They dressed in their own way, spoke their language, and held various religious ceremonies according to their beliefs.

Left Handed, the son of Old Man Hat, tells his life story here. He was in his 60s and spoke only Navaho in the early 1930s, when Dyk, an anthropologist, wrote down what the translator told him. It is an interesting story of a rather monotonous life. That might be a non-sequitur but it is true. This was a kid who began herding sheep and goats at a very early age and he kept it up till he got married at about the age of twenty. The book ends at that time. A lot of what you read are childhood memories—he has an impressive memory, even if the memories are of small things like the first time he saw matches or how he went to look for lost horses. He remembers that when the Navaho were first released from captivity, they had nothing. His father did have a Paiute slave girl who they traded off for seven sheep. That’s how the family began again. Over the years they moved around the Navaho area and the book describes their migrations in detail. Healing ceremonies played an important part in their lives—for example, as a small boy he finds an old pot in a pasture and brings it home. Suddenly he wakes up covered in special medicine and surrounded by relatives. The pot had been lost at the scene of a massacre of Navahos by Utes years before. He learns then not to touch things belonging to the dead. We read much more of how he grew up, what he learned and how, of his sexual awakening, of the quarrels of his parents and their siblings, and the Navahos close relationship with the land, the weather, animals, and the grass. The old Navaho ways of thinking and acting are on every page. That’s why it’s such an interesting book.

Nobody in the USA today and few people in the world are so isolated from the rest of humanity anymore. But, as Dyk says (more revealing in the 1930s than now, but still not unworthy of repeating) that this book should put to rest the idea of the “primitive mind”. It’s a very human story at the same time as it belongs to the Navaho past.

Today there are nearly 400,000 Navaho, the biggest Native American nation in the USA. They are found in nearly every field—scientists, artists, teachers and golfers. This is a book about their not-so-distant ancestors.

[Trudy Ackerblade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not an exciting page turner. Rather it is a remarkable example of First People history, slow and steady and precise. I learned a lot about the interactions of The First People related by the memories of a young boy/man. I was stunned at how unselfish these people were.

[Tony Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

My husband and I took a road trip to the "Four Corners" region and I picked up this book at the gift shop at one of the visitors' center of the Navajo Nation. It was interesting to have a first count perspective of life growing up in that area from this young man's point of view.

[Tom Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved this book - a unique insight into the history of the old west

[Jared Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting insights into the life of a nomadic sheep herder. The book did become more of the same at about the halfway point.

[Virginia Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but a slog to read.

[Ann Bornholdt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written version of oral history of growing up Navaho in New Mexico. So much of growing up is universal (morals, Parents telling you if you don't do what they say bad things will happen). Left Handed was born on the way back from Bosque Redondo (if you don't know about it read this book and/or Blood and Thunder).

[George · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a very difficult book to read. One does not just cruise through it. That said, it was an insight into the growing up of a Navajo boy in the late 19th century, which is why I obtained the book. BTW, it came from Goodwill of Indianapolis and the cost was only $0.01...$3 for shipping.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome. In addition to other things, he describes his first sexual encounter and calls bad people "evil spirits."

[M_latimer]

I didn't finish this book. The story was kind of cool but the writing style drove me crazy. It was a written copy of an oral history.

[Yas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A unique autobiography... Some embarrassing experience for the young man it written, whom is seemingly shy...

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating. DNF it was a little too slow, but I did enjoy what I read.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love when a book allows me to step into another time, another place. (I almost gave this 4 stars.)