Housing

As it is most everywhere homes on the Res. are in all different shapes and sizes. The traditional home is an eight sided Hogan. The Navajos have a clan system.  It is also a matriarcal society so the first clan is your mothers clan, second the fathers and so on. Each person has four clans. The clans may not intermarry. Annie's clans are bitterwater, salt, billygoat and coyote.
The mothers clan often live in the same group or compound, up to 10 and more houses. Their social life is within their clan and may not know neighbors that are not of their clans.

This is Elder Lybbert with Victor in front of his Hogan. The hogan was his grandmothers so it is built in the traditional way. There are still some of these in use but more modern ones are now used.

Inside a Hogan there is a wood stove in the center and beds and furniture around the walls.

Most homes or groups of homes have at least one  Hogan as see the the next pictures.

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Most Hogans have a dirt floor and no inside bathroom but the Hogan to the right in this picture is fairly large and has tile floors, bathroom and is very clean. An elderly lady, Lilly Tso, lives here and her daughers take care of her. We visited with her but she speaks no English and can't hear very well. It is very common for the elderly to live in the Hogan. The Hogan is also used for Native traditional ceremonies.
You can see Pinon in the background.

Pinon has four housing developements in town. This one is unique since they are Hogan duplexes.

There are two developements like this with about 65 homes in each. They are reservation housing which are assigned to applicants for rent or rent to own.  It seems to be where  many would like to live but they are hard to aquire. If someone in the family is handicapped it is easier. There are several boarded up so I asked why and was told that if someone dies in a house that it is a bad thing so no one can live in it after. They are basic homes built on a cement slab and vinyl tile on the floors. The new and renovated ones are stuccoed.
There is also the teachers housing where the schoolteachers and school employees live which has about 200 homes.The teachers housing is a step up from the Res. housing. They have carpet in some of them.
There are two other housing developements in our area, Forest lake, about 20 min. north and Whipporwill, 20 min. east. There is pavement all the way to Forest lake but Whipporwill has about 4 miles of dirt road after leaving the pavement.

If you watch the T.V. show Extreme Makeover you may remember seeing this home built. It is a couple of miles west of Pinon and belongs to Georgia Yazzie. We visited her this week and she told us the story of how it all came about. Its too long to tell here but it was all because of her son Garret and his desire to enter a grade seven science fair. After winning state and national awards he went to international. Because of his notariety in the science field, his family was nominated by three people to the Extreme Makeover Show. For more on the story google Garret Yazzie http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/junk-yard-genius.html

This is definitely the nicest home in Pinon area. It is two hogans with a room between. Georgie, her youngest daughter live in one and the older daughter and her three children live in the other. Garret is away at college.

We have had the opportunity of meeting a wide variety of people and we have enjoyed getting to know them better. This week we have been able to contact several families who have expressed a desire for us or the young Elders to teach them starting this coming week. We are hoping good things will happen with these families.

Love to you all,

Elder and Sister Lybbert