Matrilocal in Eastern Dine'

Eastern Navajoland

As Dine' (Navajo) people we exist under the identity of our maternal kinship relationships. Although we as a collective are living within the country of American culture, most of us live under the umbrella of a matriarchal governance stystem. We are born from our Dine' mother's and we carry her kinship lineage via one of our many "clans" in the clanship system. It is by blood relation that we as Dine' inherit our ties to the matriarchs of our cultural landscapes across the vast lands of our homelands in New Mexico, Utah and northeastern Arizona. I am of the Hooghanlani' lineage of women in northwest New Mexico in the area called Dine'tah, 'where the People roam.' This area is the original lands inhabited by the Dine', through history many of the Navajo have journeyed westward to Arizona to what is now know as "Navajo Nation." The matriarchal system of the Dine' is still and always will be based on the lineage of women. We will always be the leaders of our homes and regional communities. Even amidst the perpetual adoption of Euro-American culture via colonization, we are Dine' and we are a matriarchy living and existing in our matrilocal areas. Blessings, VJ