Whirling Logs – The Navajo Sandpainting
According to Navajo tradition, the Whirling Logs sandpainting was a religious item. The Navajo people used the sandpainting in healing ceremony. Also, the Navajos referred to the sandpainting as an iikaah meaning an opening for the gods to enter and leave. The sandpainting was an essential device in the healing ceremony that could last up to nine days. A singer, who also was a medicine man, performed the healing ceremony. During the ceremony, the medicine man directed other Navajos in creating the sandpainting on the ground to illustrate an allegory within the healing ceremony. The sandpainters used crushed stones, flowers, gypsums, and pollen to create and complete the sandpainting in one day. Then, they destroyed it later that night in order to dispel evil and restore health.In the Whirling Logs sandpainting, the Navajos depicted a story of Tsil-ol-ne, a hero who went on a
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Approximate Word count = 599
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)
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