The Diné Hogan A Modern History Routledge Research in Architecture Series

Over the course of their history, the Navajo (Diné) have constructed many types of architecture, but during the 20th century, one building emerged to become a powerful and inspiring symbol of tribal culture. This book describes the rise of the octagonal stacked-log hogan as the most important architectural form among the Diné.

The Navajo Nation is the largest Indian reservation in the United States and encompasses territory from within Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, where thousands of Native American homes, called hogans, dot the landscape. Almost all of these buildings are octagonal. Whether built from plywood nailed onto a wood frame or with other kinds of timber construction, octagonal hogans derive from the stacked-log hogan, a form which came to prominence around the middle of the last century. The stacked-log hogan has also influenced public architecture, and virtually every Diné community on the reservation has a school, senior center, office building, or community center that intentionally evokes it. Although the octagon recurs as a theme across the Navajo reservation, the inventiveness of vernacular builders and professional architects alike has produced a wide range of octagonally inspired architecture. Previous publications about Navajo material culture have emphasized weaving and metalwork, overlooking the importance of the tribe?s built environment. But, populated by an array of octagonal public buildings and by the hogan ? one of the few Indigenous dwellings still in use during the 21st century ? the Navajo Nation maintains a deep connection with tradition. This book describes how the hogan has remained at the center of Diné society and become the basis for the most distinctive Native American landscape in the United States.

The Diné Hogan ? A Modern History will appeal to scholarly and educated readers interested in Native American history and American architecture. It is also well suited to a broad selection of college courses in American studies, cultural geography, Native American art, and Native American architecture.

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction: What Is a Hogan?

Chapter 1: Anthropology Villages and the Diné Hogan, 1890–1950

The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago

The 1902 and 1911 Alvarado Indian Villages

The 1904 Louisiana Purchase International Exposition in St. Louis

The 1905 Indian Village at the Grand Canyon

The 1906 Indian Crafts Exhibition at Eastlake Park in Los Angeles

The 1909 United States Land and Irrigation Exposition in Chicago

The 1915–1916 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego

The 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco

Mesa Verde National Park, 1925–1942

The 1933–1934 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago

The 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas

The 1948–1949 Chicago Railroad Fair

Epilogue: The Discover Navajo Pavilion at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City

Chapter 2: “Improving” the Hogan

Governmental Efforts to Encourage Permanent Homes, 1868–1900

Model Homes for Native Americans: The Omaha Cottages at Hampton Institute

Native American Architecture and the Indian Boarding Schools

The Sanitation Issue

Louisa Wetherill’s “Big Hogan”

Reassessing the Relationship Between the Hogan and Disease

Model Hogans at Schools on the Navajo Reservation, 1922–1931

The Federal Government and Native American Architecture, 1925–1932

Model Hogans and the Presbyterian Mission to the Navajo

Chapter 3: Route 66 and Diné Architecture

Interpreting Route 66 Hogans

Navajo Rug Stands

Trading Posts and the Diné Hogan

Navajo-Inflected Architecture Along Route 66

Route 66 and the Jacobs Family

New Uses for the Diné Hogan

The Stacked-Log Hogan Becomes a Roadside Icon

Chapter 4: The Indian New Deal

John Collier

Mayers, Murray & Phillip

The Soil Erosion Control Experiment Station in Mexican Springs

Practice Hogans on the Navajo Reservation

Hogans for Diné Nurse’s Aids

Chapter 5: Jacob Morgan and John Collier: Ideology and the Navajo Hogan

Schools for the Diné Before 1933

Native American Architecture for Native American Day Schools

Jacob C. Morgan

A Political Controversy

John Collier and Diné Architecture, 1937–1945

Chapter 6: The Hogan Becomes an Architectural Type

Model and Type

The Navajo House of Religion, 1929–1937

The Navajo Nation Council Chamber, 1934–1935

John Carl Warnecke’s Projects for the Navajo Nation, 1958–1977

Education and Tribal Self-Determination: Rough Rock Community School and Navajo Community College

The Navajo Hogan and Public Architecture in the 1970s and 1980s

Studio Southwest: The Navajo Nation Museum and New Schools for the Diné

Leon Shirley: Public Housing for the Diné and a Senior Center for Twin Lakes

Dyron Murphy: A Diversity of Hogan-Inspired Designs

Creating a Diné Sacred Place: The Senator John Pinto Library in Shiprock, 2009–2011

Conclusion: The Hogan Becomes a Cultural Icon

Illustration Credits

Index

Lillian Makeda writes about the architecture and interior design of the American Southwest from her home in western New Mexico. Her work has appeared in The Architectural Review, Buildings and Landscapes, Journal of the Southwest, Society of Architectural Historians Archipedia, and Kiva: Journal of Southwestern Anthropology and History. She recently completed a Getty/ACLS postdoctoral fellowship in the history of art and is presently working on her next book, which will focus on the Santa Fe style of interior design.