There are differences between our printed history and the stories that various social scientists recorded in other places in earlier years. Still, the outstanding lesson remains the same.

The wise course of action is that which most agree to be wise. Agreement can take a great deal of time. Not only must the majority agree, but those in the minority must be convinced or resigned to the course of action before any course can be followed. It is not a majority rule system that can be decided by simple vote, such as the American system. The Navajo will not proceed either in his prehistory or in contemporary practice until he knows that everyone agrees exactly how things should and will be done. This period of discussion and persuasion may take hours, days, weeks, months, or years. In our oral history it can take eons.

This dominant trait of the Navajo has confounded soldiers, Spaniards, missionaries and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It continues to confound any person, agency, or organization that is accustomed to getting the greatest amount of action in the shortest period of time.

Earl Robbin/Uniphoto

A Navajo man pauses with his horse amid the red sand-stone buttes of Monument Valley (Arizona-Utah)

The constant search for harmony and the need for order is reflected in the first stories of the Fourth World. It is a touching account of a people's coming to grips with the need to cooperate in order to survive. The method the Navajo chose was community agreement, rather than some form of authority control. The result of this decision is a people who place great value on self-reliance, but also require that individual independence must find an outlet that reflects a balance within the family, clan, and tribe.

Our stories tell us that by the time that our ancestor people had reached the Fourth World, they were ready for some order in their lives.

To achieve order, there were many discussions about many essential things. There is a long discussion about the best way to make a fire, for instance. Having discovered that one of the people had brought flint with him from the Third World, the people gather wood from four directions: pinon, pine, juniper and spruce.