Brian Passey

bpassey@thespectrum.com

As a reporter I consider myself a student of life and an explorer of culture. What I love most about my job is the opportunity to continually learn and experience new things.

That’s what this monthly column is all about. Last month, my colleague Emily Havens wrote about her first time snowboarding. This month’s column will focus on my first experience at a traditional Navajo wedding.

One of my wife’s best friends, Rachael, is half-Navajo. She recently became engaged to Pooya, who is Persian and came to the United States when he was only 10 years old as a refugee from Iran. They decided to marry in a traditional Navajo ceremony on the Navajo Nation Reservation in Arizona, followed by a traditional Persian celebration in San Diego, where Pooya grew up.

I was honored when they asked me to photograph the big day on the rez. While I don’t normally do portrait photography, I agreed because they were friends and, admittedly, I was intrigued by the opportunity to photograph a traditional Navajo wedding.

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It also made me nervous. Because of my history covering the local Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, I knew that certain native traditions are sacred. Not only did I check with Rachael and Pooya, but I also asked some of Rachael’s relatives if there were any parts of the ceremony I should avoid photographing. The only instructions came in the form of how I photographed the ceremony, not what I photographed.

My wife, Cammie, and I arrived at Seba Dalkai, Arizona, on the reservation a little after 9 a.m. on Feb. 18. We had stayed the previous night at the historic La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona, about 40 miles to the south, where we had also dined at the hotel’s restaurant, The Turquoise Room. I had a few other firsts there as far as food: quail, deer, wild boar and a traditional Hopi bread called Piki.

We began the wedding day by helping Rachael and Pooya dress in their traditional Navajo clothing. Rachael wore a red and black rug dress that was woven specifically for her. Pooya borrowed a teal ribbon shirt from one of Rachael’s relatives. They both accented their dress with handmade Navajo jewelry.

The ceremony takes place inside a hogan (or hooghan), which is a traditional Navajo dwelling. Few hogans are used today as dwellings but they are still utilized for traditional ceremonies. While the shape of hogans vary, they all share a common trait of doors that face east. The hogan at Seba Dalkai is multi-sided, which gives a sense of roundness inside that works in conjunction with the ceremony.

We were advised that when moving inside the hogan, we are always supposed to turn in a clockwise direction. That includes entering the hogan. Because Pooya did not have as many family members at the wedding as Rachael, we planned to sit on the groom’s side of the hogan — the north side. However, as we entered the hogan from the east, we could not just turn to the right to sit on that side. First we had to turn to the left and walk through the hogan in a clockwise direction to reach the north side.

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When it was time for the ceremony to begin, Pooya and his family entered first. Pooya sat on the west side of the hogan, facing east, and his family sat on the north side, to his left. Then Rachael and her family entered, Rachael sitting to the right of Pooya on the west side while her family filled the south side.

After we were all seated, the officiator, Dr. Joe Shirley Jr., provided an introduction to the traditions and described the order of events. Shirley served as president of the Navajo Nation from 2002-2011.

The traditional Navajo — or Diné — wedding is based on the mating of the young maiden White Shell Woman and the Sun God in the White World, according to an article about Navajo and European value systems at NavajoCourts.org.

In front of Rachael and Pooya were a number of items, including a pot of water, a gourd dipper and a ceremonial wedding basket filled with blue corn mush. The basket is to remain in place in front of the couple throughout the ceremony.

The ceremony then began with Rachael using the dipper to pour water over Pooya’s hands and then Pooya doing the same for her.

Shirley then performed a blessing on the mush by sprinkling corn pollen on the it, following a specific set of directions to create a cross shape in the center and then in a clockwise direction around the perimeter, beginning from the east but not enclosing the circle. According to the article at NavajoCourts.org, the circle is left open to the east to represent “an entrance and exit for the way of life.”

Then Pooya took a dab of corn mush from the east side of the basket to eat and Rachael did the same. They repeated the process for each of the cardinal directions and finally from the center of the mush.

With this eating of the mush, Rachael and Pooya became a married couple.

Their families were then invited to come forward and also eat. Then everyone at the ceremony did the same, each of us following a clockwise route through the hogan to dip our fingers into the wedding basket and eat.

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Following the ceremony, it is traditional for family members, especially elders, to offer advice to the new couple. Some of Rachael’s older relatives offered their advice in the Navajo language.

After about a dozen people spoke, Pooya’s family presented Rachael’s family with the gift of a Persian rug from Iran. Until that point I hadn’t made the connection that rug-making is an important cultural identifier of both the Navajo and Persian cultures.

Then it was time for a more Western-style celebration. The festivities moved from Seba Dalkai to a church building in Dilkon, 13 miles away.

There we dined on catered food alongside tradition Navajo dishes like fry bread and mutton stew. After I photographed the cake cutting, Cammie and I decided to hit the road, driving northwest through the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Reservation to return home after a long but fascinating day.

Email reporter Brian Passey at brian@thespectrum.com or call him at 435-674-6296. Follow him on social media at Facebook.com/PasseyBrian or on Twitter and Instagram, @BrianPassey.

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