Hogan

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A hogan (

Hogans are also considered pioneers of energy efficient homes. Using packed mud against the wooden walls, the home was kept cool in summer by natural ventilation and water sprinkled on the packed dirt floor. In winter the fireplace kept the inside warm well into the night, due to the high thermal mass of earth in the construction.^[2]

Modern application and revival

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The preference of hogan construction and use is still very popular among the Navajos, although the use of it as a home shelter dwindled through the 1900s, due mainly to the requirement by many Navajos to acquire homes built through government and lender funding – which largely ignored the hogan-style and cultural needs of a community – in preference for HUD-standardized construction.^[3]

With government and lender requirements requiring low costs, as well as bathrooms and kitchens, the hogan as a person's home was dwindling away, save for those who could build their own. That began to officially change in the late 1990s with various small projects to find ways to bring the hogan back.

In 2001, a joint venture involving the Navajo Nation, Northern Arizona University, and the US Forest Service began building log hogans with materials from a Navajo-owned log home factory in Cameron, Arizona, next to the Cameron Chapter House, using surplus wood culled from Northern Arizona forests to prevent wildfires. Through cooperation among elders, medicine men, and project leaders, this ancient Navajo tradition is reviving. While providing the traditional sacred space of the hogan, new construction also meets requirements for modern amenities. The project has also provided jobs, summer school construction experience for Navajo teens, and new public buildings.^[4]

In other languages

Possible Native American sources of the English word hogan:

• hooghan in Navajo
• gowąh (Western Apache)
• guughą or kuughą (
  Chiricahua
  )

See also

• Wigwam
• Earth lodge
• Longhouse

References