A memory aid from a Navajo chanter's bundle

[Navajo]. Navajo painted memory aide.

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A memory aid from a Navajo chanter's bundle, sometimes referred to as a "muslin" after the trade cloth they are typically painted on. Variations in Navajo sandpaintings and prayer sticks number in the hundreds, and though it is preferred that a chanter know his material perfectly, some resort to memory aids. A mistake in a painting or prayer stick offering could be dangerous for the One-Sung-Over, or patient. This muslin depicts a variety of images, the Sun and Moon clothed in snakes, two Yei figures, and prayer stick combinations that may all be representative of the Windway Chant. Prayer sticks of this type are sacrificially deposited in various places by the One-Sung-Over at the direction of the chanter.

The Navajo people, who refer to themselves as Diné, share a complex belief system that emphasizes the interrelatedness of all living things. Ceremonial life largely evolves around prayer offerings and an elaborate ceremonial song complex, termed 'chants', which are designed to prevent or cure illness and disease. Perhaps most famous among these are the Night Way and Mountain Chants, both intended to restore health to ailing individuals and maintain balance and harmony in the universe.

As part of the healing process, the Medicine Man (or Hatalii) would perform sandpainting, creating highly sophisticated design patterns with a variety of coloured sand. Used to invoke the Holy People (or Yeibicheii), the sand-paintings themselves are thought to become enlivened beings, and must be destroyed after their completion lest they pose danger to the community. More than 600 different design patterns are known to the Navajo, of which up to thirty may be included in a single ceremony.

Since the potency of sand-drawing depends on the quality of its execution, mistakes in the accuracy of the detail could inflict serious harm on the patient. In preparation for the chants and in order to help apprentices internalize these intricate design patterns, medicine men would often create memory aids on buckskin, fabric scraps and later on paper.

Due to their ephemeral nature, very few records of complete Navajo sandpainting exist. Memory aids thus offer unique insight into the spiritual practices of the Navajo Nation.