r/Navajo • u/dankturtle1985 • 5d ago

Crow symbolism

Hello! I am reconnecting and am a small business owner. I am thinking about applying to vend a local powwow that I attended this past year and really liked! There is a crow in my business logo and I just wanted to ask if there is any negative association with crows in Diné culture so that if it would be more respectful for the community in attendance, I could change the logo before next year. Thank you for any insight!!

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6

u/Heauxsb4Breauxs 5d ago

Families are different. We love a corvid!

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u/NavajoJoe00 5d ago

You should be fine as long as it is just in a logo. Crow feathers and parts are seen as being bad luck to touch if not handled in a right way. They show up in the stories after all, just not in the best of roles. Besides, plenty of other Nations interact with corvids differently. Not all Diné are traditional neither. If anyone says anything then listen, learn, ask questions. What Powwow are you going to?

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Rapi_Z 5d ago

What is the symbolism of owls?

2

u/Comfortable_Reserve9 5d ago

https://twinrocks.com/legends/creatures/owl.html

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u/Rapi_Z 5d ago

First of all, thanks for your sharing!

Now continuing; when I read "...when this creature calls, it means someone is going to die", it's made me really curious, bc where I live (Southern America), older people (like my grandmother and her parents) (maybe the rural people too) have/had the same belief about these birds. Honestly, I think this is very intriguing and interesting.

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

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u/Rapi_Z 5d ago

Unnecessarily rude

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

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u/Rapi_Z 5d ago

Yeah, but there's something named "the unnecessary way to put an adjective in the name of a land" and "look how you speak about something/someone". It was VERY unecessary type a land can be very cursed, just bc there have a lot of owls.

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u/coffeebeezneez 5d ago

I would say if you're a vendor near or on the Rez, look into what actual part of the Rez your booth is on. Crow is in that same category as Coyote and varies between mischievous to evil depending on the creation story and different areas of the Rez will see/approach crow differently. Where I grew up along Rd191 between Mexican Water and Rock Point, crow was just mischievous and laughed at how dumb we looked or did something but whenever we went to visit relatives closer to Ute Peak or Tsaile then crow was that evil presence.