Harry Krause wrote:
On 1/17/2007 12:24 PM, RG wrote:
As odd as this sounds, Navaho on my mother's side (two back) and
Cherokee (four back) on my father's side.


I believe Navajo is the preferred spelling, although your version is
sometimes found in English writings.


Either spelling is correct usage for Anglos. The Native Americans
themselves tend not to use either word amongst themselves. The word
derives from Tewa Navahú, the name referring to a large area of land and
to the people who lived on the land. Navajo is a Spanish word, coined as
part of the phrase Apaches de Navajo, which the 17th Century Spaniards
used to differentiate one Apache band and area from another.


It is amazing how quickly one call pull up everything one wants to know
about any subject.

Navajo. From Tewa Navahu, referring to a large area of cultivated land and applied to a former Tewa pueblo,
and by extension to the Navaho, known to the Spaniards as "Apaches de
Navajo," who intruded on the Tewa
domain or who lived in the vicinity, to distinguish them from other
so-called Apache bands.

Also called:

Bagowits, Southern Ute name.
Dacabimo, Hopi name.
Davaxo, Kiowa Apache name.
Dine', own name.
Djene, Laguna name.
Hua'amhu'u, Havasupai nnme.
I'hl-dene, Jicarilla name.
Moshome, Keresan name.
Oop, Oohp, Pima name.
Pagowitch, southern Ute name, meaning "reed knives."
Ta-cab-ci-nyu-muh, Hopi name.
Ta'hli'mnin, Sandia name.
Tasamewa, Hopi name (Ten Kate, 1885) meaning "*******s."
Te'liemnim, Isleta name.
Tenye, Laguna name.
Wild Coyotes, Zuni nickname translated.
Yabipais Nsbajay, Garces (1776).
Yatilatlavi, Tonto name.
Yoetaha or Yutaha, Apache name, meaning "those who live on
the border of the Ute."
Yu-i'-ta, Panamint name.
Yutilap, Yavapai name.
Yutilatlawi, Tonto name

Connections.- With the Apache tribes, the Navaho formed the southern division of the Athapascan
linguistic family.

Location.- In northern New Mexico and Arizona with some extension into Colorado and Utah.

History.- Under the loosely applied name Apache there may be a record of this tribe as early
as 1598 but the first mention of them by the name of Navaho is by
Zarate-Salmeron about 1629.
Missionaries were among them about the middle of the eighteenth
century, but their labors
seem to have borne no fruits. For many years previous to the
occupation of their country by
the United States, the Navaho kept up an almost constant predatory war
with the Pueblo Indians and
``` the White settlers. A revolution in their economy was brought about
by the introduction of sheep.
Treaties of peace made by them with the United States Government in
1846 and 1849 were not observed,
and in 1863, in order to put a stop to their depredations, Col. "Kit"
Carson invaded their country,

from: http://jeff.scott.tripod.com/navajo.html