A chindi (Navajo "ch'íįdii") is the ghost of the Navajo tribe believed to be released at dying breath. Navajo or Navaho ( native name: Diné bizaad) is an Athabaskan language (of Na-Dené stock spoken in the southwest United States by The Navajo or Diné people (also spelled Navaho) of the Southwestern United States The chindi is almost always considered to be an evil force, avenging some form of offense to the person. The Navajo believe that contacting such a spirit can cause illness (Ghost Sickness), or death. Ghost sickness is a Culture-bound syndrome which some American Indian tribes believe to be caused by association with the dead or dying and is sometimes associated It is also believed that a chindi can be used to cause harm upon someone else. The most famous account of the chindi is the account of the Long Salt family. Dust devils are referred to as chiindii and are said to be these spirits. A dust devil is a strong well-formed and relatively long-lived whirlwind, ranging from small (half a meter wide and a few meters tall to large (over 10 meters wide and over Clockwise dust devils are good spirits and counterclockwise are bad.
In the August-September 1967 issue of a magazine by the name of Frontier Times, John R. Winslowe wrote of his 1925 encounter with Alice Long Salt, a slender teenage girl. In the periodical, she describes the reason for the Long Salt demise. It was believed that after two members of the tribe deceived a blind medicine man, he sent a chindi to destroy the Long Salts. Each member of the family was stricken with an incurable illness, and eventually died.
Curiously, anyone marrying into the family met the same fate as a blood Long Salt. Alice's mother died when the girl reached seven and she was attending the Tuba City boarding school at the Indian agency. Alice's father became skin and bones, dying two years later. . . The remaining three Long Salts [Alice's two uncles and an aunt] were ill, crippled, and helpless. Friends cared for them, watching them fade into nothing before their eyes.
In the winter of 1928, Alice Long Salt was found dead three miles from the trading post on Red Mesa.
Examples in popular culture
- A science fiction book by Jack McDevitt is titled "Chindi". Jack McDevitt (born 1935 is an award-winning American science fiction author whose novels frequently deal with attempts to make Contact with alien
References
- Steiger, Brad. "The Chindi. " The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings. 1st ed. 1999.
- Wyman, Leland, W. W. Hill, and Iva Osanai. "Navajo Eschatology. " American Anthropologist 45(1943): 461-463.