Vintage & Collectible NM Postcards: Navajo Hogan, J. R. Willis

This white border postcard shows a Navajo hogan. There is no location specified, and I'm grouping it with the New Mexico cards because the back indicates that the publisher was from New Mexico.

It is unused, so I cannot date the card by a postmark. The back of this C. T. American Art Colored postcard indicates that it was published by J. R. WILLIS of Gallup, NM. The back is divided and has a place for a one-cent stamp.

The text on the back reads,

The Navajo Indian house or home is still built in the aboriginal style of sticks and mud with dirt floors. From ancient custom the door always faces the east. During the summer months they move higher into the mountains and build a temporary Hogan.

In case of death of any member of the family, while in the Hogan, they immediately desert it and it is known as a "Chin-dee Hogan," or haunted house.