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                       USS CHALLENGER: Biofile
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Communications Officer
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CHARACTER:	Neol Shahiyena Ne-Zhoni
PLAYER: 	Jenny Dahl
EMAIL: 		karal@mmcable.com
ICU#:		6828803



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NAME: Neol Shahiyena Ne-Zhoni (Kneeole Shaw-hiyena Kneezonie)
Played by: Jenny Dahl

CURRENT RANK: Lieutenant
CURRENT BILLET: Communications Officer

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

RACE: Human
SEX: F
AGE: 28
HEIGHT: 5'10"
WEIGHT: 130 lbs
HAIR: Black, thick and straight; worn in a braid down her back
EYES: Brown
SCARS, MARKS, TATTOOS: Tattoo of Black Snake wound around her right arm
from wrist to bicep, mouth open and fangs showing outward See 'Symbols'
below.)

PERSONAL FAMILY

PLACE OF BIRTH: New Pueblo, Terraland II
MOTHER: Hotohke Ne-Zhoni (Pretty Star)
FATHER: Aenohe Netse (Hawk Eagle)
SIBLINGS: Three brothers, three sisters. Shahi is the oldest.

STARFLEET SERVICE RECORD
STARDATE ACTION

2406 Graduated SF Academy
2407 Promoted to 'Ensign', Posted to USS FALCON, aCOM
2408 Transferred to USS TIGERSHARK, COM
2409 Promoted to Lieutenant JG
2410 Transferred to USS DOLMAN, COM
2413 Promoted to Lieutenant, Transferred to USS CHALLENGER


BACKGROUND MATERIAL:

Shahi's family was almost wiped out in the 19th Century during the forced
march to Bosque Redondo. (See Below.) Her family eventually (in the 23rd
Century) tried to return to the 'Old Ways', but has found it exceedingly
difficult to remain 'pure' and viable. Even after being allotted their own
planet, fractions of the different 'Back to Heritage' tribes have struggled
to survive. The ages-old problem of 'how you gonna keep 'em down on the
farm, after they've seen Paree?' has dwindled the population to very small
numbers in all the tribal regions.

PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE:

Shahiyena's just a normal Indian who happens to be a Starfleet officer. ;>

HOBBIES/INTERESTS: Shahi is very proud of her heritage and takes her job
seriously - there is no horseplay when she's on duty. Sometimes accused of
being 'too serious'. She's very active, physically fit. Loves to swim -
hates the pool, though. She prefers a holodeck river to the gymnasium
anytime - and prefers the real outdoors over anything else. Loves to camp,
fish, sleep under the stars. Her favorite meal is breakfast cooked on a
campfire at any time of the day or night.

NRPG BACKGROUND MATERIAL:

Shahi is descended from a proud family whose roots include Navaho Code
Talkers from the World War II era on old Earth. Her name, roughly translated
from its Dakota/Navaho origins means 'Storm of Pretty Babble'.

Some background on the Navaho Code Talkers:

In some of the toughest battles of the South Pacific, Navajo Code Talkers
transmitted thousands of radio messages in a code based on their intricate
and unwritten language, in which fighter planes became "hummingbirds," dive
bombers "chicken hawks" and submarines "iron fish." Though the Japanese
repeatedly broke other American military codes, they never came close to
cracking the Navajos', which remains one of the handful of codes in military
history that were never deciphered. In fact, the Navajos' secret was
considered so valuable that it was kept classified until 1968. And their
singular contribution to the wartime efforts of what has been called "the
greatest generation" went largely unheralded. Fewer than half the Code
Talkers are still alive.

The Navaho Religious Doctrine:

In the Navaho universe there exists several worlds. According to the fullest
version of Navaho cosmogony (the explanation of the world's origin/s), there
exists four underworlds, our present world, the Sky above, and one still
higher world called the Land-Beyond-the-Sky; thus, our present world is the
fifth world. These worlds are superimposed hemispheres each supported by
pillars made of precious stones; the pillars, the number of which varies,
are placed at each of the four directions ( north, east, south, and west).

These pillars are called Those-Who-Stand-Under-the-Sky, and are regarded as
deities. The space between the hemispheres is filled with stars, whilst each
successive hemisphere is a development of that preceding it, and so larger.
(The Pueblo peoples, who are in fact neighbours of the Navaho, are said to
have lived in the fourth world). These pillars are also connecting links
between the different worlds, as is the reed of emergence, a major symbol in
ritual; the point in the hemisphere through which the reed passed into the
next world, called the Place-of-Emergence, became a local symbol of escape
and was viewed as the centre of the Earth (the location of this point is
various).

Of the many deities or supernatural powers of Navaho belief, it seems
impossible to accord Supreme sovereignty to any particular figure. Whilst
generation or creation is ultimately ascribed to Sun, several versions of
the creation myth present First Man as the creator (not to be confused with
human beings!). Nevertheless, it has been suggested that many, if not all,
of the Navaho gods may be aspects of Sun. Changing Woman, for example, may
be the female form of Sun; First Man and First Woman (not Human Beings) seem
to be respectively forms of Sun and Changing Woman in the lower worlds.
Again, in the lower worlds the First Pair stood for life, whilst in this
present world life is represented by Sun and Changing Woman (Reichard:1983
pp.75-77).

Accounts of human origins are various and inconsistent. One explanation sees
human beings transformed from corn: Sun was said to be corn's father, and
lightning its mother. In one version the corn transformed into First Man and
First Woman who were referred to as our ancestors; it is said that from the
beginning the purpose of the First Pair was to prepare the Earth for the
coming of the Navaho.

Secondly, human beings are also said to have been created by Changing Woman
as she rubbed pieces of her skin from various parts of her body; as she held
the skin in her hand it changed into six groups of people who subsequently
founded some of the Navaho clans.

Thirdly, a division of Navaho that settled on the San Juan River, trace
their ancestry to Whiteshell Woman and is believed to have been transformed
from corn, whilst another group, from the west, originated from Changing
Woman's skin. Thus, the Navaho do not boast of a common origin.
Nevertheless, their kinship with the Earth has been conveyed as follows:
'"These [the sacred] mountains are our father and our mother. We came from
them; we depend upon them. Each mountain is a person. The water courses in
their veins and arteries. The water in them is their life as blood is to our
bodies"' (Ibid. p.19).

Among the innumerable beings that may assist man, are the animals and birds
that often serve as messengers, reporting news of a ceremony or going on a
reconnaissance trip as when the peoples moved from one world to the next.
All wild animals may be included as helpers, not least the rare game animals
that allow themselves to be caught for food. Among the insects Spider is
notable as the originator of spinning and weaving, although sometimes she is
dangerous. (Notably, domesticated animals are accorded little respect, being
viewed as property rather than as sentient beings. Ibid. p.142).

The one who knows how to sustain or to restore order has the key to life's
problems, and it is this ability, according to Reichard, which defines
progress. For the Navaho the 'good' is control, whilst 'evil' is that which
is not ritually under control. Whilst order, says Reichard, is the
foundation of Navaho ritual (Ibid. p.183), Coyote is the very antithesis of
order, embodying many aspects of evil, of chaos. Coyote's various epithets
all refer to anger as an essential of war power; he is also described as
cowardly, dishonest, licentious, unreliable, and amoral, and for these
qualities, and others, he is despised (Ibid. pp.422-423). Coyote thus
embodies all the qualities that a community could well do without.

The Navaho has little idea of personal immortality; rather, at death
personhood is left behind with the body as the deceased becomes an
"...indefinable part of the universal whole" (Ibid. p.42). Nevertheless,
whilst an afterlife appears to have no place in Navaho belief, and the
notion of personal immortality is almost universally repudiated, Adolph
Britanny, in a letter to Reichard, outlined three senses in which some form
of immortality is conceived by the Navaho:
i. "biological continuation" - the perpetuation of the parent in is/her
offspring;ii. With physical death the body is reduced to its constituent
elements which in turn harmonize with those of the Earth. This notion of
'immortality', however, says Britanny, "...played havoc with many a Navaho
mind..." (Ibid. p.44) because of the suggestion that upon the death of the
body a spirit emerges "...to become partially imbibed with other living
entities" (e.g. Coyote, Bears, and Snakes).
iii. The "intangible" hereafter - this is the continuation of the eceased in
the memories of the living. Reichard has noted that, despite their extreme
fear of the dead, the Navaho delight in talking about the "...life, good
deeds, and accomplishments of the deceased".

History of the Navaho:

The Navaho are Athapascan peoples, who, like the Apache, migrated to the
Arizona/New Mexico region from Canada and Alaska sometime prior to the
arrival of the Spanish in the southwest in the sixteenth century. One source
dates the Navaho arrival to about 1300 (Parman:1976 p.3), whilst another
suggests the fifteenth or sixteenth century (Josephy:1995 p.350).

The Navaho were formerly a nomadic people, hunters, but with the
introduction of Sheep, Goats, and Horses by the Spanish, they developed a
pastoral economy, also growing orchards and gardens; furthermore, captured
Pueblo women introduced farming, weaving, and new religious ceremonies
(Parman:1976 p.3). During the various Pueblo revolts against the Spanish,
Pueblo refugees joined the Navaho so further strengthening the cultural bond
between these peoples.

Navaho family organization was matrilocal and matrilineal, marriage
requiring the husband to leave his own family and to reside with that of his
wife's. The wife could terminate the marriage by simply sending her husband
back to his people. It was common for a Husband to have more than one wife,
the second usually being a sister of the first in the hope that this
arrangement would avoid friction (Ibid. p.5). Since Navaho society is
matrilineal, one would rely for help upon one's mother's brothers rather
than upon one's father, or upon one's maternal grandparents rather than upon
both sides of the family. Similarly, one takes one's mother's clan rather
than one's father's, and within which are one's closest relatives; among
these is also an economic responsibility.

For example, ceremonies may be performed only if the pertinent assets are
available, such as sheep, horses, cash, labor, and transport. The one
desiring a ceremony may then call upon a relative on his mother's side to
donate, for example, a sheep or to help with songs. By contrast, one has to
one's father a "sentimental" rather than an economic duty, and would not
call upon him or his clan relatives for such aid (Reichard:1983 pp.123-124).

Traditionally four clans are identified, but by the twentieth century
seventy-five existed divided into nine major groups. Many clan names derive
from the places where they originated; other names were borrowed from
neighboring tribes. Two people of the same or closely related clans, were
forbidden to marry as this was considered to be incestuous. Clan members
related closely, using the terms 'brother' or 'sister' when greeting each
other. Failure to take care of one's relatives was a serious offence
(Parman:1976 p.5). One might add, however, that despite the powerful sense
of obligation in Navaho society - evidently interpreted as privilege rather
than duty - there also exists a strong sense of individualism, of
self-reliance. According to Reichard every Navaho spends a lot of time
alone, often in a hostile terrain, where the inability to act independently
could be fatal (Reichard:1983 p.xxxix). This experience may suggest why
'good' is defined in terms of order, of control, whilst 'evil' points to
chaos, of being out of control (See Doctrines section).

In 1863 General James Carlton ordered the removal of the Navaho, under Kit
Carson, to a reservation founded by him called Bosque Redondo in eastern New
Mexico. (Carson was Colonel of the New Mexico volunteers; the removal
utilized a force of 600-700 men. Parman:1976 p.7). Carson's tactic for
removing the Navaho from their land was to destroy their means of survival;
sheep were killed, wells contaminated, crops destroyed, along with orchards,
and anything else of use to the Navaho (Josephy:1995 pp.352-353). This meant
of course that the Navaho possessed little or nothing when they arrived at
the reservation; they were helpless and utterly dependent upon the U.S. Army
for sustenance.

More than eight thousand Navaho were forced to walk three hundred miles to
reach Bosque Redondo; those that could not keep up, "Some old handicapped
people and children...were shot on the spot..." ( a survivor, Ibid. p.355).
General Carlton wrote that Bosque Redondo was a "...grand experiment to make
civilized human beings out of savages"; here Indian ways were to be
abandoned preliminary to becoming like white men. To the Apache and Navaho
the white man was deliberately attempting to destroy the Indian race
(Ibid.). In May 1868 a Government delegation under Gen. William Sherman
visited the reservation, and it was decided that Bosque Redondo should be
abandoned and that the Navaho be allowed to return to their land; the Navaho
were given food and sheep to take back with them. In 1868 a treaty was
signed which outlined the new boundaries of the Navaho nation; the education
of Navaho children in white schools was a condition of the treaty, as was a
prohibition on the possession of arms (Ibid. pp.356-357).

Symbols:

Of great importance in ceremony is the symbolism of color. No color or
sequence of colors runs through a single chant consistently; none has the
same meaning in every setting. Here I will consider, in the given order, the
five colors white, blue, yellow, black, and red.

White apparently differentiates the naturally sacred from the profane -
colored, for example, black or red - which, through exorcism and ritual,
must be transformed to acquire favorable power. White corn is associated
with maleness, and from it Talking God is said to have been created by
Changing Woman; however, from yellow corn, associated with femaleness, the
male god of evening or sunset was created by Whiteshell Woman, Changing
Woman's sister (Reichard:1983 pp.29, 503). White garments are also
indicative of purification and the readiness to undertake contact with
divinity. White is the color of the east, and, frequently in the Shooting
Chant, of dawn or daylight; it should be noted, however, that white may
occupy several of the cardinal directions at some time or other (cardinal
directions are north, east, south, and west).

Blue is the color most often associated with the south. Blue may also
designate the Earth and represent gender, male or female depending upon the
context. When blue is applied to birds - whatever their actual color - it
stands for happiness (Ibid. pp.190-192).

Yellow symbolizes reproduction and fertility. In the Shooting Chant pictures
of Buffalo show their lower bodies outlined in yellow to symbolize the power
of reproduction and growth. Woman is said to have originated from a yellow
corn ear and in myth the inexhaustible food bowl, symbolizing sustenance, is
also yellow. In the west yellow denotes sunset or evening light (Ibid.
p.193).

Black is a sinister color, threatening, but since it confers invisibility it
also protects. Black is sometimes at the north (where evil and danger
dwell), and sometimes at the east. In the Blackening rite for frightening
ghosts, the patient is disguised (the main purpose of the rite) to conceal
him from lurking evils. When blackened the patient absorbs the invincibility
of Monster Slayer who was painted black with a coal of dark sky. Black also
denotes origin and summary. For example, Black Endless Snake symbolizes all
snakes, their origin and the inevitable struggle against evil. Also, the
Place-of-Emergence is painted black because it is the origin of all things
(Ibid.pp.194-197).

Red is the color of danger, of war, and of sorcery, as well as protection
against them. Protection may be achieved by changing ordinary colors to red.
Red Ocher is used in many ceremonies, and in especially large amounts in
exorcisms. Red may denote flesh. Some skirt tassels of gods depicted in
sandpaintings are black and white with a small red dot between them
symbolizing flesh, especially of rare game - this is a symbol of plentiful
meat. Red also symbolizes blood which denotes life (See quote in Beliefs
section p.2). Red is the dominant color of sorcery (Ibid. pp.197-200).

Incense. Incense symbolizes renewed strength; it purifies the patient,
drives away disease, and immunizes or protects him from the dangers posed by
the powers he has invoked. Incensing is a conclusive act. In the Flint Chant
incensing concludes the rite to correct the evil that followed from sexual
excess (Ibid. pp.565-566).

Fire is the symbol of annihilation, and is said to burn evil. Sweating
removes evils - conceived as arrows and witch objects - from the body; the
fire into which these evils fall, destroys them forever (Ibid. p.554).

http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/nam/navaho.html