Hogan

[1] The door traditionally faced east to welcome the rising sun, believed to bring good fortune.

In winter the fireplace kept the inside warm well into the night, due to the high heat capacity of the earth in the construction.

[2] The preference of hogan construction and use is still very popular among the Navajos, although the use of it as a home shelter dwindled through the 1900s, due mainly to the requirement by many Navajos to acquire homes built through government and lender funding – which largely ignored the hogan and traditional styles – in preference for HUD-standardized construction.

That began to officially change in the late 1990s with various projects to find ways to bring the hogan back.

The project has also provided jobs, summer school construction experience for Navajo teens, and new public buildings.