This project is a special deck of playing cards designed for the Navajo social card game, Navajo 10. This game has never been marketed before and I combined the game with a Navajo creation story that has all original symbolism to stray from using any sensitive ceremonial symbols.

The name Neezna Nashjah means I have ten which is a Navajo term that is used to describe the game Navajo 10. I have presented this project at the Spring 2024 NAU Undergraduate Research Symposium and intend to work with schools to implement this in Navajo Language and Culture classes.

I designed special character cards for the Joker, Queen, and King of the set. I utilized aspects of each characters story and importance to the Navajo people and created my own original personifications of each.

The game Navajo 10 is played without the 8, 9, and 10 cards so this deck does not have those cards.

The cards from Ace to 7 are designed as a storyboard meant to tell the Navajo Twin Hero's story in the order that is shown here. I managed to break the story down to be told in four parts and I designed all the graphics according to the guidelines and limitations that I set for myself. All illustrations and symbols are my own original design based on how I understood the story.

The first part of the story discusses how the boys journey from when they were born to the day they seek out their father. The second part of the story discusses their journey to their fathers home and the third discusses the trials they went through to reach their father. The fourth part tells the tests that their father put them through and how the boys received the help they needed and managed to destroy the monsters.

Due to this story being passed from generation to generation vocally rather than through a written story, the story that I tell is of what I learned from my father and other Navajo storytellers within my family.

Concepts that I keep consistent throughout my project are duality, harmony, and balance. These are concepts of Navajo lifestyle that I was raised on and I felt it be right to implement in the card design.

I utilize a Night time brown and a Daylight white that work as alight and dark together, I also utilize symbols that represent the night and day on the back of the cards that are tied together through a basket design in the center. This concept is also repeated in the logo where the sun and moon rest on opposite sides of the dashes that represent the ten cards of Navajo 10.

Here are some of my final mockups: