Product Description
Presents a brief introduction to the Navajo Indians including information on their society, homes, food, clothing, crafts, and life today. ... Read more

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Everything from recipes to the songs of the Navajo people is included in a history of the largest Native American tribe, along with sidebars, chronology, and glossary that examine their social organization, daily life, values, and current problems. ... Read more

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In works of silver and wool, the Navajos have established a unique brand of American craft. And when their artisans were integrated into the American economy during the late nineteenth century, they became part of a complex cultural and economic framework in which their handmade crafts conveyed meanings beyond simple adornment.

As Anglo tourists discovered these crafts, the Navajo weavings and jewelry gained appeal from the romanticized notion that their producers were part of a primitive group whose traditions were destined to vanish. Erika Bsumek now explores the complex links between Indian identity and the emergence of tourism in the Southwest to reveal how production, distribution, and consumption became interdependent concepts shaped by the forces of consumerism, race relations, and federal policy.

Bsumek unravels the layers of meaning that surround the branding of "Indian made." When Navajo artisans produced their goods, collaborating traders, tourist industry personnel, and even ethnologists created a vision of Navajo culture that had little to do with Navajos themselves. And as Anglos consumed Navajo crafts, they also consumed the romantic notion of Navajos as "primitives" perpetuated by the marketplace. These processes of production and consumption reinforced each other, creating a symbiotic relationship and influencing both mutual Anglo-Navajo perceptions and the ways in which Navajos participated in the modern marketplace.

Examining varied sites of production--artisans' workshops, museums, trading posts--Bsumek shows how the market economy perpetuated "Navaho" stereotypes and cultural assumptions. She takes readers into the hogans where men worked silver and women wove rugs and into the outlets where middlemen dictated what buyers wanted and where Navajos influenced inventory. Exploring this process over seven decades, she describes how artisans' increasing use of modern tools created controversy about authenticity and how the meaning of the "Indian made" label was even challenged in court.

Ultimately, Bsumek shows that the sale of Indian-made goods cannot be explained solely through supply and demand. It must also reckon with the multiple images and narratives that grew up around the goods themselves, integrating consumer culture, tourism, and history to open new perspectives on our understanding of American Indian material culture.

This book is part of the CultureAmerica series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

More persuasion than information
Very interesting nuggets of information about the sellers, producers and consumers of "Indian-made" objects are overwhelmed by the author's emphasis of her strongly held viewpoint.After a while it became so tiresome that I merely skimmed the last 1/3 of it.

Nice comprehensive review
Author has done a nice job of researching and referencing a complex subject. Many new nuggets of information and the material is organized well.The Little Book of Mexican Silver Trade and Hallmarks

A book that informs and is a good read.
If you're going to the Southwest this book is very informative and interesting. Anyone intersted in Navajo arts and crafts will benefit from this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Since the arrival of Europeans on American shores, Native peoples have recounted stories about their encounters with the invading and colonizing outsiders. Nevertheless, the vast majority of the published narratives about the colonization of Indian peoples and lands have been framed and controlled by European and, later, Euroamerican chroniclers.

After historical overviews of the early years of Native American and, specifically, Navajo ethnography, the greater part of the volume introduces a method that enables the reading of editorially reorganized ethnographic texts as a means of accessing and listening to informants' rich stories.

The central chapters discuss the well-known volume Son of Old Man Hat: A Navaho Autobiography. They question the extent to which the stories used for the text were actually about the storyteller's life. Once hailed as exemplary ethnography, Brill de Ramírez shows that Son of Old Man Hat is, in fact, just the opposite.

The volume concludes with an introduction of ethnographic work in Navajo country that has been distinguished for its reliability, accuracy, and authenticity. These collections were primarily initiated from within the tribal community and produced through collaborative relationships.

Brill de Ramírez demonstrates beneficial folklore tools for postcolonial study of colonial ethnography--thereby enabling readers to access and listen to the storytelling voices of generations of indigenous "informants" whose stories await postcolonial listener-readers. ... Read more

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The oral history of America’s famous Hopi Indians tell them that they were the first human beings to inhabit the North and South American continents and that they arrived on large rafts, island-hopping across the Pacific Ocean…not by the land bridge that once connected Alaska and Siberia.
The story of their arrival, splitting up into groups and going in different directions to populate the two continents is so detailed that it is hard to believe that it is just a myth concocted for some ulterior purpose.
I have used key terms in the Hopi language that are pregnant with cultural and historical meanings as windows to reveal the amazing story of the Hopis, including how they ended up living on top of high mesas that rise up like sentinels in northern Arizona.
Perhaps most astounding of all in the story of the Hopis is their tradition of prophecies, and their incredible accuracy—including the coming of white men with guns, the coming of wagons, the coming of therailroad, cattle, electric power lines—and future wars.
This is fascinating read for anyone who is interested not only in Native Americans but in an incredible saga of an ancient people who have survived into modern times…and continue to practice their ancient ceremonials.
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Customer Reviews (1)

The Astounding Story of Arizona's Hopi Indians
The oral history of America's famous Hopi people tell them that they were the first human beings to inhabit the North and South American continents and that they arrived on large rafts, island-hopping across the Pacific Ocean...not by the land bridge that once connected Alaska and Siberia.
The story of their arrival, splitting up into groups and going in different directions to populate the two continents is so detailed that it is hard to believe that it is just a myth concocted for some ulterior purpose.
I have used key terms in the Hopi language that are pregnant with cultural and historical meanings as windows to reveal the amazing story of the Hopis, including how they ended up living on top of high mesas that rise up like sentinels in northern Arizona.
Perhaps most astounding of all in the story of the Hopis is their tradition of prophecies, and their incredible accuracy--including the coming of white men with guns, the coming of wagons, the coming of therailroad, cattle, electric power lines--and future wars.
This is fascinating read for anyone who is interested not only in Native Americans but in an incredible saga of an ancient people who have survived into modern times...and continue to practice their ancient ceremonials.
... Read more

Product Description
Rich compilation of tribal fables and legends recorded in the 1920s from an elderly Navaho chief. Myths include The Creation of the Sun and Moon, The Sun’s Path, The Maiden who Became a Bear, The Making of the Headdress, The Story of the Rain Ceremony and Its Hogan, The Story of the Two Boys and the Coming of the Horses, The Story of the Navaho and the Apache Peoples and many more. Important document in Native American studies.
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Customer Reviews (3)

Accurate Myths
I purchased this book because even Navajo people use it as a resource book.The myths are accurate and provide a good background into the culture.A must read for those of you looking for adventures in reading other cultural myths and legends.

Interesting Culture and Dunamic & Creative People
This book is very enlighting on the myths and belifs of the American Idian and their cultural beliefs.

A very dynamic people and culture that has survived a long enduring time of trials. The "white man" taking over their lands and alienating them from the very soil they sewed for hundreds of years.

Mystical beliefs, omens and the rverence of the people in their communities and how everyone was imprtant to the whole.

THis is book is a beautiful example of what makes the Native American people so special, unique and strong. Read it!

Authentic and Poetic
In 1928, Aileen O'Bryan recorded the narration of Sandoval, Hastin Tlo'tsi hee (Old Man Buffalo Grass), then "first chief of the four chiefs of the Navaho People."His nephew Sam Ahkeah acted as interpreter.Thisbook was originally published in 1956 as "The Dine: Origin Myths ofthe Navaho Indians," by the U.S. Government Printing Office, asBulletin 163 of the Bureau of American Ethnology of the SmithsonianInstitution. As this transcription is both authentic and poetic, Irecommend it to the general reader as well as the scholar. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Belongs in every school library, and, every public library children/YA section
Overwhelmingly and historically, books about American Indians are written by people who are outsiders to the tribal nation the book is about. As a result, today's readers get biased and factually incorrect books and sadly, they don't know the book is that way.

THE LONG WALK: THE FORCED NAVAJO EXILE is an outstanding exception to the status quo. Written by Jennifer Denetdale, it reflects the care she brings to the project as an insider (she is Dine herself) and the thoroughness she brings as a historian (she's currently on the faculty at Northern Arizona University).

In five chapters, she provides substantive information about the Dine, grounding the reader in Dine life and culture prior to encounters with those responsible for their forced relocation. She effectively tells the reader that the Dine existed and thrived, long before the arrival of the Europeans. History, in other words, does not and did not begin with the Americans. The book has several photographs of people and artwork, a chronology, timeline, notes, bibliography, and, suggestions for further reading.

This is a MUST GET in every school library and, it should be in the children's or young adult section of every public library, too.



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Product Description
Focusing on the economic history of the Navajo, known more correctly as the DinT people, this study explores how a combination of capitalism and traditional kinship economy have merged to change the lives of a people who are a part of, yetseparated from, the surrounding US economy. Oral history is ... Read more

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This is a literary biography of one of the first women to travel through the Southwest and Mexico on horseback and to record firsthand traditional stories of the Aztec and Navajo cultures. The book is a literary biography of Frances Gillmor, a scholar of the native cultures of the Southwest and Mesoamerica, and a writer of regional novels. An English and humanities professor at the University of Arizona for forty-odd years, Gillmor also inspired and promoted the study of folklore in the Southwest. In the words of her University of Arizona colleague James Griffith, "Any folklorist who works here is inevitably following a path which was blazed, scraped, and smoothed by Frances Gillmor." Frances Gillmor's life not only bridges a number of cultures, but also spans both a century (1903-1993) and a continent. From the old Scottish clan lore she learned from her mother to Mexican folk plays and dances, from the "Indien" maidens of her juvenile stories to fierce Speaker-Kings of the Aztecs, both her life and her work show a colorful breadth and variety."Thumbcap Weir" (1929), her first novel, evokes the pioneer fishing settlements of New Brunswick; "Windsinger" (1930) takes us into the world of a Navajo chanter; and "Fruit Out of Rock" (1940) explores and foreshadows in fiction the threat of canyon erosion in terms of its characters' links to a family and regional past. "Traders to the Navajos" (1934) is a double biography of the Wetherills of Kayenta, who were not only traders but arbiters, doctors, companions, and teachers to the Navajos throughout the early part of the twentieth century. "Flute of the Smoking Mirror" (1949) follows the life of Nezahualcoytl, while "The King Danced in the Marketplace" (1964) gives us the history of Moteczuma the First: two Aztec biographies which made these kings' lives accessible to general readers for the first time and greatly impressed fellow scholars. Frances Gillmor herself was an actively practicing Christian who came to believe that religious experience need not depend on supernatural events or divine revelation, but instead that the spirit of God is revealed in the myriad beauties of nature.I have looked, as it were, over her shoulder, observing her passion for spiritual matters in childhood diaries, in the stories and poems that appeared in her high school literary magazine, and in her later embrace of the process theology of Alfred North Whitehead. I have noted with great admiration her steadfast refusal to allow either personal belief or official dogma to distort her responses to the spiritual practice of non-Christian cultures - not just the Papago, Zuni, Hopi, Yaqui, and Navajo Indians, but even the bloodthirsty Aztecs. I have also attempted to show how Frances Gillmor's sense of herself as an outsider, an "orphan" (or, as post-colonial critics would say, as the "other"), foreshadowed the scholar, folklorist, and author who valued so greatly the theme of connection. Leon Edel's metaphor of "the figure under the carpet" is relevant here because it expresses so well the approach that informs my own writing.Edel suggests that the subject's life can be seen as a carpet or tapestry: place it right side up and the "life-myth" or mask of the person is visible; reverse the carpet, however, and the tangled threads beneath are exposed as the raw and naked real self of the tidy figure above. Intrigued by this notion, I have spent a good deal of time on the early experiences and predilections which structured Gillmor's life, and which shaped from beneath the social, intellectual, and professional figure who emerged. I must emphasize one final point. Unlike Frances Gillmor, who wore many scholarly hats, I wear only one: I'm a scholar of literature. This biography thus makes no claims to being either comprehensive or definitive; its primary focus is on Gillmor's role as a woman of letters. Though any account of her life must of course refer to her work as a folklorist, ethnologist, and anthropologist, I shall leave it to others to do full justice to her outstanding accomplishments in these fields. ... Read more

Product Description
Utilizing both primary and secondary materials, this sourcebook presents the views of the Franciscan missionaries to the Navajo people, both in their personal writings and in national publications and mission magazines addressing the Catholic laity and potential donors. Selections include internal reports and position papers not intended for publication, diaries and personal correspondence, and notes and unfinished drafts. ... Read more

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Examines the history, culture, and future prospects of the Navajo Indians. ... Read more

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Within the borders of the Navajo Nation reservation in the Southwestern U.S. is a unique programknown as the Four Corners Native American Ministry of The United Methodist Church. In a culture that can be hostile to Christians and where Navajo believers are often ostracized by their families and neighbors, Navajo people of God encourage and support each other, taking Jesus Christ to fellow Navajos and living powerful Christian lives. This thirty-year-old ministry has often struggled: sometimes with religious authorities, sometimes with other Native American organizations, and frequently with finances. "Four Corners" celebrates how the Holy Spirit continues to work: enabling the ministry to build churches, make disciples, train lay pastors, influence youth, and always stay true to the way of the Lord. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A well written book discussing conservative vs. Liberal theological views with Native American populations
This is a thorough, if sometime laborious, presentation of the history and development of evangelical Christianity on the Navajo reservation.

It is a fair and comprehensive statement of the efforts of both Anglos and Navajos in the development of a growing, evangelical work among native American peoples on the largest Indian reservation in the U.S.

The support, and sometimes resistance, of the United Methodist Church is significant and educational.

This is a leading work showing the disadvantage of mixing evangelical Christianity with the syncretism often permitted by many religious groups in dealing indigenous, native populations.

The author has been extremely fair and thorough in his presentation and is to commended for his commitment to this project. ... Read more

Product Description
The Diné have been a pastoral people for as long as they can remember; but when livestock reductions in the New Deal era forced many into the labor market, some scholars felt that Navajo culture would inevitably decline. Although they lost a great deal with the waning of their sheep-centered economy, Colleen O'Neill argues that Navajo culture persisted.

O'Neill's book challenges the conventional notion that the intro-duction of market capitalism necessarily leads to the destruction of native cultural values. She shows instead that contact with new markets provided the Navajos with ways to diversify their household-based survival strategies. Navajos actually participated in the "reworking of modernity" in their region, weaving an alternate, culturally specific history of capitalist development.

O'Neill chronicles a history of Navajo labor that illuminates how cultural practices and values influenced what it meant to work for wages or to produce commodities for the marketplace. Through accounts of Navajo coal miners, weavers, and those who left the reservation in search of wage work, she explores the tension between making a living the Navajo way and "working elsewhere."

Focusing on the period between the 1930s and the early 1970s-a time when Navajos saw a dramatic transformation of their economy-O'Neill shows that Navajo cultural values were flexible enough to accommodate economic change. She also examines the development of a Navajo working class after 1950, when corporate development of Navajo mineral resources created new sources of wage work and allowed former migrant workers to remain on the reservation.

O'Neill shows how the Navajo home serves as a site of cultural negotiation and a source for affirming identity. Her depiction of weaving particularly demonstrates the role of women as cultural arbitrators, providing mothers with cultural power that kept them at the center of what constituted "Navajo-ness."

Ultimately, Working the Navajo Way shows the essential resilience of Navajo lifeways and argues for a more dynamic understanding of Native American culture overall. ... Read more

Product Description
Based on interviews with more than a thousand Navajo Indian men and women, this book examines the associations between childhood experiences and behavior and the development of alcohol dependence in adulthood. Because Navajo life has changed markedly over the past two generations, it also examines the role of urbanization and universal school in reshaping Navajo youth and considers the implications for changing patterns of alcohol use in adulthood.In addition the book explores a wide range of timely issues such as domestic violence, factors associated with resistance to alcohol abuse as well as remission and recovery, the treatment and prevention of alcohol dependence, and the implications of pursuing either population-based preventive interventions or interventions focussed on high risk individuals or groups. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

From Experience...
I read this book from cover to cover during one of my frequent retreats to the local sweat lodge. After a few too many cans of Kylon Arcylic (gold is my fav!), my resulting state of mind and body will instruct me to take refuge there.
I feel that the basic thrust of the book is right on - we basically are a spiritual type of people who, when drinking alcohol, will often take great delight in running our almost new automobiles, bought with our casino revenue, out of gas and oil, only to abondon them by the roadside without so much as a blink.
I gotta go get some beer. ... Read more

Product Description
Three Navajo brothers went to their grandmother Sally's hogan every year for the winter holidays where she told them stories about the holy people, "Long, long ago when the holy people created the earth from the center of the universe, there was no one to enjoy their creation and there was no one to harvest the fruits of this world."

At first the brothers thought Grandmother's stories were long and boring especially late at night while they tried to sleep. The eldest brother, Tall Leo was very good at remembering things but still found Grandmother's stories long and boring. The middle brother, Big Leonard, had the ability to think, he took things seriously, but he agreed with his older brother that grandmother's stories were long and boring. The youngest brother, Little Leonard, was ambitious and saw meaning and value in the stories.

The three brothers continued the story on the last day of school before the winter holiday. "There were no five-fingered individuals in this world, so the holy people made first man and first woman. The holy people told the five-fingered individuals to ask for what was needed."

Father's Boots shares the three brothers' journey to school and home for the holidays as they retell this story in both Navajo and English and as they learn that in retelling the stories they ask their family to have good thoughts, good feelings, to get along and to have happy words for one another. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

beautiful !
I am very grateful for the condition of this beautiful book !
Thank you for being such a great source ! ... Read more

Product Description
More than 125 vivid color photographs display Indian-made wrought silver, turquoise, shell and coral jewelry brought together from the American Southwest's bright deserts, red canyon and timeless pueblos. The authors explore the diversity of this hand-crafted jewelry from historic collections as well as those available today on reservations and in shops and galleries. They explain the heritage conveyed by these distinctive products of Navajo, Zuni, Hopi, and Rio Grande Pueblo artisans. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Book
Nice reference book.Will be very handy.Good comunication regarding shipping and quickk arrival.Thanks.

Usability
This book gives a good general description of the the traditional types of jewelry available. Since I,m more into bracelets I would have liked to see a little more on this subject. ... Read more

Product Description
This comprehensive narrative traces the history of the Navajos from their origins to the beginning of the twenty-first century. Based on extensive archival research, traditional accounts, interviews, historic and contemporary photographs, and firsthand observation, it provides a detailed, up-to-date portrait of the Diné past and present that will be essential for scholars, students, and interested general readers, both Navajo and non-Navajo.

As Iverson points out, Navajo identity is rooted in the land bordered by the four sacred mountains. At the same time, the Navajos have always incorporated new elements, new peoples, and new ways of doing things. The author explains how the Diné remember past promises, recall past sacrifices, and continue to build upon past achievements to construct and sustain North America’s largest native community. Provided is a concise and provocative analysis of Navajo origins and their relations with the Spanish, with other Indian communities, and with the first Anglo-Americans in the Southwest. Following an insightful account of the traumatic Long Walk era and of key developments following the return from exile at Fort Sumner, the author considers the major themes and events of the twentieth century, including political leadership, livestock reduction, the Code Talkers, schools, health care, government, economic development, the arts, and athletics.

Monty Roessel (Navajo), an outstanding photographer, is Executive Director of the Rough Rock Community School. He has written and provided photographs for award-winning books for young people. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Very interesting, informative book of Navajo history.
I recently visited the Navajo Nation.I found this book to be very interesting and informative, giving me the history of the people and places I saw. Although it is used as a textbook, it is so interesting that I find it hard to put down. It is entertaining and an easy read. The photographs are great.

This should have been called *RECENT* history of the Dine
The Dine are an ancient people, and I was looking forward to learning a bit of their long history and culture. I was disappointed to discover that only about 15 of 400 pages cover history prior to the Europeans showing up. And that first chapter on their long history feels incomplete and rushed. The rest of the book gives a quite detailed but dry recounting of their recent history.

The Turth
I am a relocated Navajo, since 1956 to Ca.I never was "taught" my native culture.Because we lived in the "white man's world" I have since returned many times to my native homeland, hurt and lonely. I am now learning what was taken away from my soul. The Navajo. This book is another truth for me. Some of the stories are ones that my mother has told me. My grandfather was an infant during the long walk home.

Dine: A History of the Navajos
I bought this book in order for my Granddaughter to learn about a part of her heritage that has never been explored. I highly reccommend anyone truly interested in learning about the Navajo Culture read this book!

A Learning Journey
My sister took a position in Chinle Arizona for the National Indian Health Service.I wanted to know and understand more about the culture and what to expect when I visited.I ran across this book and even though it is clearly a text book, I was more than pleased.It was easy to read, written by someone with a wicked sense of humor and very informative.

The history is facinating even though very disturbing in many respects.It is well balanced and worth the time. ... Read more