Navajo Studies
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Recent papers in Navajo Studies
Although settler colonial discourses about yoga often eclipse Native peoples, today in the U.S., there is a growing interest in yoga among Native Americans. This essay analyzes two Native, cinematic representations that center Haley... more
The Grolier Codex is discussed in the context of the archaeoastronomy of the ancient Americas on pages 98-99 of the March 1990 National Geographic Magazine article "America's Ancient Skywatchers" by John B. Carlson. One of four known... more
In the summer of 1966, seven Navajo community members from Pine Springs, AZ were the subjects of one of the most provocative experiments in cognitive and visual anthropology, the Navajo Film Project, resulting in Sol Worth and John... more
The Grolier Codex (Codice Maya de Mexico, CMM) is discussed in the context of the archaeoastronomy of the ancient Americas on pages 98-99 of the March 1990 National Geographic Magazine article "America's Ancient Skywatchers" by John B.... more
This article explores the ways that Navajo poet Rex Lee Jim uses ideophony in one of his poems. I argue that Jim's use of an ideophone in its myriad forms (from nominalized noun to independent ideophone to verb stem) creates an... more
Translated and edited by Malcolm D. Benally. Foreword by Jennifer Nez Denetdale.
Building upon Philip Deloria’s notion of “Indians in unexpected places,” this paper explores the ideologies and practices involved as Navajo cultural producers make films in the Navajo language. For some contemporary Navajo filmmakers,... more
Introduction to Kiva Fall 2021 special issue focused on Diné (Navajo) archaeology. Discusses key themes within the area of study, as well as a short discussion of the five research articles (Weiner & Kelley 2021; Campbell 2021; Lee 2021;... more
Pernicious threats to tribal sovereignty and Indigenous empowerment at local scales of governance have often evaded the scrutiny applied to other formations of the settler state. To illustrate this point, I draw on recent attempts to... more
Conference presentation listed in program as "The Use of Navaho Ceremonies in Tony Hillerman's Detective Fiction," at the Popular Culture Association meeting (New Orleans), 7 April 1993.
"Selected proceedings of the “First International Conference on Ethnoastronomy: Indigenous Astronomical and Cosmological Traditions of the World”held at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 5-9 September 1983." Available on... more
Hopi and Navajo oral traditions describing the formation of Meteor "Barringer" Crater in Arizona are reported in early 20 th century news media, but some scholars claim these traditions are deliberate fabrications or misidentified stories... more
Throughout history the circle has been consistently regarded both as an important metaphysical concept and symbol, as well as a practical object of aesthetic creation and shamanic, ritualistic, magical usage, often used to define an area... more
"Diné comedy duo James and Ernie perform in the Navajo reservation bordertown of Farmington, New Mexico.1 In the routine, we are in a smoky bar: a Diné country western band, Aces Wild, is playing a popular song (“The Aces Wild Song”),... more
This paper examines the roles of culture in the principles of biomedical ethics. Drawing on examples from African, Navajo and Western cultures, the paper maintains that various elements of culture are indispensable to the application of... more
Most of us shudder when we see photos of swastikas on Nazi flags or on the uniforms of the Third Reich. It reminds us of that terrible historical period in the mid-20th century when hatred threatened to rule the world. Most of us would be... more
The scale and intensity of Navajo (Diné) sheepherding in the American Southwest has varied substantially over the centuries. In the 150 years since the signing of the Navajo Treaty of 1868, a variety of internal and external pressures... more
The historic relationship between flying shields and the Native Americans of Arizona has become a part of a long tradition. Legends of ancient star beings that pilot spacecraft and sometimes mate with the indigenous people are an accepted... more
...they were a people from the rural villages of New Mexico, who found their common origins in the Spanish colony’s slave trade with the nomadic tribes of the region. Silences have grown from their history because its historical and... more
Navajo pastoralism arose early in the eighteenth century from the semi- arid canyons of the Colorado Plateau, where women and men incorporated Spanish livestock into their world and gave them indigenous meanings. Before long, burgeoning... more
The Navajo have probably been the subject of as much ethnological study as any Native American group. Their capacity for assimilating both material and ideological culture traits from surrounding groups is well documented (Hester 1962;... more
An unpublished/unwanted study of the conflict between Navajos and New Mexicans in the first half of the nineteenth century through the lens of their mutual pastoralism.
This article explores the status of R.C. Gorman (Navajo) within the art community of San Francisco, California, in the 1960s. Using Gorman’s personal papers, the article addresses how his queer identity, Navajo heritage, and Native... more
The rough dirt road to Alice Gilmore's home twists through desert badlands of the northeastern Navajo (Diné) Nation, passing the Navajo Coal Mine, gray mountains of coal combustion waste (CCW) and coal seams glittering in the desert sun.... more
Культура племени навахо, одного из самых многочисленных индейских племён США, смогла не только сохраниться едва ли не лучше других индейских культур Северной Америки, но продолжает процветать в наши дни в обрядах и церемониях,... more
Two different objects from disparate cultures and times offer insight into the spiritual and cultural contexts of their makers. A contemporary Navajo weaver, Marilou Schultz, works with traditional motifs in non-traditional ways,... more
A comparison of English, Japanese, and Navajo "code talk" understandings based in the cultural context of perception. Focus on the combat code developed by Diné talkers in the USA Marine Corps during WWII in the Pacific combat theatre.
Inspired by an inquiry from a Navajo friend about why I had not published on a particular poem by Rex Lee Jim, this paper engages that question through three interconnected themes. First, there will be an analysis of the poem by Jim where... more
What has prompted me to write over the years is the hunch that something needs to be told, and that if I don't try to tell it, it risks not being told.
Native sci-fi film streaming archive on Space + Anthropology connected with my blog, Navajo on Mars.
In this chapter, I argue that both Frantz Fanon, in his analysis of changes to the Algerian practice of women wearing the veil prior to and during the Algerian War of Independence, and Raymond Austin, Tom Tso, and Robert Yazzie, in their... more
Recent debate over the expansion of a ski resort on the San Francisco Peaks, one of four Navajo sacred mountains, requires an ethnographic analysis of Navajo concerns with artificial snowmaking. Other research has mainly focused on the... more
Biography of linguistic work
Keywords: Native American Studies, North American Southwest, History of travel and tourism in the US, Native American reservations, Native American education, American Indian Ethnic Renewal, Cultural secrecy, Indigenous regulation of... more
Even as American ethnology in the late-nineteenth century continued to accumulate data about indigenous groups for comparative study, the surgeon-turned-eth-nographer Washington Matthews found standardized documentary methods... more