The Blessing Way (1970)

A dry camp is a camp where there is not a nearby source of water, often in remote areas. Dry camping requires that campers carry their own potable water and that they carefully conserve what water they have access to. Dry camping is also often associated with impermanence, as in a dry camp is not a camp in which one stays in for long periods of time, but rather moves through on the way to somewhere else.

The temporary state of a person's physical and mental functions being impaired by the over-consumption of alcoholic beverages.

The history of alcohol use by Native Americans is a long and tortured one. Alcohol was introduced to many North American tribes by European settlers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, first as an item of trade and later as a substance that was intended to deliberately interfere with the groups’ traditional way of life. Alcohol has been and continues to be extensively "abused" by Native Americans on and off reservations, and the reasons for this abuse are many, and include problems of social, political, and financial nature. None of these reasons, however, can nor should be linked to a supposed indigenous or cultural predilection toward drunkenness. Instead, the effects of poverty, isolation, and lack of educational and other resources are the stimuli that engender alcohol abuse in Native American populations.

In his Navajo detective novels, Tony Hillerman notes both the beauty and the darkness he saw in the Southwest. Substance abuse, physical violence, greed, and crime were examples of the darkness he found; expressions of individual and cultural imbalances whose root causes he depicts as originating in modern U.S. society, rather than as organic to Native communities.

In this context, dog skin refers to a Navajo Wolf, a witch that dresses in the skin of a wolf. The Navajo Wolf can also read others' minds, control minds, bring forth disease, destroy homes, and even cause death.

An individual who dispatches, or facilitates, the exchange of information, typically via radio transmission. Dispatchers usually work at a central hub of an organization through which the organization's members channel information as it is acquired and processed.

In his Navajo detective novels, Tony Hillerman sometimes uses the anachronism "radioman" when referring to a dispatcher.

More often spelled "Diné," Dinee can be translated from the Navajo language as "the People." Diné is also how the Navajo refer to themselves. The Diné are the largest federally recognized Native American group in the United States. Their reservation is spread out throughout the Four Corners region of the American Southwest, and includes portions of the states of Arizona, New Mexico,and Utah.

The Diné base their way of life on a belief that the physical and spiritual world blend together and everything on earth is alive, related, and in equilibrium or ho′zho′. In this light, they observe two primary ceremonials, among many others. The first is the Blessing Way, which keeps them on the path of wisdom and happiness. The second is the Enemy Way, which is meant to discourage evil spirits, eliminate ghosts, and cleanse an individual of elements or affects that have placed her or him out of balance.

An archaeological site in which soil and other organic and inorganic materials are removed during a methodical investigation of the contents of the various historical substrates in the upper layers of the earth's surface.

Because of its prevalence throughout the Southwest, Hillerman is probably referring to the mule deer, named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. There are several additional subspecies of deer, including the black-tailed deer. Unlike the related white-tailed deer, mule deer are generally more associated with the land west of the Missouri River, and more specifically still with the Rocky Mountain region of North America.

A trap consisting of a weight that is balanced to fall, crush, and kill an animal.

Deadfall can also refer to a mass of tangled brush and shrubs.

In many Native American cultures, dancing is a common part of spiritual, communal ceremonies. Dancing can be a form of supplication to spirits or deities, for purposes that includes seasonal festivities, celebratory events, healing rituals, or the blessing of certain feats such as important battles or hunting trips. While dance is a common practice among various Native American groups, the form these dances take changes between cultures, as do traditions regarding who is permitted to perform them.

Among the Pueblo peoples of the Southwest, some of the most common dances are the masked kachina dances. Kachinas are guardian spirits, often associated with dead ancestors, who are believed to reside in a separate but parallel realm. According to traditional lore, kachinas return to the pueblo villages during special ceremonies. Ritual dances, in which the dancers don sacred kachina masks and embody the kachina spirit, are performed in order to invite and please the spirits. The dances often involve offerings and reverence for which the kachinas, in return, would guarantee protection and sustenance for the community, especially through bringing the rains needed for raising crops. In Puebloan cultures, both men and women can participate in ceremonial dances, although women are often excluded from surrounding spiritual practices, such as kiva societies' gatherings. Little boys who are initiated into kiva societies are often taught the dances before they have a chance to even learn the prayers.

The back, open portion of a pickup truck, used for transporting cargo.