The Blessing Way (1970)

An object, usually of everyday use, that was made by people in the past and discovered, often by anthropologists and archaeologists, closer to the present. Artifacts are usually examined for their historical significance and are believed to indicate how peoples of the past lived.

Because Native American tribes have been living in what are now the United States for thousands of years, artifacts from the ancestors of peoples with ancient but still living traditions have been found. This has led to controversy concerning anthropological and archaeological work, as the these surviving traditional communities perceive the work of anthropologists and archaeologists as desecrating objects and sites sacred to Native peoples.

Also known as chert, flint is an exceptionally hard sedimentary rock that is therefore especially desirable when making stone tools that need to have and keep edges. Flint is found most often in masses of nodules that, when fractured, break into sharp-edged pieces. For at least two million years, humans have used a chipping method known as flint knapping to shape flint rock into spear points, arrowheads, blades, and other sharp tools.

Depending on soil composition, chert can occur in a wide range of colors. The term flint is generally used to indicate the darker varieties of chert. Blue flint can be found in New Mexico and other parts of the Southwest. It is deep blue or gray-blue in color and has been used to make jewelry as well as tools.

A relocation Indian, also known as an urban Indian, is a Native American whose family was encouraged to leave its reservation during the 1950s. Initally focusing on the Navajo and Hopi tribes, the idea was introduced in the late 1940s as an effort to reduce the U.S. government's obligation to subsidize living conditions on reservations by assimilating Native Americans into mainstream U.S. culture. By the mid-1950s, the program was extended to all Native Americans. A large number of Native Americans volunteered and were enlisted to fight in World War II, while others left their reservations to work in factories producing goods for the war. At the end of the war, large numbers of Native American veterans chose not to return to their reservations, due to feeling uncomfortable on the reservation, yet many of them were no more comfortable in the outside world. Additionally, others who had worked in factories during the war never returned to the reservation, where wage labor jobs were hard to find. Ultimately, over 30,000 Native Americans relocated as a result of the Indian Relocation Act, which was officially passed in 1956.

The Indian Relocation Act of 1956 has been critiqued as a continuation of the Indian termination policy first enacted by the U.S. government during the 19th century. In the case of the Indian Relocation Act, however, termination was executed as an expression of cultural genocide rather than mass murder. In the generations that have followed the initial urban migration of Native Americans, rates of poverty, substance abuse, and cultural assimilation due to racial and class discrimination have continued to increase in urban Indian populations. In essence, the Indian Relocation Act resulted in the isolation of relocation Indians from their communities and cultural practices.

The policy was terminated in 1962 after an outcry by Native Americans and special interest groups, who argued that the act in effect stripped Native American groups of their tribal sovereignties, with a resulting degradation of Native American lifeways as a result of increased poverty, disease, and unemployment, despite the earlier promises made by the act toward Native Americans. The effects of the act, however, persist.

A hospital under the jurisdiction of the Indian Health Service (HIS), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Indian Health Service was created in 1955 and originally had 48 hospitals and 93 other facilities. In 1956, as directed by the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives, a survey was conducted, including an in-depth study on nine reservations, to determine the health status of and the measures needed to improve the health of Native people. This survey found that a substantial health program was needed. The system continued to expand, and in the Indian Health Care Improvement Act of 1976, Congress created two national goals for this health care program: to elevate the health care standard of Native Americans, and to try to get as many enrolled tribal peoples as possible to use the program.

This term could refer to the New York, New Jersey, New England, or Pennsylvania Mafiosi. Mafia are organized criminal syndicates with a hierarchical structure generally focused on a certain family. This ranking system includes such roles as the Don (head of family), Consigliere (advisor), Underboss (second in command), Captain (in Italian "Capo"), Solider, and Associate. The early years of criminal activity by the East Coast Mafia focused on bootlegging, loansharking, and importing drugs across the border from Canada.

A component of many armies, cavalry refers to units of soldiers mounted on horseback. Historically cavalry units were very important in military operations due to the advantages of mobility and speed afforded by horses. Beginning in the late 1800s and continuing into the next century, the role for cavalry in the U.S. diminished with the introduction of new weapons. By the 1950s horses were no longer used by the U.S. Army, although some units are maintained ceremonially as part of state militias. The 1st Cavalry Division nevertheless served extensively in Vietnam using helicopters to transport weapons and vehicles.

This term is often used colloquially to mean the arrival of extra help to rescue a person or situation, as in "the cavalry has arrived!"

A military weapon system that controls the launching of ballistic missiles, either conventional or nuclear. This term refers to the previously mentioned MIRV (Multiple Intercontinental Re-Entry Vehicle), a kind of ballistic missile that is capable of firing multiple war heads at once at a single target. This kind of weapon is often more effective than a single warhead hitting a target and can be used to stop the flight path of other ballistic missiles.

A formal or prescribed set of observances that make up a regular practice, especially one carrying spiritual significance. A ritual can be performed alone or in small or large groups. Most communities around the world, have recurring gatherings, celebrations, or commemorations that are always performed in the same way according to agreed-upon standards. Such behaviors and events become ritualistic traditions that are often carried out through decades, centuries, or even millennia of repeated practices.

Folsom culture refers to a prehistoric group of nomadic hunters that may have hunted bison during the Pleistocene era. The majority of Folsom artifacts date to a period roughly between 9000 BCE and 8000 BCE. Archeological research shows that these hunter-gatherers lived across wide parts of North America, in the regions that stretch from what is now the Southwestern U.S. up through the Great Plains and all the way into Canada. The name Folsom originates in the first archeological site that uncovered this particular period, which was found near the village of Folsom, New Mexico. Traces of a specific "stone age" culture, based on its intricate and detailed stone weapons and tools were unearthed on that site in the early twentieth century, and additional Folsom sites have subsequently been excavated throughout New Mexico, Colorado, and Texas, as well as further up into the northeastern parts of the continent.

The Folsom culture is distinguished from the previous Clovis tradition by the shift from hunting mammoth that were becoming extinct to following herds of bison. This shift required developing new hunting techniques and devising new weapons, namely the famous Folsom point, which is a particular type of arrowhead that is carefully chipped out of flint rock. The typical Folsom arrowhead is characterized by a groove that runs along its center, suggesting that these points were mounted on wooden shafts and darts. The chipping of such grooves—a technique known as fluting—required advanced stone working tools, methods, and skills.

Much of the knowledge about Folsom culture that Tony Hillerman brings to his Navajo detective fiction, including his 1970 novel THE BLESSING WAY and his 1978 novel DANCE HALL OF THE DEAD, derives from the research he conducted for a chapter of his 1968 Masters thesis in English at the University of New Mexico. The chapter, which was published separately in TRUE, a men's journal, and in the 1973 published version of his thesis, THE GREAT TAOS BANK ROBBERY, was entitled, "The Hunt for the Lost American."

Archaeology is a sub-field of anthropology. This sub-field is focused on studying, understanding, describing, and conserving the material culture (physical remains) of humans and past activities during both prehistoric and historic times. An archaeologist is a practitioner of archaeology.