People of Darkness (1980)

According to the Navajo Creation Myth, in the process of emerging from the underworlds and settling on their land, the People (Diné) faced many dangers from the natural environment and its harsh conditions, as well as from spiritual beings. These threats figure in the legends as monsters that take the shape of humans, birds, animals, and rocks. The heroic figures of the twin warrior brothers, Born of Water (Tobadzîschíni) and Monster Slayer (Nayé̆nĕzganĭ), were engaged in a series of battles with the various monsters, and, as the legends tell it, destroyed them one by one.

The Winged Monster, also known as the Great Bird or Monster Eagle (Tsé Nináhálééh), was one of those menacing beings. Most accounts tell of a giant bird who lived in Ship Rock (Tsé Bitʼaʼí), a landmark monolith in the Navajo homeland, located in northwestern New Mexico. The bird was very powerful and could lift people up in the air and throw them against the rocks in order to kill and then eat them. Monster Slayer, who had a magic feather which enabled him to survive the Winged Monster's attack, managed to trick the bird, destroy it, and tame its two young chicks, transforming them into an eagle and an owl. The geologic formation of Shiprock itself is also believed to be the body of the great monster layed out on the ground, with the two ridgelines extending away from the peak marking the beast's outstretched wings.

A tall, water-loving shrub indigenous to Asia and the Mediterranean, tamarisk, also known colloquially as salt cedar, was introduced to U.S. Southwest waterways to assist in stabilization and erosion control at the turn of the twentieth century. As a non-native species with no biological controls naturally present to inhibit its proliferation, tamarisk quickly became an invasive species, overtaking waterways, choking out native plant species and consuming the water it was supposed to help conserve. Because tamarisk is now considered an ecological threat to the already fragile hydrological systems of the southwestern deserts of the U.S., municipal, state, regional, and federal task forces invest time and money on teams of "tammywhackers," who work to manually remove tamarisk from the riverbanks to which they were introduced in the late 19th century.

A large mesa that lies southwest of the Acoma Indian Reservation in central New Mexico, rising up to 8,765 feet at its peak. The name Cebolleta (spelling varies and can appear as Cebollita) means "little onion" in Spanish.

According Navajo traditional lore, the Bitter Water (Todích'íí'nii) clan was one of the original groups formed by Changing Woman who, as the legend goes, created four men by rubbing the skin under her arms. One of these men, searching for water, dug in the ground and found a water source that was bitter and undrinkable--hence the name that the clan has carried ever since.

The Navajo (Diné) tribe is comprised of more than forty family lineages, or clans, that claim common ancestry. In traditional history, the Todích'íí'nii (Bitter Water) is one of the original lineages formed within the Navajo People, which included the Standing House Clan, Bitter Water Clan, Near the Water Clan, Mud Clan, Water Edge Clan, and Two Streams Meet Clan.

Geologic faults form along the edges of tectonic plates, which are planar fractures in the earth’s crust, as the plates become compressed or filled with tension as they are forced together. When faults move, they can form valleys and mountains. In addition, as faults react to the forces that the huge tectonic plates exert against each other, fissures perpendicular to the earth's surface can extend deep below ground to reserves of molten rock, which, if they reach the surface, form volcanos. When the energy of plates under compression is released as the plates grind against each other, it can also cause earthquakes. There are many faults in the American Southwest, both active and inactive, including the Rio Grande Rift in New Mexico.

A state located on the east coast of the U.S., and one of the original 13 British colonies in North America, initially settled in 1607 by the Virginia Company in the name of King James I. Virginia became a state on June 25, 1788. Known as the “mother of presidents," Virginia was home to all but one of the first five U.S. presidents. The capital city is Richmond, which is located approximately two hours or 109 miles from the nation’s capital in Washington, D.C. Richmond was also the capital of the Confederacy during the Civil War, from 1861 until its capture by Ulysses S. Grant in 1865.

A system of public academic institutions with 13 four-year universities and 13 two-year colleges in various locations across the state of Wisconsin. The system's largest, most prestigious campuses are the research universities at Madison and at Milwaukee.

The largest city in the state of Wisconsin, Milwaukee is located in the southeastern corner of the state, on the shore of Lake Michigan. The region was inhabited by various Native peoples when French missionaries and fur traders arrived in the 1700s. A few European settlements were established along the banks of the Milwaukee, Kinnickinnic, and Menomonee rivers in the early 1800s, providing a base for the development of the city of Milwaukee, which grew as a trading and manufacturing center. Today, the city is known for its diverse industry, its large Lake Michigan port, and its progressive politics.

A scientific term for a corpse or dead body. The term is used often in medical contexts, for example when bodies of dead people or animals are dissected and used for the purpose of learning or determining the cause of death.

Peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus that grows primarily in Texas and Mexico, is a sacramental substance used in ceremonies conducted by the Native American Church, a synthesis of Christian and traditional indigenous beliefs. When ingested, peyote produces psychoactive visions, and the plant is believed to be a messenger of God's or Christ's spiritual power. Although the cactus is revered for the divine qualities associated with it, research did not uncover a direct reference to the term "Lord Peyote." The phrase may be a colloquialism invented by Tony Hillerman to refer to the transcendent power of the plant and the associated perception of spiritual intervention its consumption provokes.