Cultural Reference

A stick, rod, or baton, sometime imbued with symbolic significance. Can be used as a weapon for striking or even throwing.

Wand can also refer to any long, slender object, such as radio antennae, pointers, and even lacrosse sticks and metal detectors.

A descriptive word meaning difficult, burdensome, or psychologically challenging.

To provide eye-witness accounts or other forms of evidence to a court of law while under oath.

When one testifies, the evidence he or she provides is called a testimony.

A person or persons who have knowledge of, or see, a crime being committed. If identified, they can be compelled to give a statement under oath in a court room or to provide a deposition. In trials where the life of a witness or a witness’s family could be jeopardized if the witness provides testimony, they can be placed in a special protective care before, during, and after the trial. This is known as the Witness Security Program, where, upon completion of testifying in court, the witness and their family have the option to be provided with new identities and relocated.

To witness something does not always entail observing criminal activity. To bear witness can also mean having experiential knowledge of something. One can witness an act of kindness, a natural phenomenon, an accident, or a miracle. Similar to the witnessing a criminal act, these other acts of witness often entail an associated testimonial, where the witness shares their observations as evidence or proof their experience.

A program run by the U.S. Marshals Service that was created by the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 in order to protect witnesses or whistleblowers as a result of their testimonies in criminal court cases. This program is officially called the Witness Security Program, and it places witnesses under 24-hour protection during the court cases in which they are informants. Upon completion of testifying in court, the witness and their family have the option to be provided with new identities and relocated. After the relocation, the family is provided with monetary help for a period of time and assistance in finding jobs.

According to an interview with the creator of this program, Gerald Shur, 95% of people in witness protection are criminals of some kind, but only 17% of this protected population go on to commit another crime. This program has a good track record and no witness who followed the directions of the program has been murdered since the program’s inception.

Someone who is part of the Federal Witness Protection Program, a program run by the U.S. Marshals Service to protect witnesses or whistleblowers as a result of their testimonies in criminal court cases. A protected witness is placed under 24-hour protection during the court cases in which they are informants. Upon completion of testifying in court, the witness and their family have the option to be provided with new identities and relocated. After the relocation, the family is provided with monetary help for a period of time and assistance in finding jobs.

A journey or trek, sometimes physical, sometimes metaphorical, and sometimes spiritual, with the purpose of fulfilling some sense of material, moral, or belief-based importance. Pilgrimages are often long and arduous, often requiring commitment and sacrifice. Nonetheless, pilgrimages have varies in notoriety and popularity, attaining popular entertainment, recreationg, and cult status. Pilgrimages have been, and continue to be, made to historic and religious sites for centuries and by people of all different beliefs.

Likely a reference to an Airstream Trailer, a famous aluminum luxury vehicle produced by Airstream INC. from the 1930s to the present. Airstream was the brainchild of Wally Byam, who, in the 1920s, created a trailer in his backyard out of tent materials and a car chassis. This sparked massive interest from other holiday-goers, and Byam began to manufacture camping trailers for the mass use. The initial design included a living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. Airstream was one of the only trailer companies to survive both the Great Depression of the 1930’s and World War II. Today these iconic trailers are still widely used, to the point where there are groups that share their love for these trailers and call themselves Airstreamers.

In the early days of the telephone, calls had to be connected manually by inserting two phone plugs into specific ports, one from the caller and one for the called, in a panel called the switchboard. Switchboards were located in central locations, and a system of phone lines was managed by a switchboard operator.

The Hopi word for "witch," either male or female. The Hopi believe that witchcraft was involved in the earlier underworlds and played a role in the people's bad behavior and banishment from each world. Eventually, the Hopi emerged into the present world, but evil followed them here to the surface and still manifests today in the work of the powaqa.

A powaqa is a person who hopes to change the world around him in a negative way that only benefits himself, which is contrary to traditional Hopi beliefs that privilege the idea of community. Often, the benefit the powaqa seeks involves extending his own life and therefore disrupting the natural order. In many cases, the Hopi believe that selfish intentions and selfish behaviors of the powaqa lead to death and other negative consequence for those around the powaqa.