The Blessing Way (1970)

Carved bones are created by using a chisel or some other sharp tool to work animal, or even human, bones into shapes. Carved bones can also be embellished with surface designs. Carved bones have been used as ceremonial artifacts as well as tools, such as awls or needles.

Sherlock is a literary character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the 1880’s. He is a fictional consulting detective for Scotland Yard and is based in London, England. He uses his intelligence and logic reasoning to solve cases. Although not the first fictional detective, Sherlock's use of forensics and acute deductive reasoning makes him perhaps the seminal figure in the detective literary genre, and his methodologies continue to influence contemporary approaches to investigating and solving crimes.

Frenzy witchcraft is a form of witchcraft associated with the use of narcotic plants and “love magic” and is different than witchcraft associated with the “wolf” or other were-creatures. Frenzy witchcraft is often used to increase people's success of bewitching another human being in order to obtain favorable results with potential sexual partnership, for example, or when gambling. It causes people to become frenzied, or altered in their mental capacities, a state facilitated by the ingestion of sacred datura.

Stanley (Stan) Newman was a professor of Linguistic Anthropology at the University of New Mexico from 1949 until 1971. In 1960 he became a co-editor of the Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, now the journal of Anthropological Research.

A noted anthropologist who worked with Clyde Kluckhohn on an ethnographic study of the Navajo and subsequently assisted in writing the seminal text NAVAJO MATERIAL CULTURE (1971). He was a University Regents lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. Hill also is the author of THE AGRICULTURAL AND HUNTING METHODS OF THE NAVAHO INDIANS (1938) and co-author of NAVAHO HUMOR (1943) with another famous anthropologist, Leslie Spier.

In the Navajo origin story, when the First Man, First Woman, Dawn Man, Dawn Woman, Sky Blue Man, Sky Blue Woman, Twilight Man, Twilight Woman, Darkness Man, and Darkness Woman, gather together for a meeting to create the earth, sun, moon, and stars, the Wind People are the creatures that breathe life into what was created.

In another Navajo story First Woman, First Man, Coyote, and all the other creatures including Water Buffalo, climb the female reed from the flooding Third World (Yellow World) into Fourth World (White World). However the flooding follows the group, and they discover that Coyote has stolen two babies, a male and a female, from Third World. After Coyote gave the male child back to Third World the water receded in Fourth World. The Wind People are creatures that help dry Fourth World once the water receded.

When Tony Hillerman's characters refer to a "blue policeman," they are referencing Navajo "Law and Order" officers. His use of this colloquial term is in reference to the blue police unifoms that they wear.

Witches are people, men or women, who practice witchcraft. In many cultures witches are typically believed to be female. In Navajo societies, witches are most often believed to be male, although older people and women without children are also believed to be witches. These witches cause harm or illness to the people they curse or who encounter them. This sickness can be cured by completing curing ceremonies.

In the Southwest, there are strong concepts of witchcraft for both the Pueblo groups and the Navajo. For the Navajo, witches may also refer to Navajo wolf, wolf, or skinwalker. In some Native American legends, a skinwalker is a person with the supernatural ability to turn into any animal he or she desires. In addition to transforming into animals, the skinwalker has other powers. He or she can read others' minds, control minds, bring forth disease, destroy homes, and even cause death. While Europeans warned of a wolf in sheep's clothing, certain tribal beliefs cautioned against a human in wolf's clothing. Literally, the Navajo wolf, or witch, can also be referred to as a skinwalker.

A large piece of rock that has been detached from a larger rock surface by weathering, whether physical or chemical.

In Navajo cosmology, there are four sacred mountains that bound the Navajo homeland, each being associated with a specific color and deity. Blue Flint Woman is one of several deities associated with the San Francisco Peaks in northern Arizona. Blue Flint Woman is another name for Abalone Shell Girl, a younger version of Changing Woman, the mother of the Twin Warriors, the youthful heroes of Navajo male coming-of-age stories. Flint, the fire starter, came with the Navajo people as they emerged from the third, or yellow, world into the current world. Mt. Humphreys, the tallest point in the San Francisco Peaks, is traditionally referred to by the Navajo as Doko'oosliid, or Abalone Shell Mountain, the Sacred Mountain of the West, and the color yellow.

The four sacred mountains in Navajo cosmology include:

• the Sacred Mountain of the East, Mount Blanca (Tsisnaasjini'), Dawn or White Shell Mountain, near Alamosa in San Luis Valley, Colorado.
• the Sacred Mountain of the South, Mount Taylor (Tsoodzil), Blue Bead or Turquoise Mountain, north of Laguna, New Mexico
• the Sacred Mountain of the West, San Francisco Peaks (Doko'oosliid), Yellow Abalone Shell Mountain, near Flagstaff, Arizona
• the Sacred Mountain of the North, Mount Hesperus (Dibé Nitsaa), Big Mountain Sheep, Obsidian Mountain, near the La Plata Mountains, Colorado.