The Blessing Way (1970)

In traditional Navajo stories about Grandmother Spider, the figure who taught weaving to First Woman, the Season when the Thunder Sleeps refers to Winter and Spring when there are no thunderstorms. It is during this time that the Navajo believe it is safe to speak of dangerous spirits. This means that the Season when Thunder Sleeps is the only time that certain teachings, healings, and ceremonials can occur, because to participate in these events at other times would be dangerous and inappropriate.

A public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is the state's flagship research institution. Founded in 1889 and commissioned by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of New Mexico, the first president was Elias S. Stover. UNM offers bachelor's, master's, doctoral, and professional degree programs in many disciplines. In addition to the North and South Campus locations, found in the center of Albuquerque, there are five branch campuses associated with the university, with locations in Rio Rancho, Gallup, Los Alamos, Taos, and Los Lunas. UNM has one of the largest student and faculty populations of Hispanics and Native Americans in the country. Additionally, the university’s main campus is known for its Pueblo Revival style architecture and award-winning landscape designs.

An alloy is a metal that is made by combining at least two other metals or a metal and a nonmetal element. The characteristics of an alloy are different than the characteristics of the separate elements. Aluminum alloy includes mainly aluminum. By combining aluminum and copper, in the right amounts, results in a lightweight metal that is stronger and lighter than either aluminum or copper were before they were combined. Because they are relatively light, aluminum alloys are commonly found in transportation technologies including aerospace equipment, automobiles, and cycling frames.

A small pouch, usually made of deer skin, which contains a few items that have totemic, spiritual, or ceremonial value. These items can consist of small objects such as special rocks, animal parts, or carved amulets, in addition to a small quantity of sacred pollen, which is commonly used in a variety of prayers and rituals. Believed to provide protection and healing, a medicine bag is usually worn next to the skin, either on a string around the neck or under a waist belt.

The Navajo word for medicine bag is jish, which applies to both the small bag and its contents.

A rifle that shoots a 30-gauge, or calibre, bullet that was oiringally packed and fired with 30 grains of gun powder. In general, a .30-30 rifle is effective at killing mid-to large-sized game at mid-range shots. In other words, for folks who hunt for food, the .30-30 is an accessible tool for hunting game like deer and elk.

Approximately 56.2 million acres of land within the United States are designated as Native American reservations, areas of land set aside for the perpetual use of indigenous groups, many of whom were forcefully relocated onto them. Sometimes reservations are sited on land traditionally used by the people before conquest and colonization. In other cases, Native American reservations are located away from their traditional lands as a result of 18th-, 19th-, and 20th century federally-supported practices that expropriated natural resources, throughfares, and lands under the premises that the land was "vacant," its resources were not being properly exploited, and because of racial biases that privileged European settlement patterns based on ownership rather than fluid and multiple landuse practices.

One of the clans of the Navajo people. There are at least sixty known Navajo clans, many of which are named after specific places located on or around what is today the Navajo Nation Reservation. The Red Forehead clan might be named not after a locality but after the red head of the Sandhill cranes that are commonly found along the rivers and marsh area of the American Southwest.

The Rio Grande is a large, meandering river that flows north to south from its headwaters in the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado through the center of New Mexico. This river serves as the southwestern border between the U.S. state of Texas and Mexico and eventually empties into the Gulf of Mexico. Rio Grande means “Big River” in Spanish and is alternatively known as Rio Grande del Norte meaning “Great River of the North.” South of the U.S./Mexico border the river is called the Rio Bravo.

The layer of rock that tops some geological uplifts. Often seen in the form of a wall or cliff, rimrock forms a cap and sometimes even an overhang over the softer rock beneath, which, as it erodes, can create sculpturesque forms in the remaining geologic material, including caves.

A rifle is a firearm with an extended barrel that is generally raised up to the shoulder for firing. The interior surface of the long barrel is carved with spiral grooves down its length. The length of the barrel, in combination with its interior grooves, improves the accuracy of the shot fired by increasing the stability of the projectile as it spins out of the barrel. The rifle, as opposed to another long-barreled firearm, the shotgun, fires a single projectile at a time.