The Blessing Way (1970)

James Norman Spuhler (1971-1992) was a physical anthropologist who studied physical anthropology at Harvard before the beginning of World War II. After Spuhler finished his master’s degree, he served with the U.S. Army during the war as a Japanese document translator. Upon returning to the U.S., Spuhler began studying human genetics and is one of the first physical anthropologists to publish a dissertation on the topic. After teaching at several universities he became a professor at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, NM, studying human genetics. He taught from 1967-1984.

A hogan is one of several traditional Navajo structures. Building hogans has ceremonial significance, and instructions for their construction have been passed down for generations, originating with the Holy People. In creation stories, the whole Navajo homeland is referred to as a hogan, and the walls that comprise the hogan's construction correspond with each of the cardinal directions and the four sacred mountains that mark the breadth of the Navajo homeland. As an extension of the Navajo belief system, the hogan's health and equilibrium need to be nourished and protected, similar to the people who live inside it. Although a hogan functions on a daily level as a ceremonial space for the observance of cumulatively significant small rituals, the hogan can also provide a space for larger healing practices such as ceremonial singing and associated sandpaintings.

A vehicle that was originally built for World War II as a lightweight off-road vehicle, the Jeep is a four-wheel drive utility vehicle. It is known as "jeep" because it was originally called "G.P." for "General Purpose" or "Government Purpose," and the acronym eventually slurred into the phoneme "jeep." Because the Jeep was lightweight and versatile, it became very popular, and after WWII, was sold on the civilian market. Jeep is currently a division of Chrysler Group LLC.

Prior to U.S. involvement in WWII, which did not begin until after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the U.S. participated in a number of programs that supported the Allied powers, including Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, against the Axis powers, including Germany, Japan, and Italy. One of these assistance-based programs was the lend-lease program, where the United States would provide the Allied forces with tanks, airplanes, vehicles, ammunition, food, and other materials to the Allied powers on a temporary lend basis or in return for leases on European bases. The Jeep was one of such vehicles used in the lend-lease program.

Also spelled hand axe. In modern times, a hand ax is a short-handled metal tool with a sharp head used for chopping objects, such branches, trees, or even limbs of an enemy or animal. In prehistoric times, these tools were made of stone and are known by archaeologists as bifaces, as the stone head had been worked on both sides.

A young male horse, under the age of four, that has not been castrated.

A piece of tissue that connects muscles and bones. When a muscle contracts, it actually pulls on the tendon, which in turns pulls on the bone to which it is attached. The muscular contraction, coupled with the associated tug on the tendon and bone, causes the joint across which the tendon is stretched to bend.

A hormone, also known as epinephrine, that is secreted by the adrenal glands, especially when a person is under stress, because it increases the body's ability to respond to threats. While spelling adrenalin without an extra "e" is technically correct, the more common spelling of this word is adrenaline with the "e."

A crack or cleft in a rock surface. This fissure can occur in joints between rock formations or in faults between tectonic plates.

The earth is made of multiple layers of hardened and liquid rocks, which include, moving from the exterior of the planet toward the interior, the crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core. The crust is the hardened outer layer of rock composed primarily of silicate and iron.

A feeling or sensation of one's vision whirling, accompanied by disorientation. This can happen in situations when there is no point of visual reference to a horizon line, which the brain uses to establish visual orientation to one's surroundings. Spatial disorientation in this sense often occurs as an expression of motion sickness. General symptoms of vertigo include nausea, vomiting, and faintness.