The Blessing Way (1970)

The anatomical place in the body where two bones meet. A joint can either move or be fused. There are three types of joints. A fibrous joint occurs when two bones are connected by fibrous tissue and does not articulate or bend. The skull is an example of bones connected by fibrous joints. Cartilaginous joints occur when bones are connected by cartilage, which allows limited movement between bones. Examples of cartilaginous joints are the connections between the manubrium, the sternum, and the xyphoid process, the are on the chest where the ribs meet at the breast bone. A synovial joint occurs when bones are not directly connected and are therefore able to articulate through a wide range of positions. This movement is facilitated by the lubricating presence of synovial fluid between bones ends. The bones of the fingers, wrists, shoulders, and knees are all examples of synovial joints.

A fictitious location near Many Ruins Canyon, Arizona that would be in the vicinity of Red Rock Valley, near the Arizona-New Mexico border, as well as to the west of Shiprock, New Mexico, which is also near the state line.

Tragedies are dramatic works which focus on suffering and end unhappily. A common feature of tragedies is that the main character contributes in some way to his own downfall. William Shakespeare, a 16th century playwright and poet, penned some of the most famous tragedies, including the plays OTHELLO, THE MOOR OF VENICE; THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK; KING LEAR; and THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH.

Also called a dynamo, a generator is a machine that produces electrical power from mechanical power. While the mechanical power can be generated in a number of ways, often a generator uses a gasoline or diesel engine to produce electricity to power other devices. Generators are a common method of generating electricity in remote or undeveloped areas, or when someone wants to remain off the power grid.

To formally, if not ritually, bring an individual into a specific group or organization. The initiation process can be triggered by coming of age and reaching a certain societal point of maturation, by accomplishing a series of tasks, or by learning the steps, songs, and procedures of various ceremonials, among many other possibilities. To become initiated into a group suggests that one has passed from one stage of life into another, from one series of responsibilities to another, and from one set of behaviors to another.

An adjective that suggests that something is inevitable, creating a feeling that an event is about to happen and that nothing will be able to stop it.

A historically incorrect but contemporaneously common method of referring to the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Believing, or hoping, that they had stumbled upon the eastern shores of the subcontinent of India, fifteenth- and sixteenth-century European explorers called the local peoples they encountered "indios" (in Spanish) or Indians; the misnomer stuck and is a vernacular conundrum that persists in the Americas through to the present. Contemporary references to indigenous peoples in the Americas have replaced "Indian" with tribal names, or the terms "Native American" or "First Peoples."

Hillerman's fiction deals exclusively with Native American cultures located in the Southwest region of the U.S., in particular the Navajo, but also the Hopi, Zuni, and other Pueblo groups. In most cases, Hillerman uses the word Indian when referring to members of these various cultures.

The Houses of the Enemy of the Dead are large cliff dwellings that were originally occupied by the Ancestral Puebloans, also referred to as the Anasazi. These structures are generally made from stone masonry and are built in room blocks one on top of another, similar to apartment-style housing today. These room blocks are both residential apartments and storage rooms and are accessed through the roof.

Although the Navajo word Anaasází has been translated as "ancient enemy" by Western anthropologists, the English translation preferred by Navajo and Puebloan cultures is "ancient ones."

More commonly spelled as Hoskinini Mesa, this is a site located roughly between Monument Valley and Kayenta. Hoskinini was named after the well-known Navajo leader, Hashké neiní, born in the area of Monument Valley. In 1863, Kit Carson engaged in a campaign, now referred to as the Long Walk, whereby the Union Army forcibly removed Navajos from the Four Corners Region and forced them to walk over 300 miles to a new reservation in eastern New Mexico known as Bosque Redondo. Hoskinini and his band evaded capture and lived for four years in the Navajo Mountain region in Utah. Upon the release of the Navajo from Bosque Redondo, Hoskinini travelled back to Monument Valley, where he became known for his generosity to those Navajo who had survived their internment at Bosque Redondo. He died in 1912 in Monument Valley.

A general term referring to a small hill, mound, or knoll above the ground in any natural environment.