The Blessing Way (1970)

A musical composition, composed of many parts, performed by a symphonic orchestra. This term is also used colloquially for a cacophony of different sounds.

An explosive warhead, propelled by a rocket, that reaches its target by using a guidance system. When a missile is used underwater it is known as a torpedo, and when it is launched from an aircraft it is known as a cruise missile. The rocket can be filled with liquid or solid fuel, while the missile can be armed with a range of materials, including cluster bombs, biological elements, and nuclear warheads.

Frank Hibben is a well-known archaeologist who studied Paleoindian cultures and had a very long and very controversial career. He received his master’s degree in zoology from the University of New Mexico (UNM) in 1936 and his PhD in anthropology from Harvard in 1940. He then taught at UNM as a professor and also worked as the director of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology on the UNM campus until he retired in 1975. Hibben's career accomplishments were considered controversial because he was accused of falsifying archaeological finds, although this was never proven as fact.

Hibben donated money to UNM for the construction of the Hibben building, and, at his death, gave money for the endowment scholarships in anthropology at UNM. Additionally, he was a well-known big game hunter and is responsible for the importing the population of non-native oryx that live in the White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico.

In the Navajo tradition, a war name is a one of several secret names given to children at birth by their parents. The war name is used only in ceremonial situations and in times of danger. The war name is considered to be owned by its bearer and part of his actual being.

Ethnology is one of the subfields of anthropology, which also include archaeological, biological, cultural, linguistic, and social anthropologies. Ethnology involves studying different aspects of culture at comparative and analytical levels. This often involves extensive interpersonal contact such that the researcher becomes immersed within and participatory in the culture under examination. In addtion, extensive and detailed interviews may occur over a series of years, supplemented by the collection of oral histories and the recorded performances of folk and traditional practices such as weaving, music, dance, and ceremony.

The two most common ceremonials in the Navajo religion are the Blessingway (Hózhójí) and the Enemyway (‘Anaaʼjí). While the Blessingway is often sung over individuals to ensure good luck and blessings, the Enemyway is sung in order to protect Navajos from harmful ghosts of slain warriors, or in more contemporary parlance, to protect Navajos from the deleterious effects of non-Native influences. This ceremonial can be used for returning military personnel to rid them of the harmful effects of evil spirits, or chindi, of the slain, as well as the associated harmful effects of modernity both on and off the reservation. Leland Wyman defined the Enemyway as a ritual used to “…exorcise the ghosts of aliens, [which] makes much of war, violence, and ugliness; in fact it belongs in a native category of ceremonials usually translated as Evilway” (1983).

In this instance the word embryo is used to describe the developmental stage of a thundercloud. However, the word embryo is typically used to refer to the early developmental stage of a creature.

Electrical engineering is a subfield of engineering that studies and researches electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism and includes system design in areas such as telecommunications, the computer sciences, and broadcasting. Electrical engineers are people who are certified in this subfield, and at minimum, have received a bachelor’s of science in engineering.

A nitroglycerin-based explosive material often used for construction, mining, and demolition. Dynamite was patented in 1867 by Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist, and ironically, the inceptor of the Nobel Peace Prize. The name “dynamite” comes from the Ancient Greek work for “power”, δύναμις (dýnamis). Dynamite is composed of earthy materials, such as sawdust, soaked in nitroglycerin, which when exposed to heat can cause a detonation. If left in storage for too long, nitroglycerin can seep from the sawdust into surrounding materials and make the dynamite unstable, thereby causing unexpected explosions. Today, dynamite is wrapped in plastic or a wax-coating to eliminate this risk.

A sinuous, vertical column of air that twists from the ground into the atmosphere, a dust devil is a small version of a tornado. Developing during hot, dry conditions, dust devils are a sign of instability in the atmosphere caused when air near the surface of the earth rapidly heats and rises, pulling in its wake dust and and small debris.