Dance Hall of the Dead (1973)

An overwhelming feeling of anxiety, often accompanied by feelings of fear, nervousness, and even dread. When one feels panic, two primary survival impulses manifest in the individual: the impulse to fight for survival, or the impulse to flee, to run away in order to survive. The fight-or-flight syndrome can be very strong, just as panic itself can be overwhelming, leading to irrational, wild, and spontaneous behavior. Strong feelings of panic can be controlled by the mind, by deep breathing, and sometimes by pharmaceutical substances, depending upon the individual and the situtation.

A small, fully enclosed truck, similar to a pickup truck with a shell, except that the "shell" is part of the vehicle's body.

The earliest settlers of the Americas. Entering the American continents via the Bering land bridge, an exposed shelf of land between Russia and Alaska, Paleo-indians migrated south through the Americas, following the movement of large mammals whose migrations were influenced by the slow ebb and flow of glaciers across the Northern Hemisphere.

An exposed upthrust of rock that appears to break through the earth's surface. These rocky protrusions are produced in areas with extreme or persistent erosion, where soil and vegetation are removed, or never even get the chance to accumulate due to wind, water, waves, fire events, volcanic eruptions, mechanical disturbance, and even shifting tectonic plates. Rock outcrops are often found in mountainous areas or near canyons or ravines and can emerge as the result of the removal of large amounts of earth associated with mining or large scale construction activities.

A general reference to a people's ancestors, who are typically understood to be a repository of wisdom and experience, upon which the younger generations can, and should, draw, whether through meditation, sometimes prayer, and by learning traditional ways.

Although the Narcotics Control Division of the Justice Department sounds familiar, it is a fictional agency that functions as a not-so-veiled reference to the U.S. Department of Justice's Drug Enforcement Administration. Hillerman deployed a similar device in his 1971 novel The Fly on the Wall, a political thriller that mixed legitimate and fictional agencies in a blend that evoked contemporary politics and politicians without pointing fingers at real agencies and real people.

An object that is given in thanks, generosity, or even supplication, often to a higher power. An offering usually consists of something that is precious, of symbolic significance to a culture, or perhaps is even rare or exotic. Animals and humans have also been used as offerings. Cannonical world texts, such as the Old Testament, offer evidence of the deep tradition of great sacrifice associated with offerings, and most cultures around the world have left a record of a range of sacrificial practices through which offerings have been made. Offerings, similar to tithes, are also collected as a sort of obligatory spiritual gesture and social donation, with the collected wealth being distributed to those in need within the community.

The Shalako Ceremony is one of the most significant religious ceremonies for the Zuñi people and occurs near the winter solstice as the ceremonial year draws to a close. Those participating in it begin their preparations for it months in advance. In his 1973 Navajo detective novel DANCE HALL OF THE DEAD, Tony Hillerman selects a chapter heading that is a date late in November, signaling to the reader the imminence of the approaching dances and feasts of the Shalako ceremony.

The Shalako festival, on or about December 1, is a remarkable sacred drama, enacted in the open for the double purpose of invoking the divine blessing upon certain newly-built houses, and of rendering thanks to the gods for the harvests of the year.

The male children of one's siblings. Nephew is also a traditional term of formal endearment, one that signifies the relationship of affinity and mentorship that exists between an elder and a younger male member of the Navajo community.

When Hillerman refers to “Navajo Way,” he is referencing the concept of hózhǫ́. Hózhǫ́ is the state in which all living things are ordered, in balance, and walking in beauty. This term encompasses the Navajo world view, one in which all things are peaceful and harmonious. The opposite of hózhǫ́ is hóchxǫ́ǫ́, which refers to disorder and chaos in one’s life. In Hillerman's work, chaos and imbalance manifest as an illness, sickness, or infection obtained from contact with the modern, predominantly White culture and values of the mainstream U.S..