Dance Hall of the Dead (1973)

Also referred to colloquially as "the rez," the Navajo Reservation covers 27,425 square miles of territory and includes portions of northeastern Arizona, southeastern Utah, and northwestern New Mexico. It is the largest land area governed by a Native American sovereign nation in the U.S.. Similar to other areas "reserved" for indigenous Americans, the Navajo Reservation is comprised of a complex interweaving of ongoing negotiations between what it means to embody traditional and contemporary iterations of Native America, especially when Native and non-Native value systems collide in often violent, and sometimes complementary, fashion on, at the borders of, and near the reservation.

Also known as the Navajo Nation Police, this entity is a law enforcement agency on the Navajo Nation Reservation. The Navajo Tribal Police were originally established in 1872, four years after the Navajo were released from incarceration in Fort Sumner in southeast New Mexico after their forced "Long Walk" from Canyon de Chelly in northeast Arizona in 1864. Manuelito, the great Navajo warchief, known for his resistance to Mexican and U.S. invasions of Navajo territory, was appointed the first "chief" of the Navajo police. Before this time, civil law enforcement had been handled by the Federal Government’s Branch of Law and Order. Despite its initial success, the Navajo Tribal Police was dissolved in 1975. The Navajo Nation Police was reinstated in 1989 upon request from the Navajo Tribal Council.

The first Indian police forces were established in the mid-1800s, with the creation of the Federal reservation system. Initially, these forces were given some measure of autonomy, but self-policing was almost entirely eliminated in the late 1800s and early 1900s, during the Assimilation and Allotment Era. The New Deal's Reorganization Era of the 1930s and 1940s gave back some agency and self-defining rights to Indian Nations, but the Tribal Elimination policies of the Second World War and post-war era brought about devastating effects to systems of tribal government and policing. Following the 1960s civil rights movement, issues of minority recognition and rights gathered momentum and public support, and with the Self-Determination Era of the 1970s Native peoples in the U.S. were able to regain substantial autonomy from federal governance.

Today Native American tribes across the U.S. have their own police forces that function, on reservation lands, much like local or state police units outside the reservation. Tribal police officers have law enforcement authority only inside the reservation, but work closely with state and federal police agencies.

Also known as Diné Bizaad, part of the the Apachean subgroup of the Athabaskan branch of the Na-Dené language family. Diné means “the people” or “children of the holy people,” and so the language is that of the people. The language is unique in its nasalization of some vowels, its use of glottal stops and releases, and its reliance on tone to signify meaning.

The Navajo, also known by their preferred name, the Diné, are the largest federally recognized Native American tribe in the United States. Their reservation is spread out throughout the Four Corners region of the American Southwest, and includes portions of the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.

The Navajo base their way of life on a belief that the physical and spiritual world blend together and everything on earth is alive, related, and in equilibrium, also known as ho′zho′. In this light, the Navajo observe two primary ceremonials, among many others. The first is the Blessing Way, which keeps them on the path of wisdom and happiness. The second is the Enemy Way, which is meant to discourage evil spirits, eliminate ghosts, and cleanse an individual of elements or affects that have placed her or him out of balance.

An individual employed by a government agency to police the use of illicit substances. Also known as a narc.

In general usage, the noun "mystic" refers to an individual whose introspection and resulting intuition manifests as a predilection for the spiritual, the contemplative, and maybe even the mysterious…because those in contact with the mystic may not be aware of or able to understand the mystic's sensitivities to etheral, otherworldly, or occult stimuli. In many traditions, the mystic is a respected individual who is in contact with spiritual advisors and who is therefore able to function as a wise person, a healer, or an oracle.

Mule deer are easy to identify due to their large mule-like ears. They are brownish-gray in color, have a white rump patch, and a small white tail with a black tip. There are believed to be several subspecies, including the black-tailed deer. They do not run as other deer, but have a distinctive bounding leap that can cover distances up to 8 yards.

A formal portrait that usually pairs a frontal and a profile image capture of an individual's head and shoulders. First used in the mid-nineteenth century, mug shots, or face shots, were initially intended to reveal physiognomical characteristics shared by "degenerate" human beings, characteristics that were once believed to identify, measure, and statistically quantify those individuals, or groups, with criminal potential. Of course, many of the characteristics "revealed" by mugshots were actually created by the "scientific" process itself, a solipsistic arrangement called a "closed problem." A closed problem refers to a set of circumstantial evidence where the "solution" determines what the question, or problem, is. For example, if mug shots of criminals tend to show lower class, uneducated, males with short hair and dirty faces, then all lower class uneducated males with short hair and dirty faces must be criminals.

This type of visual profiling, which exists today, was also use to scientifically justify the differentiation between classes, races, ethnicities, and genders. With a middle class white (Caucasian) male serving as the normative example, anyone who deviated from being white, middle class, and male was by default degenerate and more than likely criminal.

The Zuni phrase Halona I'tawana translates as the "Middle Place," and was so named by the Zuni because of its significance as the temporal, spatial, and ceremonial center of Zuni life. The Middle Place is the current site of Zuni Pueblo in western New Mexico, a place that has been continuously inhabited by the Zuni since the water spider K'yhan'asdebi flexed his legs in six directions (the four cardinal directions and up and down). The center of the Middle Place was delineated by the spot where K'yhan'asdebi's heart lay over the land.

Zuni myth recounts that the original Zuni people, or A'shiwi, traveled from the western lands of their gods and the spirits of their ancestors to dicover the Middle Place. After a long and arduous journey of many trials and tribulations, the A'shiwi or Zuni finally discovered the Middle Place. Having learned much along their travels, the Zuni were prepared to settle and build a properous and peaceful life.

McKinley County is located in the northwest portion of the state of New Mexico atop the San Juan Plateau. It was created in February 1899 and named for William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States. The county seat is Gallup, the county's largest town, which is also the center of the American Indian Inter-tribal Ceremonial that occurs every August. Portions of the Zuni and Navajo Nation Reservations lay within the county's boundary. McKinley County economy is driven by lumber industry, oil refining, coal mining, and uranium production.