Dance Hall of the Dead (1973)

A word that suggests a sharp, intense, or narrow focus.

A term meant to indicate inclusion within the history,traditions, and protocols of Academia, otherwise known as the university system of intellectual and cultural elites. At times, to be academic is to be considered progressive, even radical. At others, it is to be perceived as retroactive, reactive, and conservative .

The release from guilt and associated punishment. Sometimes, but not always, associated with forgiveness.

A long period during which stones were utilized as the primary tool, making stone the definitive maker and marker of the era. Although humans were not the only beings to use stones during this period, the archaeological record documents the evolution both of human beings as well as the sophistication of the stone tools and technologies they were developing. The Stone Age is also often associated with the mythicized cavemen, beings who are imagined as hypersexualized, overtly violent, or incredibly stupid.

The Stone Age was followed by the Bronze Age, which was subsequently followed by the Iron Age. Currently, we are in the Information Age.

A hand-held cutting tool. One or two edges can be sharpened. The blade can be attached to a haft or handle, or the sharpened edge(s) can terminate in an unsharpened grip of the same material as the blade and contiguous with it. Knife blades can be formed from stone, ceramic, and various metals and alloys.

A semi-permanent location that a nomadic hunting group might return to over and over during annual journeys that involved following game animals during seasonal migrations. Rather than permanent dwellings, structures erected at these camps would function more as temporary shelters constructed from local organic, and therefore biodegradable, materials, or materials that were easily carried and transported from site to site. Most evidence of prehistoric, as well as historic, hunting camps derives from garbage piles, broken tools and utensils, and the remnants of fire rings.

Sloths are two- or three-toed mammals related to anteaters. Sloths today tend to be arboreal, living in trees above the forest floor, and are very slow moving.

Ground sloths are the extinct predecessors of today's sloths. However, ground sloths tended to be very large in size, often as large as elephants; they were formibidable animals to hunt because of their size and their large digging claws, and they were not as slow-moving as today's smaller, arboreal versions. Populous throughout the Americas, ground sloths disappeared from the continental mainland about 10,000 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene era. This die-off is associated with climate change and human activity, specifically hunting, as ground sloth populations disappeared about 4,000 years ago on islands in the Caribbean, about the time when humans reached these areas in significant numbers. The last living ground sloths in North America are theorized to have lived in the region that is now New Mexico.

A small country in Southeast Asia that is bordered by China, Laos, and Cambodia, Vietnam has a long, rich history that predates the rise of Western civilization. However, its significance in recent history and as a reference in Tony Hillerman’s novels emerges in the context of what is known as the Vietnam War, one of the most costly and controversial foreign wars fought by the U.S. The background for the Vietnam War involves the aftermaths of French colonization in the country, which lasted from 1859-1954. In 1954, after a series of violent battles, the country gained its independence, but growing tensions between political factions in the region left it divided, with the North advocating full communist affiliation with the Soviet Union and China, and the South perceiving the former French colony as part of the West. Thus, the country was caught in the intricacies of the global Cold War. When violent clashes between the Viet Cong (the Northern army), and the Southern forces escalated in the late 1960s, the American government began deploying troops in increasing numbers in a demonstrative attempt to enforce Western dominance in Vietnam and in Southeast Asia as a whole. However, what at first appeared to be a temporary military operation turned out to be a prolonged and deadly war, and one that the U.S. has bitterly lost.

A New Mexico state highway that originates in Grants, New Mexico and heads first south and then roughly west through the Ramah Navajo and Zuni reservations, until it turns into Arizona S.R. 61 at the Arizona/New Mexico state line.

The state capital of New Mexico, Santa Fe (meaning “holy Faith” in Spanish) is the oldest capital in the United States. At an elevation of over 7000 feet, it is also the highest one. The city was founded in 1610 by Don Pedro de Peralta as the capital of the province of New Mexico under colonial Spanish rule. The lands surrounding the town were occupied by indigenous peoples for centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards, and in fact today’s downtown area sits atop at least two Pueblo ruins.

The city remained small and fairly provincial through the transition from Spanish, to Mexican, and then American rule, but in the early 20th century it established itself as a cultural hub that celebrated a mix of indigenous histories, Hispanic traditions, and modern American influences. The community of artists and writers who were attracted to the area, the most famous of which is the painter Georgia O’Keefe, contributed greatly to the city’s growth and development as a tourist destination.

Santa Fe’s economy has come to rely heavily of tourism, promoting a romantic, somewhat exotic image of a small city that boasts numerous attractions such as museums and art galleries, a historic plaza at the heart of downtown, old churches, Pueblo architecture, and high-end boutiques and restaurants. The upscale attractions, along with the area’s natural beauty, have attracted a wealthy population that has gradually displaced many of the city’s original residents. Today Santa Fe stands in stark contrast to the neighboring small towns and even the bigger city of Albuquerque, communities that struggle with stunted economic development and a lack of resources.