Dance Hall of the Dead (1973)

Typically, a metal cabinet containing a series of sliding drawers that are arranged vertically so that it appears as if they are stacked one on top of another. The result is a tall, relatively narrow piece of office furniture. The drawers are sized to accommodate filing folders, which can be arranged so that they can be accessed and read from the front of the drawer toward the rear, or the files can be arranged so that they can be accessed and read horizontally from one side of the drawer to another.

The cultural or biological process of reduction resulting in the eventual disappearance of a language, tradition, cultural group, or species. Although extinction is often linked to a group's failure to "adapt,", extinction usually occurs due to violent and coercive external influences on the practice, group, or species under consideration. For example, the forced acquisition of colonial languages and social and religious practices, or modern development practices and associated resource extraction, lead to the loss of socio-cultural environments and habitats necessary for the perpetuation of cultural identities, practices, and even memory, or the loss of an entire species.

An object, usually of everyday use, that was made by people in the past and discovered, often by anthropologists and archaeologists, closer to the present. Artifacts are usually examined for their historical significance and are believed to indicate how peoples of the past lived.

Because Native American tribes have been living in what are now the United States for thousands of years, artifacts from the ancestors of peoples with ancient but still living traditions have been found. This has led to controversy concerning anthropological and archaeological work, as the these surviving traditional communities perceive the work of anthropologists and archaeologists as desecrating objects and sites sacred to Native peoples.

An adjective that suggests an almost triumphant sense of celebration.

Also known as chert, flint is an exceptionally hard sedimentary rock that is therefore especially desirable when making stone tools that need to have and keep edges. Flint is found most often in masses of nodules that, when fractured, break into sharp-edged pieces. For at least two million years, humans have used a chipping method known as flint knapping to shape flint rock into spear points, arrowheads, blades, and other sharp tools.

Depending on soil composition, chert can occur in a wide range of colors. The term flint is generally used to indicate the darker varieties of chert. Blue flint can be found in New Mexico and other parts of the Southwest. It is deep blue or gray-blue in color and has been used to make jewelry as well as tools.

A flanged element of a vehicle's body that swells out over the wheel wells. Although fenders often have a decorative aspect, they are intended to prevent tires from throwing debris, water, mud, et cetera, in a demonstration of centrifugal force, up and behind the vehicle as it is in motion.

A relative measure of height that is applied to topography. The measuring starts with zero being sea-level. High altitude is usually defined as beginning around 8,000 feet above sea level.

The Four Corners region, within which most of Tony Hillerman's Navajo detective stories take place, is considered to be within the range of high altitude, with many mountains and peaks rising well above 8,000 feet. At high altitude, the atmosphere is thinner than at sea level, with resultant changes in ecosystem dispersal, weather patterns (dependent upon local and regional topography), and oxygen levels in the air.

The first year of undergraduate education after having graduated from high school. This year is often associated with awkwardness, alienation, experimentation, and self-discovery.

Also known as Ha'wi-k'uh, the ancestral village of the Zuni was founded in the 1400s. It was the largest of the Zuni pueblos, and the first pueblo to be seen by Spanish explorers. Originally thought to be one of the fabled gold Cities of Cíbola, Ha'wi-k'uh was conquered by Coronado in 1540 and served as his headquarters for several months. Ha'wi-k'uh was permanently abandoned after the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. In its prime, Ha'wi-k'uh had up to 150 rooms surrounding a central plaza and stood four stories high, with multiple numbers of kivas and a population between 500 to 700 individuals. Although Ha'wi-k'uh is now a series of ruins that run along a ridge several miles south of the current thriving pueblo, it remains an important cultural site for the Zuni and is an integral component in many of their migration and origin stories, ceremonies, and prayers.

The ruins of Ha'wi-k'uh were designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

Also known as Shulawitsi or Deputy to the Sun, Little Fire God is one of the titles for the role a young Zuni man performs when participating in the Shalako ceremony, which takes place around the winter solstice. The winter Shalako marks several days of concentrated spiritual observance and ritual practice meant to invite protective spirits into the community, so that sustenance and fertility are ensured. The main ceremony lasts a full night, and involves trained dancers wearing masks and personating the kachina spirits. In the Zuni belief system, the dancers do not simply impersonate the gods, they in fact become the gods for the duration of the dance. The Little Fire God is one of these dancers, and his duty is to follow the righteous path laid out by the Sun Father deity, praying for rain, health, and prosperity for the people. The Fire God is usually a young novice being initiated into the sacred rituals of the Zuni. Preparations for serving his duty include purifying the body, the heart, and the mind of interfering influences by observing celibacy and refraining from negative thoughts and emotions such as anger and aggression.