The Dark Wind (1982)

A general reference to the societal construction of and belief in "the law" as a body of order, surveillance, and discipline. The "law" can also be practiced by lawyers and advocates as well as enacted by public servants, such as police officers. Hillerman's relationship with "the law," at least in his novels, is ambiguous. At times, the law, as dictated by a society, serves to extract civil order from uncivil chaos. On the other hand, cultural traditions, such as those he observed on the Navajo and other reservations, seem to express a natural law, one that perhaps informs but that also transcends jurisprudence, for example the Navajo idea of hózhǫ́, an expression of natural equilibrium. The protagonists in Hillerman's Navajo detective novels, Leaphorn and Chee, are often placed in situations where they understand the written laws, but remain aware of the limitations and contradictions of the written law as it is practiced.

A sheep that is less than one year old. Sheep (and lambs) were introduced into the Americas by Spanish explorers in the sixteenth century, along with horses and cattle. Among indigenous American cultures, the Navajo in particular were influenced by their contact with Basque sheepherders, who also were imported to the New World along with their sheep. Navajo traditional culture and economies grew to revolve in part around sheep, including herding, sheering, spinning, and weaving the wool from what are today known as Navajo churro sheep. Navajo weaving is renowned around the world for its quality and its innovative and intricate designs.

Lamb is also a popular form of meat, and when the sheep matures past a year it is called mutton. Mutton stew and roast mutton are today main staples of the Navajo diet.

In Puebloan tradition, a kiva is both a sacred space to observe religious rituals as well as a society associated with a particular kiva. Kivas symbolize Puebloan emergence, or birth, into this world, and their architecture evokes an enclosed space of sacred potential. The training associated with healing rituals or with the social responsibilities of each kiva society occurs within the particualr kiva associated with thatspecific power or responsibility. Each kiva cares for and is identified by a mask associated with its guiding entity, a force or persona associated with weather, health, warfare, or collective well-being.

The term for biological relatives, including both men and women.

These evergreen conifers feature leaves that are like scales rather than the needles associated with pine trees. Junipers are well-adapted to hot, arid environments such as the high desert plains and mountains of the U.S. Southwest due to their extensive root systems. Native Americans, such as the Navajo, have traditionally used juniper to treat a range of maladies, including diabetes. Native Americans have also used juniper berries as a female contraceptive.

Junipers tend to grow and migrate in conjunction with the ebb and flow of pinyon pine stand secession. An over-abundance of junipers encroaching into a stand of pinyon pine indicates long-term drought or other ecosystem disturbances, such as over-grazing. In the U.S., the pinyon-juniper woodland range spans from New Mexico to southeastern California. It extends through the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and higher elevations of the Mohave Desert.

Kangaroo rats (Diposomys ordii) are a medium sized rodent with long tails and large back legs, which enable them to jump up to nine feet to escape predators. The kangaroo rat is almost perfectly adapted to life in the desert and can survive without drinking any water. Instead, it extracts the moisture it needs from a diet of seeds. Kangaroo rats have excellent hearing and can even detect the practically silent approach of an owl.

A pair of fused bones that make up the lower portion of the heads of creatures. Also known as the mandible, the lower jawbone hinges just under the cheekbone and is used to crush, pulverize, and masticate solid food.

A hogan is one of several traditional Navajo structures. Building hogans has ceremonial significance, and instructions for their construction have been passed down for generations, originating with the Holy People. In creation stories, the whole Navajo homeland is referred to as a hogan, and the walls that comprise the hogan's construction correspond with each of the cardinal directions and the four sacred mountains that mark the breadth of the Navajo homeland. As an extension of the Navajo belief system, the hogan's health and equilibrium need to be nourished and protected, similar to the people who live inside it. Although a hogan functions on a daily level as a ceremonial space for the observance of cumulatively significant small rituals, the hogan can also provide a space for larger healing practices such as ceremonial singing and associated sandpaintings.

A vehicle that was originally built for World War II as a lightweight off-road vehicle, the Jeep is a four-wheel drive utility vehicle. It is known as "jeep" because it was originally called "G.P." for "General Purpose" or "Government Purpose," and the acronym eventually slurred into the phoneme "jeep." Because the Jeep was lightweight and versatile, it became very popular, and after WWII, was sold on the civilian market. Jeep is currently a division of Chrysler Group LLC.

Prior to U.S. involvement in WWII, which did not begin until after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the U.S. participated in a number of programs that supported the Allied powers, including Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, against the Axis powers, including Germany, Japan, and Italy. One of these assistance-based programs was the lend-lease program, where the United States would provide the Allied forces with tanks, airplanes, vehicles, ammunition, food, and other materials to the Allied powers on a temporary lend basis or in return for leases on European bases. The Jeep was one of such vehicles used in the lend-lease program.

A hormone, also known as epinephrine, that is secreted by the adrenal glands, especially when a person is under stress, because it increases the body's ability to respond to threats. While spelling adrenalin without an extra "e" is technically correct, the more common spelling of this word is adrenaline with the "e."