Browse by Title: H
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ha'tchi In Hillerman's Boy Who Made Dragonfly this is a Zuni word used to express approval of or agreement with a spoken statement. The spelling of the term may vary in… |
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Ha'wi-k'uh, New Mexico Ha'wi-k'uh, the ancestral village of the Zuni founded in the 1400s, was the largest of the Zuni pueblos, and the first pueblo to be seen by Spanish explorers.… |
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Hall, New Mexico A fictitious town near the Oscura Mountains in Socorro County in central New Mexico. A small community mentioned in Tony Hillerman's 1970 Navajo detective novel THE… |
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Hamlet In the tragic play, THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK, written by William Shakespeare between 1599 and 1601, Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, returns home because… |
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hand ax Also spelled hand axe. In modern times, a hand ax is a short-handled metal tool with a sharp head used for chopping objects, such branches, trees, or even limbs of an… |
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hand trembler In the Navajo tradition, before a singer, or medicine man (called a hataałii in Navajo), is requested to perform a healing ceremonial, a hand trembler, or ndilniihii,… |
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handbrake A component in an automobile that is used either as a brake for emergency stopping or keeping a car in place when parked on a steep slope. This brake is engaged by… |
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Hano, Arizona A small village inhabited by mostly Tewa Pueblo people, located on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The settlement was established around 1700, when the… |
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Hard Flint Boys The Hard Flint Boys, also known as Beesh Ashiike in Navajo, as well as the Blue Flint Boys, comprise the seven stars in the Pleiades constellation. In Navajo… |
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Hard Flint Woman In Navajo cosmology, Hard Flint Woman is the grandmother and leader of the Hard Flint Boys. In the Enemyway story, Hard Flint Woman leads the Hard Flint Boys to Monster… |
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Hard Goods Canyon, Arizona Hard Goods Canyon is a fictional canyon in Tony Hillerman’s first Navajo detective novel THE BLESSING WAY, published in 1970. The canyon is located near Old Woman Gray… |
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harmony In the context in which Tony Hillerman tends to use the word "harmony," it refers to the Navajo concept of hózhǫ́, the state in which all living things are ordered, in… |
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Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts A prestigious private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard was the original institution in the U.S. Ivy League, a group of… |
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Harvard-Smithsonian A reference to collaborative Southwestern archaeological excavations of the early 20th century completed by Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in… |
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hataalii The Navajo term hatałii, also spelled yataalii, translates as into English as "singer." Singers are medicine men who perform traditional healing ceremonies and… |
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haze A thin layer of particulate matter in the ambient atmosphere that makes objects in the distance appear blurry and further away than usual, or that refracts light into… |
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He'hea-kwe This Zuni term refers to a group of men chosen by the tribe to perform as runners of the sacred dance in public ceremonials. Zuni communal rituals are closely aligned… |
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headdress A decorative or ceremonial head covering that can be made of leather, wood, cloth, and other materials including gold. Headdresses are often decorated by feathers,… |
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Heart Butte, New Mexico This term most likely refers to a sandstone natural rock structure near Crownpoint, New Mexico that is most often called "Heart Rock" on maps. For a span of… |
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hearth The hearth is technically the floor of a fire pit or fireplace. Hearth also refers to the extension from the center of the fire outward to the warm floor in front of… |
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heel The meaty part of the hand between the palm and the wrist. There is a corresponding portion of the foot also known as the heel, which is the part of the foot that… |
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Hero Twins The Hero Twins, Born of Water and Monster Slayer, are the twin sons of Changing Woman and were born to rid the earth of the monsters who were killing the Diné, or… |
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Hertz A car rental company that was founded in the early 1920s by John D. Hertz. Its first rental office was opened in 1932 at the Midway Airport in Chicago, with many more… |
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hide scraper A hand tool with a sharpened and usually angled edge used to scrape flesh and fat from animal hides. It can also be used to scrape the cleaned and untreated hide… |
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High Plains A region that runs from South Dakota to West Texas, where it is known in Spanish as the Llano Estacado or "staked or fenced plain.” The High Plains are mostly level… |