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The English word "taboo" originates in the Tongan term tapu, or the Fijian tabu. The term was originally translated into English as "consecrated, inviolable, forbidden...

A portion of the Enemyway where the Tail Song group, composed of a selected group of men and women who have been affected by the Enemyway, who dance around the scalp....

The metal door that opens downwards found at the back of trucks and other vehicles. Tailgates facilitate the loading and unloading of vehicles, but also provide an...

A small object believed to have supernatural powers and to bring luck or avert misfortune. Personal talismans are common in Native American traditions and are usually...

Also known as Talking God to Be One, Soft Talker, or Dawn Bearer (hastseyalti, yeibeichai), Talking God is a main Navajo deity. One of the four Holy People who live in...

A fictional canyon near Kam Bimghi Valley in northeastern Arizona, on the Navajo Nation Reservation. In Tony Hillerman's 1970 Navajo detective novel THE BLESSING WAY,...

A fictional mesa near Kam Bimghi Valley in northeastern Arizona. In Tony Hillerman's 1970 Navajo detective novel THE BLESSING WAY, a character can see from Talking Rock...

A fictional location in the vicinity of Cove, Arizona, which is almost dead center in the triangle formed by Teec Nos Pos, Arizona, Ship Rock, New Mexico, and Many...

A natural material consisting of the processed fat of cattle, sheep, or horses. (The rendered fat from pigs is called lard.) Tallow, or suet, as it is also called,...

Talus is the sloping pile of loose rock fragments that accumulate along the edge of a steep cliff or other landform.

A tall, water-loving shrub indigenous to Asia and the Mediterranean, tamarisk, also known colloquially as salt cedar, was introduced to U.S. Southwest waterways to...

A country in East Africa that is located on the coast of the Indian Ocean just south of the equator. The territories that are now Tanzania were colonized first by...

A large pueblo complex situated at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico that has been continually inhabited for approximately 1,000 years...

In the context of Hillerman's 1980 novel PEOPLE OF DARKNESS, Taylorville appears to be the name of a juvenile reform school in California. Preliminary research reveals...

This wash flows south and southwest through Tees Toh and Seba Dalkai and is located in Navajo, County Arizona just three miles east of Arizona Highway 87.

Teec Nos Pos is a small community located six miles southeast of the Four Corners Monument in Apache County, Arizona. Teec Nos Pos has shifted north from its original...

A telescope is a magnification tool used to visually enlarge objects. "Telescopic" refers to the ability of a device to visually enlarge objects. A telescopic sight,...

A piece of tissue that connects muscles and bones. When a muscle contracts, it actually pulls on the tendon, which in turns pulls on the bone to which it is attached....

In Spanish, this phrase is the imperative, or command, to "be careful" or to "take care."

A state located in the upper part of the U.S. South. Tennessee stretches from the Appalachian Mountains in the east to the Mississippi River in the west, and its...

A section of a hospital that houses patients with terminal (incurable) diseases. The treatment in terminal wards, which is often referred to as hospice or palliative...

To provide eye-witness accounts or other forms of evidence to a court of law while under oath.

When one testifies, the evidence he...

The name Texas originates from the Caddo word “thecas,” which means “allies or friends.” Texas became a state in 1845 and is the second largest state in the United...

In Navajo, Diné means "the People." Eminently adaptable, the Diné learn from their neighbors and have incorporated elements from Pueblo, Hispanic, and even Anglo...

Third Mesa is one of three peninsular mesas located on the Hopi reservation in Arizona. These mesas project like fingers from the southern part of Black Mesa, and Third...