The Ghostway (1984)

Also known as the Navajo Nation Police, this entity is a law enforcement agency on the Navajo Nation Reservation. The Navajo Tribal Police were originally established in 1872, four years after the Navajo were released from incarceration in Fort Sumner in southeast New Mexico after their forced "Long Walk" from Canyon de Chelly in northeast Arizona in 1864. Manuelito, the great Navajo warchief, known for his resistance to Mexican and U.S. invasions of Navajo territory, was appointed the first "chief" of the Navajo police. Before this time, civil law enforcement had been handled by the Federal Government’s Branch of Law and Order. Despite its initial success, the Navajo Tribal Police was dissolved in 1975. The Navajo Nation Police was reinstated in 1989 upon request from the Navajo Tribal Council.

The first Indian police forces were established in the mid-1800s, with the creation of the Federal reservation system. Initially, these forces were given some measure of autonomy, but self-policing was almost entirely eliminated in the late 1800s and early 1900s, during the Assimilation and Allotment Era. The New Deal's Reorganization Era of the 1930s and 1940s gave back some agency and self-defining rights to Indian Nations, but the Tribal Elimination policies of the Second World War and post-war era brought about devastating effects to systems of tribal government and policing. Following the 1960s civil rights movement, issues of minority recognition and rights gathered momentum and public support, and with the Self-Determination Era of the 1970s Native peoples in the U.S. were able to regain substantial autonomy from federal governance.

Today Native American tribes across the U.S. have their own police forces that function, on reservation lands, much like local or state police units outside the reservation. Tribal police officers have law enforcement authority only inside the reservation, but work closely with state and federal police agencies.

Also known as Diné Bizaad, part of the the Apachean subgroup of the Athabaskan branch of the Na-Dené language family. Diné means “the people” or “children of the holy people,” and so the language is that of the people. The language is unique in its nasalization of some vowels, its use of glottal stops and releases, and its reliance on tone to signify meaning.

The Navajo, also known by their preferred name, the Diné, are the largest federally recognized Native American tribe in the United States. Their reservation is spread out throughout the Four Corners region of the American Southwest, and includes portions of the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.

The Navajo base their way of life on a belief that the physical and spiritual world blend together and everything on earth is alive, related, and in equilibrium, also known as ho′zho′. In this light, the Navajo observe two primary ceremonials, among many others. The first is the Blessing Way, which keeps them on the path of wisdom and happiness. The second is the Enemy Way, which is meant to discourage evil spirits, eliminate ghosts, and cleanse an individual of elements or affects that have placed her or him out of balance.

Also called a medicine bundle, a medicine pouch is a traditional Native American container for various items that have totemic, spiritual, or supernatural power. The Navajo word for medicine pouch is jish, which is not only a container for ceremonial goods but also describes the ceremonial goods themselves. Medicine pouches often contain pollen, which is used in rituals and chants.

The opening located on the end of a gun's barrel. This is the point from which ammunition is expelled. At times, because of the small explosion that creates the force that propels the ammunition through the barrel and out the muzzle, a bit of smoke exits the muzzle, along with the bullet .

The meat from a mature sheep. Mutton stew and roast mutton are today main staples of the Navajo diet. Sheep were introduced into the Americas by the Spanish in the sixteenth century, along with horses and cattle. During this time the Navajo traded and raided for sheep from the Spanish. Sheep became a major part of their economy, and, also, their diet.

A formal portrait that usually pairs a frontal and a profile image capture of an individual's head and shoulders. First used in the mid-nineteenth century, mug shots, or face shots, were initially intended to reveal physiognomical characteristics shared by "degenerate" human beings, characteristics that were once believed to identify, measure, and statistically quantify those individuals, or groups, with criminal potential. Of course, many of the characteristics "revealed" by mugshots were actually created by the "scientific" process itself, a solipsistic arrangement called a "closed problem." A closed problem refers to a set of circumstantial evidence where the "solution" determines what the question, or problem, is. For example, if mug shots of criminals tend to show lower class, uneducated, males with short hair and dirty faces, then all lower class uneducated males with short hair and dirty faces must be criminals.

This type of visual profiling, which exists today, was also use to scientifically justify the differentiation between classes, races, ethnicities, and genders. With a middle class white (Caucasian) male serving as the normative example, anyone who deviated from being white, middle class, and male was by default degenerate and more than likely criminal.

The Moenkopi Plateau is located to the west and southwest of the Hopi Mesas in north-central Arizona. Near the communities of Tuba City and Moenkopi, this vast plateau is comprised of flat, sandy, and fairly barren terrain broken by canyon systems filled with colorful rock formations and hoodoos of eroded sandstone. The area is used by both the Hopi and Navajo to graze livestock.

The Navajo (Diné) tribe is comprised of more than forty family lineages, or clans, that claim common ancestry. According to traditional lore, the T ł 'ízí lání (Many Goats) clan was a group of herdsmen who subsisted mainly on livestock, especially goats.

Also known as Da’ah’eh Halani in Navajo, Many Farms is a small, primarily Navajo community about 15 miles north of Chinle, with a trading post, chapter house, and historic agricultural foundation. Although the community pre-existed the confluence of US Highway 191 and Navajo Route 59, it was only after 1937 and the damming of Sheep Dip Creek to create Many Farms Lake that the community began to develop in terms of emerging infrastructure.