Listening Woman (1978)

A vernacular reference to the North American bison, large herds of which once roamed the North American plains in seemingly endless waves. The bison was an integral component of North American indigenous lifeways throughout the interwest regions. In addition to being a major source of direct subsistence, it also served indigenous communities indirectly in terms of a supporting a thriving economy of exchange founded on bison by-products. The bison was one of the most revered animals in the spiritual belief systems of Native American peoples, and its cultural and material significance cannot be over-emphasized.

Before Anglo-European settlement and the transcontinental railroad, there were approximately thirty million bison roaming the Great Plains. By the mid-19th century, the bison population was depleted to about 100,000 animals because of non-Native profit-driven mass hunting. To those tribes that saw the bison as integral and sacred, this mass hunting was a desecration. Recently, efforts to bring back the numbers of the endangered species have increased the overall bison population to about 250,000.

A temporary shelter that consists of a roof constructed out of tree branches or brush that are held up by poles. Often used in the Southwest to provide shade. For the Navajo, brush arbors function as temporary hogans during the summer months and are often erected at sheep camps or even on the vicinity of the primary female hogan associated with the matriarch of a family. The brush arbor may be used by females to perform non-ceremonial daily activities during the summer.

A translation of the Kiowa word "Tah'-lee-da-i" which refers to one of the twin boys in the Kiowa origin story who transformed himself into the ten medicine bundles sacred to the people. Because the word "tah'-lee" meaning boy is similar to the word "taw-lee" for paternal grandmother, the medicine bundles have often been mistakenly translated into English as the ten grandmother bundles.

The origin story goes that a couple had a beautiful baby girl who escaped form her cradle and climbed into the sky, by which point she was a beautiful woman who married the Sun. She soon missed her people and dug a hole under a bush the Sun warned her to stay away from. She saw her people below, and taking her son, whose father was the Sun, on her back, she dropped a rope down to Earth. The Sun found out and threw a ring out to kill his wife. Even though the motehr was killed, the boy survived, and carried the ring to Spider Grandmother who raised him. Spider Grandmother warned him to never throw the ring into the sky for fear of the wrath of his father, but Tah'-lee-da-i did so anyway and it fell onto his head, breaking him into twins. The twins fought and destroyed many monsters together until one of the twins turned himself into the medicine bundles and the other disappeared into the water./cite>

The name of the small, forty-square-mile reservation that the Navajo people were forcibly moved to in 1863-1864. Kit Carson and his New Mexican army led approximately 8,000 Navajo away from their traditional home and onto this designated land to be shared with the Apache, in what is now known as the Long Walk. The site is a place of trauma and symbolizes the violence of U.S. colonialism against the Dine.

In Navajo mythology, Born of Water, also known as Water Child, is one of the twin sons of Changing Woman born to rid the earth of the monsters who were killing the People. Born of Water is the younger twin, known as Tobadzîschíni in Diné.

The twins are set a series of trials and, with the completion of each task, they get that much closer to achieving their final goal, which is gaining the tools and knowledge they need to save their People. After successfully completing many initial challenges, they are given weapons. The younger twin, Born of Water, is given prayer sticks and told to watch them as the older twin, Monster Slayer, goes out to fight the monsters. If the prayer sticks begin to burn, Born of Water will know that Monster Slayer is in danger and needs help. Monster Slayer goes alone to kill some of the monsters, and Born of Water accompanies him while killing others.

Bobcats are a mid-sized wild cat named for their bobbed tails. They have pointed ears and are about double the size of a domesticated housecat. Bobcats live all over North America and are rarely seen by humans because of their nocturnal and elusive nature. They live in a variety of environments including swamps, deserts, and even developed areas.

A school where students live while they attend classes. Although some boarding schools have reputations for academic excellence and are notable for the elite and privileged social strata their students represent, boarding schools are also often synonymous with sadistic forms of punitive discipline, hazing, and antisocial behavior. In regard to the history of Native Americans, boarding schools have a particularly dark narrative associated with forced assimilation, cruelty, and disappearing students. Of course, not every Native American boarding school experience was dreadful, but in general, the testimony of several generations of boarding school children and their families bear witness to a system of hateful prejudice and dehumanizing policies aimed at producing a servant class of cultural amnesiacs.

The first Indian boarding school was opened in 1879 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and many more across the country followed. The main goal was to assimilate Native American children into what was understood as dominant U.S. culture: white, Christian, and patriarchal. Many schools went to great lengths to get children to abandon their Native heritage, traditions, and language, enforcing strict punishment if languages other than English were spoken, and even legally changing names to erase familial and cultural linkages.

Because of these conditions, Native American communities were reluctant to enroll their children in Indian boarding schools, and the U.S. Army and even tribal police kidnapped potential students in order to meet enrollment quotas. In 1900, the Bureau of Indian Affairs acknowledged the violence, victimization, and even criminalization inherent within the policy of separating families through the forced enrollment of indigenous youth into enrollment in the Indian Boarding School system. As a result, many boarding schools became day schools, but the education of Native American children in traditions, languages, and communities other than their own continues to this day.

Also known as the Hard Flint Boys, the Blue Flint Boys are playful characters that work as intermediaries between Black God, who controls the sky, and the Navajo. Sometimes represented as whirlwinds and dustdevils, the Boys run back and forth, playfully sharing healing knowledge, while their parents, Hard Flint Woman and Man, attempt to assert control over their children. The Boys are credited with passing on advice from Black God to Monster Slayer, for example, and have a ceremonial role in various Navajo curing ceremonials such as the Enemyway.

The Blue Flint boys are also recognized in the night sky as the constellation Pleiades, adorning the forehead of Black God, appearing during planting season.

Commonly spelled Blessingway. As opposed to the other Navajo (Diné) Chant Ways, which are used to effect a cure of a problem, the Blessingway (Hózhójí) is used to bless the "one sung over," to ensure good luck, good health, and blessings for everything that pertains to them. It is also thought of as being "for good hope." Blessingway ceremonies can be performed for expectant mothers shortly before birth is due, or young men leaving for the armed forces. The Blessingway ceremony is performed frequently.

The name of the rite, Hózhójí, is translated Blessingway, but that is certainly not an exact translation. In the Navajo language (diné bizaad) the term encompasses everything that is understood as good, as opposed to evil, for man. The root of the Blessingway ceremony, hózhó, encompasses such concepts as beauty, harmony, success, perfection, well-being, order, and ideal.

Blake's Lotaburger is a popular local chain of fast food burger restaurants found throughout the state of New Mexico. Blake Chanslor served his first Lotaburger -- the signature sandwich of the restaurant -- from an Albuquerque hamburger stand in 1952.

The menu also features the mini version of the Lotaburger, called Itsaburger, "special recipe" red chili and beans, pulled pork sandwiches, breakfast burritos, and hot dogs. Additionally, Blake's uses green chili on its burgers and other menu items, an ingredient known throughout the United States as unique and special to New Mexico, with the best chilies coming from Hatch Valley.