Listening Woman (1978)

A small town known for its access to some of the most popular hiking, mountain biking, and rafting areas in the Southwestern U.S. including Canyonlands and Arches National Parks. Moab's service industry thrives as it caters to a wide range of outdoor and cultural enthusiasts. Originally inhabited by the Ute people, Moab is the anglicized version of the Paiute word for mosquito, “moapa.” Settlers to Moab have included Mormon missionaries, the U.S. military, and railroad workers. Japanese-Americans were interned in Moab during World War II.

Mexico is a federal republic that borders the United States to the south. The Mexican states of Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, and Coahuila de Zaragoza share direct borders with the southwestern and western states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas (respectively from west to east). Spaniards conquered and colonized the region beginning in the early 1500s. The national spoken language is Spanish, and the country boasts the largest population of Spanish speakers in the world. However, many tribal groups still exist and thrive in Mexico. Mexico was home to several very advanced Amerindian cultures including the Olmec, Toltec, Zapotec, Maya, and Aztec.

A small community on the Navajo Nation Reservation off of US Highway 160 at a steep rocky crossing of Chinle Wash near Dinnehotso. Mexican Water has a trading post and a chapter house. The region is very rocky, and, before the paving of the highways that run nearby, the only location markers were piles of rocks.

Los Alamos is a town in New Mexico made up of the townsite of Los Alamos proper and the smaller community of White Rock. The town is built atop four mesas and White Rock Canyon in a scenic, mountainous area. The town features recreational activities for tourists and visitors including skiing, hiking, and biking trails. Bandelier National monument is accessible from Los Alamos. The town was home to the Los Alamos Ranch School for Boys, which ran from 1918-1943.

Los Alamos is home to one of the two national laboratories in the United States where top secret work on nuclear weapons takes place. The laboratory also conducts research on solar and nuclear energy. In 1943, the laboratory was built as part of the Manhattan Project for the specific purpose of designing a functioning atomic bomb. In 1945, the bomb was successfully tested in southern New Mexico at the Trinity Site. In 1945, the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan killing approximately 129,000 people. The laboratory was also the first to develop a hydrogen bomb. Los Alamos has one of the highest per capita rates of PhDs, and highest median incomes, of any county in the U.S. This laboratory, and New Mexico more generally, have a reputation for nuclear and uranium testing, which has been controversial across the United States. Much of the radioactive testing and building happens on or near reservation land, and what many tribes of Native Americans consider to be sacred land.

Flagstaff is a city in Northern Arizona and is the county seat of Coconino County. The Coconino National Forest just outside the city limits is the largest contiguous Ponderosa pine forest in North America. The presence of Ponderosa pine gave the city its name when a Boston scouting party raised a Ponderosa flagpole in honor of the United States Centennial, and the place where it was raised was called Flagstaff. The settlement originally grew in size due to the establishment of a sawmill by E.E. Ayer and the arrival of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. The Navajo name for Flagstaff is Kin Łání Dook’o’oosłííd Biyaagi or “Many Houses Below San Francisco Mountains.”

Farmington is a town located in northern New Mexico between the San Juan, La Plata, and Animas Rivers in San Juan County. The name for this settlement in Navajo is Tóta, meaning "Between the Waters.” The area of Farmington was originally settled by Ancestral Puebloans, as evidenced by the nearby Salmon Ruins and the Aztec Ruins. After the Ancestral Puebloans abandoned the Farmington area, it was occupied by the Navajo, Utes, and the Jicarilla Apache. The current town was incorporated in 1901, and a narrow gauge railroad to Durango, Colorado was completed in 1905. There was a significant population increase in the 1950’s after the San Juan Basin Natural Gas Pipeline was constructed.

Creosote bush, also known as greasewood, is the common name for a genus of bushes known as Larrea. This evergreen bush can be found in hot and dry regions throughout the U.S. Creosote can live up to 100 years and is known for its astringent odor, especially when wet or burning. For many desert dwellers, the scent of wet creosote bush is a scent associated with the summer monsoons, a welcome perfume that can almost overwhelm the senses on a humid afternoon.

A crevasse is a deep vertical fissure, or a narrow crack, which can form in bedrock or ice. Usually, the term "crevasse" refers to cracks in ice or glaciers, while the term "crevice" refers to those in rocks; Hillerman sometimes uses crevasse to refer to the former. A crevasse is sometimes narrow enough to jump across, but never wide as wide as a ravine or canyon. One of the most overwhelming aspects of a crevasse is its sheer depth, it can appear to be almost bottomless.

The Creeks were Native American tribal group copmrised of a collection of tribes, primarily the Muskogee. The Creeks were a loose organization, but did form a group based on Muskogee-language-speaking villages, mainly along the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers in present day Alabama. It is believed that the Muskogee themselves migrated at some point from the northwest down south. Along with the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles, the Creeks were considered by non-Native settlers to be one of the Five Civilized Tribes in the 1800s.

The Chuska Mountain Range runs along the Arizona-New Mexico border and lays within Apache County in Arizona and McKinley and San Juan Counties in New Mexico. The Navajo name for the mountain range is Níłtsą́ Dził, meaning Rainy Mountain, and in Navajo mythology, Chuska Peak is believed to be the head of a male figure called Y’odí Dził, or “Goods of Value Mountain.""