Listening Woman (1978)

Albuquerque is mentioned in ten Hillerman Navajo mystery novels. It is a major city in central New Mexico and is located at an elevation of 5,000 feet above sea level. The city is bounded on the east by the Sandia Mountains and on the west by the famous Rio Grande. Interstate-40 and Interstate-25 intersect in Albuquerque, dividing the city into four quadrants. Major institutes in the city include the University of New Mexico, the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, the National Hispanic Cultural center, and the Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute among others. The Federal Bureau of Investigation also has an official division in Albuquerque.

Albuquerque was settled by Spaniards in 1706 after King Phillip of Spain granted permission to colonists to do so, and the city was then named after the Duke de Alburquerque. There were originally two “r”s in the city’s name, but later, the first “r” was dropped because it was too difficult for non-Spanish speakers to pronounce. The Navajo name for Albuquerque is “Bee’eldíídahsinil,” or “At the Place where the Bell Peals.”

Gallup is the most populous city along I-40 between Flagstaff, AZ and Albuquerque, NM , which is the interstate overlay of "the mother road," Route 66. The city was founded in 1881 and named for David Gallup, an employee of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. Gallup is also located just to the southeast of the Navajo Nation and has become known for its Native population, "trading post" pawn shops, and its high rate of alcoholism, among other things. As one of the U.S.'s last remaining frontier outposts, intercultural exchanges seem intensified in this border railroad town, as it's the last stop before entering reservation country. In many senses, Gallup maintains a thriving intercultural population, despite the poverty, and the violences associated with poverty, that afflict a great portion of the city's population. Often referred to as the capital of Indian Country, Gallup has also been, and remains, an ideal location for creating cinematic representations of an iconic Southwest, because of its natural scenery as well as the rich Native American cultural traditions that have coalesced in the city.

The American Indian Movement (AIM) was the Native American response to racism and white hegemony. The first chapter was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1968 by Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, Eddie Benton-Bonai, and George Mitchell (all Ojibwe). Throughout the 1970s, members successfully raised awareness about Native American rights and pushed Native communities across the US to reembrace their sacred cultural traditions.

The movement appeared alongside the African American civil rights movement and anti Vietnam war protests, and very quickly calls for "Red Power" could be found alongside those for "black power." Some of their largest protests were the Trail of Broken Treaties in 1972 and the Wounded Knee occupation.

While the movement no longer remains as high-profile as it was in the 1970s, Native American activists continue to raise awareness of contemporary racism and abuses of power against tribes throughout the Unites States.

One of three land-grant universities in Arizona, Arizona State University (ASU) is one of the largest public universities in the U.S. Its multiple campuses are primarily found throughout the Phoenix metropolitan area, but ASU also maintains a handful of extension campuses in cities around the country.

A traditional greeting in Navajo, often spelled yá át tééh, which translates generally as "it is good."

The Zuni Reservation, also referred to as the Zuni Pueblo, is located about 150 miles west of Albuquerque. The main reservation is located in the western part of New Mexico, but the Zuni also have holdings in Apache County, Arizona, which are not adjacent to the main reservation. According to Zuni traditional knowledge, the Zuni finally arrived at the Middle Place, or Ha'wi-k'uh, after a long migration. Historically, the ancient site of Ha'wi-k'uh was the first pueblo village encountered by Spanish explorers, specifically an African slave named Estavenico. Although Estavenico was killed trying to escape from the Zuni hosts he had ceremonially offended, later reports of this first encounter identified Zuni land as the the site of the fabled cities of gold, which in subsequent generations became known as Cibola. Most historians have assumed that Cibola, and therefore what is now the Zuni Reservation, is a reference to a European myth about the fabled Seven Cities of Gold, but other research suggests that Cibloa may be a Spanish mistranslation of the Zuni self-ascription A:shiwi.

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 grasslands used for dry and cattle farming as well as natural gas and oil development. The High Plains are the traditional homelands for nomadic Native American groups including the Cheyenne, Comanche, and Apache. These dynamic, equestrian based tribes followed great herds of bison across the plains. Their numbers were decimated by European settlement and the advancement of the transcontinental railroads.

Acoma Pueblo is a community built on top of a mesa in the Rio Grande Valley. At the end of the 16th century it was an area of tension between the Pueblo people and the conquering Spanish. Spanish settlers hoped to claim the lands for the Spanish crown, but were unsuccessful in penetrating the natural stronghold that was Acoma. Then, in 1595, the Acoma people decided to give Juan de Oñate, soon to be the first governor of Nuevo Mexico, food and provisions for his group of explorers and settlers. Later, the nephew of Oñate, Juan de Zaldívar, returned and attempted to take provisions, and women, by force. Zaldívar fell to his death during the struggle, and in retaliation, in January 1599, Oñate took the pueblo by siege. This battle led to the massacre of 800 - 1,000 Acoma people, and the survivors were either mutilated, by having a foot cut off, or sold into slavery for a period to extend beyond 20 years. A later trial found Oñate's behavior to be cruel and severe beyond the parameters of his duty as a representative of the King of Spain, and he returned to Spain after being stripped of the land, title, and wealth he had attempted to accrue at the northern edge of the New Spanish Empire.

SEE ALSO: Acoma (pueblo)

On February 28, 1973, Native American activists occupied the small village of Wounded Knee within the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota as a part of the American Indian Movement, after the 19 month occupation of Alcatraz. Wounded Knee was also the site of a massacre of Lakota Sioux by the US Army in 1890, which is considered the last event in long-lasting Plains Indian Wars.

The seizure of the town lasted for 71 days with various eruptions of violence, gunfire, and attempted negotiations. At any given moment, about 300 people were participating in the occupation from over 180 unique bands, tribes, and nations. Even though the village was surrounded by police, US marshals, and BIA officials, a couple hundred more protesters slipped in and out of the occupation.

Originally, local issues on the Pine Ridge Reservation involving tribal police and inheritance conflicts led to the occupation, and many community members supported and took part in what became Aim's more public protest. After threats from the federal government that if they didn't leave, he would force them out, Russel Means declared that the people of Wounded Knee were part of the independent Oglala Sioux Nation as per the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 which also symbolically spoke for all the broken treaties of the United States government since the start of colonization.

Ultimately, several factors including the federal government's lack of cooperation, and a lack of food, medical supplies, ammunition, and electricity led to the end of the occupation on May 13. 1973.

Wounded Knee is a small village on the South Dakota Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation which on December 29, 1890 was the site of a brutal massacre of between 150-300 Sioux people by the US Army after two centuries of American Indian resistance against white colonization. (not to be mistaken with the Occupation of Wounded Knee by the American Indian Movement in 1973).

The massacre is considered to be the event that ended the Plains Indian Wars. The Sioux attempted to resist relocation by camping in the Badlands which the US took as a threat, arresting Big Foot and Sitting Bull, two important chiefs. Sitting Bull was killed and Big foot attempted to escape with the people, but the army usrrounded and opened fire upon the people, resulting in a mass death. The event still has resonance and remains symbolic of historical relations with the US for tribal peoples today.