Also known as Keet Siel, Kiet Siel, or in Navajo Kits'iil, the site's name means "shattered or broken house." This was the first of three archaeological sites discovered within Keet Seel Canyon, which is now a part of the Navajo National Monument. It is estimated that the original site flourished between 1274 and 1286. Because of its age and fragility, tourism to the site is strictly limited. The site is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Glen Canyon was formed by the Colorado River and is located between Lake Powell and Lee's Ferry, in Northern Arizona. Originally, the canyon stretched about 100 miles further upstream, into what is now Utah’s Lake Powell, a large reservoir formed by the construction of Glen Canyon Dam in 1964. The Navajo name for the canyon is not certain but it may be “Tséyi'” meaning "a place deep in the rock." The name Glen Canyon was registered in 1869 by John Wesley Powell, the Anglo explorer after whom Lake Powell is named.
A small town in New Mexico located 13 miles northeast of Farmington. The town is called "Kinteel" by the Navajo, which means "wide house," referring to Anasazi ruins located in the town. The ruins are now preserved and partially excavated as the Aztec National Monument.
When the Navajo First People came to the present world, they did not realize that part of the time it would be very cold. In order to get warm, Coyote crafted a plan to steal fire for warmth from the Fire Man who lived and guarded his fire on Fire Mountain. Eventually, Coyote did steal the fire by tying a very long stick to his tail and lowering it down to get fire, bringing it back to the people.
Fire Man tried stop him by shooting arrows, but Coyote ran in a zig zag to avoid them. Unfortunately, this made his run back to the People longer and the stick burnt out and scorched his tail, which is why coyotes now have black tipped tails. His tail also set fire to the ground he ran on, which is why the people needed to summon Frog to put out the fire.
Igneous rock occurs both above and below the earth's surface. Intrusive igneous rock forms under the earth's surface when magma cools and hardens. As a result of its slow cooling process, intrusive igneous rock, such as granite, forms large crystals, which can be seen with the naked eye. Extrusive igneous rock forms when magma erupts as lava onto the earth's surface and cools quickly, forming small crystals. Basalt is one of the most common forms of extrusive igneous rock.
In the U.S. Southwest, intrusive and extrusive igneous rock can be found. Intrusive igneous rock is revealed in many of the monumental buttes, spires, cliffs, and mountains that comprise some of the dramatic scenery of the Southwest landscape, especially as softer materials erode away from the more durable rock component beneath. Intrusive igneous rock can be found in the surface lava flows and cinder cones that surround the numerous fields of extinct volcanoes in the region, such as those that comprise portions of El Malpais National Monument in New Mexico.
A series of small hills located at the bottom or base of a larger range of topogrpahic upheaval.
It is commonly believed that fry bread is a result of Navajo contact with white settler colonial practices, specifically during their 1864 internment at Fort Sumner after their forced Long Walk from their traditional homelands near Canyon de Chelly, Arizona to the Bosque Redondo location of Fort Sumner in the Pecos River Valley in New Mexico . During their captivity, the Navajo couldn't grow or cook traditional corn-based foods, so they used government supplies to make fry bread, a flat unleavened bread fried in oil. Government subsidies of traditional foodstuffs continues to undermine indigenous cultural cuisine, health, and lifeways to this day.
This region, known as "Halchíítah" or "Among the Red Areas" in Navajo, is a vast expanse of badlands and desert landscape in Arizona. The exposed colorful layers of sandstone, clay, and volcanic remains give the desert its name. Much of the Painted Desert is protected, because it lays within the Petrified Forest National Wilderness Area. Vast expanses of this desert also still remain within the Navajo Nation reservation.
A deep canyon located near Kayenta, AZ on the Navajo Nation. The gorge is known for its sheer walls of sandstone formed by the Laguna Creek and for its marsh growth. The canyon is a source of water to the surrounding area as a part of the Kayenta and Dinnehotso irrigation projects.
In Navajo, "Tséyi" means "In Between the Rocks” or "Inside the Rock."
War is significant in Hillerman's lexicon, as it is often an expression, if not the cause, of imbalance and physical and psychological illness. However, when it is used literally, war is the state of aggression between two or more groups that often ends with violent attacks against each other.