Cultural Reference

An interrelated social group, whose connections derive from parentage as well as kinship. For different indigenous groups, clan structures develop and are expressed uniquely. For example, in Navajo culture, which is matrilineal and matrilocal, after the four original clans were established by Changing Woman, women who came into the tribe's membership either brought a clan name with them, or were assigned a clan on acceptance into the tribe. Some were existing clans from other tribes, while others were created out of circumstance. Today, the total number of clans represented is calculated in to be over one hundred and forty, from twenty-one major groups. K'é—the Navajo clan system—is the strength of the People. It keeps the Navajo people together.

For the Zuni and other pueblo communities, however, clans and kinship are partly expressed through membership in various kiva and medicine societies, although this is not exclusively true, as one can be elected into some kiva societies, while one is born into others. The Zuni clan system overlaps and interlocks with kinship and religious systems to enforce, regulate, and, to a degree, control the socioreligious behavior patterns of the Zuni.

A cigarette, often spelled cigaret in Tony Hillerman's mystery novels, is a small amount of finely cut dried tobacco rolled in small squares of thin paper into a torpedo-shaped tube for smoking.

Quite often, characters in Hillerman's novels smoke together or offer cigarettes to one another. The exchange and shared experience of smoking cigarettes, which is a common cultural phenomenon, is in some ways evocative of indigenous ceremonial practices of exchanging pipes, breath, and words. Not to over-simplify the effects of smoking cigarettes, especially those produced by large companies, Hillerman warns his readers through one of his main protagonists, Joe Leaphorn, that smoking is "never good. It hurts the lungs. But sometimes it is necessary, and therefore one does it" (Dance Hall of the Dead 13).

The waste product of stone work that involves chipping away at a core of hard rock. People in cultural groups around the world have developed stone-working techniques to produce tools such as sharp-edged knives, arrowheads, lance points, and bifaces (two-faced stone blades). To produce such tools, the core is held in one hand while the other hand holds a hammerstone (either another stone or an antler tine). The hammerstone is struck against the core at a specific angle in order to gradually break off chips of stone in the process of creating the desired shape of the tool. A chip, also known as a flake, is a small, long, and often thin piece of stone detached from the larger core of rock. The chipping process requires skill, experience, precision, and exact knowledge of the force and angle of the blow required to properly detach a chip. In this manner, stone tools can be produced from cores, often resulting in a large number of chips as waste products. In archaeological sites, chips can be classified by morphology (shape) and provide insights into what tools were produced.

In addition, chips can either be discarded as waste or used as tools themselves. For instance, chips with sharp edges can be used as cutting tools. In the American Southwest, chips were often used as blanks for arrowhead production.

Also spelled chʼįį́dii in Navajo, a “chindi” is the spirit of a dead person. Navajos are taught to avoid contact with the dead or enclosed places, like a hogan, where someone has passed to avoid coming into contact with chindi and contracting ghost sickness. Navajos believe that when a person dies, everything that is bad or out of harmony with the person will be left behind as a kind of malevolent spirit that has power to harm the living. For this reason, any hogan or structure inside which a person has died potentially contains chindi and must be abandoned. If a Navajo contracts ghost sickness by coming into contact with a site to which a chindi is still attached, the proper ceremonies must be performed in order to restore balance to the living.

In military or paramilitary organizations, such as police departments, a hierarchical organization of personnel exists, often called the chain of command.

The general rankings within a police force, depending on its size, is as follows, in order from highest to lowest rankings:

• Chief
• Deputy/Assistant Chief
• Commander
• Inspector
• Captain
• Lieutenant
• Sergeant
• Trooper
• Police Officer

An American-made brand of car, affordable and very popular.

The Cherokee are a US Native American tribal group who were the largest tribe in what are now the southeastern United States before European contact. Cherokee is an Iroquoian language with multiple dialects. Along with the Creek, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles, the Cherokee were considered by non-Native settlers to be one of the Five Civilized Tribes in the 1800s.

The tribe was loosely organized around its many villages, each with two chiefs -- one war chief associated with the color red and one political, religious, economic chief associated with the color white. Chiefs could be men or women, and women sat in on the council. Although related, the villages did not form a completely unified entity until the late 1700s. The people were mainly farmers and lived alongside rivers with a central ceremonial place. It was common to use public shaming and scorn to enforce rules within the villages. The Cherokee also use a matrilineal clan social system.

The Cherokee sided with the British during the American Revolution, but later incorporated methods of farming and life from the colonial settlers. They fought with the U.S. in the Creek War of 1813, where a Cherokee saved Andrew Jackson's life. Despite their growth, their notoreity as one of the Civilized Tribes, and their cooperation, the Cherokee were still pressured to give up land, and the discovery of gold on their land led to the Indian Removal Act, where they were forecefully relocated to 'Indian Territory" west of the Mississippi River. Their removal, beginning in 1838, came to be known as the Trail of Tears during which more than 4000 people died.

They were federally recognized in 1946.

The practices related to the ritual act of disposing of a dead person’s body. Burial customs reflect the world views and religious beliefs of the particular culture, and differ in various communities. In most Western societies, for example, death is feared and rejected, but the dead are commemorated and cherished through traditions such as regular visits to the grave site, placing pictures of the deceased around the house, and holding on to objects that belonged to the dead. In the Christian tradition in particular, the belief in an afterlife allows for a continuation of the relationship between the living and the dead.

In contrast, in Navajo culture death itself is not feared, but accepted as a fact of life. However, the dead are a great source of terror, and any contact with them is to be avoided. The Navajo believe that after death the body is insignificant, and even the identity of the person disappears. In order for the spirit to be properly released to the underworld, all ties must be cut. In many cases that includes a careful destruction (often through burning) of the dead’s personal possessions, to ensure that the ghost will not linger in the world of the living as a negative, haunting presence.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is part of the United States Department of the Interior established on March 11, 1824. The mission of this bureau is to provide services to the 566 federally recognized Native American tribes and Alaska Natives in the United States. The BIA also administers and manages over 55 million acres of land within the U.S. The BIA is one of two bureaus under the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, the other being the Bureau of Indian Education.

Native American groups have clashed with the BIA because they believe the agency is not doing all it can for the groups it is pledged to support. Many of these claims of neglect, mismanagement, misappropriated funds, and hypocritical bureaucratic standards and procedures have been proven in courts of law.

A protective rim found at the front and rear of most vehicles. The bumper protects the body of the vehicle from incidental contact with objects, such as brush, debris, and even minor contact with other vehicles (for example the minor dings that can occur while parallel parking). The bumper is also engineered to absorb high impact contact and lessen the damage during an automobile accident. Rear bumpers have also become the site for automobile owners to decorate their car with eye-catching bumper stickers that communicate slogans, notices, cultural commentary, or political propaganda.