Geographic Reference

Called Dziłk'i Hózhónii (Mountain Beautiful on Top) in Diné, it is the tallest peak in San Juan County, New Mexico and is sacred to the Navajo. It lies 25 miles southwest of Shiprock on the New Mexico-Arizona state line in the Four Corners region. The Navajo believe this mountain is the feet of Goods of Value Mountain, a male spiritual figure. The Navajo believe that his legs are the Carrizo Mountains, his body is the Chuska Mountains, his head is Chuska Peak, and that Shiprock itself is the pouch or weapon he carries.

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 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.

A fictional location near the also fictional Short Mountain Trading Post on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona.

A trading post location in the northeast corner of New Mexico on the Navajo Nation reservation. This trading post is most well known for its unique neutral colored Navajo rugs, a style which originated when the post's founders Frank and Henry Noel showed the weavers pictures of Persian rugs.

A trading post is an establishment where goods can be traded. It is also a social center where news and gossip are exchanged. Trading posts have been associated with American frontier culture since seventeenth century. Overtime, trading posts developed into a cultural institution, at first funded and backed by empire, later by national interests, and most often by enterprising business men. Trading posts became centralized hubs in a network of exchange that both participated in and circumvented the burgeoning capitalist system that was imported into the Americas along with settler colonialism. Although trading posts were intially intended to provide support to the European traders and trappers who traced their way over the North American continent, Native American groups were also drawn into the posts' exchange network, trading furs, pelts, and even scalps for finished goods such as steel knives, firearms, woven textiles, and food stuffs, including alcohol. Although not every post was poorly managed, trading posts earned a nefarious reputation for taking advantage of Native traders, by offering poor exchange rates, trading with products that were infected with diseases, and promoting the purchase and use of alcohol. Many trading posts are still in existence, and in the Southwest, they still mark "the frontier," as they are located, as they have been for centuries, at the dividing line between wilderness, Indian coutnry, or reservations and settled, ordered, and contained "civilization." Today, however, trading posts can be reached by pickup truck, tourist RV, and even the occasional horse. Many trading posts are also preserved as National Historic Sites.

This trading post was located off of Highway 160, formerly Navajo Route 1. It was established in 1882 by George McAdams and was acquired by the Babbitt Brothers Trading Company, located in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1895. As trading posts and their mode of business became less relevant the Babbitt’s closed many locations, by the 1970's the Cow Springs trading post was abandoned. The turn off exit for the trading post is noted in Tony Hillerman's fiction.

Black Mesa is an elevated, bowl-shaped region (approximately 4,000 square miles) located in northern Arizona. It is part of the Navajo Reservation; a portion of the Hopi Reservation; and some of the Navajo-Hopi Joint Use Area, which is claimed by both the Navajo and Hopi. The region of Black Mesa includes a mesa itself as well as the surrounding sloping hills, canyons, valleys, and four drainages that are tributaries of the Little Colorado River.

This area has been inhabited by Native peoples for over 7,000 years. It is significant to both the Hopi and the Navajo peoples, there are approximately 16,000 Navajo and 8,000 Hopis on Black Mesa. The Hopi reservation consists of twelve villages located on three mesas: First Mesa, Second Mesa, and Third Mesa, all of which are located upon the larger Black Mesa. The Hopi consider this land sacred and part of their tribal history and origin. For the Navajo peoples, Black Mesa is the sacred female mountain, also known as the Female Pollen Range, and is important to the frequently performed Blessingway ceremony. 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.

Black Mesa is a contested area among Anglo settlers and industrialists, the Hopi, and the Navajo peoples. Despite strong opposition from within and outside their communities, in 1966 the Navajo and Hopi tribal councils sold the mineral and aquifer rights on Black Mesa to the Peabody Coal Company for two million dollars a year. Peabody Coal has been accused of depleting the region’s aquifer; destroying sacred sites; strip-mining; and polluting the area, the Navajo called their actions the “rape of Earth Mother.” Under federal law PL 93-531, at least 12,000 to approximately 16,000 Navajos were forcefully relocated from Black Mesa, in the largest Indigenous relocation in the United States since the Trail of Tears. The Black Mesa mine was closed in 2005; however, in 2008 Peabody Coal received a permit to open again but were denied by administrative law judge in 2010 for not satisfying the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Shiprock is named after the nearby volcanic rock formation known in Navajo as Tse Bit'a'I, or "winged rock." It lies at the junction of U.S. Highways 64 and 491 and is known locally for its rodeos, fairs, and marathons. It is also renowned for its Navajo traditional artisanal works, such as rugs and jewelry, which can be bought from the creators themselves rather than from trading post owners.