Natural Environment Reference

The meaty part of the hand between the palm and the wrist. There is a corresponding portion of the foot also known as the heel, which is the part of the foot that typically strikes the ground first when walking or running.

Greasewood is the common name for several plant species. Also known as creosote,this evergreen bush can be found in hot and dry regions throughout the western U.S. These bushes are long living, surviving up to 100 years, and are known for their 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 small organ that releases bile, a bitter and acidic substance, into the small intestine.

In Native American cultures, the gallbladder is used to make a variety of traditional medicines. The gall from many animals can be used for similar effect, including those of eagles, mountain lions, bears, skunks, and occasionally sheep, wolves, badgers, and deer. Navajos carry this medicine with them for protection against witches, corpse poison, and strangers. It is most often carried on their person when they are in a crowd, or when traveling outside their home territory, particularly where there could be witches.

A widely-dispersed and fast growing grass that, depending on the species, can grow as large as a tree. Paleolithic deposits of petrified bamboo have been documented around the world, as have long-standing and traditional uses of the plant for construction, medicine, food, and as objects of daily utility. Bamboo remains one of the most sustainable and versatile materials on the planet.

Also known as chert, flint is an exceptionally hard sedimentary rock that is therefore especially desirable when making stone tools that need to have and keep edges. Flint is found most often in masses of nodules that, when fractured, break into sharp-edged pieces. For at least two million years, humans have used a chipping method known as flint knapping to shape flint rock into spear points, arrowheads, blades, and other sharp tools.

Depending on soil composition, chert can occur in a wide range of colors. The term flint is generally used to indicate the darker varieties of chert. Blue flint can be found in New Mexico and other parts of the Southwest. It is deep blue or gray-blue in color and has been used to make jewelry as well as tools.

A relative measure of height that is applied to topography. The measuring starts with zero being sea-level. High altitude is usually defined as beginning around 8,000 feet above sea level.

The Four Corners region, within which most of Tony Hillerman's Navajo detective stories take place, is considered to be within the range of high altitude, with many mountains and peaks rising well above 8,000 feet. At high altitude, the atmosphere is thinner than at sea level, with resultant changes in ecosystem dispersal, weather patterns (dependent upon local and regional topography), and oxygen levels in the air.

Foxes are canines that tend to be on the small size, with large upright ears and a large, bushy tail. They are opportunistic, ominvorous, and highly adaptable. In addition, although they can survive in a pack, they also do well on their own. As such, they have found a niche on every continent, except for Antarctica, where they have earned a variety of reputations as hunters, pests, and even beloved domesticated companions.

In folklore, because of their similarity to both coyotes and wolves, foxes tend to get lumped under the characteristic attributes of the other two. Seen as cunning tricksters, foxes are perceived with ambivalence, similar to coyote figures, whose nature is neither good nor bad. In the Navajo tradition, for example, foxes are viewed as a good animals that represent material goods. In addition, the fur and tails are used in different ceremonials such as Night Way and Coyote Way. Yellow and Blue Fox are mentioned a few times in the Navajo origin story. However, it appears that the larger gray fox or desert fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) can sometimes be associated as a Skinwalker or were-animal. Clyde Kluckhohn in Navaho Witchcraft asserts that, along with bear, owl, and crow, witches can take on the form of desert foxes.

A group of five stars that create the major constellation also known as Ursa Major. These stars appear to rotate around the North Star, also known as Polaris. For the Navajo, the Big Dipper and the North Star are a part of the same constellation known as the Whirling Male, as a reference to the fact that the Big Dipper revolves around the North Star.

Also called hardpan, this is a hardened layer of soil formed by calcium deposits. Caliche develops over thousands of years in arid and semi-arid regions when calcium from groundwater collects as the water evaporates.

An arid environment characterized by limited rainfall, sparse vegetation, and animals that are specially adapted for extreme temperature changes. In the U.S. Southwest there are three deserts: the Chihuahuan desert in Texas and New Mexico, the Sonoran desert in Arizona and California, and the Mojave in California and Nevada. These deserts can be very hot during the day and become near freezing at night. This means that the plants and animals that live within these ecosystems must be specially adapted to find water and as well as thrive the diurnal temperature changes. Plants such as cacti and desert scrub brush have adapted by developing strategies for preserving water, such as growing massive networks of roots or having tiny leaves that lose less water through transpiration than larger leaves. Animals that inhabit these desert regions include birds, rabbits, coyotes, rats, mice, lizards, and snakes. These animals are mainly active at dawn, dusk, or during the night. Larger animals are less common, as they have problems adapting in an environment with such little water. Through time the Southwest is progressively becoming more arid, which has contributed to a change in the distributions of flora and fauna. Additionally, overgrazing of grasslands and the lowering of the water table has caused more erosion and the incisement of arroyos and washes.

High desert refers to deserts formed and existing at higher elevations, usually resulting in different vegetation and plant life as well as more precipitation in the more mountainous areas.