Built Environment Reference

A word that suggests a sharp, intense, or narrow focus.

A hand-held cutting tool. One or two edges can be sharpened. The blade can be attached to a haft or handle, or the sharpened edge(s) can terminate in an unsharpened grip of the same material as the blade and contiguous with it. Knife blades can be formed from stone, ceramic, and various metals and alloys.

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.

In the Southwestern U.S., the primary setting for Tony Hillerman's Navajo detective series, ruins typically refer to ancient Puebloan structures that are scattered across the landscape, from cliff dwellings in high canyon alcoves to complex urban and road structures such as those found in Chaco Canyon. The relative remoteness and ruggedness of the Southwest also took its toll on European settlers, and remnants of Spanish rancheros, Hispanic villages, and Anglo-American ghost towns are found along networks of two-track dirt roads, ephemeral waterways, and defunct railroad spur lines.

At the turn-of-the-century in the Southwest, Puebloan ruins "discovered" by photographers, artists, and commercial entrepreneurs provided the perfect backdrop for marketing the Southwest as a land of ancient cultures with haunting echoes of lost civilizations. Since the Renaissance, European cultures tend to revisit their ruins, as ruins were thought to symbolize innate beauty and timeless value. Especially during the Romantic period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, ruins were artificially and artfully juxtaposed into manipulated landscapes to emphasize the picturesque "wilderness" of the landscape.

In comparison, Native American cultures in the Southwest tend to maintain a tradition of staying away from these abandoned sites, associating them ancestor spirits. This intentional distancing is a sign of respect for the ancestors, who are believed to remain tied to these places.

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.

A flammable liquid that is used to fuel stoves, furnaces, and lamps. It can also be burned as a commercial jet fuel. Also called paraffin oil, kerosene is a mix of hydrocarbons. Due to its stability compared to other types of fuel, it can be easily handled and transported. Before the prevalence of electricity, kerosene was widely used for lighting.

Typically, a metal cabinet containing a series of sliding drawers that are arranged vertically so that it appears as if they are stacked one on top of another. The result is a tall, relatively narrow piece of office furniture. The drawers are sized to accommodate filing folders, which can be arranged so that they can be accessed and read from the front of the drawer toward the rear, or the files can be arranged so that they can be accessed and read horizontally from one side of the drawer to another.

Small circular pellets shot from air-powered guns often called BB or pellet guns.

A military weapon system that controls the launching of ballistic missiles, either conventional or nuclear. This term refers to the previously mentioned MIRV (Multiple Intercontinental Re-Entry Vehicle), a kind of ballistic missile that is capable of firing multiple war heads at once at a single target. This kind of weapon is often more effective than a single warhead hitting a target and can be used to stop the flight path of other ballistic missiles.

A hospital under the jurisdiction of the Indian Health Service (HIS), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Indian Health Service was created in 1955 and originally had 48 hospitals and 93 other facilities. In 1956, as directed by the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives, a survey was conducted, including an in-depth study on nine reservations, to determine the health status of and the measures needed to improve the health of Native people. This survey found that a substantial health program was needed. The system continued to expand, and in the Indian Health Care Improvement Act of 1976, Congress created two national goals for this health care program: to elevate the health care standard of Native Americans, and to try to get as many enrolled tribal peoples as possible to use the program.