United States - West

by Darcy Brazen, Digital Hillerman Fellow
Originally published on Celebrating New Mexico Statehood, 8/19/2016

As a Master’s candidate in American Studies at the University of New Mexico, working with Hillerman’s manuscript of The Ghostway sparked insights and vital connections with my own research in critical indigenous studies. A close reading that emphasizes historical events as they relate to contemporary struggles within Native American communities may enhance our understanding of the real and metaphorical ghosts that haunt our national consciousness.

Hello, I am the new Tony Hillerman Digital Fellow; I joined the crew in August. As the new fellow I was initiated into the project by being assigned to work on People of Darkness. My job is to research and define terms from the novel that would contribute to the digital encyclopedia. We have been taking terms from Hillerman’s books and, through these definitions, have been constructing a picture of the Southwest through Tony Hillerman’s eyes. People of Darkness takes place in the Grants, NM area: the checkerboard section of the Navajo reservation, Mount Taylor, and El Malpais.