Legend Of The Ghostway Ritual In The Male Branch Of Shootingway

Native Child Dinétah is reprinting and creating new editions of important historical writings to help preserve and continue Navajo culture, language, and history. We focus on generally difficult-to-access literature of enormous importance to the transmission of cultural knowledge from generation to generation. This is such a book. Ghostway is generally recognized as a distinct ritual in Navajo Ceremonialism with the specific purpose of combatting any ugly condition. Conditions created by the use of witchcraft means become ugly, not only temporarily so, but because they jeopardize the very life of the victim. Ghostway rituals, are chiefly concerned with removing these ugly conditions. After arriving in St. Michaels, Arizona in 1900, the author, Father Berard made studying the unwritten Navajo language his first priority. He contributed to Navajo linguistic studies immensely, which is all the more valuable for the fact that few others have had his opportunities to live so long with the Navaho and to learn their culture so well. He remained among the People for 54 years. Although linguistics seemed to be Fr. Berard's primary ethnographic passion, his expertise extended equally to Navajo ceremonialism. Ghostway was originally recorded in 1929 and published in 1950. In 1953 the Navajo Tribal Council passed a resolution which read in part: "Father Berard Haile has spent his life among the Navajo people learning to know and understand us and our religion, and has, more than any other living non-Indian, through close contact with Navajos and the medicine men of our tribe and by his indefatigable labor, reduced our language to written form and succeeded in preserving for future generations the knowledge of the Navajo history and religion."

In this book, Katherine Spencer examines Navaho cultural values by studying a specific subset of Navaho mythology: chantway myths, part of ceremonies performed to cure illness. She begins with a summary of the general plot construction of chantway myths and the value themes presented in these plots, then discusses “explanatory elements” inserted by the narrators of the myths. She continues with a deeper analysis of the cultural value judgements conveyed by these myths. At the end of the book, Spencer includes abstracts of the myths she discusses.

This study focuses on the cultural-historical environment of the 88,900-acre (35,560-ha) Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) over the past four centuries of Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. governance. It includes a review and synthesis of available published and unpublished historical, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic literature about the human occupation of the area now contained within the VCNP. Documents include historical maps, texts, letters, diaries, business records, photographs, land and mineral patents, and court testimony.‍?‍?This study presents a cultural-historical framework of VCNP land use that will be useful to land managers and researchers in assessing the historical ecology of the property. It provides VCNP administrators and agents the cultural-historical background needed to develop management plans that acknowledge traditional associations with the Preserve, and offers managers additional background for structuring and acting on consultations with affiliated communities.

Portrays Navajo weaver and midwife Tall Woman, who held onto traditional Navajo ways, raised twelve children, and cared for the farm throughout her marriage to political leader and Blessingway singer Frank Mitchell.

A Jungian-trained psychiatrist explores ancient Navaho methods of healing that use vibrant imagery to bring the psyche into harmony with natural forces.