New in Southwest 2020-2025

"Navajo Latter-day Saints are Dineì doìoì Gaìamalii," writes Farina King, in this deeply personal collective biography. "We are Diné who decided to walk a Latter-day Saint pathway, although not always consistently or without reappraising that decision." Dineì doìoì Gaìamalii is a history of twentieth-century Navajos, including author Farina King and her family, who have converted and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), becoming Dineì doìoì Gaìamalii--both Dineì and LDS. Drawing on Dineì stories from the LDS Native American Oral History Project, King illuminates the mutual entanglement of Indigenous identity and religious affiliation, showing how their Dineì identity made them outsiders to the LDS Church and, conversely, how belonging to the LDS community made them outsiders to their Native community. The story that King tells shows the complex ways that Dineì people engaged with church institutions in the context of settler colonial power structures. The lived experiences of Dineì in church programs sometimes diverged from the intentions and expectations of those who designed them. In this empathetic and richly researched study, King explores the impacts of Navajo Latter-day Saints who seek to bridge different traditions, peoples, and communities. She sheds light on the challenges and joys they face in following both the Dineì teachings of Si' h Naagháì Bik'eh Hózh ì--"live to old age in beauty"--and the teachings of the church.

Gold Medal Recipient in Books for the Tokyo International Foto Awards 2023 Enigmatic rock art featuring a myriad of symbols and designs can be found throughout remote and arid landscapes of the Greater Southwest, from the Four Corners region of the American West to the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. This vast gallery of ancient art offers intriguing questions. Who created these images on stone and what were their motivations? What do they mean? Are they to be taken literally or might they stand for something else? In this book, William Frej's powerful black and white photographs of rock art in the American Southwest and Baja California provide the opportunity to explore this diverse and mysterious imagery--and to ponder these questions. By framing these images on stone by the expansive landscapes in which they are found, his photographs emphasize the importance of their settings. The accompanying photo captions by noted rock art scholar Polly Schaafsma present clues to the symbolic content of these stone murals. Her essay, "Blurred Boundaries," addresses the ambiguities latent in their complex meanings. To illustrate, Schaafsma addresses several elements of the visual vocabulary of rock art in the region-the spiral, stepped clouds, depictions of the human form, animals, and shields. Schaafsma notes that rock art can be viewed from many perspectives and she suggests that we move beyond Western philosophy to consider an animistic universe in which all things are sacred. In the foreword Frank Graziano also emphasizes how our own beliefs and perceptions influence the way we experience rock art. Rock art is more than a static reminder of the faraway past. The images continue to impact us even today, no matter what our perspective.

The untold story of Navajo and Hopi resistance and solidarity in the face of forced removal by the US government, as documented by tribal editorial cartoons. For generations, US politicians and energy companies attempted to gain access to the coal and uranium in the Four Corners region, where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah meet. The land on which they found billions of tons of high-grade coal in 1909, however, was reserved for the Navajo (Diné) and Hopi peoples and not accessible to extractive enterprise. Despite Diné and Hopi protests, US officials gained access to the coal-rich land on Black Mesa in Arizona by purposely fabricating and fueling conflict between the Diné and the Hopi. In Comics and Conquest, historian Rhiannon Koehler documents the story of this conflict through an engaging analysis of historical Navajo and Hopi editorial cartoons. Despite the false narrative that the conflict was driven by inter-tribal animosity and that the subsequent forced removals of thousands of Indigenous peoples were part of a plan to keep the peace, the cartoons that Koehler shares reveal a rich history of artistic activism and Hopi-Diné solidarity against this land grab. The content and claims featured in political cartoons published in the tribal newspapersQua'Toqtiand the Navajo Timesin the late 1960s and early 1970s were some of the most critical tools for both coping with the threats of industry and exposing the history of exploitation as it carries on into the present. The conflict, popularly known as the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute, was presented in mainstream media as an egregious threat to US interests. Acutely aware of their land's value and the minerals and other resources on it, Diné and Hopi political cartoonists used their medium to assert their protest and agency, identify the true instigators of the dispute, and expose and counter the myth that the conflict had intertribal origins. Koehler shows how tribal activism and media ultimately resulted in international recognition of the harms perpetrated by the federal government on Diné and Hopi soil.

From the Northern Rockies to the Southwest deserts, Betsy Gaines Quammen explores how myths shape our identities, heighten polarizations, and fracture our shared understanding of the world around us. As she investigates the origins and effects of myths of the American West, Gaines Quammen travels through small towns and big cities, engaging people and building relationships at every stop.  Misperceptions about land, politics, liberty, and self-determination threaten the well-being of people and communities across the country, and Gaines Quammen interrogates it all as she seeks to reconcile the anger and misunderstandings that continue to be fueled by the West's enduring myths and complex history. Whether sitting down with a local resident seeking to protect his rural Utah town from Antifa or talking with grassroots organizers working across ideological divides, Gaines Quammen brings to life connections and contradictions that shape our politics and our lives far beyond the West.

Rebecca Valette's Clitso Dedman, Navajo Carver is the first biography of artist Clitso Dedman (1876-1953), one of the most important but overlooked Diné (Navajo) artists of his generation. Dedman was born to a traditional Navajo family in Chinle, Arizona, and herded sheep as a child. He was educated in the late 1880s and early 1890s at the Fort Defiance Indian School, then at the Teller Institute in Grand Junction, Colorado. After graduation Dedman moved to Gallup, New Mexico, where he worked in the machine shop of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway before opening his first of three Navajo trading posts in Rough Rock, Arizona. After tragedy struck his life in 1915, he moved back to Chinle and abruptly changed careers to become a blacksmith and builder. At age sixty, suffering from arthritis, Dedman turned his creative talent to wood carving, thus initiating a new Navajo art form. Although the neighboring Hopis had been carving Kachina dolls for generations, the Navajos traditionally avoided any permanent reproduction of their Holy People, and even of human figures. Dedman was the first to ignore this proscription, and for the rest of his life he focused on creating wooden sculptures of the various participants in the Yeibichai dance, which closed the Navajo Nightway ceremony. These secular carvings were immediately purchased and sold to tourists by regional Indian traders. Today Dedman's distinctive and highly regarded work can be found in private collections, galleries, and museums, such as the Navajo Nation Museum at Window Rock, the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, and the Arizona State Museum in Tucson. Clitso Dedman, Navajo Carver, with its extensive illustrations, is the story of a remarkable and underrecognized figure of twentieth-century Navajo artistic creation and innovation.

Had Lieutenant George S. Patton not served on the southern border during the Mexican Expedition of 1916, there might never have been a General George S. Patton who took the world by storm as a bold and daring commander during World War II. Relying on Patton's detailed personal journals of his eight months in Mexico, Michael Lee Lanning describes the young officer's exploits during the hunt for Pancho Villa. As an aide to General John Pershing, Patton learned leadership and logistics from the man who would soon command American forces in World War I. Begging for a field command, he received it--and led the first motorized attack in U.S. military history and may or may not have killed two of Villa's lieutenants. The press ate it up, and Patton learned not only how much he loved attention, but how to promote himself. In Mexico are the roots of Patton the World War II general, and Lanning tells the story deftly, focusing on Patton the man as well Patton the commander, and always casting an eye forward to Patton's future career. This is how Patton became Patton.

"With more than twenty books published about the Navajo people, Robert S. McPherson is one of the most prolific contemporary writers concerning their history and culture. Scouting for the Bluecoats addresses a little-known and, until now, undocumented story of an estimated five hundred Navajos employed by the United States Army, primarily in the campaigns against the Apaches between 1873 and 1886. The author takes us with these scouts as they guide U.S. soldiers into the deserts, canyons, and mountains of New Mexico, Arizona, and Northern Mexico; he also provides a solid context about the origin of the Navajos and Apaches, their intertribal conflicts, and their elements of shared culture. Once again McPherson demonstrates his skill as a master historian, his understanding of these people, and a meaningful context for this long-neglected story of warrior-soldiers whose fieldcraft and dedication proved critical in shaping relations between the military and two Indian tribes in the Southwest." --Kent Powell, Senior historian at Utah Division of State History and editor of Utah State Historical Quarterly (retired) "Scouting for the Bluecoats examines the important role that Navajos played in military operations during the last quarter of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. Unlike the famous Navajo code talkers of World War II, little has been written about these men who served in some of the most challenging and noteworthy struggles against the Apaches. Until now, their story has been forgotten. Navajo skills in understanding and tracking a wily foe across an inhospitable landscape proved to be essential elements in ending the Apache wars. For those interested in the recruitment and deployment of the scouts, measures taken to counter enemy tactics, and the challenge of obtaining recognition for their service, this book is an invaluable source and a must-read for any serious scholar of Navajo history." --Ronald P. Maldonado, Tribal historic preservation officer (retired), Navajo Nation

This anthology of essays offers perspectives of the Navajo homeland, nihikéyah, highlighting Diné examinations and understandings of the land. While various books have investigated Native American reservations and homelands, this book is from Diné individuals' experiences, observations, and examinations. Poets, writers, and scholars frame their thoughts on four key questions: What are the thoughts/perspectives on nihikéyah/Navajo homeland? What challenges does nihikéyah face in the coming generations, and what should all peoples know about nihikéyah? And how can nihikéyah build a strong and positive Navajo Nation for the rest of this century and beyond? The authors come from a variety of backgrounds and use multiple approaches to discuss Diné history in the U.S. Southwest, as well as forward-looking examinations of the Navajo Nation. Together, the essays shed new light on Diné homeland and the challenges to the Navajo homeland and its peoples. Contributors Mario Atencio Shawn Attakai Wendy Shelly Greyeyes Rex Lee Jim Manny Loley Jonathan Perry Jake Skeets Jennifer Jackson Wheeler

In Indigenous Enlightenment Stuart D. McKee examines the methodologies, tools, and processes that British and American educators developed to inculcate Indigenous cultures of reading. Protestant expatriates who opened schools within British and U.S. colonial territories between 1790 and 1850 shared the conviction that a beneficent government should promote the enlightenment of its colonial subjects. It was the aim of evangelical enlightenment to improve Indigenous peoples' welfare through the processes of Christianization and civilization and to transform accepting individuals into virtuous citizens of the settler-colonial community. Many educators quickly discovered that their teaching efforts languished without the means to publish books in the Indigenous languages of their subject populations. While they could publish primers in English by shipping manuscripts to printers in London or Boston, books for Indigenous readers gained greater accuracy and influence when they stationed a printer within the colony. With a global perspective traversing Western colonial territories in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, the South Pacific, Madagascar, India, and China, Indigenous Enlightenment illuminates the challenges that British and American educators faced while trying to coerce Indigenous children and adults to learn to read. Indigenous laborers commonly supported the tasks of editing, printing, and dissemination and, in fact, dominated the workforce at most colonial presses from the time printing began. Yet even in places where schools and presses were in synchronous operation, missionaries found that Indigenous peoples had their own intellectual systems, and most did not learn best with Western methods.  

"This book is for those readers who want to know more about the local history and family genealogies of two old villages in the Middle Rio Grande Valley, but with its extensive endnotes and bibliography, the book also provides a well-documented resource for historians and sociologists researching New Mexico, particularly the villages of the Rio Abajo south of Albuquerque." -- back cover. An overview of two Hispanic villages south of Albuquerque, New Mexico from the time of early Spanish settlement until the present. Although New Mexico has numerous villages from this time, each has its own unique story. Short biographies and genealogies are included of families, both the wealthy and the less wealthy. These people lived and persevered through land grant disputes, Indian raids, disease, droughts, floods, and the influx of new people, and they managed to preserve their culture, language, and identity. -- provided by publisher.

The Friar and the Maya offers a full study and new translation of the Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán (Account of the Things of Yucatan) by a unique set of eminent scholars, created by them over more than a decade from the original manuscript held by the Real Academia de la Historia in Madrid. This critical and careful reading of the Account is long overdue in Maya studies and will forever change how this seminal text is understood and used.   For generations, scholars used (and misused) the Account as the sole eyewitness insight into an ancient civilization. It is credited to the sixteenth-century Spanish Franciscan, monastic inquisitor, and bishop Diego de Landa, whose legacy is complex and contested. His extensive writings on Maya culture and history were lost in the seventeenth century, save for the fragment that is the Account, discovered in the nineteenth century, and accorded near-biblical status in the twentieth as the first "ethnography" of the Maya. However, the Account is not authored by Landa alone; it is a compilation of excerpts, many from writings by other Spaniards--a significant revelation made here for the first time.   This new translation accurately reflects the style and vocabulary of the original manuscript. It is augmented by a monograph--comprising an introductory chapter, seven essays, and hundreds of notes--that describes, explains, and analyzes the life and times of Diego de Landa, the Account, and the role it has played in the development of modern Maya studies. The Friar and the Maya is an innovative presentation on an important and previously misunderstood primary source.  

This book chronicles the great events swirling around the Casas Grandes Valley and Mata Ortiz before it became a famous pottery center. Beginning in prehistoric times with the extensive Casas Grandes Pueblo culture, the story extends through Spanish exploration, Apache domination, commercial exploitation, foreign invasion, the Mormon diaspora, and two revolutions. Larger-than-life characters dominate the scene including the world's richest man, the world's largest ranch owner, a civil and electrical engineering genius, General John "Black Jack" Pershing, and Mexico's most famous rebel, Pancho Villa. Numerous published and unpublished works in Spanish and English refer to parts of the tumultuous history of this remote corner of Chihuahua but none tell the whole story. This book combines these scattered references to the Casas Grandes Valley and Mata Ortiz into one comprehensive narrative that describes momentous affairs that shaped the future of both Mexico and the United States. This book is a comprehensive history of northern Chihuahua, Mexico from preSpanish times to the beginning of the 21st century.

The gripping story of a pioneering anthropologist whose exploration of Aztec cosmology, rediscovery of ancient texts, and passion for collecting helped shape our understanding of pre-Columbian Mexico. Where do human societies come from? The drive to answer this question took on a new urgency in the nineteenth century, when a generation of archaeologists began to look beyond the bible for the origins of different cultures and civilizations. A child of the San Francisco Gold Rush whose mother was born in Mexico City, Zelia Nuttall threw herself into the study of Aztec customs and cosmology, eager to use the tools of the emerging science of anthropology to prove that modern Mexico was built over the ruins of ancient civilizations. Proud, disciplined, as prickly as she was independent, Zelia Nuttall was the first person to accurately decode the Aztec calendar stone. An intrepid researcher, she found pre-Columbian texts lost in European archives and was skilled at making sense of their pictographic histories. Her work on the terra-cotta heads of Teotihuacán captured the attention of Frederic Putnam, who offered her a job at Harvard's Peabody Museum. Divorced and juggling motherhood and career, Nuttall chose to follow her own star, publishing her discoveries and collecting artifacts for US museums to make ends meet. From her beloved Casa Alvarado in Coyoacán, she became a vital bridge between Mexican and US anthropologists, connecting them against the backdrop of war and revolution. The first biography of Zelia Nuttall, In the Shadow of Quetzalcoatl captures the appeal and contradictions that riddled the life of this trailblazing woman, who contributed so much to the new field of anthropology until a newly professionalized generation overshadowed her remarkable achievements and she became, in the end, an artifact in her own museum.

In the beginning was basketry. Around the world, the intertwining of fibers by hand to form a container is a most ancient of crafts. It is older than pottery and metalwork, older than loom weaving. Woven from the Center presents breathtaking basketry from some of the greatest weavers in the Southwest. Each sandal and mat fragment, each bowl and jar, every water bottle and whimsy is infused with layers of aesthetic, cultural, and historical meanings. This book offers stunning photos and descriptions of woven works from Tohono O'odham, Akimel O'odham, Hopi, Western Apache, Yavapai, Navajo, Pai, Paiute, New Mexico Pueblo, Eastern Apache, Seri, Yaqui, Mayo, and Tarahumara communities. This richly illustrated volume stands on its own as a definitive look at basketry of the Greater Southwest, including northern Mexico. It also serves as a companion to the peerless collection of U.S. Southwest and Northwest Mexican Native American basketry curated at the Arizona State Museum in Tucson, Arizona. Comprehensive in its coverage, this work is based on decades of research on weavers, collectors, and donors. It includes ample illustrations of basket weavers, past and present, bringing to life the people behind these wonderful woven treasures.

The San Juan River Navajos--residing in the vicinity of Aneth, Montezuma Creek, Bluff, and Tódahidíkáanii--have a fascinating history shaped, in part, by the water they lived near and the land they depended on. Circumscribed by sacred narratives and traditional teachings, the Diné forged a life in this high desert landscape while facing challenges from the environment as well as their neighbors--Utes, Paiutes, Mormons, cowboys, miners, evangelists, agents, government farmers, military personnel, educators, and entrepreneurs of all kinds. Their life has been one of confrontation, change, and adaptation as they explored new paths into the future.   Navajo oral tradition is rich in stories and themes that form the basis for ceremonial performance. Everything that is physical, emotional, or spiritual has been placed in this world by the holy people at the time of creation, a process recognized in these accounts and teachings. Each chapter references sacred narratives that provide power through prayers that bring protection and a path for believers to follow. Topics include life on the river before and during the introduction of the white man, efficacy of the chantways, teachings of medicine people, childhood memories, arrival of trading posts, encounters with the automobile and other technology, livestock reduction and its aftermath, and the development of the Aneth oilfield with its ensuing protests. This is the Navajo elders' story as seen through their eyes and told in their voice.  

Over 90 outlaw adventures with a modern twist combining historic experiences and outdoor activities. Enjoy Wild West trips across Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and South Dakota, plus spurs of the trail in Idaho, New Mexico, Kansas, and Arkansas From scenic campgrounds to wilderness tent sites to historic hotels--you'll find all the resources you need to plan an epic outing Enjoy colorful tales about Butch Cassidy, Queen Ann Bassett, the Sundance Kid, and other infamous outlaws. True stories from the same real-life places that you can explore! Welcome to the outlaw trail! During the days of the Wild West, this network of rugged routes linked remote hideouts across the desert Southwest and Rocky Mountains. Today, that same impenetrable terrain--where bandits fled and lawmen feared to tread--offers some of the greatest outdoor adventures in the country. With this story-packed guide, you can hike,bike, paddle, and drive along the paths of rustlers and robbers to alpine ghost towns, dizzying slot canyons, winding rivers, scenic roadways, fascinating museums, and hidden hideouts.

Intelligent but isolated physics graduate Annie Fisk feels an undeniable pull toward space. When she lands a job as a NASA secretary during the Apollo 11 mission, she feels certain this path is her destiny. Her memories of childhood darkened by loss, she's left behind her home, her mother, and her first love. And now she's finally found her purpose. Even typing dictation, the work is everything she dreamed, and despite her budding attraction to one of the engineers, she can't let herself be distracted. Not now. So when her inability to ignore an engineer's mistaken calculations propels her into a new position, Annie finds herself torn between her ambition, her heart, and a mysterious discovery that upends everything she knows to be scientifically true. Can she overcome her fears and reach toward the limits of human advancement? Will she chase her ambitions, and risk losing herself in them? Affectingly achronological in its telling, Shoot the Moon daringly explores one woman's quest fo

Light As Light is acclaimed poet Simon J. Ortiz's first collection in twenty years. The poems in this volume celebrate the wonders and joy of love in the present while also looking back with both humorous and serious reflections on youth and the stories, scenes, people, and places that shape a person's life. Light As Light brims with giddy, wistful long-distance love poems that offer a dialogue between the speaker and his beloved. Written in Ortiz's signature conversational style, this volume claims poetry for everyday life as the poems find the speaker on a morning run, burnt out from academic responsibilities, missing his beloved, reflecting on sobriety, walking the dog, and pondering the act of poem making. The collection also includes prayer poems written for the speaker's son; poems that retell traditional Acoma stories and history; and poems that engage environmental, political, and social justice issues--making for a well-rounded collection that blends the playful and the profound. The poems in Light As Light travel far across both space and memory, landing everywhere from the New Mexico of the speaker's childhood, to California, Tucson, and present-day Beijing, and many airports, highways, and way stations in between. The central concern uniting this collection is language itself: the weight and significance of English and Keres, as well as the nature and power of poetry as a way of life. No collection of Indigenous literature is complete without the work of Simon Ortiz, and this book is a powerful journey through the poet's life--both a love letter to the future, and a sentimental, authentic celebration of the past.

This haunting collection merges spirit and nature in a voice both elegiac and celebratory. Kotchian explores our deep connection to the natural world, one increasingly at risk even as it continues to surprise and inspire. From meditations on the dangers of global warming to supporting a friend with cancer, from grieving the loss of her own mother to celebrating nature from New Mexico to a wild Scottish island, the poems celebrate both solitude and companionship and enlarge our concept of belonging and community, offering us threads of resilience, persistence, and hope.

The best-selling author of The River returns with a vibrant, lyrical novel about an enforcement ranger in Yellowstone National Park who likes wolves better than most people. When a clandestine range war threatens his closest friend, he must shake off his own losses and act swiftly to discover the truth and stay alive. "A good story that's intertwined like leaves afloat in a river with the current of Heller's descriptive powers... Filled with Heller's lush writing... Powerful." -Denver Post Officer Ren Hopper is an enforcement ranger with the National Park Service, tasked with duties both mundane and thrilling: Breaking up fights at campgrounds, saving clueless tourists from moose attacks, and attempting to broker an uneasy peace between the wealthy vacationers who tromp through the park with cameras, and the residents of hardscrabble Cooke City who want to carve out a meaningful living. When Ren, hiking through the backcountry on his day off, encounters a tall man with a dog and a gun chasing a small black bear up a hill, his hackles are raised. But what begins as an investigation into the background of a local poacher soon opens into something far murkier: A shattered windshield, a series of red ribbons tied to traps, the discovery of a frightening conspiracy, and a story of heroism gone awry. Populated by a cast of extraordinary characters--famous scientists, tattooed bartenders, wildlife guides in slick Airstreams--and bursting with unexpected humor and grace, Peter Heller masterfully unveils a portrait of the American west where our very human impulses--for greed, love, family, and community--play out amidst the stunning beauty of the natural world.

When living in a large sprawling city, one may feel disconnected and adrift. Finding ways to belong and have positive effects is challenging. In Bringing Home the Wild, botanist Juliet C. Stromberg demonstrates how ecologically guided gardening develops a sense of place, restores connections to nature, and brings joy and meaning to our lives. This book follows a two-decade journey in ecologically guided gardening on a four-acre irrigated parcel in Phoenix, Arizona, from the perspective of a retired botanist and her science historian partner. Through humor and playful use of language, Bringing Home the Wild not only introduces the plants who are feeding them, buffering the climate, and elevating their moods but also acknowledges the animals and fungi who are pollinating the plants and recycling the waste. Some of the plants featured are indigenous to the American Southwest, while others are part of the biocultural heritage of the cityscape. This book makes the case for valuing inclusive biodiversity and for respectful interactions with all wild creatures, regardless of their historical origin. As author and partner learn to cohabit with the plants who feed them, calm them, entertain them, and protect them from the increasing heat, their desire to live sustainably, ethically, and close to the land becomes even stronger, revealing the importance of observing, appreciating, and learning from the ecosystems of which we are a part.

The Pitchfork Ranch is more than another dusty homestead tucked away in a corner of the Southwest. It is a place with a story to tell about the most pressing crisis to confront humankind. It is a place where one couple is working every day to right decades of wrongs. It is a place of inspiration and promise. It is an invitation to join the struggle for a better planet. Restoring the Pitchfork Ranch tells the story of a decades-long habitat restoration project in southwestern New Mexico. A. Thomas Cole explains what inspired him and his wife, Lucinda, to turn their retirement into years dedicated to hard work and renewal. The book shares the past and present history of a very special ranch south of Silver City, which is home to a rare type of regional wetland, a fragile desert grassland ecosystem, archaeological sites, and a critical wildlife corridor in a drought-stricken landscape. Today the 11,300 acres that make up the Pitchfork Ranch provide an important setting for carbon sequestration, wildlife habitats, and space for the reintroduction of endangered or threatened species. Restoring the Pitchfork Ranch weaves together stories of mine strikers, cattle ranching, and the climate crisis into an important and inspiring call to action. For anyone who has wondered how they can help, the Pitchfork Ranch provides an inspiring way forward.  

A fascinating natural and cultural history of one of the most iconic trees in the WestWesterners familiar with their forests may think they know the Douglas fir - but how well do they? Douglas firs are found in the continental northwest from British Columbia to as far south as Oaxaca, Mexico. They flourish in the Cascades, Rocky Mountains, Sierra, and other mountain ranges, as well as in desert valleys. Incredibly hardy, this tree adopts various strategies to occupy more kinds of habitats than any other native tree, even becoming an uncontrollable invader in some regions, crowding out ponderosa pines, western larch, aspen groves, and mountain grasslands. Yet the utility of this noble species is immense. Douglas firs yield more high-quality construction lumber than any other tree in the world. Most intriguing of all, perhaps, is that the story of the Douglas fir has gone untold. Douglas Fir fills this literary gap and presents an engaging profile of the Douglas fir and its relationship to people, commerce, culture, and wilderness.

In less than a century, a bison population that once numbered in the millions and stretched across North America was reduced to just a few dozen animals primarily in Yellowstone National Park. DeSilvestro explores one of the greatest conservation comeback stories in American history-- yet its "success" is qualified. Most bison today live in commercial herds, contained like cattle. Are we willing to coexist with them as wild animals who need freedom to roam? -- adapted from back cover

Return of the Bison is the story of how this symbol of the American West was once almost lost to history and of the continuing journey to bring bison back from the brink. Author and naturalist Roger Di Silvestro explores the complex history of the bison's decimation and how a rising awareness of their possible extinction formed the roots of many modern wildlife conservation approaches. Weaving in natural history and fascinating historical context featuring personalities such as Teddy Roosevelt, George Bird Grinnell, and William T. Hornaday, Di Silvestro traces the decades it took to begin to save the bison, often with little hope and plagued by discouraging setbacks. And playing a key role in the story are America's Indigenous people, whose fate was intertwined with the bison's and whose conservation work is important not only for the animal's recovery but also for their own cultural renewal. Di Silvestro also examines the plight of European bison and the latest challenges facing the species in the US: Are the bison doomed to be treated like cattle, fenced and contained? Or will they be listed as an endangered species, requiring us to treat them like the wild animals they are?

We Who Walk the Seven Ways is Terra Trevor's memoir about seeking healing and finding belonging. After she endured a difficult loss, a circle of Native women elders embraced and guided Trevor (Cherokee, Lenape, Seneca, and German) through the seven cycles of life in Indigenous ways. Over three decades, these women lifted her from grief, instructed her in living, and showed her how to age from youth into beauty. With tender honesty, Trevor explores how every end is always a beginning. Her reflections on the deep power of women's friendship, losing a child, reconciling complicated roots, and finding richness in every stage of life show that being an American Indian with a complex lineage is not about being part something, but about being part of something.

In As We See It, Suzanne Newman Fricke invites readers to explore the work and careers of ten contemporary Native American photographers: Jamison Banks, Anna Hoover, Tom Jones, Larry McNeil, Shelley Niro, Wendy Red Star, Beverly Singer, Matika Wilber, William Wilson, and Tiffiney Yazzie. Inspired by As We See It, an exhibition of these artists' work cocurated by Fricke in 2015, the book showcases the extraordinary achievements of these groundbreaking photographers. As We See It presents dialogues in which the artists share their unique perspectives about the history and current state of photography. Each chapter includes an overview of the photographer's career as well as examples of the artist's work. For added context, Fricke includes an introduction, a preface that explores the original exhibition of the same name, and an essay that challenges the ghost of Edward S. Curtis, whose work serves as a counterpoint to the photography of contemporary Native Americans. The text is designed to be read as a whole or in sections for anyone teaching Native American photography. As We See It is an invaluable addition to the library of anyone interested in Native American photography and will be the key source for teachers, researchers, and lovers of photography for years to come.

In the beginning was basketry. Around the world, the intertwining of fibers by hand to form a container is a most ancient of crafts. It is older than pottery and metalwork, older than loom weaving. Woven from the Center presents breathtaking basketry from some of the greatest weavers in the Southwest. Each sandal and mat fragment, each bowl and jar, every water bottle and whimsy is infused with layers of aesthetic, cultural, and historical meanings. This book offers stunning photos and descriptions of woven works from Tohono O'odham, Akimel O'odham, Hopi, Western Apache, Yavapai, Navajo, Pai, Paiute, New Mexico Pueblo, Eastern Apache, Seri, Yaqui, Mayo, and Tarahumara communities. This richly illustrated volume stands on its own as a definitive look at basketry of the Greater Southwest, including northern Mexico. It also serves as a companion to the peerless collection of U.S. Southwest and Northwest Mexican Native American basketry curated at the Arizona State Museum in Tucson, Arizona. Comprehensive in its coverage, this work is based on decades of research on weavers, collectors, and donors. It includes ample illustrations of basket weavers, past and present, bringing to life the people behind these wonderful woven treasures.

Rebecca Valette's Clitso Dedman, Navajo Carver is the first biography of artist Clitso Dedman (1876-1953), one of the most important but overlooked Diné (Navajo) artists of his generation. Dedman was born to a traditional Navajo family in Chinle, Arizona, and herded sheep as a child. He was educated in the late 1880s and early 1890s at the Fort Defiance Indian School, then at the Teller Institute in Grand Junction, Colorado. After graduation Dedman moved to Gallup, New Mexico, where he worked in the machine shop of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway before opening his first of three Navajo trading posts in Rough Rock, Arizona. After tragedy struck his life in 1915, he moved back to Chinle and abruptly changed careers to become a blacksmith and builder. At age sixty, suffering from arthritis, Dedman turned his creative talent to wood carving, thus initiating a new Navajo art form. Although the neighboring Hopis had been carving Kachina dolls for generations, the Navajos traditionally avoided any permanent reproduction of their Holy People, and even of human figures. Dedman was the first to ignore this proscription, and for the rest of his life he focused on creating wooden sculptures of the various participants in the Yeibichai dance, which closed the Navajo Nightway ceremony. These secular carvings were immediately purchased and sold to tourists by regional Indian traders. Today Dedman's distinctive and highly regarded work can be found in private collections, galleries, and museums, such as the Navajo Nation Museum at Window Rock, the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, and the Arizona State Museum in Tucson. Clitso Dedman, Navajo Carver, with its extensive illustrations, is the story of a remarkable and underrecognized figure of twentieth-century Navajo artistic creation and innovation.

Construction of Maya Spaces sheds new light on how Maya society may have shaped--and been shaped by--the constructed environment. Moving beyond the towering pyramids and temples often associated with Maya spaces, this volume focuses on how those in power used features such as walls, roads, rails, and symbolic boundaries to control those without power, and how the powerless pushed back. Through fifteen engaging chapters, contributors examine the construction of spatial features by ancient, historic, and contemporary Maya elite and nonelite peoples to understand how they used spaces differently. Through cutting-edge methodologies and case studies, chapters consider how and why Maya people connected and divided the spaces they used daily in their homes, in their public centers, in their sacred places such as caves, and across their regions to inform us about the mental constructs they used to create their lives and cultures of the past. Contributors Elias Alcocer Puerto Alejandra Alonso Olvera Traci Ardren Jaime J. Awe Alejandra Badillo Sánchez Nicolas C. Barth Grace Lloyd Bascopé Adolpho Iván Batún-Alpuche Elizabeth Beckner M. Kathryn Brown Bernadette Cap Miguel Covarrubias Reyna Juan Fernandez Diaz Alberto G. Flores Colin Thomas H. Guderjan C. Colleen Hanratty Héctor Hernández Álvarez Scott R. Hutson Joshua J. Kwoka Whitney Lytle Aline Magnoni Jennifer P. Mathews Stephanie J. Miller Shawn G. Morton Holley Moyes Shannon Plank Dominique Rissolo Patrick Rohrer Carmen Rojas Sandoval Justine M. Shaw J. Gregory Smith Travis W. Stanton Karl A. Taube Daniel Vallejo-Cáliz

An incisive history of early American archaeology--from reckless looting to professional science--and the field's unfinished efforts to make amends today, told "with passion, indignation, and a dash of suspense" (New York Times). American archaeology was forever scarred by an 1893 business proposition between cowboy-turned-excavator Richard Wetherill and socialites-turned-antiquarians Fred and Talbot Hyde. Wetherill had stumbled upon Mesa Verde's spectacular cliff dwellings and started selling artifacts, but with the Hydes' money behind him, well--there's no telling what they might discover. Thus begins the Hyde Exploring Expedition, a nine-year venture into Utah's Grand Gulch and New Mexico's Chaco Canyon that--coupled with other less-restrained looters--so devastates Indigenous cultural sites across the American Southwest that Congress passes first-of-their-kind regulations to stop the carnage. As the money dries up, tensions rise, and a once-profitable enterprise disintegrates, setting the stage for a tragic murder. Sins of the Shovel is a story of adventure and business gone wrong and how archaeologists today grapple with this complex heritage. Through the story of the Hyde Exploring Expedition, practicing archaeologist Rachel Morgan uncovers the uncomfortable links between commodity culture, contemporary ethics, and the broader political forces that perpetuate destructive behavior today. The result is an unsparing and even-handed assessment of American archaeology's sins, past and present, and how the field is working toward atonement.

Distinguished photographer Edward Ranney presents nearly one hundred extraordinary photographs of the Peruvian huacas--the sacred rock shrines carved by Inca artisans roughly between 1440 and 1532 AD.Ranney's photographs evoke the sacred power that the highland landscape around Cuzco held for the Incas, revealing how aspects of nature such as caves and springs, in addition to rock outcrops, were integral to Inca culture and served as a focus of ritual attention. This extended to items on a more intimate scale, as with special stones or unusual landscape details. The book concludes with an extensive series of pictures featuring the shrines and landscape of Machu Picchu. In her closing essay, Lucy R. Lippard discusses the cultural context of the huacas and how contemporary research and thinking view this unique achievement of ancient America.

"They are a form of language on landscape, a form of inscape, that, intimate and moving, are also arresting and revelatory."-- Arthur Sze  A Luminous Uplift is a rich compendium of John Brandi's new and selected prose spanning four decades of investigative travels through the American Southwest to the far reaches of the Himalaya.  John Brandi's selection of writings over the last four decades opens with his awakening to landscape and poetry during his upbringing in California, his counterculture years in the Sixties, and his Peace Corps work with indigenous farmers in the Andes. Essays on his multiple visits to India, Sikkim and Nepal, with vivid descriptions of Khajuraho's erotic temples, the ritual dances of Kerala, the monasteries of the Himalaya, move from the physical landscape to the literary, with his discovery of Ghalib's poetry and his reflections on Baudelaire while lost in the crowds of Mumbai. Brandi roves in these pages from the sky villages of Hopi, the Deer Dance of Taos, walkabouts with Japanese poet Nanao Sakaki, to his practice of haiku in the New Mexico mesa lands he has made his home.