Book of the Navajo

By Raymond Locke

Book Overview

The definitive work on the people of the Navajo Nation. First published in 1976, it is now in its 5th edition and is used in anthropology an American studies departments of major univerities throughout the world.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0876874065
• ISBN13: 9780876874066
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Holloway House Pub Co
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 1.0" x 5.1"

Customer Reviews

Good, easy read

This is an easy, engaging read. But, it doesn't cover the last few decades of history, which are really very interesting. Definitely a nice introduction to the Navajo history.

Highly recommended

If you want to really learn about the Navajo culture, history, and issues, this book is probably the best on the market. It is dense with information and well written. Highly recommended.

A much-needed account of an amazing people

Historians may argue over the reasons for much of what the Navajo have experienced--over the Long Walk, over the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute, and over the infamous livestock reduction. They may argue about where the Navajos came from, and what their culture needs to survive and thrive, but no one can argue that they're not a fascinating culture deserving of documentation. Because they are. The Navajo Indians have lived in the area that's now the United States for centuries--probably since shortly after A.D. 1400--and may have migrated here from Asia, via Alaska and northwestern Canada, though there are other valid theories as well. The word "Navajo" is a Spanish corruption of a Tewa Indian phrase that meant something like "those who farm the canyons," but "Diné" is the Navajos' name for themselves, and translates simply as "the people." The Navajo Nation is the modern-day Navajo homeland. It was formed in the early-1900s, to better allow the tribe to deal with American oil companies wishing to lease Navajo land, and is America's biggest Indian reservation, literally a country within a country. The Navajo Nation has its own Bill of Rights, its own flag, a President, its own police force, freedoms and laws unique to the Navajo tribe, and levels of government known as agencies and chapters. Today it's home to about 300,000 Navajo individuals, and covers 25,000 square miles of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado--a reservation larger than the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire combined. The Navajos are a major American culture, and they deserve books that are as well-researched and as fascinating to read as this one. It's a priceless research tool, and aside from the sad episodes it documents, it's a pleasure to read.

Historically Accurate and Dynamic

This book is very dynamic in its broad spectrum of education. For the student of the Navajo culture or th historian wanting to know the insides and motivation of the Native Americans known as Navajos, this book is the best.Detailed, historical and filled with details on the "white mans" conquest. Their habits, traditions, dreams, beliefs, goals, society and place in the history of the New Americas.A must read for anyone wanting to learn about a society that has been opposed, oppressed and often forgotten. They are a brilliant culture.Get this book. Read it well. (I read it three times!)

A Splendid Account of Navajo History and Culture

As a layperson with an interest in Native Americans of the Four Corners region, I was captivated by this comprehensive history of the Dineh. The book is a scholarly, yet highly readable account of the history of this proud and persevering people. There is much for us to learn of Navajo legends, ancestry and customs, as well as the shameful treatment of the Navajo at the hands of the Spanish, Mexicans, other Indian tribes and the U.S. government. The enslavement of Navajo women and children by other cultures was particularly well-documented and shocking in its extent, as was the forced relocation of the People and taking of their homelands.This work provides any interested party with a much deeper appreciation of the strength of the People. Mr. Locke is an eloquent advocate, and evokes in the reader an overwhelming shame at our government's role in fostering the appalling conditions among which many Navajo live to this day.The book would be enhanced by addition of maps denoting the changing tribal boundaries of the Navajo and surrounding tribes, as well as a timeline of major events in the history of the People.