Into the Canyon: Seven Years in Navajo Country

By Lucy Moore

Book Overview

In 1968 newlyweds Lucy Moore and her husband moved from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Chinle, Arizona, where he had taken a job with the recently created Navajo legal services program. They were part of a wave of young 1960s idealists determined to help others less fortunate than themselves.

After fulfilling the two-year commitment with the legal program, Lucy and Bob stayed for another five years. Into the Canyon is her account of the places and people they came to love and the lessons they learned from their Navajo neighbors.

"Ms. Moore's recollection of time spent in Navajo County is a beautiful and spirited tribute to Chinle culture. Moreover, we are given a glimpse into what it means to be affected by a place, time, and people. Beautifully constructed."--Women Writing the West

"Never a false note. Clearly written, candid, and funny . . . an engaging read."--Peter Iverson, historian and award-winning author of Diné and For Our Navajo People

"Lucy Moore tells this story with humor, sensitivity, and grace. Her absorbing memoir of seven years living, working, and being herself with Navajo people is a journey of discovery not only of 'the other' but, even more important, a confrontation with her own identity as a white person."--Mark Rudd, last national secretary of SDS, founder of the Weather Underground, teacher, and activist

"A delight to read; an invaluable historical and cultural narrative. . . . A good deal of my first novel, Ceremony, was inspired by Chinle, but I didn't fully appreciate just how much was going on during those years until I read Lucy's book."--Leslie Silko, author of Gardens In the Dunes and Ceremony

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0826334164
• ISBN13: 9780826334169
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
• Length: 236 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Timeless Canyon

I have been visiting Canyon de Chelly and Chinle for the past 10 years, and found it interesting that the place does not seem to have changed much since the author's days there. This is an entertaining and insightful book that has enhanced my knowledge of the area and people.

That's Not What I Meant....

This is a book about how a pair of young, ideaistic white folks fared in Navajoland(now known as "Dinee") during the turbulent sixties and seventies. More importantly, it's a book about cultural and individual identity, and how unintended consequences can spring up like mosquitoes in a sultry pond to bite those who venture into a foreign culture, even with the best of intentions. Written with wit and a welcome dose of humility.

If you like Tony Hillerman, this is even better.

Just finished Into the Canyon. What a lovely book! The naturalness and good humor of the writing are very appealing, and Ms. Moore has a nice way of setting up her anecdotes with a bit of suspense. I especially liked the arrest of the IHS doc in order to commandeer some medical expertise to help her in her coroner duties. And the Hopi Snake Dance. And...well the adventures of the "lawyer and wife" at Chinle are so attractive I felt unlucky not to have been a part of them.

A book as beautiful as its cover

On rare occasions, you actually can tell a book by its cover. Lucy Moore's account of her seven years living and working among the Navajo people near Canyon de Chelly is just such a book. As the cover photo of the "canyon" captures the range of shadow and light of this special and sacred place, so do the stories within explore a full spectrum of human experience. Moore does an especially good job of describing, with humility and humor, her early and on-going lessons about the differences between Anglo and Navajo cultures. Her narrative illustrates the profound and enduring relationships that are possible when people on opposite sides of a cultural divide "stay the course" to discover and celebrate deeper commonalities. Although Moore's book is technically a memoir set in 1968-1975, it contains an inspirational message for our time and for all time.

a great cross-cultural adventure

"Into the Canyon:Seven Years in Navajo Country" is a remarkably honest account of a young white woman's experience in Chinle, Arizona, heart of Navajoland. She leaves Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her new husband to go "do some good" on the Navajo reservation in 1968. Filled with idealism, she quickly is confronted with some surprising cultural realities. She tries understand what it means to be white in the middle of Indian country, and describes the journey with a lot of humor and honesty. The description of her feeling like a minority is insightful and powerful, with a funny twist. Her experiences -- as teacher, Justice of the Peace, insurance salesman -- bring her into situations of conflict, and poignancy, as she tries to help out in a culture where she doesn't know what she has to offer. This book also offers a good picture of the activist movement in the early '70's in the southwest, from an eyewitness vantage point. The style is great -- so honest and just self-deprecating enough to be fun. Moore is a great story-teller. This book should appeal to anyone interested in Indians, the southwest, politics in the '60's, or cross-cultural adventures.