The Winds Erase Your Footprints

By Shiyowin Miller

A true story of a Navajo family in the 1930s. When white Juanita marries a Navajo man and is taken to New Mexico to live with his family, she must learn to cook on the central fire pit in the hogan,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879612630
• ISBN13: 9780879612634
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Naturegraph & Keven Brown Publications
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 11 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 6 and higher

Customer Reviews

Anita Saavedra

This book chronicles the early life of my grandparents, Luciano and Juanita Platero in New Mexico in the early 1930's. After my grandfather Luciano Platero's untimely death in December of 1936, my grandmother eventually made the very hard decision to move from Canoncito to Albuquerque with my mother Rosita and my aunt Tonita. Her dream of eventually building a house out at Canoncito was realized. She remained in close contact with her Canoncito family after her move to Albuquerque. She saved money to buy a vehicle so she could go out to Canoncito at every opportunity. I have a very clear memory as a child of my "Shima" (my grandmother's mother-in-law). She did not speak English that I know of. She was a wonderful, gentle person who endured many hardships and had many joys in her life. My grandmother, Juanita, remarried in the early 1950's. My second grandfather is John Guerro. They moved to Alamo, New Mexico, which is one of the Navajo tribal reservations in New Mexico. My grandmother died in April 2000 at the age of 95. She was a wonderful person and grandmother and she lived an admirable life. Her influence on all her family was profound. We all miss her very much. Her friend, Shiyowin Miller was a wonderful and gentle spirit. They met in Los Angeles, California I believe in the late 1920's and remained friends until Shiyowin's passing.

A crystal snapshot of daily life

Set in the 1930s, The Winds Erase Your Footprints by Shiyowin Miller, is the true story of Luciano Platero, a Navajo man who worked as an extra in the Hollywood film industry, and his new wife Juanita Platero, who was the first white woman the younger children of her husband's family had ever seen when Luciano and Juanita moved back to live on the Navajo reservation. Luciano's father had died and his mother and the younger children of the family (living in a hogan on the reservation) spoke no English. Juanita spoke no Navajo. The result was a struggle to find a balance between Native American traditions and what Anglo civilization had to offer as Luciano and Juanita eventual found work, created their own home, had two daughters, and raised horses. The Winds Erase Your Footprints with its fascinating, insightful, biographical narrative, offers a crystal snapshot of daily life among native ways and would make a unique and very welcome addition to any Native American Studies collection or supplemental reading list.