Navajo Lifeways : Contemporary Issues, Ancient Knowledge

"I think what is always really amazing to me is that Navajo are never amazed by anything that happens. Because it is like in a lot of our stories they are already there."--Sunny Dooley, Navajo Storyteller

During the final decade of the twentieth century, Navajo people had to confront a number of challenges, from unexplained illness, the effects of uranium mining, and problem drinking to threats to their land rights and spirituality. Yet no matter how alarming these issues, Navajo people made sense of them by drawing guidance from what they regarded as their charter for life, their origin stories.

Through extensive interviews, Maureen Trudelle Schwarz allows Navajo to speak for themselves on the ways they find to respond to crises and chronic issues. In capturing what Navajo say and think about themselves, Schwarz presents this southwestern people’s perceptions, values, and sense of place in the world.

Maureen Trudelle Schwarz is Professor of Anthropology at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York. Her previous publications include Blood and Voice: Navajo Women Ceremonial Practitioners; Navajo Lifeways: Contemporary Issues, Ancient Knowledge; and Molded in the Image of Changing Woman: Navajo Views on the Human Body and Personhood.