Navajo

Navajo Women: Saanii

“I am a child of Changing Woman.” That is a line in a Navajo prayer spoken by medicine men on behalf of patients, and in the old days it was symbolic and spiritual. Today, it is real. Navajo women, once relegated to bearing children, caring for the home, and raising livestock in a matrilineal society, have transformed themselves into businesswomen, attorneys, truck drivers, pilots, nurses, artists, presidential candidates, and more. Who is the Navajo woman and what drives her in 2007? Join Navajo writer Betty Reid and photographer Kenji Kawano on a journey through the cycle of a Navajo woman’s life, from east (birth and youth) to south (teenager and young adult) to west (adult) to north (elder).

It Had To Be Done

In early 1942, during the darkest months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a group of 29 Navajo Marines, young and fresh out of boot camp, were taken into a room with bars on the windows and a guard at the door. Their task: devise a top-secret code that would thwart the sharpest cryptanalytic minds in Imperial Japan. And they succeeded.

Her Land, Her Love

A sobering perspective of what it was like to be forced on the Navajo Long Walk, one of our nation’s most traumatizing events. Ninaanibaa’, the young woman whose family the story centers on, is the heart of the novel. Two of her young daughters are kidnapped prior to removal. Through the love of her warrior husband, Haske Yil Naanaah, she never gives up hope of reuniting again with her daughters.

The Hogan That Great-Grandfather Built

This children’s picture book tells the story of one multigenerational Navajo family that works, plays, eats, sleeps and shares their lives together in around their family hogan. It is a charming story of how the youngest children’s lives are intrinsically linked to their home and family.

The Hero Twins

The Hero Twins tells the story of two brothers born to Changing Woman and trained by the Holy People to save their people from the naayéé’, a race of monsters. But the naayéé’ can’t be beaten alone. Family and friends and wise mentors must lead any warrior down the good path toward victory.

Cowboy Up!: Ride the Navajo Rodeo

It’s morning at the rodeo. Riders are standing by. Horses are in the chutes. “Cowboy up!” the announcer calls. Then the excitement begins In this riveting collection, narrative poems give voice to the individual competitors, lively prose explains rodeo events, and evocative photographs show off the riders and ropers, the horses, bulls, and broncs. It all adds up to an unforgettable close-up view of Navajo rodeo over the course of one action-packed day.

The Navajo

Presents a brief introduction to the Navajo Indians including information on their society, homes, food, clothing, crafts, and life today.