Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Good, easy read April 19, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
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 March 17, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
 Is This Really How the Navajos Did Things? August 10, 2006
0 out of 8 found this review helpful
I'm sorry folks, but I thought it was boring. I know I fell asleep in the beginning of the afternoon one day while I was reading it. Sure, the facts about the Navajo that the author researched, were researched very well. And I had a sense that the Author was going to let me in on just how much he researched, even if most of what he had to say was very subtle. I can take subtle from an author for just a short time, and then I go and look for a good Romance.
A much-needed account of an amazing people September 30, 2005
13 out of 16 found this review helpful
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 "Dine" 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 June 6, 2002
20 out of 22 found this review helpful
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!)
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