Navajoland is the heart and soul of the American Southwest. While the Navajo Reservation incorporates portions of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, this is only about half the traditional homeland of 220,000 Dine, the People. In one way or another, nearly all of it, including the original homeland, is sacred to them. Before Spaniards and Americans affixed their own names to the land, every topographic feature had at least one Navajo name. Many of these made their way onto maps--in various forms--or are still in use among Navajo speakers.

Navajo Places is the most ambitious...

Tony Hillerman is beloved for his novels of intrigue in the American Southwest. In Tony Hillerman s Navajoland, Laurance Linford takes readers on a journey through the Four Corners region to the haunts of Hillerman s characters. Offered in encyclopedic form, each entry gives the common name of a particular location, the Navajo name and history, and a description of the location s significance in various Hillerman novels. An understanding of the Navajo names and their relations to the landscape will lend a new dimension to the characters and events Tony Hillerman created.