In “We Walk the Earth in Beauty: Traditional Navajo Lifeways,” everyone can experience the time-honored practices of the Navajo people, as shared by wisdom-keepers who live close to the land and follow ancestral ways. The book goes on sale today everywhere books are sold, including independent bookstores, online shops, and here at Soulstice Publishing. The book was created by Kathy Eckles Hooker, in partnership with the extraordinary Caribbean photographer Helen Lau Running.
About This Book
The book offers careful descriptions of how traditional Navajo people do everything from making yucca shampoo to building a hogan. Watch and listen as Mary Joe Yazzie fires a clay pot, Hazel Nez weaves a rug, and Sam Worker stitches a pair of moccasins for his wife. In this book’s 19 informative chapters, readers will learn much that is of practical value for living in harmony with a desert environment.
First published in 1991 as Time Among the Navajo, the book is being presented in a new edition. This third edition includes a new preface, foreword, introductory text, and notes. Its publication reflects a belief in the importance of preserving traditional Navajo cultural practices in book form and sharing them with Navajo and non-Navajo people alike.
In its review, Kirkus described the book as “a straightforward and richly atmospheric illustrated look at traditional Navajo customs.” Read the Kirkus review here.
The book costs $34.95. A portion of each sale is donated to Adopt-A-Native-Elder, a nonprofit organization that “serves to help reduce extreme poverty and hardship facing traditional Elders living on the Navajo Reservation.” We’ve shared the table of contents at the end of this post.
About the Author
Kathy Eckles Hooker moved to the Navajo Reservation in the 1970s, where she taught English to Diné students at Dilcon Boarding School. Later, she taught English at Flagstaff Unified School District for 33 years, where again she worked with Diné students. Hooker is also the author of Voices of Navajo Mothers and Daughters: Portraits of Beauty, which honors the voices of more than 60 Navajo women in 21 families. The book won several national awards.
About the Photographer
Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Helen Lau Running (1945–2014) lived and worked in Flagstaff, Arizona. She committed herself to documenting traditional lifeways and environmental stewardship among the peoples and cultural landscapes of the Colorado Plateau. Her poignant black-and-white documentary work remains a visual testament to the respectful relationships she developed with Diné people as she worked with them to preserve their cultural legacy for future generations.
Inside the Book
Table of Contents
Part 1: Plants
Chapter 1: Yucca Shampoo; The Spencer Family
Chapter 2: Bé’ézó (Grass Brush); Stella Worker
Chapter 3: Grinding Corn; Roberta Blackgoat
Chapter 4: Cornmeal Patties; Roberta Blackgoat
Chapter 5: Navajo Tea; Stella Worker
Part 2: Water
Chapter 6: Hauling Water; Danny Blackgoat
Chapter 7: Navajo Farming; Ella Deal
Chapter 8: Firewood ;Danny Blackgoat
Part 3: Wood
Chapter 9: Corral; Oskar Whitehair
Chapter 10: Summer Shelter; Yazzie
Part 4: Animals
Chapter 11: Moccasins; Sam Worker
Chapter 12: Branding; The Deal Family
Chapter 13: Herding; The Deal Family
Chapter 14: Cooking a Goat; Roberta Blackgoat
Chapter 15: Horse Hobble; Joe Gordy
Chapter 16: Navajo Rug; Hazel Nez
Part 5: Soil
Chapter 17: Pottery; Mary Joe Yazzie
Chapter 18: Mud Oven; Addie Yazzie
Chapter 19: Hogan; Delbert Begay
Acknowledgments
A Tribute to Helen Lau Running
List of Plates
Notes
Suggested Readings
About the Author