Sacred Land, Sacred View: Navajo Perceptions of the Four Corners Region

Sacred Land Sacred View was written to help honor, record and preserve navajo beliefs and heritage about the Four Corners areas, more than to present a scholarly work on changes in Navajo belief and thought. In the beginning, the author quotes Joseph Campbell's four criteria for a belief system to be a viable force in a person's life. They are (1)mystical function, enabling person to live with awe and gratitude toward the supernatural forces of the universe, (2) attunement with the knowledge and science of the times, giving adequate explanation of how things occur that does not conflict with the understanding of the physical world, (3) validation of the teachings and practices of the morally acceptable in cultural context, and (4) It is a guide to spiritual harmony and strength in a useful life (paraphrased, page 5). Sacred Land Sacred View attempts to reconstruct legends, prehistory, tales of the Navajo that contribute to the criteria above for peoples of the Four Corners. Black and White Photos of scenes and formations help clarify the legends and Navajo histories associated with specific sacred sites. A tone of reverence sets the scene. There are also important views of the Navajo's perspectives on earlier cultures such as the Anasazi. The recurring theme, however is the resolution of cultural dissonance by the Navajo, and, perhaps by implication, all western culture. "Returning to the metaphor given earlier, the new generations of the Dine can 'sleep' through the teachings of their elders or they can be like the student, who said, regarding the holy beings, 'If I were awake, they would say I am their child.' The choice is an individual expression that every Navajo person will make. Whatever each decides, may it take him or her on a path of beauty over a landscape that has meaning and the power to teach and protect (pp.130-131.)" Sacred Land Sacred View is a quietly moving book, designed to appeal and to inform. Brigham Young University/Chas. Redd Center for Western Studies/Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer