"Ross Frank has written a model study of New Mexico's Vecinos-a historical narrative as absorbing as it is illustrative of complex social processes."—Joyce Appleby, author of Inheriting the Revolution: The first Generation of Americans "This is a richly dense and sophisticated history of eighteenth-century New Mexico that focuses on the economic and cultural foundations of identity. Deftly reading subtle changes in material culture and the organization of space, Frank provides historians of the Americas with a fresh perspective on the impact of the Bourbon Reforms at the margins of empire."—Ramón Gutiérrez, author of When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality, and Power in New Mexico, 1500-1846

In the present report, David Brugge, a National Park Service anthropologist and a recognized authority on the Athabaskans of the Southwest, carefully and meticulously details the history of the Navajo people of the Chaco area. Brugge's account is fundamentally descriptive and consciously impartial. Yet at times he presents us alternative views to the published accounts of historical events of the area, offering the "Navajo version" as gleaned from interviews with the old people themselves.

How Navajos navigate the complex world of medicine Surgery, blood transfusions, CPR, and organ transplantation are common biomedical procedures for treating trauma and disease. But for Navajo Indians, these treatments can conflict with their traditional understanding of health and well-being. This book investigates how Navajos navigate their medically and religiously pluralistic world while coping with illness. Focusing on Navajo attitudes toward invasive procedures, Maureen Trudelle Schwarz reveals the ideological conflicts experienced by Navajo patients and the reasons behind the choices they make to promote their own health and healing. Schwarz has conducted extensive interviews with patients, traditional herbalists and ceremonial practitioners, and members of Native American Church and Christian denominations to reveal the variety of perspectives toward biomedicine that prevail on the reservation and to show how each group within the tribe copes with health-related issues. She describes how Navajos interpret numerous health issues in terms of local understanding, drawing on both their own and biomedical or Christian traditions. She also provides insight into how Navajos use ceremonial practice and prayer to deal with the consequences of amputation or transplantation.