The Navajo see even the most minute parts of their homelands and surrounding territory as infused with sacred significance. Places of special power are the most alive, and stories usually go with them. Navajos visit these places to connect with their power. The places anchor the ways of Navajo life as well as the stories about the origins and the correct pursuit of those ways. Navajos have responded to curiosity about these places and landscapes by trying to keep the locations and stories behind them secret - to save the sites from destruction and to keep their power from being sapped. In the face of unbridled land development, however, protecting the landscapes may mean telling the stories, and it is in that spirit that Kelley and Francis discuss the Navajo's sacred landscapes and the stories that go with them. Navajos tell many kinds of stories, both old and new, about these landscapes, and Kelley and Francis have included some of these stories in this book. The authors believe that in time more examples may be revealed with the blessing of the Navajos who care for them, but the day when Navajos willingly give many such stories to others will come only when the Navajo people themselves have gained control over the use of their land.

AcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart OnePlaces Important to Navajo People: A Survey of Thirteen Navajo Communities1. Background2. The Project to Consult Navajo Communities3. Interpretation of ResultsPart TwoPlaces Important to Navajo People: Other Studies4. Other Studies: What They Did and How They Did It5. Stories and Types of Placed in the Other Studies6. Perserving the Culture by Preserving the Land: The "Landscape" and "Piecemeal" Approaches7. The Hidden ReservoirPart ThreeNavajo Customary Landscapes and Development Landscapes8. What Navajos Say about Cultural Preservation9. Navajo Endangered Landscapes10. Endangered Landscapes outside Navajo JurisdictionPart FourHidden and Manifest Landscapes in Stories11. Analytical Framework12. Hidden and Manifest Landscapes in Two Stories13. A Story about "Where Whiteshell Woman Stopped for Lunch"14. The Land, the People, and Culture ChangeAppendixesNotesReferencesIndexIllustrations follow page 122