Arizona Books

I happen to be part of one of the families discussed in this book. I found it to be quite nice. I wasn't mentioned in the book but my mother, grandma, granpa etc. was. I think Geta did a fabulous job in making this book a success! It took a lot of time to archive this information about my family, and through this book, I am able to know where my ancestors came from and pass the book on to my children in the years to come. thank You.

Sincerely, Sommer Hayes

Notebooks of Elizabeth Cook-Lynn is a diverse collection of poetry, prose, and political views. that questions the all-too-common bias and distortion that permeates retellings of American history. "...the Image of The White American Male as Fearless Explorer and Conqueror, intrepid, strong and brave Seeker of New Vistas going out fearlessly into the Unknown, is well established in story and legend. Why else was Star Trek the most popular television show in the history of the small screen?" A biting critique of national self-aggrandizement, written with intelligent passion and a keen sense for pointing out misdirections and half-truths. Cook-Lynn is especially fearsome in her denouncement of human atrocities, subversions of the democratic process, and cover-ups. "Democracy in 2002 and the Free Press": A disputed election / a pretender president // press coverage / like a flood shrouds circumstances / of political theft, journals stride past in fear / and darkness, faded shawls about their shoulders // but, the FCC changes its regulations / so news organizations / can become conglomerates / ravenous, sanctimonious abusers / of the rights of mankind.

Edited by Jon Reyhner, Octaviana V. Trujillo, Roberto Luis Carrasco, and Louise Lockard, this book is essential for Native people and others doing work within Indian Country on behalf of our languages and peoples.

The book's website, http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/NNL/, writes: "This book focuses on immersion language teaching methods, the use of technology in language revitalization, and other topics related to current efforts among Indigenous peoples to reclaim their linguistic and cultural heritages so they can live better lives in our modern world."

The book's contributers are: Sara L. Begay, Ruth Bennett, Heather A. Blair, Elizabeth Brandt, Roberto Luis Carrasco, Courtney B. Cazden, Ella Christie, Marilyn Cochran, Qwo-Li Driskill, Dora Dunn, Lula Elk, Ed Fields, JoAnn Fields, Leanne Hinton, Tracy Hirata-Edds, Wayne Holm, Anna Huckaby, Mary Jimmie, Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley, Walter P. Kelley, Jeanette King, Barbara Laderoute, Louise Lockard, Tony L. McGregor, Gary Owens, Donna Paskemin, Lizette Peter, Margaret Raymond, Jon Reyhner, Florencia Riegelhaupt, Robert N. St. Clair, Irene Silentman, Deputy Chief Hastings Shade, Gloria Sly, Laura Wallace, George Wickliffe, Akira Yamamoto, and Evangeline Parsons Yazzie.

Rooted in the Annual Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Conference, this collection offers information for people at all levels of experience within First Nations / Native language revitalization movements and is a tool to be used by activists, linguists, and scholars.

This book in a larger sense is about "progress," about how new peoples equipped with newer laws, can overpower and replace older settlers and their traditions. In a land tenure policy dating back to the time Spanish settlers first inhabited what became New Mexico, governors were permitted to make grants to landless people, whether individuals or groups (usually related by blood in some way). These grants usually consisted of small agricultural areas, with the vast non-tillable regions (mountains, waterless desert stretches) carrying no title and open to all. It was with the influx of new settlers, mainly from the States, after 1846 that brought the concept of private ownership, especially of vast tracts of land. The Maxwell Land Grant, cobbled together from the earlier Beaubien-Miranda grant, was a huge, unsurveyed (thought at first to be anywhere between 97,000 and 1 million acres in size) parcel of land in northern New Mexico; how big it was, who actually owned it, and what rights previous settlers had on it were questions that roiled the are in conflict for decades until the Supreme Court settled the issue in 1887: the early Spanish settlers had no legitimate claims to their land any longer.

O.P. McMains was a Methodist minister who had come to New Mexico in 1875 to avenge the murder of fellow minister, and land grant opposer, F.J. Tolby. Partially successful in this, he stayed on and became a leading spokesman for settlers fighting the illegally expanded Maxwell Land Grant. Fifteen times he brought the case of the settlers to Washington, to little avail. The cause became a personal crusade for McMains against not just land grant policy, but also against many injustices levelled against the "common people." He could be fanatical: once he had himself purposely arrested for manslaughter charges to gain a podium for his cause.

Taylor's portrait of McMains is excellent; the man was truly admirable in many regards. Not only was he an indefatigable crusader, he also wrote poetry on the side. The book is a fascinating look at a particular period of time in the formation of the West and a man who fought the encroachments of the "new" as they ran roughshod over the traditions of the "old."

Obsidian was a critically important material for paleolithic and neolithic peoples in the production of stone tools. Archaeologists rely on obsidian tools to map and date social and economic organization in the ancient Native American cultures in the Southwest. Obsidian: Geology And Archaeology In The North American Southwest by M. Steven Shackley (Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Berkeley Archaeological XRF Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley) is the summation of decades of investigation, integrating the body of obsidian research into a single reference work. Obsidian includes advances in analytical chemistry and field petrology, presenting the most recent data on (and interpretations of) archaeological obsidian sources in the Southwest, while also exploring the ethnohistorical and contemporary background for obsidian use in Native American indigenous societies. The reader is also presented with an erudite discussion of the diverse ways in which archaeologists should approach obsidian research and a thorough survey of archeological obsidian studies that has methodological and theoretical applications for any archaeological dig anywhere in the world. Enhanced with 14 halftone and 43 line illustrations, Obsidian is a core addition to professional and academic Archaeological Studies reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

I can't put my finger on it, but this is one of the books I keep next to my bed for when my soul is feeling black. It's simple, home-ey, powerful.

Also, if you happen to be from southern Arizona, it's good to get to know your neighbors a bit more.

When I feel like I'm in an urban jail, I remember the moon hanging over the Sea of Cortez in one poem, I and I remember there's so much more to the universe...

Apache Pass * Dragon Spring * The Devil's Highway * Oatman Flat * Morgan's Ferry * Whitlow's Crossing * The Butterfield Overland Trail * Filibuster Camp * Fort Misery * Brunckow Mine * Soldier Holes * Adamsville * Maricopa Wells * Fort Moroni * Berado's Station * General Cook Wagon Road

To western historians and lovers of the Old West, these places are deeply fascinating. Where there was only virgin wilderness, where there was no touch of the hand of man, some hardy forebear made an outpost of civilization in a new land. We want to know who they were, why they came, what their life was like, why they left. What people of history, famous or notorious, prominent or obscure, may have dwelled there or passed by? Even in these late days we yearn to reach out and touch it, see it, be a part of it ourselves.

Their place names are touched with romance - camp, well, pass, spring, flat, station - from the nation's western heritage in which Americans still have a deep interest. There are no more of them; words like subdivision, condominium, apartment, and suburb can never replace them.

To read these stories is to discover a past which many have never heard. -- from book's back cover

Excellent book. Very well written and could read the pain she suffered...the indignities. Shared this with a friend and she liked it too.

Just got my copy of this wonderful book! It is an amazing collection of poetry--- sort of pulls you out of yourself and into the space of real life. Intellectual and gritty all at the same time, it makes me glad I got enough of an education to really appreciate it! Sorry I don't read Spanish---some are in that language--if they're as good as the ones in English, I missed out. Hope more like this are on the way...

From The Oracle Speaks

The search for oneness and wisdom cannot be found through another but relies upon the responsibility and willingness of each one to develop the strength to return to the self. This book shares practical, effective and simple ways to purify oneself and reach enlightment. Upon this return, all skills based on love and truth arise and begin to manifest in one's life. The mastery leads to divinity - our destiny; a breakthrough for humanity.