Indian Country: Americas Sacred Land by Tony Hillerman, and Tarahumara: Where Night is the Day of the Moon by Bernard L. Fontana (review)

Reviews 185 Indian Country: Americas Sacred Land. Text by Tony Hillerman, photo­ graphs by Bela Kalman. (Flagstaff: Northland Press, 1987. Unpaged, $34.95/ $24.95.) Tarahumara: Where Night is the Day of the Moon. Text by Bernard L. Fontana, photographs by John P. Schaefer. (Flagstaff: Northland Press, 1987. 167 pages, $21.95.) These two new books from Northland Press have attractive formats and are illustrated with full-page photographs. They are both distinguished by fine writing but are quite different in intent and scope. In Indian Country Hillerman and Kalman present complementary views of the special appeal of the Southwest. Bela Kalman is a professional photog­ rapher who has lived in New Mexico for five years. Here he finds a “rare symmetry of pattern and serene majesty.” In Kalman’s words, his selection of pictures “zoom in and out of history . . . from a millennia ago as well as of today.” The variety of his one hundred and seventy color photographs is startling and refreshing. There are rhythm and pattern in his detailed close-ups of scarlet chilies or rows of Indian dancers. He moves from panoramic land­ scapes to unexpected aerial views of balloons on the ground “perched like Easter eggs.” The book opens with a picture of a buffalo outlined against the sky. It closes with an ironic view of a buffalo walking along a double yellow line, “down the asphalt of the twentieth century.” Author Tony Hillerman is well-known for his many outstanding novels set in the Southwest and for his Navajo detective Jim Ghee. Hillerman is one of the few non-Indian writers who is able to portray Indians with validity and rare understanding. In Indian Country he shows the Hopi, Navajo, Pueblo and Apache links to their homelands through their history, religious beliefs and creation stories. He does not attempt to give a complete survey or in-depth study of Indian religion. His text is a quiet journey to some of the holy places, from the San Francisco Peaks to Mt. Taylor and the Hopi mesas. He finds that “the magic is indeed in the land itself.” For the non-Indian, too, there is a creative energy in this high desert country which draws many writers and artists. He cites the words of Oliver La Farge, Frank Waters and many others on their feelings for sacred landmarks, and writes eloquently of some of his own personal choices: for White Sands with its “utter isolation” ; the petroglyph rocks on a high ridge in the Tularosa Basin where prehistoric hunters camped; Taos Plateau and the gorge of the Rio Grande; the spire of Shiprock, “ a re­ minder of antiquity beyond our power to imagine and forces beyond our power to control.” Indian Country is a rich, brief book to be enjoyed for the increased aware­ ness that the photographs and text may bring. It will add greatly to any journey to the Southwest. Tarahumara: Where Night is the Day of the Moon is a welcome re-issue in a quality paperback edition of a 1979 publication. The author states that this is an “appreciation in photographs and words of a beautiful and gentle people.” The Tarahumara Indians, who live in the rugged Sierra Madre of 186 Western American Literature northern Mexico, are noted for their stamina as long-distance runners. In spite of three hundreds years of contact with the Spanish, Mexicans and, now, with some tourists, they continue to live in their own traditional ways. Some still dwell in rock shelters and caves as well as log houses. B. L. Fontana is an ethnologist and field representative for the University of Arizona. He has researched the historical, anthropological, botanical and medical literature on the Tarahumara, but he states that this work is not intended as an academic study. It is a personal account based on many visits made by Fontana, Schaefer and an interpreter into the back country communi­ ties reached only by trail or small plane. Fontana and Schaefer made many visits at different seasons, sharing the Indians’daily lives, and observing the annual planting cycle. Their subsistence is still based on the ages-old pattern of corn, beans and squash. Their com­ munal work...