Iverson sets out to tell the story of the Navajo from the inside out (even though he is not a tribe member, he had worked with them for a long time and his co-writer (credited as photographer but apparently having a bigger role according to the introduction) is Diné (which is what the Navajos call themselves). The history itself works but I am not entirely sure that he managed the goal of showing the tribe as an agent of its own destiny - but then he may not be responsible for it - there were cases where the Diné had to react and could not lead their own life as they wished to... way too many cases.

The book follows the history chronologically - spending the first chapter on the pre-19th century and then following as the decades passed between the four sacred mountains. That first chapter can be a bit maddening - Iverson tries to present all sides of the different accounts for the history of the tribe by citing the relevant authors and elders. He does summarize and adds his own insights but all of those never-ending all-sided quotes, combined with a mythology which is barely touched upon, end up with a jumble of a first chapter. It is dense, it has a lot of information but it proves that sometimes less is more.

Noone knows where at least part of what formed the modern Bulgarians came from - there are probably more theories than historians working on it. I grew up with this argument and into a culture that was trying to learn where they came from so the history can go back, despite the 13+ centuries of known one (or which claimed some past in some periods). And when I think of Native Americans, I think of places and histories as long as the European ones. So the first thing I had to do was to stop trying to find parallels.

Yes, the Diné came from somewhere - there are linguistic and archeological proofs (and there are even more since the book was published) but that's not the history of the Navajo. One day they reached the 4 mountains in the Southwest and that became their home - they know they came from somewhere but where it is does not matter - they are Diné because they are between these mountains. And if someone else would like join them or is useful, they become Diné as well. It is unclear when they moved into the area - but the best guess for now is somewhere between the 12th and the 15th century (cue the different opinions being cited), more likely towards the end of the period. That is at least a few centuries if not millennia than I expected...

Once they are finally settled, the Spanish show up bringing sheep, horses and cattle. Before long, the Diné make sheep part of their identity to the point where there are no Diné if there are no sheep. This is just an early example of the Navajo finding something useful (people or things or actions) and they weave them into being a Navajo. The weaving they are known for was also borrowed, so is the silversmithing and the rodeo. The tribe absorbs the unknown and new and makes it part of itself. Too bad that they did not manage to pull that off with the Anglos coming in.

With USA making its way West, the Navajo end up in the New Mexico territory (before it gets split into the two future states it will birth). Because of its sheer number (and not being that peaceful - they were not beyond just taking what they wanted), the Navajo had somewhat of a reputation for rebellion (the fact that they refused to listen to the white man did not help much). They got kicked out from their lands (the Long Walk may not be as popular in history as the Trail of Tears but it was no less brutal) and relocated to New Mexico, with further plan to send them to the Indian Territory - until somehow the chiefs manage to convince the authorities to let them go home instead and in 1868 the Treaty is signed and the Diné come back home, between their sacred mountains.

What follows is a mix of expected and unexpected - at a time when everyone else loses land, they get more land for their reservation; they become the Cold Talkers of WWII which help the Pacific theater not to collapse (while not being able to vote when they are back home); they get exploited when mineral resources are found. They lose most of their sheep (because of government policies) and they learn to understand education, the need to speak English and modern medicine and to support it - not because they were told to (that part did not work very well) but because it is the Diné way - what is useful, becomes part of the tribe (to the point that now parents send their children to boarding schools so they can get immersed into the culture and learn the language and the tribe sponsored traditional healers' education). They become the Navajo Nation and they remain in the lands which were given to them - between their mountains.

And in all that history, there are the leaders and the chiefs, the men (and rarely women) who shaped the Nation. It is a matrilineal society and yet it is the men who have the political power (complete with corruption and scandals).

It is a very dense text, packing a lot of information and trying to cover a lot of history. And it mostly works. I wish that there were a few more maps in some chapters and the last chapter reads like an advertisement department art history pamphlet but despite that, it mostly succeed in what it set out to do (complete with surprises - did you know that the Navajo had extensive peaches orchards when the Anglos showed up - which were destroyed just because they could be). There is no way to read this history and not wonder how history could have happened if the Spanish and then Americans had found a different way to deal with the populations they found here.

Iverson worked with printed secondary sources but the bulk of the book is based on original research and primary sources. While working with all the letters and other documents, he and his co-writer Monty Roessel, decided to create a second book. I was planning to read the two books in parallel but their structure is different - while I could have made it work, it actually stands on its own - so I will just read it on its own.

The story finishes in 2002 but the history of the Nation continues - and the last 20 years had been years of reevaluation and reconciliation in a lot of areas. I will be looking for a newer account - because some of the actions were just set in motion when the book came out. And one hopes that this history will never be forgotten.

Is this a perfect book? Not really. But it does its job well enough and it makes you think. ( )