Hosteen Klah: Navaho Medicine Man and Sand Painter Volume 73

By Franc Johnson Newcomb

Book Overview

Navaho medicine man and sand painter Hosteen Klah bridged the long span from the old days of tribal greatness and warfare to the new days of tribal greatness and warfare to the new days of change and adjustment. Thus the story of Klah told here is also the story of his prominent family and reflects nearly two hundred important years of Navaho history. Klah's great-grandfather, Narbona, was war chief of the Navahos during their heyday. His mother made the "Long Walk" to the Bosque Redondo (Fort Sumner). After Klah was born in 1867, one year before the treaty establishing the Navaho Reservation, his family moved back to their ancestral land and slowly regained their former wealth. The most influential medicine man on the Reservation, Klah also became an expert weaver. Many of his sand-painting designs were woven on tapestries and so preserved, for he had no successor. The Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art at Santa Fe has its nucleus Klah's tapestries, ceremonial effects, and drawings of his sand paintings.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0806110082
• ISBN13: 9780806110080
• Release Date: October 2012
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Length: 284 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Excellent, ENJOYABLE & READABLE, Navajo history

I first purchased this book at Canyon de Chelly, in the heartland of Navajo country. I had read all Tony Hillerman had written, and I had witnessed a pow-wow on the Navajo reservation. This book is so readable, enjoyable, and comfortable that I have given it to many friends who are interested in the Southwest. It was a fantastic read for a very, very bright sixth-grader, and a fantastic read for several very birght 40-something readers. An excellent way to refresh and enhance your history of the Navajos.