Snake... and Amy-Tsosie
June Behrens, Josef Muench
Paperback
(York House Publishers, Incorporated, Sept. 1, 1997)
"SNAKE...and Amy-Tsosie" is intended as a teacher/student learning tool and historical reference guide. Synopsis of Book: Over ten thousand years ago, people crossed the Bering Strait into North America. These wanderers moved in search of the animals they needed for food. They traveled in all directions in this new land. It took many generations to find a place to settle. The "People" settled in the Arizona deserts and the southwest. Early Spanish explorers named them the Navajo. Spaniards imported horses, sheep, and goats form Spain. The Navajo made these animals an important part of their life. The Navajo Reservation covers over 17 million acres. Much of the land is used for herding sheep. The reservation is home for more than 200,000 people. They make beautiful jewelry, woven rugs, sand paintings and other works of art. The Navajo word "hozho" is a word that brings together many ideas. With "hozho", the Navajo have harmony, happiness, goodness and beauty. Navajo believe the world is full of evil power as well as good. Evil might come in the form of a snake, a ghost, a coyote, or owl. Contact with an evil or dangerous power could disturb harmony and well being. These possible evil elements must be controlled. In a ceremony, or ritual, good is attracted and evil is driven away. "SNAKE...and Amy-Tsosie" is a true story of a little girl who lived long ago. Her people lived in Monument Valley.
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