Description
For almost ninety years, Navajo medicine man John Holiday has watched the sun rise over the rock formations of his home in Monument Valley. Writer and scholar Robert S. McPherson interviewed Holiday extensively and in A Navajo Legacy records his full and fascinating life.
In the first a part of this book, Holiday describes how, at an early age, he began an apprenticeship with his grandfather to be informed the Blessingway ceremony. As a youth, Holiday traveled over the desert with members of the family to find forage for the animals and plants for healing practices. He experienced the invasion of Monument Valley by whites and later participated in the early filmmaking industry. Holiday used to be employed in the 1930s with the Civilian Conservation Corps and then served a brief stint in the military. All over the 1950s he mined in one of the most two largest uranium deposits on the Navajo Reservation. He also worked on the railroad in Utah. But he at all times returned to eke out a living with his livestock and agriculture.
In the second one a part of the book, Holiday details circle of relatives and tribal teachings. All of Holiday’s experiences and teachings reflect the thoughts of a traditional practitioner who has found in life both beauty and lessons for future generations.