We Walk the Earth in Beauty: Traditional Navajo Lifeways

Witness the time-honored practices of the Navajo as shared by wisdom-keepers who live close to the land and follow ancestral ways. In the nineteen chapters of We Walk the Earth in Beauty, readers will learn practical methods for living in harmony with an austere landscape.

"Everything that surrounds us gives us life," writes Navajo educator Lisa Puente Siyuja in the foreword. "Throughout history, the Diné (Navajo) have learned how to live off the land and provide for their families. ... This book captures the essence of such stories of Diné families who continue this sacred relationship with Mother Earth."

Watch and listen as Hazel Nez weaves a rug, Mary Joe Yazzie fires a clay pot, and Sam Worker stitches a pair of moccasins for his wife. When author Kathy Eckles Hooker and photographer Helen Lau Running collected their stories and photographs in the 1980s, such methods were widespread among the older generations. As those generations pass away, traditional methods are in danger of being lost. Thanks to its careful descriptions of everything from making yucca shampoo to building a hogan, this book is like a time capsule, holding Navajo wisdom for everyone to appreciate.