Dramatic geographical formations tower over the Four Corners country in the southwestern United States. The mountains, cliffs, and sandstone spires, familiar landmarks for anglo travelers, orient Navajos both physically and spiritually. In Sacred Land, Sacred View, Robert McPherson describes the mythological significance of these landmarks. Navajos read their environment as a spiritual text: the gods created the physical world to help, teach, and protect people through an integrated system of beliefs represented in nature. The author observes that the Middle East is of "no greater import to Christians than the Dine's holy land is to Navajos." He continues: "Sacred mountains circumscribe the land, containing the junction of the San Juan River and Mancos Creek, where Born for Water invoked supernatural aid to overcome danger and death and where, at the Bear's Ears formation, good triumphed over evil." The more one learns about the Dine, the more one inevitably admires their way of perceiving and interpreting what lies just beyond the focus of human vision. Their renowned respect for nature and way of living in harmony with the environment derive from their religious traditions.

A “thought-provoking, myth-smashing” exploration of American identity and a passionate call for a more tolerant, interfaith America (Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State) There is no better time to stand up for your values than when they are under attack. Alarmist, hateful rhetoric once relegated to the fringes of political discourse has now become frighteningly mainstream, with pundits and politicians routinely invoking the specter of Islam as a menacing, deeply anti-American force. In Sacred Ground, author and renowned interfaith leader Eboo Patel says this prejudice is not just a problem for Muslims but a challenge to the very idea of America. Patel shows us that Americans from George Washington to Martin Luther King Jr. have been “interfaith leaders,” illustrating how the forces of pluralism in America have time and again defeated the forces of prejudice. And now a new generation needs to rise up and confront the anti-Muslim prejudice of our era. To this end, Patel offers a primer in the art and science of interfaith work, bringing to life the growing body of research on how faith can be a bridge of cooperation rather than a barrier of division and sharing stories from the frontlines of interfaith activism. Patel asks us to share in his vision of a better America—a robustly pluralistic country in which our commonalities are more important than our differences, and in which difference enriches, rather than threatens, our religious traditions. Pluralism, Patel boldly argues, is at the heart of the American project, and this visionary book will inspire Americans of all faiths to make this country a place where diverse traditions can thrive side by side.

Few regions of the United States can equal the high concentration of endangered ancient cultural sites found in Hawaii. Built by the indigenous people of the Islands, the sites range in age from two thousand to two hundred years old and in size and extent from large temple complexes serving the highest order of chiefs to modest family shrines. Today, many of these structures are threatened by their proximity to urban development. Sites are frequently vandalized or, worse, bulldozed to make way for hotels, golf courses, marinas, and other projects. The sixty heiau photographed and described in this volume are all located on Oahu, the island that has experienced by far the most development over the last two hundred years. These captivating images provide a compelling argument for the preservation of Hawaiian sacred places. The modest sites of the maka‘ainana (commoners) - small fishing, agricultural, craft, and family shrines - are given particular attention because they are often difficult to recognize and prone to vandalism and neglect. Also included are the portraits of twenty-eight Hawaiians who shared their knowledge with archaeologist J. Gilbert McAllister during his survey of Oahu in the 1930s. Without their contribution, the names and histories of many of the heiau would have been lost. The introductory text provides important contextual information about the definition and function of heiau, the history of the abolition of traditional Hawaiian religion, preservation issues, and guidelines for visiting heiau. With contributions by Kehaunani Cachola-Abad, J. Mikilani Ho, and Kawika Makanani.

From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Lost City of the Monkey God comes an entrancing, eloquent, and entertaining account of the author’s adventurous journey on horseback through the Southwest in the heart of Navajo desert country. In 1992 author Douglas Preston and his wife and daughter rode horseback across 400 miles of desert in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. They were retracing the route of a Navajo deity, the Slayer of Alien Gods, on his quest to restore beauty and balance to the Earth. More than a travelogue, Preston’s account of their “one tough journey, luminously remembered” (Kirkus Reviews) is a tale of two cultures meeting in a sacred land and is “like traveling across unknown territory with Lewis and Clark to the Pacific” (Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee).

The earth is marked with the traces of man's ancient past, and Marilyn Bridges's photographs reveal the spiritual forces inherent in our ancestral creations. Her exploration highlights the mysterious Nazca lines painstakingly scored two thousand years ago onto a Peruvian desert landscape the sacred temples and pyramids of the Maya, deep in the Yucatan jungle the enigmatic earthworks of ancient North American Indians and the colossal prehistoric temple of Stonehenge. Taken from daringly low altitudes, Bridges's aerial photographs pose profound questions about the relationship of human culture and the natural world. Essays by Haven O'More, director of the Institute of Traditional Science, Lucy Lippard, and other leading thinkers lend insight into the quest to uncover lost knowledge of the creation of these mysterious markings.

"The Chaudhuris' new book, A Sacred Path: The Way of the Muscogee Creeks is an important work that explains and documents the Creeks' persistence as a people despite having been defrauded and dispossessed of their ancient homelands."--Back cover.

Through the story of Lawrence Hart, Raylene Hinz-Penner bridges the Mennonite world and the world of the Cheyenne-Arapaho people. This is a story that cuts against the grain of the expectations of who American Indians are and what American Indians can do.