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Rating: 
Summary: An enduring book
Review: How amazed but delighted I was to still find this book in print. Having travelled in Utah and Arizona, and being a Tony Hillerman fan, I just picked this up "on spec". The only fault I can find is a bit more detail than I want occasionally on the author's travels, but her photos, altho mostly black and white, are priceless, as much for their historical aspect as anything. Being fascinated with jewelry and crafts, just seeing the old style Navajo jewelry, and noticing the change since the 1930's, was interesting enough. (One of my junior high teachers in the 50's had a huge concha belt and necklace - a rarity on the East coast where I grew up.) I learned some things here I hadn't seen in a much more recent specialty book on Southwest Indian jewelry.Details of spinning and rug making are well written and illustrated with clear photos. The author, Laura Gilpin, must herself be quite a remarkable person to have managed all the photos in the 30's with such old, large equipment in rough country. Her own personality comes through in her sympathetic yet not condescending approach to the people she meets. Her personal accounts of incidents, people and places are a delight. Certainly her view is positive and presents the people in a view very similar to Tony Hillerman. I would think his fans would love the book. She delves into history, religion, families, attitudes, lifestyle and many more things. Reading it today, it is possible to see the fruition of some of the plans for irrigation and improvement started when the photos were taken. A great source for any Hillerman fan, and a study of a people by a friend of those people.
Rating:
Summary: An enduring book
Review: How amazed but delighted I was to still find this book in print. Having travelled in Utah and Arizona, and being a Tony Hillerman fan, I just picked this up "on spec". The only fault I can find is a bit more detail than I want occasionally on the author's travels, but her photos, altho mostly black and white, are priceless, as much for their historical aspect as anything. Being fascinated with jewelry and crafts, just seeing the old style Navajo jewelry, and noticing the change since the 1930's, was interesting enough. (One of my junior high teachers in the 50's had a huge concha belt and necklace - a rarity on the East coast where I grew up.) I learned some things here I hadn't seen in a much more recent specialty book on Southwest Indian jewelry.Details of spinning and rug making are well written and illustrated with clear photos. The author, Laura Gilpin, must herself be quite a remarkable person to have managed all the photos in the 30's with such old, large equipment in rough country. Her own personality comes through in her sympathetic yet not condescending approach to the people she meets. Her personal accounts of incidents, people and places are a delight. Certainly her view is positive and presents the people in a view very similar to Tony Hillerman. I would think his fans would love the book. She delves into history, religion, families, attitudes, lifestyle and many more things. Reading it today, it is possible to see the fruition of some of the plans for irrigation and improvement started when the photos were taken. A great source for any Hillerman fan, and a study of a people by a friend of those people.
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