Talking to the Ground: One Family's Journey on Horseback Across the Sacred Land of the Navajo

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Summary: Blending the Physical and the Myth
Review: A wonderful read, both encouraging and disheartening, with some real family values thrown in. A graphic, first-hand description of the way things were and are, and might be. Mr. Preston provides many enduring messages about the sanctity of life and living that the Bilagaana have nearly completely lost in our rush of subservience to the technology god.

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Summary: A narrative of a journey of journeys
Review: Preston's TALKING TO THE GROUND is one of the most gripping narratives I have read. Why? He takes us along with him (and family) to the dusty trails of Navajo Mountain on horseback down into Navajo Lands including Monument Valley and eventually Shiprock. As we ride the pilgrimage trail with the author, we too become faint and dizzy as we pick our way down incredibly steep, almost trailless cliffs. We hope, as we follow the route of the mythological monster slayer, that there will be some little spring or seep for our horses to take a drink. We hope we will get to the next Navajo dwelling where we might purchase some hay for our tired and hungry animals. We are elated when Preston and family make it to safe terrain after weeks of hardship. No novice to this marvelous country of the American Southwest, Preston had studied Navajo mythology and mysticism deligently during his days as a researcher at the American Museum of Natural History. He had also studied maps and made inquiries about the possibility of riding across the entire Navajo Nation to gain spiritual strength and wisdom. It is as shocking to the reader as it was to Preston when he was told by sunglassed young Navajo turks at Monument Valley that he couldn't possibly know a damn thing about Navajo lands and culture on such a superficial trip as this--riding horseback for several hundred miles and reading other honkies' books. Yet this moment of humility strengthens the narrative by allowing for soul searching and further journeying into wonder to trail's end at Shiprock

Rating:
Summary: a must-read for anyone interested in American culture
Review: This book and its predecessor, Cities of Gold, chronicle the amazing, arduous, foolhardy, inspired journeys of a "yankee" in search of the traces of cultures his own people have nearly annihilated. Unlike many memoirists, Preston doesn't shrink from chronicling his own failures and misjudgments, and that's what makes him so accessible to the people he meets along the way, and to the reader him or herself. Most of us will probably never have the guts to make these journeys or get to know all these people - that's what makes this book such a radical act of anti-tourism. Above all it's a poignant homage to "the people." (They know who they are!) If you're a horse person, a traveler to the southwest, or if you're just interested in the question "what is American?" you have to read these books now. And don't miss the great story about the skinwalkers - it's enough to keep you cold in July.

Rating:
Summary: a must-read for anyone interested in American culture
Review: This book and its predecessor, Cities of Gold, chronicle the amazing, arduous, foolhardy, inspired journeys of a "yankee" in search of the traces of cultures his own people have nearly annihilated. Unlike many memoirists, Preston doesn't shrink from chronicling his own failures and misjudgments, and that's what makes him so accessible to the people he meets along the way, and to the reader him or herself. Most of us will probably never have the guts to make these journeys or get to know all these people - that's what makes this book such a radical act of anti-tourism. Above all it's a poignant homage to "the people." (They know who they are!) If you're a horse person, a traveler to the southwest, or if you're just interested in the question "what is American?" you have to read these books now. And don't miss the great story about the skinwalkers - it's enough to keep you cold in July.