Pueblo and Navajo Indian Life Today

Book excerpt: This collection represents a segment of the lives of the Navajo and Pueblo people of the American Southwest-two diverse groups who are an important part of American culture today. Each year thousands of visitors from all over the world attend their various ceremonial dances and events and many arrive with a knowledge and understanding of these happenings. For others, these are totally new experiences and a door is opened to unfamiliar ways of life, customs, traditions, and beliefs that have existed for hundreds and sometimes thousands of years, long before this country was called America. The "American-Indian Quarterly" said that "this text promotes the same kind of browsing magazines invite. Come to these gatherings and stroll, it seems to imply on page after page; at your leisure learn to appreciate how feasting and singing merge with dancing and storytelling." * * * * Kris Hotvedt studied at the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, received a BFA degree from San Francisco Art Institute, and her MFA from the Instituto Allende in Mexico. An artist of strong professional commitment and identification with Native American and Hispanic culture, Hotvedt exhibited widely throughout the United States in both group and solo shows. Her work is represented in public and private collations. The woodblock print was her principal medium, a medium that seems to best capture her unique interpretation of the American Southwest scene.