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Navajo Sacred Places

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In Navajo Sacred Places, Kelly and Harris seek to elucidate the sacredness of Navajo landscapes. The monograph consists of four main parts which are subdivided into thirteen chapters. The authors introduce their own research in Part One. In Part Two, they compare their work to other researches on the same issue conducted by other scholars. In Parts Three and Four, Kelley and Harris make comparisons between their work and those of others in terms of methodology and interpretations of the analyses. With such efforts, the two authors try to establish an argument for the preservation of Navajo culture that is tied to the sacred places on the Navajo Reservation. What the Navajos are concerned with most is the preservation of the sacred sites against land and economic developments, which is ironically, needed for the enrichment of the modern Navajo society. In the course of land development, some sacred places are endangered in exchange for the economic development. Developers often consult with the Navajo elders, who are knowledgeable of such sacred sites, in order to identify which sites are more important and which sites can be sacrificed." Consequently, this results in prioritizing of sacred places. In light of this, Kelley and Harris warn that the prioritization of these sacred places for the sake of economic developments becomes what they call as "piecemeal approach," and is a menace to the preservation of Navajo culture. In contrast, they declare that each sacred space must be viewed as a part of the larger sacred geography in terms of the cultural preservation against the economic development. Such approach is glossed as "landscape approach," and comprises the core of their assertion in this monograph. As far as the authors are concerned, the preservation of the sacred places is crucial to the Navajos, and is always confronted by the curse of the colonization. By offering their "landscape approach," they hope to provide a solution. However, colonization has brought several other changes to the Navajo culture, such as the decrease in the number of the medicine man who are the keepers of the traditional religious repertoires. This religious change connotes the decrease in the importance of the sacred places and knowledge associated with them. Thus, the question becomes: How can the "landscape approach" be effective in such a circumstance? Though the authors display their awareness of the problematic nature of colonization and the efforts made by the Navajos to cope with the situations, their theory is ironically trapped into the curse of colonialism. The theory of the authors is only an idealism which lacks pragmatic solution to "real-time-oriented" contemporary society which places economical prosperity on a higher priority over cultural nourishment.