This biographical portrait of a Navajo woman and her family holds important lessons for those seeking to restore bonds of family and community. College-educated Ella Bedonie, born on a northern Arizona reservation in 1952, and her husband, Dennis, an elementary school counselor, navigate two worlds?Native American and white, sacred and secular. At the age of six, Ella was forced to attend a government boarding school, where she endured beatings and was punished for speaking Navajo. Then she spent 10 years with a protective Mormon foster family in California, after which she returned to the reservation to confront a longstanding Navajo-Hopi land dispute (the focus of Benedek's The Wind Won't Know Me), which jeopardized her parents' ranch and camp: Ella's future inheritance. In 1989, she and Dennis moved to Flagstaff, Arizona, and built a house, but their teenage son, Kimo, joined a gang and dropped out of school. Diagnosed with breast cancer, Ella moved her family back to the reservation; Kimo straightened out and her cancer went into remission. Benedek evokes Navajo society, customs and a cosmos in which the gods are nearby and life is imbued with purpose. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
This latest work from the author of The Wind Won't Know Me: A History of the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute (LJ 12/92) is a revealing look at a Navajo woman's struggle to retain the culture of her ancestors while living in modern America. Benedek traces the life of Ella Bedonie from her childhood days on the reservation, through her emergence in the white world, and finally to her return to her ancestral homeland. Through Ella's eyes, Benedek presents a vivid portrait of Navajo culture, describing the need for the Navajo people to re-create their beliefs and traditions in order to survive alongside white society. In the book's most striking section, Ella and her family return to the reservation when she is stricken with cancer. There she participates in the traditional ceremonies in an effort to counteract her illness, and she rekindles her faith in Navajo beliefs, which serve as a source of strength and ultimately allow her to live successfully in both worlds. Recommended for Native American collections.?Vicki L. Toy Smith, Univ. of Nevada, Reno
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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