Navajo  by Darryl Benally

I bought this book as research for my next One-Armed Detective novel as I want to set that novel in Navajo Nation. For those that don’t know, Navajo Nation is in northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico. This is one man’s story of growing up in the Navajo Nation. It’s a fascinating look at a difficult family situation intermixed with modern Navajo culture and ancient Navajo legends.

Many of the chapters start with a vignette about the Tó’aheedlíinii Lady, the legendary matriarch of the Tó’aheedlíinii clan, the largest of the Navajo clans, to which the author’s family belonged. Each vignette is a chain in the linked story of this woman.

Mr. Benally pulls no punches describing the struggles his family had with an alcoholic father. He also describes the challenges he went through attending a government-run boarding school. He describes these schools, which his mother also attended, as places designed to strip away the Navajo culture from the students in an attempt to “help” them blend into American culture.

Ironically, Mr. Benally’s personal story isn’t different from many personal stories in all cultures around the world. Dysfunctional families are found everywhere. And dealing with one or more alcoholic parents impacts millions of children. What I found fascinating was how he wove into his personal story the traditions and lessons handed down through his family, clan, and tribe, and how those lessons helped him on his journey of strength, courage, and resilience.

Much of the book is set during the early eighties, during Mr. Benally’s childhood. His story is compelling, tragic, and yet hopeful. What I’m unclear on and hope to learn is how different is Navajo life today compared to forty years ago.

For anyone whose knowledge of the indigenous people in our country is gleaned only from television, movies, or heaven help you, the media, I recommend this book, which should dispel many of those stereotypes.

One of Mr. Benally’s claims is that indigenous people groups and especially the Navajo are forgotten people in this country. And to his point, there isn’t much reported on them. In Arizona where I live, we see a little more, especially during COVID as it hit their community hard, and now with some stories in the news about how certain organizations are running welfare scams on them. But we tend to focus on other minority groups and not enough on the indigenous peoples who were here long before other people groups were.

I’ll rank this number two so far, based on the content and the number of stickies marking pages with potentially useful information for my upcoming novel. However, the ranking system for non-fiction doesn’t seem as useful as it is for fiction, as the topics may drive which books readers will read. And unlike the fiction selections I’ve read this year, all the non-fiction books have been excellent.

1. Loonshots by Safi Bahcall
2. Navajo by Darryl Benally
3. Chase the Lion by Mark Batterson
4. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant

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