This anthology of essays offers perspectives of the Navajo homeland, nihikéyah, highlighting Diné examinations and understandings of the land.

While various books have investigated Native American reservations and homelands, this book is from Diné individuals’ experiences, observations, and examinations. Poets, writers, and scholars frame their thoughts on four key questions: What are the thoughts/perspectives on nihikéyah/Navajo homeland? What challenges does nihikéyah face in the coming generations, and what should all peoples know about nihikéyah? And how can nihikéyah build a strong and positive Navajo Nation for the rest of this century and beyond?

The authors come from a variety of backgrounds and use multiple approaches to discuss Diné history in the U.S. Southwest, as well as forward-looking examinations of the Navajo Nation.
Together, the essays shed new light on Diné homeland and the challenges to the Navajo homeland and its peoples.

Contributors
Mario Atencio
Shawn Attakai
Wendy Shelly Greyeyes
Rex Lee Jim
Manny Loley
Jonathan Perry
Jake Skeets
Jennifer Jackson Wheeler

Lloyd L. Lee is a citizen of the Navajo Nation and a professor of Native American studies at the University of New Mexico. He is the editor of the Wicazo Sa Review journal, the former book review editor for American Indian Quarterly, the editor of Navajo Sovereignty, and the author of Diné Identity in a Twenty-First-Century World.

“Nihikéyah brings together Diné voices from the people on the ground and on the frontlines of the fight over land and climate change in a world devastated by colonialism. They shed light on how the struggle for survival as Diné and human beings requires sustaining a connection to the homeland between the sacred mountains—a reminder of how all lands are kin.”—Farina King, co-author of Returning Home: Diné Creative Works from the Intermountain Indian School

“This collection of Diné knowledge holders offers their thoughts, experiences, and viewpoints on the topic of the Navajo connection to their traditional homelands. The authors harness a variety of backgrounds and approaches to discuss the role of land as it relates to both Diné history in the U.S. Southwest and more forward-looking discussions of the state of affairs on the Navajo Nation, with content split equally between literary and academic analyses. Together, these essays do a fine job of illustrating the complex state of nihikéyah, ‘our land,’ as viewed by Diné experts themselves and offer lessons for other communities—both Indigenous and otherwise—about how they might think about their own interconnections between land, people, culture, and politics.”—Wade Campbell, Boston University— -