Beyond the Four Corners of the World: A Navajo Woman’s Journey.

Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, (1998). First Edition. Octavo, softbound (slick, full-color illus. wrappers), 343 pp. Fine. From lower cover: Beyond the Four Corners of the World is the story of Ella Bedonie, a remarkable Navajo woman struggling to find her place in the world. We follow her from her childhood tending sheep in the high desert canyons of the Navajo reservation to the long, frightening ride to boarding school, and on into the white man’s world and a college degree. We meet her parents and grandparents, who live and worship their gods much as their ancestors have done for centuries. We meet her husband and her children, whose lives straddle two worlds, ancient and modern, sacred and profane, and we see how the family’s careful balance of tradition and modernity is threatened when a government relocation program uproots them from their reservation home.