2022 Diné Virtual Book Talks
Bee Ak’e’elchíhí Nitsékeesí Bii’jį’ Diné Binaaltsoos Nabik’íyáti’
The Diné Studies Board of Directors invite you to the upcoming Diné Virtual Book Talks for 2022. We are highlighting ten amazing books that cover issues impacting the Diné people. We invite you to the book talks to showcase the work of rising Navajo scholars and community members. Support their work by purchasing their books or participating in the book talks. We also hope that as you join us for these events, you become inspired to consider writing your own manuscript. We will offer future workshops on steps to writing a manuscript and getting published.
We are thankful for the support of our funding donation from Western Sky Community Care.
To register, you must register individually for each upcoming book talk below. You may purchase the author’s book by clicking on the image of the book.
For past Virtual Book Talks, visit our Past Virtual Talks link.
Celebrate the end of a year of the Diné Virtual Book Talk Series with an educational community shoe game!
Round Rock K-8 School gym, January 6, 2023
Join the DSCI and our partners, Round Rock K-8 School and the Collaborative for Harmony, Empowerment, and Innovation, Inc. (CHEII), for an educational community shoe game on January 6, 2023. Open to new and experienced players of all ages, we invite you to learn or practice the rules, songs, and story of Késhjee—the game that determined the balance of day and night and continues to brighten hoghans every winter. Mr. Kevin Belin will lead the teaching session and the game. A community dinner will be provided for all participants.
The Diné Studies Conference Inc. Board of Directors is extremely grateful to all who have engaged in the Diné Virtual Book Talk Series over the last year and we would like to share this appreciation with our community in person, through a meal, good songs, strong laughter, and an inclusive game for all levels of players.
For our young participants, we will have limited copies of Diné children’s literature from the book talk series and door prizes for all participants.
Bring your friends and family and let’s play!
Edison Eskeets and Jim Kristofic “Send a Runner: A Navajo Honors the Long Walk”
Tuesday, December 13, 2022 – 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. (MST)
The Navajo tribe, the Diné, are the largest tribe in the United States and live across the American Southwest. But over a century ago, they were nearly wiped out by the Long Walk, a forced removal of most of the Diné people to a military-controlled reservation in New Mexico. The summer of 2018 marked the 150th anniversary of the Navajos’ return to their homelands. One Navajo family and their community decided to honor that return. Edison Eskeets and his family organized a ceremonial run from Spider Rock in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, to Santa Fé, New Mexico, in order to deliver a message and to honor the survivors of the Long Walk. Both exhilarating and punishing, Send a Runner tells the story of a Navajo family using the power of running to honor their ancestors and the power of history to explain why the Long Walk happened. From these forces, they might also seek the vision of how the Diné—their people—will have a future.
Edison Eskeets is a former All-American runner, coach, artist, and teacher who has been running in the Southwest for over fifty years. He served as the head of school and the dean of students for the nationally recognized Native American Preparatory School. He is the first Navajo trader to manage the Hubbell Trading Post, the oldest continuously operating trading post in Navajo country. He lives between Ganado, Arizona, and northern New Mexico.
Jim Kristofic grew up on the Navajo Reservation in northeastern Arizona. He has written for the Navajo Times, Arizona Highways, Native Peoples Magazine, and High Country News. He is the author of The Hero Twins: A Navajo-English Story of the Monster Slayers, Navajos Wear Nikes: A Reservation Life, Medicine Women: The Story of the First Native American Nursing School, and Reservation Restless (all published by UNM Press). He lives in Taos, New Mexico.
If you have any questions or concerns, email us at dine.studies@gmail.com