Description: Modern Navajo tribal government originated in 1923 solely to approve oil leases. This ethnohistory tracks the major changes brought to the Navajo people in the six decades following the discovery and exploitation of oil and gas on tribal lands.
Brief description: Kathleen P. Chamberlain is professor of history at Eastern Michigan University. She is the author of Victorio: Apache Leader and Warrior (2007) and Under Sacred Ground: A History of Navajo Oil, 1922-1982 (UNM Press, 2000) and coauthor of Power and Promise: The Changing American West with Gary C. Anderson (2008).
Review Quotes: ""Under Sacred Ground" uncovers an important but neglected episode of Dine history."