[Hopi] Snake Dancers Entering the Plaza, Edward Curtis, 1921 [Public domain image]

Dancing Gods Indian Ceremonials of New Mexico and Arizona by Erna Fergusson [1931]

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Contents Start Reading Page Index

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This is a first person look at a wide range of Pueblo, Hopi, Navajo, Zuñ, and Apache ceremonials in the late 1920s. This book is both an ethnographic document and a classic of Southwestern literature.

Erna Fergusson (1888-1964), a native New Mexican, was a talented writer and journalist. She earned a master's degree in Latin American studies at Columbia University, and worked for the Red Cross in rural northern New Mexico. She then worked for the Albuquerque Tribune. She founded Koshare Tours, a pioneering tour of Arizona and New Mexico Native American ceremonials. This book grew out of that experience.

Fergusson's writing style is spare and vigorous, filled with a sense of place and a deep appreciation of the desert high plateau region. Dancing Gods is well researched and sympathetic, and remarkably free of attitudes patronizing or idealizing Native Americans.

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Title Page
Contents
Introduction
I. The Pueblo People
II: Dances of the Rio Grande Pueblos
III. Dances of Zuñi Pueblo
IV: The Hopis
V. Hopi Dances
VI: The Navajos
VII: Navajo Dances
VIII: The Apaches
IX: Apache Dances