The Nightway: A History and a History of Documentation of a Navajo Ceremonial

The Nightway chant is a Navajo healing ceremonial that extends over several days and incorporates detailed songs, prayers, sandpaintings, and the use of sacred material objects, such as masks. Now available in paperback, The Nightway traces the history and genealogies of Nightway medicine men and the history of the recording and documentation of the chantway by non-Navajo observers.

In this first substantive study of the ceremonial in fifty years, Faris argues that the intricate details and specific Nightway practices are essential to the restoration of harmony and, thus, healing. He makes available for the first time the complete Nightway narrative as given to Mary Wheelwright and Franc Newcomb by Hosteen Klah in 1928 and twenty-two color plates of previously unpublished sandpainting reproductions. Anthropologists, Navajo specialists, and students of comparative religion and cultural criticism will welcome this volume.