Meditations with the Navajo: Prayers, Songs, and Stories of Healing and Harmony

by Gerald Hausman, Richard Erdoes (Foreword)

For the Navajo, who call themselves the Diné (literally, "the People"), the story of emergence--their creation myth--lies at the heart of their beliefs. Gerald Hausman collects this and other stories with meditations that together capture the essence of the Navajo people's way of life and their understanding of the world--a world that thrives only on harmony and balance.

Genres: Spirituality

144 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 12, 1987

About the author

Gerald Andrews Hausman is a storyteller and award-winning author of books about Native America, animals, mythology, and West Indian culture. Hausman comes from a long line of storytellers and educators, and has published over seventy books for both children and adults.

Reviews

[Cuchillo Lope · Rating 2 out of 5]

When you’re Native people will make a lot of assumptions about you and sometimes give you odd gifts. This book is one of those assumptive gifts. A woman I worked with long ago gave it to me because it was a Navajo book and hey, I am Navajo! Match made! I finally got around to reading it and it makes sense why she had it.
This is such a “white persons” book about Navajos. It really leans into the mystical side of Native Americans and the author is definitely a guy who has just hung out with Navajos and decided to write not very good book on us.
While there is some interesting little tidbits. It’s hard not to see how this guy really tries to come off as some expert just because he spent some time on the Rez. It’s a bit annoying and found myself rolling my eyes quite a few times.
This is definitely a book you find in a new age shop that you would get for the person in your life who smudges and uses crystals.

[Chelsea Pretz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure what I think of this book for story stories. I feel like this will be a book that I will listen to several times to get soak in the mediations. There are several, not every straight forward stories, but some every beautiful stories that paint old traditions into the present-day world. This is something I might update after more time and thought.