Edited by: Robert S. McPherson (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2000. xiii + 226 pp. Illustrations, notes, index. $19.95, paper.)
| Navajo Oshley’s life began in the nineteenth century and spanned most of the twentieth. He was born and grew to manhood in the Dennehotso area. He then lived in Monument Valley for about fifteen years before moving to Blanding, Utah, where he spent the remainder of his life. Oshley lived well into his nineties and became known as “One Who Greets with Deep Respect.” In his world–one shaped by family, sheep herding, and tradition–Oshley made no distinction between the spiritual and the secular. The Journey of Navajo Oshley describes the elements of Navajo culture that supported Oshley’s worldview as well as the outside pressures that threatened to undermine it. Oshley’s story is based largely upon taped interviews initiated by Winston B. Hurst in 1978 for his master’s thesis. With the help of Oshley’s son, Wesley, the planned single interview grew into a total of fourteen interviews. Ten years later, Robert McPherson secured funds for transcribing and translating the interviews. Recognizing that writing down an oral story shaped by tone, gesture, and setting will always be problematic, McPherson persevered. Bertha Parish, a Navajo fluent in Navajo and English, conscientiously transcribed and translated each sentence. Oshley’s family, friends, and contemporaries helped clarify chronology, names, places, and meanings. To compensate for an abrupt end to the interviews, McPherson has written a thoughtful concluding essay. | 1 |
| Place is central to Oshley’s narrative. McPherson, author of A History of San Juan County (Salt Lake City, 1995) and co-author of a recent environmental history of the Lower San Juan River, knows well the places that shaped Oshley’s life. Oshley’s narrative is filled with place names such as “Where the Horses Hop Up” or “Amidst the Sagebrush.” For members of his generation, these names tell the stories that connect the people to the land, to history, and to each other. Oshley’s first wife and two young children died of tuberculosis. His second marriage ended in separation. Eventually, he found happiness with his third wife, Mary, who become his life-long partner and bore him more children. Oshley’s life as a shepherd also had its ups and downs. He lost his economic independence because of a Depression-era policy of enforced livestock reduction. Thereafter, a steady search for wage labor became the norm for shepherds like Oshley. | 2 |
| Oshley used his gift of hand-trembling throughout life to help fellow Navajos diagnose what ailed them. His traditional views, however, did not deter him from trying new things; late in life he adopted the Mormon faith. Nor did his adherence to tradition prevent him from encouraging his children to pursue formal education. His children remember well the power of his quiet reprimand for a misdeed deemed “not the Navajo way.” In a world often portrayed by dichotomies and rigid choices, Oshley’s life story shows us how to remain simultaneously adaptable and rooted in tradition. The concluding essay emphasizes Oshley’s love of laughter and use of pantomime as a bridge between cultures. We are richer for having this story made available to us. In our continuing struggle to bridge cultural boundaries, we need look no further than this example of a life well lived. | 3 |
Gretchen HarveyConcordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota | |
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