Viewing the Ancestors: Perceptions of the Anaasazi, Mokwic, and Hisatsinom by Robert S. McPherson
McPherson's approach to oral tradition reveals evidence that, contrary to the archaeological consensus that these groups did not coexist, the Navajos interacted with their Anaasazi neighbors. In addition to examining archaeological literature, McPherson has studied traditional teachings and interviewed Native people to obtain accounts of their history and of the relations between the Anaasazi and Athapaskan ancestors of today's Hopi, Pueblo, and Navajo peoples.
Oral history, McPherson points out, tells why things happened. For example, archaeological findings indicate that the Hopi are descended from the Anaasazi, but Hopi oral tradition better explains why the ancient Puebloans may have left the Four Corners region: the drought that may have driven the Anaasazi away was a symptom of what had gone wrong within the society - a point that few archaeologists could derive from what is found in the ground.
An important text for non-Native scholars as well as Native people committed to retaining traditional knowledge, Viewing the Ancestors exemplifies collaboration between the sciences and oral traditions rather than a contest between the two.