Defending the Dinetah

"Using a database of tree-ring dates taken from beams and wood used to construct these pueblitos, Ronald Towner shows that most pueblitos are unrelated to Puebloan immigration or the reconquest. He concludes that Navajos constructed the masonry structures and hogans contemporaneously for protection against the Ute raiders and later Spanish entradas. Further, most were occupied for relatively brief periods and population density was much lower than has been assumed." "Towner points to a new model of Navajo ethnogenesis, based on a revised early population distribution and a variety of other means of incorporating non-Athapaskan elements into Navajo culture, making Defending the Dinetah a major contribution to Navajo studies."--Jacket.