PREFACE<br > he two }，ears it took to research and write this book were the<br > ulmination of a spiritual and intellectual quest that began dur+<br >ing my boyhood in Arizona. In one of my earliest memories I<br >accom/~anied my father， a true lover of nature， to the top ~f a<br >rugged mesa where we discovered in the rums of an Indian village<br >a ，za~o and ，~etale. These ancient stone appliances， used to grind<br >corn， fired my curiosity about the Native people that still inhabit<br >the land we call America. Over the years， I absorbed everythin~ 1<br >could about tbem. Then， while in high school， a friend of the family<br >went to live among the Navajos and became a member of the<br >Native American Church. Now a professor at Arizcma State Uni-<br >ve;si.t ~， Katlal.een Ferraro s stories and insights were grist fi~r my<br >mill and fueled my sense of wonder，<br > The Indians I met and the material I read about them told me<br >that they were far different from the stereotypical images of t tolly-<br >wood. Some， though certainly not all， passed al(mg bits ~f wisdom<br >that were like adobe bricks used in the building of my own men-<br >tal house. As a second-generation American， baptized Russian ()r-<br >thodox as Maxim Gregori Persianoff， confirmed as a I.uthe ran，<br >and for a period of years agnostic， I have long been preoccupied<br >with the ques6ons so many others have pondere{t throt/ghouf<br >time. Why are we on earth? What is our relationship to the ([r~_+-<br >ator and the cosmos?<br > As a baby boomer， I have also been keenly aware that many<br >