Songs of the Fluteplayer: Seasons of Life in the Southwest

In Songs of the Fluteplayer, the charm and challenge of the spectacularly beautiful American Southwest are irresistibly captured by a woman who risked much to discover a new life and greater meaning there. Sharman Apt Russell and her husband moved to the Mimbres Valley in southwestern New Mexico in order to lead a simpler yet more substantial life. Their efforts to be self-sufficient-building an adobe house, giving birth at home, growing their own food-shattered many ideals and forced compromises but also renewed their ties to each other and kindled their respect for the land and its people. The American Southwest that Russell fell in love with comes to life vividly in her writing. From Navajo weavers to illegal Mexican workers, trading posts to prehistoric pottery, water rights disputes to the omnipresent fluteplayer Kokopelli-the energy and wonder of the Southwest is celebrated in this enchanting book.