(all author proceeds to benefit the Navajo Nation Museum)

Book Talk and Interview with Dr. Ignazio Macchiarella (University of Cágliari, Italy) August 4, 2017.

Book presentation and conversation with ethnomusicologist, Dr. Ignazio Macchiarella, August 4, 2017, Oristano (Italy).

​The Sound of Navajo Country: Music, Language and Diné Belonging
​(2017, University of North Carolina Press, Critical Indigeneities Series, eds. J. O'Brien and J.K. Kauanui).

Reviews for The Sound of Navajo Country


“Kristina M. Jacobsen has given us an ear-opening exploration of how the socio-acoustic ideologies and practices of the voice inflect the politics of difference in Navajo country. Speaking and singing, generations and genres, places and P.A. systems, blood and belonging all blend together in this illuminating ethnography of country music as Navajo music. Jacobsen’s seamless integration of linguistic anthropology, ethnomusicology, and sociocultural anthropology should be an inspiration to all ethnographers.”
--Richard Bauman, Indiana University

“This is deep ethnography. Kristina M. Jacobsen illustrates the many ways Navajos think about, talk about, and perform membership in their community through the lens of country music. An engaging and important work.”
--David Samuels, New York University

“The Sound of Navajo Country is an insightful examination of current issues in Indigenous cultural politics. Jacobsen’s investigation of voice and language in country music and other dimensions of expressive culture in the Navajo Nation illuminates the nuances of identity and language politics and the constant negotiation of authenticity. The book’s focus on a contemporary, rather than ‘traditionally cultural,’ genre of music highlights the lived reality of modern Navajo life while offering a new and refreshing look at contemporary Navajo culture.”
--Kerry Frances Thompson (Diné), Northern Arizona University

Book Description

~In this ethnography of Navajo (Diné) popular music culture, Kristina M. Jacobsen examines questions of Indigenous identity and performance by focusing on the surprising and vibrant Navajo country music scene. Through multiple first-person accounts, Jacobsen illuminates country music’s connections to the Indigenous politics of language and belonging, examining through the lens of music both the politics of difference and many internal distinctions Diné make among themselves and their fellow Navajo citizens.

As the second largest tribe in the United States, the Navajo have often been portrayed as a singular and monolithic entity. Using her experience as a singer, lap steel player, and Navajo language learner, Jacobsen challenges this notion, showing the ways Navajos distinguish themselves from one another through musical taste, linguistic abilities, geographic location, physical appearance, degree of Navajo or Indian blood, and class affiliations. By linking cultural anthropology to ethnomusicology, linguistic anthropology, and critical Indigenous studies, Jacobsen shows how Navajo poetics and politics offer important insights into the politics of Indigeneity in Native North America, highlighting the complex ways that identities are negotiated in multiple, often contradictory, spheres.

Native Country Band, Windy Mesa Bar in Page, Arizona

Teaching Materials for ​The Sound of Navajo Country

Diné Bi'Olta', Navajo Language Immersion School, Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation (AZ)