It’s impossible to thank every source, since the course of a book is a malleable and every-changing interplay of imagination and research, but there are several I would like to highlight.
For an understanding of the landscape of the Grand Canyon and the rapids in the late 1800’s, an excellent resource is Grand Canyon, a Century of Change: Rephotography of the 1889-1890 Stanton Expedition by Robert H. Webb. For the stories and traditions of the Hopi Indians, I referenced The Fourth World of the Hopis by Harold Courlander, a very thorough explanation of Hopi oral literature. For the Havasupai Indians, I recommend I Am The Grand Canyon: The Story of the Havasupai People by Stephen Hirst and Havasupai Legends: Religion and Mythology of the Havasupai Indians of the Grand Canyon by Carma Lee Smithson and Robert C. Fuller.
The controversial idea of cannibalism during the attack on Awatovi (late 1600’s) was proposed by anthropologist Christy Turner, and his complete analysis can be found in Man Corn: Cannibalism and Violence in the Prehistoric American Southwest by Christy G. Turner II and Jacqueline A. Turner. It should be noted that there are many critics against Turner’s work, as well as objections by the Hopi that their people would massacre, mutilate, and eat women and children of their own tribe. However, Turner presents detailed and compelling evidence to support his theory. His further research into the collapse of the Anasazi Indians (ancestors of the Hopi) in 1150 A.D. also reveals a possible cannibalistic trigger. In 1992, an excavation of a kiva at the base of Sleeping Ute Mountain in Colorado revealed a central hearth composed of desiccated human feces. Later analysis proved that the sample contained digested human meat. Along with evidence of chopped-up, boiled, and burned human bones at the site, it’s clear that a violent act had occurred, and with so many bodies was likely not due to starvation cannibalism. Coinciding with the vast collapse of the Anasazi culture in the Four Corners region of the United States, Turner hypothesizes that the Anasazi abandoned the central hub of their civilization—Chaco Canyon in New Mexico—due to infiltration, and subsequent terroristic control tactics (most notably cannibalism), by Mesoamerican culture. There is a strong correlation between the Mesoamerican deity Xipe Totec, a god of life-death-rebirth in Aztec mythology, and the Hopi deity Masau’u. Both were associated with, among other aspects, human sacrifice.
While there are many fine books written about shamanism, my favorite was Dreamgates: Exploring the Worlds of Soul, Imagination, and Life Beyond Death by Robert Moss. Emma’s evolution was a fairly compressed journey that can often take years for an individual to master. On the other hand, while in the imaginal realms, large quantities of teaching can take place in what would be considered instantaneous in our time frame.
Finally, I would like to thank my sister, Michelle Kearney, a seasonal Park Ranger at the Grand Canyon, for her insights and opinions on questions posed throughout the writing of this book. Mostly, she told me to come to the canyon and experience it for myself. In the words of the late Joseph Campbell, author and teacher of comparative mythology, “Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again.” The Grand Canyon is just such a place, filled with the dark and the light.