To Walk in Beauty – A Navajo Family's Journey Home

To Walk in Beauty
200 Pages
ISBN 978-089013-554-9

To Walk in Beauty powerfully documents in photographs and oral histories one Navajo family's journey of healing and transformation.

"Here is a kind of eternal story," writes N. Scott Momaday in the afterward, "the story of a people diminished to a family, at risk in a diminishing world. The old ways, the patterns of life that determined who and what they were, are being lost. Each new generation moves farther away from origin and meaning. And it is a story of return and restoration."

To Walk in Beauty is an intimate portrait of one family's decision to uphold the mission to preserve for the next generations what it means to be Navajo. The book exposed in intensely personal terms the sense of cultural dissolution long associated with the tragedy of Navajo history, and it examines the spiritual healing that can take place when cultural identity is reclaimed.

Stacia Spragg-Braude

About Stacia Spragg-Braude (Corrales, New Mexico Author)

Stacia Spragg-Braude

Stacia Spragg-Braude is a photographer and writer living in Corrales, New Mexico. The essence of her work explores connection to land, ancestry and sense of place. For her most recent book, "If There's Squash Bugs in Heaven, I Ain't Staying: Learning to Make the Perfect Pie, Sing When You Need To, and Find the Way Home with Farmer Evelyn," Stacia spent years helping Corrales matriarch Evelyn Losack on her family's historic farm. The book, published by the Museum of New Mexico Press, received awards, including Best Book for 2014 and Best Biography for 2014 in the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. Stacia also received the Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Award from the Historical Society of New Mexico for the work. Stacia worked as a staff photographer at the Albuquerque Tribune (1996- 2005), covering daily assignments and long-term projects throughout New Mexico. While at the Tribune, she met the Begay family on the Navajo Indian reservation. Stacia photographed and interviewed four generations of the family for 10 years as part of a long-term documentary project culminating in her book "To Walk in Beauty: A Navajo Family's Journey Home." (Museum of New Mexico Press). Over the years, lasting friendships developed and Stacia became an adopted member of the family. The work received a generous grant in its early stages from the New Mexico Humanities Council to be exhibited throughout the state and on the reservation. Stacia continues to present the work as part of NMHC’s Speaker/Chautauqua series. The work has received numerous awards, most notably as a finalist for the W. Eugene Smith Award. Prior to moving to New Mexico, Stacia worked on photo projects for Time Magazine, the Associated Press and independent projects in Cuba, Africa, Corsica and extensively in the Balkans. She graduated with a Master’s in Journalism from the University of Missouri in 1995. She has lived in Corrales for nearly 25 years and remains active in farmland preservation efforts.