For almost seven hundred years, the Havasupai Indians, who call themselves People of the Blue Water, have lived in an area that includes the depths of the western Grand Canyon and the heights of the San Francisco Peaks. Here they inhabited the greatest altitude variation of any Indians in Southwestern America.

Written in consultation with some of the last Havasupai shamans, this book details their religious beliefs, customs, and healing practices. A second section presents legends of the Havasupai origin, the first people, and tales of Coyote, Gila Monster, Bear, and others.

Carma Lee Smithson was engaged in doctoral research when she succumbed to lymphosarcoma in 1961. At her request, Robert Euler arranged and expanded her work for publication. Originally published in 1964 as Havasupai Religion and Mythology, this work has been reedited and includes photographs and a new foreword by Euler, now a consulting anthropologist.