"In 1934, as fellow of the National research council, I went to the Navaho reservation to collect material for a study of clan and kinship functions in Navaho Society ... With a view to obtaining ... material, not alone for the light it might throw on the functions of clan and kin but on Navaho life in general, I asked one of my informants, an old man, Left Handed by name, to relate what he could remember of his life."--Pref., signed: W.d.