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    Monument Valley and The Navajo Reservation
    Monument Valley and The Navajo Reservation
    Monument Valley and The Navajo Reservation
    Ebook109 pages1 hour

    Monument Valley and The Navajo Reservation

    By Nicky Leach

    ()

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    About this ebook

    One of the most iconic landscapes in the American Southwest, Monument Valley is a small, but immensely important, part of the Navajo Nation. Explore this varied land through the eyes and words of award-winning author Nicky Leach as she reveals the stories, legends, and natural history of this extraordinary landscape.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPark Partners, Inc
    Release dateMay 2, 2011
    ISBN9781580711098
    Monument Valley and The Navajo Reservation
    Author

    Nicky Leach

    Award-winning author Nicky Leach began visiting Utah's national parks 30 years ago and is constantly pulled back by the region's remarkable blend of natural beauty and human history. Born in England and trained as a teacher, Nicky uses her writing to both educate and inspire people to feel more aligned with nature's healing rhythms in their daily lives. She has written 45 guidebooks, including many other Sierra Press titles about parks in the Southwest and the Northwest. Her interpretive writing has been recognized with several National Park Service Cooperating association Awards for Interpretive Excellence. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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      Book preview

      Monument Valley and The Navajo Reservation - Nicky Leach

      MONUMENT VALLEY

      NAVAJO TRIBAL PARK

      &

      The Navajo Reservation

      By

      Nicky Leach

      *****

      SIERRA PRESS

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2011 Sierra Press

      *****

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      *****

      DEDICATION

      For the Navajo, who have a lot to teach the rest of us about living well in this world.

      Their quiet, reverential, and enduring spirit is best captured in this prayer:

      Beauty before me,

      With it I wander.

      Beauty behind me,

      With it I wander.

      Beauty before me,

      With it I wander.

      Beauty below me,

      With it I wander.

      Beauty above me,

      With it I wander.

      Beauty all around me,

      With it I wander.

      In old age traveling,

      With it I wander.

      On the beautiful trail I am,

      With it I wander.

      From First Song of Dawn Boy

      *****

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      A-hay-hay (thank you) to the many Dineh who continue to share information about their culture with me. A particular thank you to Martin Begay at Navajo Parks and Recreation, which works hard to preserve and interpret the many stunning Navajo tribal lands of Dineh Bikeyah, for his review of this text; Wilson Hunter, Chief of Interpretation at Canyon de Chelly National Monument, who was helpful with information and resources; and James Charles, former superintendent of Navajo National Monument, who gave me an evening tour of Betatakin Pueblo on my birthday that was truly the icing on the cake. Lastly, every writer should be lucky enough to have as supportive a publisher and friend as Sierra Press’s Jeff Nicholas in their corner, especially when things get tough. Jeff saw the potential in this book and enthusiastically let me have at it over a most enjoyable year. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: You’re the best! —N.L.

      *****

      CONTENTS

      WELCOME TO NAVAJOLAND

      The Colorado Plateau

      The Geologic Story: The Rocks Speak

      Navajo Origins

      The Reservation

      Sacred Peaks

      Kit Carson and The Long Walk

      TOURING MONUMENT VALLEY

      Monument Valley Overview

      John Ford and The Movies

      ANCIENT ENEMIES

      Hopi and Pueblo

      Chaco Canyon

      Canyon de Chelly

      Navajo National Monument

      TOURING THE NAVAJO NATION

      Of Trading Posts and Rugs

      Navajo Arts and Crafts

      Antelope Canyon

      Little Colorado River Gorge

      Rainbow Bridge

      Window Rock Sites

      Tony Hillerman and The Navajo

      Other Reservation Sites of Note

      The Navajo Today

      NAVAJO ANNUAL FAIRS

      RESOURCES & INFORMATION

      OTHER REGIONAL SITES

      AUCTIONS and MUSEUMS

      SUGGESTED READING

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      *****

      Buttes and mesas of Monument Valley

      WELCOME TO NAVAJOLAND

      It’s sunset on a cool October evening when the Chevy Suburban pulls up outside a sprawling homestead near Torreon in the southeastern corner of the Navajo Nation. My two Navajo guides—seniors working as part of Cuba High School Travel Academy’s unique cultural tourism program—introduce me to Pasqualita Toledo, a recent graduate, and her family. After touring Chaco Canyon all afternoon, I will be staying in one of their hogans tonight, sharing the space with their brother’s girlfriend. She and the youngest Toledo boys are watching a movie inside the hogan, seated on an old couch, giggling shyly as I enter.

      The hogan is typical of thousands on the reservation. It’s circular with a hard dirt floor, a roof hole, a wood stove for heat, and a door on the east, facing the sunrise. I unroll my sleeping bag on a bed on the west side, traditionally reserved for guests, place a water bottle by the door, and go for a walk. The Toledo outfit, set at the edge of a pretty mesa, has a frame house and two hogans, and a spectacular view of Cabezon Peak in the Rio Puerco valley. I take all this in from a doorless outhouse standing on its own between the hogan and the cliffs. My every move is watched by curious goats and sheep in a nearby corral. Several ducks floating on a pond start squawking as I return to the hogan. The cacophony bounces off sandstone walls, the only sound for miles around.

      Over a supper of Navajo tacos, an Indian staple consisting of piping hot frybread topped with meat, cheese, and salsa, I talk to Pasqualita and her sisters and brother. They are a large family, 12 in all. Most are unmarried and still living at home, helping their parents, Peter and Evelyn, with chores. After losing his hearing, Peter recently retired from the railroad and money is tight. The older girls and a brother work at the new Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort in Bernalillo owned by Santa Ana Pueblo. They leave at 5 a.m. each morning in their brother’s car and commute an hour, work for 12 hours, and return to the hogan at 7 p.m.

      Although they are tired, they are intrigued by this stranger in their midst. The young boys stare at me, like all children fascinated by anyone who looks and sounds different. The girls tell me stories about their kinaaldas, the Navajo puberty ceremony honoring Changing Woman, when each girl comes of age. It’s tiring but fun, says one. Grinding corn and making the cake was the best bit, confides another. They look at me without comprehension when I tell them I live in Santa Fe. Although it is just on the other side of the Jemez Mountains, none of them has ever been there.

      In fact, although US 550, the main road between Albuquerque and Bloomfield, is just a few miles to the west, the vast Navajo Nation is a world unto itself. More than 300,000 people live here, amid the sagebrush mesas and

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