After spending an inordinate amount of time in the Holbrook Post Office getting packaging for various purchases & posting a parcel of pamphlets to ourselves, we drove across a large tract of dry tussocky land on the Navajo reservation. The Navajo refer to the area and define themselves as the Navajo Nation, but they use the word Diné (the People) to refer to themselves collectively. They are said to be the largest (ca 250000), wealthiest and strongest group of Indian people in the US, having won many legal claims against the American government for compensation for land taken from what they claim to be their ancestral home. This seems to be something of a contentious point, as there is hard evidence of their presence in the area for only about 250 years (though they claim longer than that in their oral history). They apparently entered the borderland of Utah and Arizona, as semi-nomadic plains Indians from the north and drove out the puebloan people, whose ancestry can clearly be traced back at least 1000 years. The puebloan Indian word for the Navajo apparently means “the Enemy”, but that name has been abandoned for reasons of political correctness. The Navajo and the puebloan Indians now live on adjacent lands, evidently reasonably peaceably. It is hard to see how the Navajo make a livelihood from the land, but apparently in spring & summer the grass usually grows sufficiently to graze animals (sheep mainly). This may not have been the case in the last few years, as there has been a prolonged drought in the area. Their houses all looked quite basic. Near many of the houses, and in towns, there were small octagonal buildings (hogans) - sacred places where families come together for ceremonies or discussions.
Our destination was Canyon de Chelly (pronounced Canyon de Shay), just past Chinle, which is a dusty, sprawling, scruffy Navajo town. The Navajo Nation has established many commercial enterprises which are evident in the town, including involvement in an oil extraction and fuel distribution company. There are also signs of the high level of self-government enjoyed by the Navajo, in their schools, their own police force and the “Navajo Youth Correction Facility”, which is the smartest building in the town!
We're staying in the Thunderbird Lodge, which has a stone and adobe main unit, extending and matching an original 1896 trading post building, and several separate motel-like units. It is operated (at least jointly) by Navajo people. It is basic but not good value as it didn't include some facilities, or breakfast, unlike most basic motels we have stayed in, at a much lower price. The food was poor- lunch bland, dinner cold.
After settling into our unit around the middle of the day, we drove along the South Rim of the canyon on a very chilly afternoon.
Look for the ruins on the lower left-hand ledge and the car on the floor of the canyon.
There were breathtaking views across and down into the canyon, with virtually vertical walls, and an access road, a small stream and Navajo farms on the canyon floor, up to 1000ft below. Apparently, farmers tend to live in the canyon in warmer months, and move uo to the rim in winter. At various outlook points, we could see ruins of adobe dwellings, perched on what seem to be inaccessible ledges, belonging to the Ancestral Pueblo people who lived in the area about 800AD to 1300AD. Spider Rock, a rock column about 800ft high, is believed to be the home of Spider Woman, who taught the puebloan women how to weave. She is also the “bogeywoman” with whom children are threatened if they are naughty.
Spider Rock
Thursday, 26th November
On yet another lovely clear, and slightly warmer, morning we drove along the North Rim of the canyon, with fewer vantage points but similarly stunning views. After lunch, we walked down into the canyon on White House Trail, the only route into the canyon which is open to visitors without a Navajo guide. It led across the canyon floor to puebloan ruins which were huddled at the base of a huge vertical cliff. The canyon was eerily quiet, but peaceful and relatively warm in the afternoon sunshine. The 800ft climb back up to the rim was surprisingly easy.
Today was Thanksgiving and the cafeteria in the Lodge included the option of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner of roast turkey. It was quite stodgy but at least it was hot. Most adult Navajo people have tended to be rather unresponsive, unsmiling and reticent, appearing quite unwelcoming. According to what we read in a “meet the people” booklet produced by the Navajo Nation, this demeanour and reticence is regarded as dignified and is expected in children from an early age. However, some of the younger Navajos we met have been more animated and an older man in the Lodge cafeteria was the first Navajo person to strike up a conversation with us spontaneously. He was out with some of the of his children and 17 grandchildren for a family meal. Despite his limited topics of conversation (where we were from, his family, and the price of “gas”) he was pleasant, though still fairly reserved. He was shocked to realise that the "high" petrol prices in the US are actually still among the lowest in the world.
Earlier in the day, we had seen rough signs indicating a Fire Dance a few miles from Chinle. The Navajo woman in the Visitor Information Centre didn’t know about this particular Fire Dance, but said that they occurred frequently and that non-Navajo visitors were welcome to attend and observe most of the ceremony. Following her advice, we drove up the very dark and isolated road in the night and followed the signs to what was clearly a private house, with no sign of anyone else, nor any evidence of a ceremony. This was the second occasion, within a couple of days, on which we had found signs indicating that something was happening, or open, when it was not. Clearly, local information by word of mouth is an important element in the community.
Friday, 27th November
We left Canyon de Chelly for the Hopi Mesa villages, a couple of hours’ drive away.
The Hopi Indians are thought to be decended from the Ancestral Puebloans, but unlike the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, who practise a mixture of Catholicism and traditional religious ceremonies, the Hopi have never converted to Christianity. When the Indian reservations were created, much of the earlier puebloan land was set aside for the Navajo and the Hopi were restricted to a small area, surrounded by the Navajo.
Initially the route crossed the flat, featureless scrubby land of the Navajo reservation, with scattered houses, some with hogans. There was no sign of cultivation or industry. Later, some small bumps appeared in the landscape as we entered the Hopi reservation. Quite suddenly, we came across Keam's Canyon, a gash in the land. We followed it down as it opened out on to flat land, with the First Mesa (a long, flat-topped excrescence) visible in the distance. The Hopi live on three roughly parallel mesas, about 10-15 miles apart. The clan on each mesa (which has 3-5 villages) has its own separately identifiable culture and dialect. Visitors are only allowed beyond the entrance to each of the villages with a guide. Signs on the roads up to the mesa forbid photography of the people, the villages and, most contentiously, “the landscape”. After some difficulty, we found the Visitors' Centre in a small, dusty quiet village on top of the First Mesa. It was not open, though a notice on the door indicated it should be. An elderly woman, one of a handful of craft sellers in the small square, came across to tell us that the woman running the Visitors’ Centre should be there, though it was not clear why she wasn’t. Although the other craft sellers were keen to attract our attention and to tell us about their hand-made goods, their interest immediately faded when they realised we were not going to buy from them. The atmosphere was not one of genuine welcome, despite the fact that we were the only visitors to the village. Before we left, we bought a kachina (spirit) doll from the elderly woman, who had initially attempted to help us.
Hopi First Mesa
Villages on the Hopi First Mesa. This is only a very small part of the First Mesa.
We drove on (and up) to a museum and the only motel in the Hopi reservation, on the Second Mesa, only to find that the museum was closed and wouldn't be open on the following day either. However, the motel and restaurant were more pleasant than the Thunderbird Lodge at the Canyon de Chelly, and the Hopi staff were quite friendly and much more outgoing than the Navajo. A fellow visitor at the motel, who had spent some time in the area on a previous occasion, said that the closed museum was not unusual, i.e. things don't necessarily happen when they are supposed to. The food in the restaurant, especially the bread made with Hopi blue corn, was quite tasty and reasonably hot!
Across all of the Indian reservations, large numbers of dogs walk or lie around, close to the villages, or in this case, in the grounds of the motel. They look healthy and are generally quite aimiable. They are described as pets, yet the Indians seem generally to ignore them. They must be fed, though we have never seen that happen. We have seen similar relationships between people and dogs in other diverse communities around the world, for example on Maori maraes in New Zealand and in villages in India and Egypt.
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