Today was to be about the life and culture of Native Americans, especially the Navajo tribe. So to get us started, Becky handed out some photos of prominent past Indians and got people to read out the info.Steve was the first to go, and read out about U-Ray, the chief of the Ute tribe (after which Utah state is named.)
The Navajo:
- Not their real name but what they were called by the Spaniards who came in the 16th century. Their own name is 'Dine' meaning 'the People '. Originally from Canada, their modern story started in 1863 when Colonel Kit Carson was sent by the US government to force the Navajo 300 miles to Fort Sumner. This 'Long Walk' and its cruelties is indelible in Navajo memory. 8,000 Navajos were interred in Fort Sumner in 1863. By 1867 only 5,000 returned to Navajoland.
- In 1864 the Navajo, led by Chief Hoskinini, fled from Kit Carson's troops to safety in Monument Valley. In 1868 the tribe signed a treaty that granted them the land they now occupy as the Navajo Indian Nation.
- The Navajo Nation covers 27,000 sq. mls. and is semi-autonomous area answerable to federal, but not State, governments.
- Hogan = a sanctuary for the family, traditionally domed and hexagon-shaped. It is always hand-constructed and of native materials. A still-observed tradition is the 'blessing way rite' performed before a family take up permanent residence.
- Native plants are much used. The Yucca, for example, is used to make shoes, baskets, clothing and soaps.
- Fetishes = good luck charms that are worn around the neck. Animals represent different aspects of good luck
- bear = resourcefulness
- turtle = long life
- frog = fertility
- mole = connection with inner-earth (those of you who have visited us in Les Chapuis, and have seen Steve's relentless quest to kill all moles in our garden, will know this fetish is not for him!)
Kayenta, Az:
First stop today was in Kayenta, the nearest town to Monument Valley. In 1910 the first trading post was opened here by John Wetherill (NICK AND LIN ALERT!!!)
First stop today was in Kayenta, the nearest town to Monument Valley. In 1910 the first trading post was opened here by John Wetherill (NICK AND LIN ALERT!!!)
Where else but America would you be able to view historical records in a Burger King?
Just outside was a reconstruction of traditional Navajo buildings.
Normally men and women slept on separate sides of the hogan, but there could sometimes be problems with visitors. Visitors would be expected to sleep together and everyone else would move temporarily into the other side of the hogan, but this was not always easily done!
Just outside was a reconstruction of traditional Navajo buildings.
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| The Hogan, where the Navajo lived, always faced east and even today had no water or electricity. |
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| Welcome to our sweat house. |
The Navajo Code Talkers:
'Without the Navajo the Marines would never have taken Iwa Jima': Major Howard Connor.
There was also a fascinating display in the Burger King on the little-known Navajo Code Talkers.
Although it was not publically known until the 1960s, the Navajo played a crucial role in the Pacific Campaign of WW2. The American government were desperately trying to find a way of sending coded messages that could not be deciphered by the Japanese. It was suggested to them that the Navajo language, which was spoken by relatively few people and had never been a written language, could be the answer. Thirty so-called Code Talkers were recruited to begin the programme and the new code was sent to Bletchley Park in the UK to be put through the Enigma machine to see if it could be broken. It passed with flying colours and henceforth was used in the Pacific Campaign, never being decoded by the Japanese.
Unfortunately, after 1945 the contribution of the Navajo was not recognised and Navajo military veterans returning to the US were shunned. Many failed to find employment and had to return to the reservations to live in poverty.
MONUMENT VALLEY.
'Without the Navajo the Marines would never have taken Iwa Jima': Major Howard Connor.
There was also a fascinating display in the Burger King on the little-known Navajo Code Talkers.
Although it was not publically known until the 1960s, the Navajo played a crucial role in the Pacific Campaign of WW2. The American government were desperately trying to find a way of sending coded messages that could not be deciphered by the Japanese. It was suggested to them that the Navajo language, which was spoken by relatively few people and had never been a written language, could be the answer. Thirty so-called Code Talkers were recruited to begin the programme and the new code was sent to Bletchley Park in the UK to be put through the Enigma machine to see if it could be broken. It passed with flying colours and henceforth was used in the Pacific Campaign, never being decoded by the Japanese.
Unfortunately, after 1945 the contribution of the Navajo was not recognised and Navajo military veterans returning to the US were shunned. Many failed to find employment and had to return to the reservations to live in poverty.
MONUMENT VALLEY.
The Facts:
Before human existence, it was a vast lowland basin. For millions of years layers of eroded sediment from the Rocky Mountains were deposited in the basin, mainly forming sandstone and limestone. A slow , gentle uplift created from the basin a plateau of solid rock 1000 feet high. For the last 50 million years wind, rain and temperature have cut and peeled away the surface of this plateau. Alternate layers of hard and soft rock have been worn down and this has slowly created the wonders of Monument Valley that stand today between 400 and 1200 feet tall.
The People:
The first known inhabitants were the Anasazi Indians more than 1500 years ago. They suddenly disappeared from the region around the 13th century but thousands of their ancient pueblo sites dot the area still.
Harry Goulding's:
www.gouldings.com
- 5500 feet above sea level
- rainfall averages 8 inches p.a.
- temperatures:
- average low of 25 degrees F in winter
- average high of 90 degrees F in summer
Before human existence, it was a vast lowland basin. For millions of years layers of eroded sediment from the Rocky Mountains were deposited in the basin, mainly forming sandstone and limestone. A slow , gentle uplift created from the basin a plateau of solid rock 1000 feet high. For the last 50 million years wind, rain and temperature have cut and peeled away the surface of this plateau. Alternate layers of hard and soft rock have been worn down and this has slowly created the wonders of Monument Valley that stand today between 400 and 1200 feet tall.
The People:
The first known inhabitants were the Anasazi Indians more than 1500 years ago. They suddenly disappeared from the region around the 13th century but thousands of their ancient pueblo sites dot the area still.
Harry Goulding's:
www.gouldings.com
Harry Goulding was the first trader to settle in the valley.
The story is that when the Depression hit his trade severely he decided to go to Hollywood to try to persuade a movie mogul to make cowboy films in the valley. He waited outside the office of John Ford for 6 days with no success, but on the 7th day was given a couple of minutes of the great man's time. John Ford took one look at the photos Goulding had brought with him and decided this would be too good a place to miss.
We visited the original 1920s trading post, looking as it did at the time.
The story is that when the Depression hit his trade severely he decided to go to Hollywood to try to persuade a movie mogul to make cowboy films in the valley. He waited outside the office of John Ford for 6 days with no success, but on the 7th day was given a couple of minutes of the great man's time. John Ford took one look at the photos Goulding had brought with him and decided this would be too good a place to miss.
We visited the original 1920s trading post, looking as it did at the time.
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| Downstairs was the shop with its wonderful scales. |
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| Then upstairs the sitting room. |
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| The kitchen with every mod con..... including a telephone... |
The Potato House outside was John Wayne's home in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (1946)
She'd also arranged for her friend Barbara, who manages the restaurant and is married to the son of the local Navajo Medicine man, to come and answer any questions we had about the Navajo.
Jeep Ride:
After lunch we piled into jeeps for a white-knuckle drive into the valley.
Here are just a few of the pictures we took. Each of the rocks has a name based on the shape it resembles. The pictures only give an idea of this unreal place. You need to visit to believe!!
Even John Wayne turned up - at least we think it might have been him but we were too far away to check!!
Back on the bus and the screens came down again for a showing of this famous film in which he starred with Maureen O'Hara.
