| Submitted by: Evelyn C. LeeperUnited States |
| Submission Date: 15 February 2005 |
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Still, in 1924 the United States gave all
Indians (including Navajos) citizenship, and continues to enforce laws and
regulations on the reservation. In addition, the states within whose
boundaries the reservation lies seem to have at least some of their laws
enforced there. If the Navajo Nation is a sovereign nation, is it bound by
the constitution? For example, could it mint its own money? Could it
restrict religion? (I'm not saying it *would*, but asking if it *could*.)
On the reservation (and throughout the surrounding area) we have been
listening to KTNN (The Navajo Nation), the same station we listened to last
time, broadcasting in Navajo and English. Actually, much of the Navajo
might be better termed 'Navanglo' (in a parallel to 'Spanglish'): a long
stream of Navajo will be broken by such English words as 'dishwasher,'
'environmental fair,' and 'wool market.' Addresses and phone numbers (in
advertisements) also tend to be given in English, as of course are the
titles of the English-language country and Western songs. (KTNN is 660 AM.)
As we passed Four Corners I gave Mark the (fairly easy) math problem of
determining how long a stretch of road we drove on in New Mexico if it
passed within a quarter-mile of the corner and was at a 45-degree angle to
the boundaries. (The answer is a half-mile, or about a kilometer.) But
Mark got involved trying to figure out the general formula, which occupied
him most of the rest of the way there. You might want to try this with your
family to keep them entertained on long trips. Then again, maybe not.
According to the video at the Visitors Center, the Navajo call Canyon
de Chelly 'Ho Jo Na Sha' ('Walking in Beauty') and apparently exert a fair
amount of control over it, even though it is a National Monument. Navajo
still farm in the canyon in the summer, and run jeep tours to various sites
within the canyon. (For the mobility-impaired, these are probably the best
way to see the ruins, as the rim drives provide minimal views and certainly
wouldn't warrant the drive. However, you will need assistance getting into
and out of the jeeps.) Perhaps because most people visiting here do opt for
the jeep tours, there is no admission charge for the Monument itself.
The introductory video in the Visitors Center talks about how the
Navajo believe that 'the Earth is our mother.' I have heard this mentioned
as one difference between the Navajo religion and most Middle Eastern
religions. (Calling them 'Western religions' seems foolish in the context
of the American Southwest.) But Adam, for example, was also made from earth.
We had arrived at the Visitors Center at 9:30 AM. After seeing the
exhibits, we decided to do both rim drives and also hike to White House
Ruin. Since we wanted to do the hike before it got too hot, and it left
from the South Rim, we did that drive first, even though the newsletter says
the lighting for photography is better from the North Rim in the morning and
the South Rim in the afternoon.
We started at 10:00 AM at the mouth of the canyon, where it's only
about 20 feet (6 meters) deep. By the first pull-off, though, it was
already 275 feet (84 meters) deep. Further on, we could see across the
canyon to First Ruin and Junction Ruin (not as much 'Where's Waldo?' as
yesterday). We parked at the White House Overlook and began the 2.5-mile
(4-kilometer) round trip down the 550-foot high (152-meter) canyon at 11:00
AM. The descent was achieved via a switchback path on the side of the
canyon. Even here, with as few people as there were, we still saw litter
along the trail (a disposable diaper, no less!). The ruin itself seemed to
have quite a few people around it, but as we got closer, we saw that many of
them were jewelry vendors, and most of the rest were from the jeep tours
that stopped there. There were some other hikers, but not many.
The Navajo name for the White House ruin is 'White House In Between'
(or 'Ni 'nii ''Nai 'gai'), because of the white-plastered walls of the upper
stories. (One sees various spellings for Navajo. This was the spelling on
the plaque at the site; the book says 'Kini-na-a-kai.') The ruin is fenced
off to protect it from vandalism, since the site is not staffed, but you
still see pictographs on the walls and most of what walls are there.
The climb back up the 550 feet (152 meters) was tougher and hotter than
the climb down. (This should not come as a surprise to you.) The entire
round trip took about three hours (the pamphlet said it would take about two
hours, so we're still getting into shape, I guess.)
We finished up the South Rim with Sliding Rock Ruin (across the canyon)
(in Navajo, 'Kina 'a 'zhoozh') and Spider Rock. The latter is supposedly the
home of Spider Woman, who carries off disobedient children. (The white at
the top of the rock is supposedly the children's bleached bones.)
We returned to the Visitors Center and started up the North Rim Road at
3:00 PM. There are fewer stops along this rim: Ledge Ruin, Antelope House,
Tomb of the Weaver, Navajo Fortress, Mummy Cave, and Massacre Cave. Navajo
Fortress and Massacre are from the time of the Spanish (and later)
invasions, while the others are from the Anasazi period.
At 5:30 PM we started back to Cortez. We considered eating in Chinle,
which has in the last couple of years acquired a Taco Bell, a Curch's Fried
Chicken, and a Burger King. Unfortunately, it does not seem to have
acquired anything better, and we decided not to try one of the two sit-down
restaurants since both were associated with motels. We got back to Cortez
about 8:00 PM and ate at Francisca's again.
Minimum elevation: 5540 ft (1689 m)
Maximum elevation: 6198 ft (1889 m).
Distance driven: 350 miles (563 kilometers).
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AAA in general does a very good job of routing people on
trips. But they have one failing. They don't always choose the shortest
route, or even the fastest. They choose the 'safest': the one that goes
along the most major highways, through the most traveled areas (short of
city streets). So every once in a while I find myself saying, 'This route
changes routes four times and takes twice the distance of this other road
they didn't pick. Maybe I'll try that one.' This can have interesting
effects.
But first, we had breakfast at the M&M Truck Stop again. There may be
somewhere else to have breakfast in Cortez, but this is very convenient,
good, and cheap.
We left Cortez at 7:30 AM. AAA had routed us down Route 160, then up
Route 191, down Route 163, and up Route 261, while cutting across on Route
41/262, Route 191, and Route 95 would save 26 miles. Of course, 8.8 miles
(14.2 kilometers) of construction resulting in a rutted dirt road did slow
us down a bit. This may be why AAA didn't pick it, but even so I think it
was faster, taking two hours and fifteen minutes from Cortez to Natural
Bridges National Monument.
In the Visitors Center, they asked people not to write graffiti on the
bridges, saying, 'The difference between rock art and vandalism is time,'
but that 'here at Natural Bridges we are trying to preserve the past, not
the present.' So, one might ask, why was the first 'viewpoint' of their
acre of solar cells, which use photovoltaics to generate 50 kilowatt-hours,
This supplies the entire monument with all the power it needs and saves
$25,000 a year in power costs.
Proceeding to the actual natural bridges, we started with Sipapu Bridge
(the largest of the three near the road). I forget how the trail down to
the base was described, but it took us an hour and a half for the round trip
(from 10:30 AM to 12 noon), and included stairs, three ladder descents, some
rock descents with handrails, and a bare rock traverse to descend 500 feet
(152 meters) over the 0.75-mile (1.2 kilometer) trail (one way). Naturally,
when we got there, the sun was in just the wrong place for pictures, so Mark
had to use some rocks to cross a stream to get a better picture.
By the way, the difference between a bridge and an arch is that the
former is created by the action of running water against rock, while the
latter is formed by the action of rain, snow, and wind erosion.
After returning to the top of the canyon, we stopped at the Horsecollar
Ruin overlook and the Kachina Bridge overlook, but decided against walking
down to the latter, since it would have been about as hard as the first one.
We did walk down to the Owachomo Bridge, since that was a much easier walk.
At 2:30 PM we left Natural Bridges National Monument. This time we did
take Route 261, and I can only conclude that AAA may have believed that
driving *up* this road was much easier than driving *down* it. The first 30
miles (48 kilometers) out of the Monument are normal road; the last three (5
kilometers) are the Mokee Dugway, which descends from 6425 feet (1958
meters) to 5325 feet (1623 meters). When I saw the sign at the end near the
Monument saying this road had a 10% grade, unpaved sections, unfenced drop-
offs, and hairpin switchbacks, I didn't realize they meant simultaneously.
I hope Mark enjoyed the scenery; I had to concentrate on the road. I had
been using second gear a lot on the hills, but this was definitely a first-
gear hill.
But we got through safely, and then drove down Route 163 past Monument
Valley Tribal Park. Since we had visited Monument Valley last trip, we just
stopped and did a bit of shopping outside the park. This led me to wonder
who actually makes all the jewelry and pottery we saw on sale there. It
can't be the women selling them--they spend the entire day selling. Is
there a large factory somewhere? The items seem almost identical from shop
to shop, with the same pictures on the pottery, and the same designs for the
jewelry (even more than traditional would account for). This is most
noticeable at a place like Monument Valley Tribal Park, where there are a
couple of dozen vendors lined up. I assume everything here is Indian-made,
although we saw very similar pottery in the souvenir shop at the Grand
Canyon with a sign noting it was 'Not Native American Made.' (And the
baskets with Anasazi designs sold at the Grand Canyon are made in Nigeria.)
Anyway, the individual stands along the road have the same assortment as
well, but it's less likely the person stopping at one would know this. I
also noticed many of the roadside stands seem to have been abandoned--they
still have 'OPEN' painted in big letters on the side, but apparently haven't
been used in a while. It could be they don't open until June, when the real
tourist influx starts.
And it's not just there that I see this phenomenon of a sign saying
'Open' on a closed business. I'm starting to see more and more stores,
restaurants, etc., that have a big sign outside or by the road or in a
window that says 'Open,' and then after you pull up you see the small sign
on the door that says 'Closed.' (Or there's no sign, and it's only after you
get out of your car that you realize there's no one there.)
And while we're talking gripes, let me add two more. One is something
Mark noticed: signs that say something costs .25 cents. It's bad enough in
corner grocery stores, but we're seeing it in the National Parks as well.
And at Zion, the videocassettes had a sign next to them listing which
countries used NTSC and which used PAL. It's bad enough that they listed
Puerto Rico and the U.S. |
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| Copyright © - "Evelyn C. Leeper" |
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