Tags
Alfred Hitchcock, Arizona, Back to the Future III, Billy the Kid, Camp Elliot, Code Talkers, Communications, Cookout, Daylight Savings Time, Fort Apache, George W. Bush, God, Goulding’s Lodge, Hogan, Hopi, How the West Was Won, Indian Fry Bread, Japan, John Ford, John Wayne, Johnny Depp, Kayenta, Kit Carson, Lake Powell, Language, Major James E. Jones, Military, Missionary, Monument Valley, Mormonism, My Darling Clementine, Native Culture, Navajo, Peabody Energy, Pearl Harbor, Philip Johnston, Power Plant, Rocks, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Soldiers, Sweat Lodge, The Duke, The Eiger Sanction, The Great Flood, The Lone Ranger, The Mittens, The Searchers, The Three Sisters, The Trial of Billy Jack, Thelma and Louise, Tonto, Utah, World War I
Day 5 – Monument Valley
As we headed to Monument Valley, it was very apparent that this portion of the trip is one of Sven’s favorites. He was extremely passionate when telling us all about the Navajo Indians, this time going into more detail about their history and culture.
He started by telling us about the strange power plant that sits near Lake Powell. We immediately noticed it on our boat cruise, and how these 700 foot smoke stacks that are blowing Nitrogen Oxide into the air seems like a strange addition to such a beautiful place. However, the plant produces electricity for Arizona, Nevada, and California, and needs to be placed next to water to cool the coal. The Navajo found the coal and signed a contract with Peabody Energy to run a power plant. They were tricked, however, as Peabody didn’t tell them that it would pollute their water. Of course, the Navajo would much rather preserve their water than make a profit, but they couldn’t break the contract. Now, the water underneath the earth is polluted, and everyone is worried about the pollution of Lake Powell.
Another interesting note was made about time. The state of Arizona does not recognize Daylight Savings Time. However, the Navajo reservation (which sits within Arizona and stretches into Utah and New Mexico) does recognize DST. The Hopi tribe that also sits on the reservation, however, has never gotten along with the Navajo tribe, so out of spite, they do not recognize DST. This explains why my phone was switching back and forth like crazy while at Lake Powell, as we sat right on the border of Utah and Arizona, as well as on the border of the reservation. So confusing!
We learned about the Navajo education system, and how the current generation is the first generation who are completely bilingual, reading and writing in both English and Navajo. Navajo is such a difficult language to read/write, that graduating students can barely get through a Navajo newspaper. The older “parent” generation can speak English and Navajo, but cannot necessarily write in both. The “grandparent” generation cannot read Navajo or English, and may not be able to speak any English at all. It is wonderful that the reservation now has their own school to enlighten the students on their rich culture (where before we forced them into our public schools and forbid them to speak their language). The students are so spread out around the area that school buses aren’t able to drop all of them off, so parents drive to a stop to pick up their kids, possibly needing to drive around 30 to 50 miles home from there.
Sven gave more of a background on the Code Talkers as well. Before the first World War, only one white couple lived on the reservation, speaking both Navajo and English. When missionary Philip Johnston heard about Pearl Harbor, he wondered how he could contribute to his country. He thought of a brilliant plan to use Navajo, a completely unwritten and isolated language, as a code for communicating back and forth between bases in the U.S. and Japan. He packed up and trekked across the desert to California to present his idea to Major James E. Jones, Force Communications Officer at Camp Elliot in San Diego. At first they were skeptical that it would work, so he sent Johnston to bring back some Navajo men to explore the idea further. Funny enough, Jones sent some American soldiers and the Navajo men out in the California desert separately for a survival test. Of course, the Navajo live in one of the toughest climates in the U.S., so the test was a piece of cake, and they fared much better than the American soldiers. The military then decided it just might work to use their language, and the Navajo and U.S. military worked together to come up with code words, all completely memorized and never written down. Their language, to the untrained ear, sounds extremely similar to Japanese. 400 Navajo soldiers helped us finish the war, yet they were only just recently awarded their medals of honor by George W. Bush.
We had a rest stop in Kayenta that had a trading post, museum about the Code Talkers, and examples of male/female hogans and a sweat lodge. Hogans were the family homes of the Navajo made from logs and rocks, the entrance always facing east toward the sunrise. The female hogans are built with nine wood panels on each side, representing the number of months of pregnancy. The female Hogan roofs are also dome shaped, to represent a pregnant belly. One of the things I love about the native culture is that everything has a meaning and purpose.
Sweat lodges were used as baths, as there is barely any water in this region. With what little water they did have, they would put beneath rocks, creating steam, and sit within the structure sharing stories and singing songs while sweating out the toxins.
As we approached Monument Valley, we were blown away by the size of these buttes, mesas, and hoodoos that shoot out of the ground. I like Christina’s description of them, like huge battle ships with canon balls all around the base. It truly is like driving toward a shipyard, the canon balls just happen to be 40 feet tall as well.
The Navajo took us out to the famous part of Monument Valley. I had seen the well-known rocks of this place in parts of Westerns that Mom and Dad have had on growing up, in pictures, commercials, etc., but it was completely different witnessing them before your eyes. Like Antelope Canyon, the Navajo have given animal names to the rocks, some of them jokes about celebrities and current culture. All I wanted to do was ride around this area on a horse, and I know Mom and Dad would love that experience if they ever come down here. I want to go out with the Navajo on horseback to visit the inhabitants that still live in hogans, without running water or electricity, just as the Navajo did 500 years ago; see the petroglyphs and Anasazi ruins (they say there are ruins that white men have never seen!); spend the night under the stars in this place with now huge cities or lights distracting from the sky; and then wake up to these ancient natural structures. More than anything I enjoyed hearing from the Navajo about their connection with the land, and I want to take part in that spiritual experience.
One interesting thing to note was that, when someone asked our guide how the rocks were created, he stated that it was God’s creation, and that the many layers of rock that was carved by water was due to the Great Flood (science tells us they took 50 million years to form). I would love to hear more about Navajo Mormonism, and what they keep from their culture in a mix with their new religion.
Dying to get on a horse, I did jump on one of the guide’s horses while we were near the ranch for a photo op. All I wanted to do was take off and get far away from the dirt roads and tourists. But instead I paid the man $5 and then shopped for some gifts for friends and family back home.
We also had the fun experience of staying in Goulding’s Lodge, where John Wayne and John Ford, along with other actors and film crew, stayed while they were shooting their famous films. We walked around John Wayne’s old digs, and all I could think about was how Nancy would be in “Duke” heaven if she were here!! We were also a little bummed that we just missed Johnny Depp, as they were filming a new Lone Ranger film just a little over a week ago (he will appear as Tonto).
Later in the evening we went out with the Navajo one last time to a cookout. Little did we know that we would be taken to another beautiful location unlike any other we had seen. More bulbous rocks by sunset, enhanced by a perfectly barbecued steak, spicy beans, salad, Indian fry bread, and crumbly cake. (Did I mention I had another Navajo taco for lunch? Oh man, are those good). After we ate, one of the guides talked a little about his past growing up here as a sheep herder and sang us some of the traditional songs, one of which his father sang to John Wayne. It was beautiful, and makes me want to attend a powwow. Putting that, among like 10 other things from this trip, on my bucket list.
After returning to the hotel, Christina decided that she could no longer “go with the flow” of this trip in terms of included meals, as it is extremely difficult to control her levels at this high altitude. She started doing some sit-ups and pushups in the room to try to level out her system, and made a joke that this is what she envisions Sven doing while he is not with the group. We laughed, because he never eats with us and rarely comes out on excursions, and with his physique we figure he must solely be drinking protein shakes. He also has the whitest teeth ever.
List of movies filmed in Monument Valley –
Kit Carson
Billy the Kid
My Darling Clementine
Fort Apache
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
The Searchers
How the West Was Won
The Trial of Billy Jack
The Eiger Sanction
The Legend of the Lone Ranger
Back to the Future III
Thelma and Louise