On the Rez

Currently, we are in Chinle/AZ, on the huge Navajo Reservation (71.000 qkm, their flag is to be seen on the picture), comprising NE Arizona, NW New Mexico and SE Utah. Located in the "Four Corners Region", this is the largest reservation area in the U.S. with about 170.000 tribal members (Navajo or Dine) living here, about six people per square mile!

Scenery has changed on the drive East and South: We drove on mesas (plateaus) with red buttes towering. The road went through sparsely populated tribal land and villages like Kayenta, which were rather conglomerations of trailer homes and uniform tribal (low income) housing for the tribal members. For the rest it was a trailer here, a hogan (the typical Navajo housing, see pic) there, some free-roaming cattle, sheep and horses (pic), but neither agriculture, nor industry, big stores or casinos. The hotels, outfitters and parks at Canyon de Chelly and Monument Valley seem to be the main employers. Cars and pickups are pretty run down on the rez, stray dogs and lots of poor people, selling items like jewellery or pinon nuts on the streets. On rez ground no beer can be bought or even consumed, but in the only supermarket in the area they sell much more soft drinks (and junk food) as in any other region. Wondering, whether some beer would hurt much more than all the sugar from these products... Now they drive to Gallup/NM to get a drunk and back home by car, which is even worse.

We got up at 6 am today, packed and in the dark we drove about 45 minutes to Goulding's at Monument Valley - the picture was taken when we approached it in the early morning. We were expected for breakfast with the manager, who told us about the founders, a sheep trader by the name of Harry Goulding and his wife, who acquired land here in the 1920ies and opened a trading post with the help of the Navajos. During the Great Depression they came up with the idea of trying to attract Hollywood movie producers. The landscape was perfect and famous producer John Ford was among the first to come to check out the scenery. Enthusiastic about it, he started with John Wayne movies (first was "Stage Coach"). Wayne's cabin is still standing on the grounds and movie pictures are to be seen in the museum.

In the course of time, more infrastructure was added and a "village" was developed, with hotel, trading post, museum, restaurant, etc. Goulding's is still today on private land, not part of the reservation. The company employs about 250 people, mostly Navajos, and, also operates tours into the Monument Valley. We took part at a "half-day tour" of 3,5 hours. Though I got almost car sick during this rough ride in a truck with open seating for about 20 people, but it's better to book a tour than to drive with a rental car in this Tribal Park. Roads are not paved and pretty rough, hiking is - with one exception - not permitted and the tour trucks only are allowed to drive on otherwise not public roads. There are rumors that one day they'll shut down the park for individual travelers and just let tour groups in.

After having been in the lonesome "wilderness" around Bluff for a couple of days , we first were a little shocked being confronted with so many tourists (mostly Chinese groups). Also, after having had two excellent Navajo guides in Bluff, the Jeep-Bus-Tours here were more for bigger crowds (of course) and less informative. First stop was at a Hogan - the typical Navajo housing (see pic above) for a weaving demonstration, a couple more stops followed, most of the time vendors had set up tables with jewellery or posed for pictures (like the cowboy horseback below).

Also, we were so spoiled from the previous geological diversity that we considered the Red Navajo Sandstone here as almost boring. But, joking aside, the formations piling up are really impressive and no wonder, the film industry liked the place! Our guide Leo also stopped at a couple of petroglyphs on rock panels and at a dwelling called Echo Cave (pic). Following are a couple of pics of some of the fantastic rock formations:

We left "MV" - like the locals say - towards Chinle in the early afternoon and arrived at about 4 pm. Checked in the Thunderbird Lodge - a motel with restaurant and trading post - and departed again to check out the Visitor Center of the Park (pic) and buy some groceries in the local supermarket before we met with Donovan, our Navajo friend from many trade shows, and drove with him to two observation points up on the mesa to see the sunset at Canyon de Chelly: