Canyon de Chelly: Navajo Homeland

Tom Petrillo

This trip begins, like most, with a stop at O’hare. After navigating through security and to my gate, I board the large 757 en route to Albuquerque via Denver. I’m on a plane most every week, but this trip is unique at the get go. There’s a video playing as I board, and as if I’d ordered it myself, Canyon de Chelly is featured as I slide into my seat. What a beginning to another southwest adventure!

I hook up with my travelling partners in Albuquerque. We are all part of a Sierra Club trip to Canyon de Chelly. It’s a four hour drive to the Canyon, and getting to know one another is a joy. Each brings a unique perspective and reason for joining the trip, and our ages reflect the main body of the trip from 40 to mid 70’s. Mike is the elder in our group, continues to hike on a regular basis, and makes us laugh with a wonderful sense of humor.Our eventual destination is Lupita and Jon’s farm in Canyon de Chelly. We meet the next morning for an introduction to our leaders, hosts, and guides, and hike from the car drop to the edge of the canyon. Lupita introduces herself to the canyon by saying, 'The call me Lupita.' The deferential style, we will learn, is part of the Navajo’s view reflecting the permanence of 'Mother Earth' and our borrowing of the land. Land cannot be owned in our traditional western view, but is passed on through maternal generations. To say my name is.., would be considered putting you above or ahead of 'Mother Earth,'- not considered politically correct from a Navajo point of view.

White House

We start down the only public trail in Canyon de Chelly to White House Ruin. It’s a beautiful October day with plenty of foot traffic along the way. White House is a well known, well photographed ruin with resident jewelers selling their wares along the road to White House.We stop for a while, then continue down canyon. The wash is flowing due to the recent rains, and all along the wash are the persistent tamarisk and olive trees, introduced to the canyon years ago to control flooding. The trade off has been less flooding, and an ever invasive non-native species overtaking the majestic cottonwoods. Removing the trees is difficult and nearly impossible, but they do provide privacy as we nearly walk by the entrance to the farm surrounded by the dense foliage along the wash. Quicksand sucks up a couple of legs as we cross the wash to find our camping area.

Hogan

The next morning Lupita and Jon begin our journey with a tour of their farm. Their hogan is now finished, and we learn the significance of weaving their beliefs into their buildings. It’s a female hogan with eight sides and entered from the east in a counterclockwise direction, 'as the tree grows.' Nine logs make up the hogan walls matching the nine months of pregnancy, and four logs form the structure of the roof to echo the seasons. All the walls are packed with mud and the roof is a mixture of hay and mud. Inside it’s cool even on warm autumn days, and for cool nights there’s a wood stove.

After the hogan we move to the sweat lodge, and tour the pictographs and petroglyphs on the farm. Lupita’s sister has the next farm down canyon. We cross a fence, and round the canyon wall; a series of small caves come into view. The Star Cave has pictographs along the walls, and star reference on the ceiling. The view from within is spectacular, the cave edge frames Dog Rock in the distance.

Lunch is down canyon, near the junction of Canyon de Muerto and Canyon de Chelly, at Box Canyon. After relaxing we hike up to a small ruin with an array of hand and foot pictographs. Lupita tells a wonderful story of listening to her cousin Carlos Nakai play his flute in the canyon. We continue our day hiking toward Dog Rock, past a group of horses, and find another group of petroglphys gracing many sides of Dog Rock. The view from the rise of Dog Rock is breathtaking. Ruins are nestled in the canyon walls that are easily missed as you walk the wash.

Evenings are always graced with tales of the day, and Lupita and Jon introducing Navajo culture. A few nuggets from the week. A newborns umbilical cord is buried in a place that reflects the hopes of the parents for their child. In a dictionary for scholarship, for instance. Skinwalkers require hair or some body part to use in poisoning their victims. As a result nails are filed with sandstone to avoid leaving nail chips for the skinwalkers. Ears are pierced with Yucca needles to ’hear’ nature better.

YÉ iibicheii trail

The YÉ iibicheii trail leads from the farm directly up the canyon wall. It’s about 500 feet, and it looks impossible from the camp. Slickrock can be tricky, but for the steepest sections, in addition to the ancient foot and hand holds, are some modern conveniences, heavy stranded wire and rails make it manageable. This trail is still used by Lupita’s family to move from their homes on top of the canyon to their farm at the base. During our stay Lupita’s children, late teens, traversed the trail at night, and like most concerned parents we were all happy to see the flashlights flashing indicating their arrival at the top. On the mesa top is a Birthing Hogan. In traditional times women would make their way up the trail to the birthing hogan for the most natural of deliveries. The child would be greeted by Mother Earth immediately on deliverance into the world. Placed directly on the blessed earth.

The hike across the mesa leads to Canyon de Muerto. We find a large alcove above Antelope House to relax and have lunch. Antelope house is a stop on the 'Shake and Bake' tours. Trucks loaded with tourists ride up canyon to view Antelope House, an amazing set of pictographs, and purchase sodas and junk food. We enjoyed a cool soda or two, as well.

Just up canyon of White House ruin is an incredible alcove known as Pictograph Cave. It’s located on Louie’s farm. Louise is a wonderful weaver, and charmer as well. In the canyon everything is negotiable and it took some negotiating with Louise and her daughter for our group to take in the marvels of Pictograph Cave. The walk to the alcove was peppered with pot shards, some as large a hand. To get to the pictographs required some skilled slickrock climbing. Like most slickrock surfaces it looks impossible from afar, but the ancient windblown frozen sand leaves small steps for a careful climb. The climb up was by far easier than the return, but Jon and fellow travelers spotted us carefully for the return.

Each evening was a sky show with crystal clear skies, coyote’s yipping, and wonderful campfires. Even the campfire has significance in the Navajo world with it’s opening to the east, and rules to never feed the fire from the west. 'It might get mad, and bite back.' There were many more trips, adventures and stories told during the week. Our last evening was spent listening to native drums echoing from the canyon walls, and a variety of traditional dances performed by Navajos teenagers.

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