Wind talkers display at Burger King
Monument Valley in the Navajo Nation
Big truck out to the mesas- film set of every Wild West film ever.
Display of Navajo rugs
Hogans, including the one we'd stay in
Sunset dinner
Display of Dog men, Medicine men dances, creation stories
Distance:
Total Distance:
Having packed up camp we made our way from the Grand Canyon down into the Navajo Nation Indian Reservation. The Navajo Nation is effectively a state in a state. They have their own laws and emergency services- I've written about the nation on Day 126.
This morning we stopped off on our way through at a specific Burger King.
One of the factors that makes the Navajo Nation different is that they lost limited amounts of land to the Euro-Americans. Combined with good management by the Elders, such as banning alcohol and working with the film industry, they seem to have survived into the modern world relatively well. This has been resulted in the Navajo being patriotic about the USA. Part of this patriotism has resulted in Native Indians joining the military. It was during the Second World War that this became fundamental.
It was decided to use the Navajo as radio operators for the Marines. A code was developed for them to use which has never been broken. The basis of the code is this.
Take a Navajo word
Translate it into English
The first letter of the English word is the letter
So Tank could be radioed as the Navajo words for Tree, Ant, North, and Knot (not these words used, but you get the idea)
They did also use Navajo words for specific, common, words. So infantry where Dog Faces and Tanks were Buffalo.
The reasons the code is so hard to crack is firstly because the Navajo language is unrelated to the languages of the old world and novel for the world, so would not have been considered by the Japanese code breakers. Secondly it is based on two unrelated languages so there's no cohesion within the code.
The Japanese broke every other code used by the USA but never the Marines code.
Of course one of the limitations was the need to use Navajo- they were the only ones who could understand the code. They did it well, with limited training other than having to qualify for the Marines. The first class was of 29 Navajo, and later classes expanded on this.
Where the Burger King comes in is that the Manager has a grandfather who was a "Wind Talker" or "Code Talker"- the name given to the Navajo Radio Operators. He has a large collection of articles from the Pacific Theatre. This includes a collection of captured Japanese flags and a belt of a thousand stitches- a sacred warding garment made for Japanese troops to magically stop bullets, a very rare, precious item.
This afternoon and evening we would be staying in the Monument Valley Park. This is a national park of the Navajo Nation. It is were nearly every western since the days of John Ford and John Wayne right up to "A Million Ways to Die in the West" has been filmed here. All those big red, square, blocks of rock? The knee high desert bushes? The erratic rocks to stand on in an awesomely theatrical macho manner? That's the stunning Monument Valley. It is the old west for pop culture.
It's also a beautiful place to be. There are Navajo still living in the park, despite having no electricity or water supply. I can understand why. It's got that great mix of open spaces with the great edifices, the big red monuments, that give the park its name and fame. No wonder it's been used to for all of the films.
We were also taken to some of the Navajo's ancestors favourite spots. These included a large spherical hole in a cave which acted as an amphitheater, where our guide played his newly made drum and sang. Afterwards there was a protected collection of petroglyphs- artwork carved into the surface of the rock around 3000 years ago. Primarily the pictures we saw were of what looked to be big horn sheep, or possibly goats.
We were picked up by a Navajo called Ron. He picked us up in a large SUV with a converted rear section which has two benches to sit on high up to see the park better. We would stop at various sites for photos and to have a walk around.
He took us over to a place where locals sell handmade jewellery and food to the tourists. They even had a horse that could be taken out onto a rocky outcrop for John Wayne style photos to be taken either of a local on the horse, or for a more you can sit on the horse. It's quite touristy, but that's the point.
Afterwards we were taken to see Navajo rug making and rugs. These are made of wool using various original and traditional designs. There was also a rug-dress, a rug with a central hole like a poncho, with a rope tied around the waist. Today some Navajo girls wear these at special occasions, such as graduation, but with a light robe underneath as the woollen rug can be uncomfortable. In the same Hogan were more jewellery and horse hair pottery. This pottery is a white china but horse hair is passed across it whilst still warm straight as it comes out of the kiln. This causes the hair to burn and leave irregular black lines across the pottery.
The Hogan was next to ours. "Female" Hogans are huts built from wood (without nails) starting with 9 short pillars to symbolise the 9 months of pregnancy, then with about 8 inches of mud over the top. The hut is domed with a hole in the centre of the roof and a fire in the centre. This keeps the single room warm. Women sleep on the right, as you walk in the door, and men on the left. These are the Hogans they used to live in.
"Male" hogans are used for ceremonial purposes. They are like he female ones but with an extended door way like a long porch.
There are also little Sweat Hogans. These are like saunas, with a fire being lit outside to heat rocks which are then put inside and water added create steam. These might be used communally or singularly.
Tonight we would be staying in a female hogan of our own. We had a little stove to keep us warm. The floor is sand so we brought our tarps and mats to sleep on. Outside was an outhouse. Which had no door. But it did face some beautiful scenery.
Our dinner for the evening was a Navajo-Mexican dish of fried bread, beans, salad, cheese and steak. We ate this under the Rock of the Rain God which features a cliff streaked with black and white vertical lines.
After dinner our guide, Ron appeared in his competition Medicine Man regalia. He performs Navajo dances, as do his two daughters, at a high competitive level. Normally he comes in his second rate regalia but the day before he'd been to a competition so had his best with him. It was a big comp. He came second. He knows what he's doing.
A Navajo Elder came along too. He played his drum and sang as Ron danced. He also told us about the history of some of the dances, their meanings, as well as some of the creation stories of the Navajo. This included the many stories of how the cayote went from being the most gorgeous, energetic animal in the world to the creature it is today, as well as how it put the stars into the sky.
In the morning we watched the sun rise over the features of the desert. I'm not a sunrise person. That's well established. This was truly beautiful though. Well worth getting up for.
The modern American breakfast spoiled the day somewhat though. Fruit salad cup and a bowl of cereal. It wasn't until I'd had my breakfast that I realised both the fruit salad with "extra light syrup" and cereal were each about 1/3 sugar. Even the milk had 12g of sugar in it per cup. I totalled about 50g of sugar in just breakfast. And people feed their kids this stuff everyday. What's wrong with you? I don't eat much sugar normally so I had a massive sugar low a few hours later. Since then I've been watching how much sugar is in stuff. The corporations here have managed to keep the main focus on fat. Calories are marked per serving but also what comes specifically from fat, as well as large ads for minimising fat content. However most low fat products replace the fat ingredients with sugary substances such as corn syrup. The body converts these sugars into fats- so it doesn't make any difference in the end! Well, it does, because of insulin. Fatty foods and complex carbs result in a slow insulin increase and decrease giving slower release of energy. Sugar on the other hand results in a spike in insulin which causes glucose in the blood to fall dramatically, the body putting it into storage, resulting in a low energy levels and a need to eat more. Maybe more sugar. Another insulin spike, plus more calories.
No wonder there's so much diabetes in modern America
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