On our third day in Navajoland we drove to Thunderbird Lodge in Chinle which is at the mouth of the Canyon de Chelley (pronounced Shay) This canyon is a very special place to the Navajos. You can only go in with a Navajo guide. It is the sacred place of Spider Woman who lives on top of Spider Rock. She is the mythical creature who taught the Navajos how to weave.
Unfortunately we didn't actually get to see Spider Rock on our visit. We did the half day tour and if you want to see Spider Rock you have to go in on the whole day tour. But it didn't matter really because all of the canyon is magnificent. I have only posted a fraction of the photos taken here. I think Ana and I went a little bit crazy but honestly every which way you looked it was breathtaking.
Thunderbird Lodge is a completely Navajo owned and run enterprise. They have a wonderful gift shop and cafeteria there. The half day tour was $50 dollars and it was worth every penny. It had rained a lot the day before we went in and we were not sure we were going to be able to go into the canyon. They told us that there was a vehicle that had gotten caught in the gulley wash and was buried up to its windows in mud. Later we saw the vehicle. It cut our tour a bit short as it made the way impassable. There were two backhoes and lots of guys with shovels headed up to get it out and they pulled the tour vehicles out a couple of times. It was a very exciting ride and we marveled at our driver, BJ's skills as he got us through some pretty muddy spots. This all added to the drama of the canyon.
Most of the drive is right up the middle of the waterway.
The tour vehicles are old military supply trucks left over from WWII. The backs are open and they have installed bench seating so that you can see all around you. This is a picture of our driver from the back.
We saw many four wheel drives going in with small groups of tourists. And we also came upon a horseback riding tour. One of our classmates who is a tour guide in Flagstaff told us that once she did a two day horse trek into the canyon where they camped out overnight and she said it was great.
BJ points out the first ancient pueblo ruins that we came upon. This one was called White House Pueblo. Only one building in the collection still had the white stucco on the wall which gave the place its name. He said that the walls at one time had been obliterated with graffitti. I think it is a good thing that the Navajos control who can go into the canyon now. The people that lived in these pueblos used to be called Anasazi but now the correct term is "ancient puebloans". They are the ancestors of the Hopi and Zuni. And they are probably the people who taught the Navajo how to weave.
In Hopi culture it is the men who weave and they traditionally wove cotton. In Navajo culture it is most often the women who weave and they used wool after the Spanish introduced sheep to the area.
You sure wouldn't want to be driving through here when the water comes rushing down!!
We got held up here because a Jeep got stuck in the mud. They soon got it out and we were able to continue on our way. This hill was steep and thick mud and we had trouble getting up and over it on the way back.
Here you can get a good look at the trucks used for the tours. This was our first rest stop. This was called Antelope House Pueblo because of the petroglyphs on the cliff face. They had toilets and a small snack bar concession here and a few Navajos with their blankets and trinkets spread out for us to purchase. The prices were good and even if we are out in the middle of nowhere most of these traders take credit cards! Isn't that the American way. Ana bought a nice turquoise nugget necklace here for $15. One of our classmates bought a lovely small weaving done in the Chinle style. The trader said that his 84 year old grandmother had woven it.
We got stopped here by the vehicle that had gotten stuck in the gulley wash of the previous day. There was no way around it so the tour trucks all had to turn around and go back. The backhoes soon got there and I imagine it wouldn't have taken long to get the thing out. Nevertheless we retraced our steps and turned east up a branch of the canyon to another rest stop that had Navajo craftmen gallor. They had their tables set up in the shade of the cottonwoods and we were so facinated looking at their handycrafts that I forgot to take a photo of the pageant. A couple of the silversmiths have websites and are on facebook. The Navajo are really working hard to market directly so that they do not have to split their profits with a middle man. More power to them.
All in all it was a great day in the Canyon. Mary told us at lunch time of her plan in October 2011 of running a weaving class in the canyon. She calls it The Spider Rock Girls Boarding School. I think the plan is to weave a couple of days at the Lodge and then go up to the Spider Rock to camp and finish weaving. The instructors will include the Spider Rock Girls. They are the Blake and Malone girls. They represent three generations of weavers who specialize in the Burntwater Style of weaving which uses all natural vegetable dyes. If you are interested in weaving and taking a class, check out Mary's informative website at: www. weavinginbeauty.com
The Spider Rock Girls! Here is Ana posing with three generations. Emily and three of her four daughters and the littlest one who if he joins them in weaving will be the fourth generation. The grandmother did not make the long trip into Window Rock to visit us. We were sorry not to get to meet her. Emily's twelve year old is working on her second rug. We had a lovely visit with them. Laramie and Ana really bonded. Laramie just finished High School and like her oldest sister hopes to help finance her higher education by weaving. Her oldest sister just completed a nursing degree and Laramie is hoping to do a business degree.
Here is Jennie Slick, our wonderful teacher. She was so patient with all of us. I watched her weave a bit. She has this neat way of grabbing the yarn with her indexe finger and pulling it through the shed with one fast movement. I coined it the Slick Finger Flick!
We were all torn between "visiting" and "weaving". We were having a wonderful time.
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