Western Sky

The sunset in Arizona every night is beautiful. Here is a series of photos I took in the course of an hour driving from Ganado to Canyon de Chelly in Chinle. The last photo is during a different part of the day but shows more of the landscape and sky in Navajoland.

Horses Run Wild

Horses run wild all over the rez, and cattle, sheep and goats also graze free from within the fields. You must be cautious when driving because oftentimes when grazing on the sides of the roads, the cow may decide to cross the road. One night when I was driving home late, I slammed on my brakes to avoid running head-on into a cow crossing the road. I didn't come close to hitting it, but the car behind me was following too closely and had to swerve to avoid crashing into me. It was a close call.

On the dirt road surrounding Dine College in Tsaile, Arizona

In the pine forested area of Tsaile

On the side of the main road in Wheatfields, Arizona

Grazing freely

Cows in St Michaels grazing on the side of the gravel road; I've never gone to St Michaels, Windowrock or Chinle and not seen cows outside the fences next to the road and crossing the highway in some places.

Goats running off the dirt road in Nazlini, Arizona

Cattle in Windowrock, New Mexico next to the election signs. There are cattle guards on every road.

Some more wild ponies in Wheatfields

Planting White, Yellow, Blue, and Black Corn

At the end of May, we planted the corn in Ilene's fields. The planter on the tractor was broken so we followed behind it and dropped three to five corn seeds every foot.

On the tractor is my host mother's brother and standing beside him is her clan cousin

We planted about 12 acres...it took all morning and day

Their homestead is beautiful farmland; unfortunately it's infested with praire dogs and crows. Immediately after we planted through the next few weeks, the praire dogs went out and dug up all of our corn. Only a few acres nearest to Grandma's was untampered with. It's growing well and needs to be thinned. The praire dogs aren't only a pest for growing corn but their homes also can be troublesome when horseback riding because the horse will fall into their holes. I've never seen so many of one animal living in one place ever in my life. One day as I waited for Rachael outside a high school during her schoolboard meeting in Fort Defiance, I watched the praire dogs run around in this small one area (maybe a couple of acres in size) beside the parking lot and I counted nearly twenty praire dogs.

After we finished planting they set up the irrigation pipes. We irrigate the cornfields at least once a week depending upon the weather. It came a downpour last night and soaked the soil. That's the first hard male rain I've seen since being here, the rest have been soft gentle female rains which only cool down the earth but don't get into the ground and the plants' roots.

In addition to helping Uncle David plant the white, yellow, blue, and black corn, we planted all sorts of types of squash in the field closest to the house, zuchinni, yellow squash, watermellon, and more. We used seeds but those didn't come up either.

Monument Valley Sunset

One Saturday Rachael and I drove up to Tuba City, Arizona with our host mother for her eight hour rug weaving class at the Dine College. Afterwards, we decided to drive the extra hour and go up to watch the sun set at Monument Valley and eat some fry bread from the local vendors since we had driven so far North already. These landforms speak to the grand and majestic beauty of Navajo land.

These are the mittens - right and left hands

There are a lot of bikers out West

Sun setting lower and lower on the horizon

Road down below; if we had arrived to the park sooner we would have driven down there

Ilene, my Navajo mother, and me

Looking to the West direction

Mountains in the distance and RV campground

Mesas and land formations where old John Wayne movies were filmed

These are a few of the sacred and beautiful places on Dine Bikeyah (Navajo country).