Navajo Nation - A Beautiful Place To Get A Raw Deal

Arizona 2017 - Part II

In 1864, following several battles and collapsed treaties, the United States government rounded up 8,500 Native Americans and marched them 300 miles from northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico to Bosque Redondo, New Mexico. Making this trek in the winter took it's toll on the Navajo tribe. Hundreds of men, women, and children died along the way. Many more would die later when they reached their new home, a barren 40 square mile reservation set aside for them at Bosque Redondo. This march, led by Kit Carson, became known by the Navajo as the "Long Walk."

The reservation quickly turned into a prison camp. The water in the Pecos River that bordered the reservation made the Navajo people sick. Worms destroyed their crops. Their wood supply was short-lived. It wasn't long before the United States could see Bosque Redondo was an epic failure. Still, the Navajo would spend 5 grueling years on this reservation before they were allowed to return to their native lands in 1869 via another treaty. Although the size of their original lands was suddenly much smaller, they were going home. 

Obviously this story is much bigger than two paragraphs. You can read more about the history of the walk here: Navajo Long Walk to Bosque Redondo. 

I share this history as a backdrop to our drive along route 89 from the south rim of the Grand Canyon to Page, Arizona. The ​drive cut through the heart of of the lands the Navajo returned home to 150 years ago. Today, that land is cluttered with various run down shacks and mobile homes. If it's wide open spaces you long for, envy the Navajo. If it's clean and comfortable living you desire, then you might make this drive wondering just how raw the deal was the Navajo got in that 1869 treaty.   

Although much of the scenery along the route from the Grand Canyon to Page was as majestic as the scenes we cherished earlier in the day at the Canyon,  I felt as somber as I would feel at any other time during our Arizona vacation. It was hard to stomach such oppression in the midst of such beauty. 

The next day, after spending the night in Page, we made our way to a tour of the Lower Antelope Canyon on the reservation. Katie had originally planned for us to tour the upper canyon, but the  young lady at our hotel's front desk encouraged us to do the lower. She said if we only had time for one, the lower was the tour to do. Since our time was indeed limited we took her advice. That advice turned out to be five star customer service. 

Our tour started from Ken's Tours. Ken Young, the owner, started the tour company as a retirement gig many years ago. He taught himself photography and began to take and share photos of the inside of the canyon. People fell in love with the brilliant shapes and designs brought to life by a unique mix of sunlight, layers of rock, and the formations carved into the earth by years of wind and flash floods.

On the way down to the canyon our guide told us the story of the most tragic of those floods - the 1997 flash flood that swept 12 hikers out of the very canyon we were about to enter. One of the hikers grabbed a ledge and held on until help arrived. He was the only survivor. Several bodies were later found in nearby Lake Powell. Some were never found at all. (12 Hikers Are Swept Away By Flash Flood In A Canyon - New York Times)

You could tell the 20 year old tragedy still haunted some of the locals. Shoot, it haunted me down there. As a result of that horrific day, hikers are required to have guides these days when exploring the canyon and there are now ladders bolted into the rock to make getting in and out of the canyon easier. 

Once we got down in the canyon it only took seconds to realize why so many people come to the canyon armed with their cameras. The views down there ranged from breathtaking to miraculous. 

I discovered later that the most expensive photograph ever purchased was a photograph taken down in the lower antelope canyon. The picture to the right - can you guess why it's called Phantom - sold for 6.5 million dollars. Now, not everyone thinks it's worth that price, or that it even qualifies as art - (see The Guardian's story on this sale) - but you'd better believe I have Katie scanning her memory card looking for our own million dollar shot. 

The coolest part about antelope canyon is a young Navajo girl discovered the canyon when she watched an antelope disappear from the desert surface while she played nearby. When she went exploring to find out where the antelope went, she discovered it had jumped into the canyon. She promptly followed suit. 

I find it appropriate that a child's sense of adventure and discovery ultimately stumbled into something our family embraced with a child-like fascination. 

Peter Lik's Phantom photo was sold for an unprecedented $6.5 million and is the most expensive photograph in history. Peter Lik—PRNewsFoto

On the drive back to Sun Lakes where we were staying with my mom and dad, we hit the Phoenix rush hour traffic. It reminded me of Washington DC traffic - crawling along, living just on the edge of road rage. Maybe even a hair over it. It's then when I wondered out loud, maybe the Navajo are right where they want to be. They may not have been treated fairly, but maybe they did get the good end of the deal. At least the deal in that particular moment.  

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If you missed part I of my Arizona 2017 trip series, you can read it here: The Grand Canyon - A Grand Reminder We Were All Created To Create.

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