Canyon de Chelly (Border to Border, Day 3)

Today, we take a 4-wheel drive tour of the Canyon de Chelly floor, into Canyon del Muerto, since we had already visited the White House Ruins the day before. Our guide is a genial native who grew up in the canyon and learned his stories from his great grandfather.

According to our guide, "Navajo" is what the Spanish called the native people of this area, and it was intended to mean "thief." Needless to say, the native people resented this moniker and prefer their own term, Dineh, which means the people. Why then, you might ask, do they continue to use Navajo for such designations as Navajo Nation and Navajo Code Talkers? I think (and what do I know?) that at some point, they decided to capitulate to the white man's designation and perception since it was so entrenched, anyway. They, especially the elders, still refer to themselves as Dineh.

We start out from the motel in a vintage Suburban whose beat up shocks will eventually give us all a headache, but it manages to get us through the treacherous deep silt of the canyon floor. Don't try this in your family Taurus; you will need both a native guide and a high clearance 4-wheel drive vehicle.

As we progress back into Canyon del Muerto, the guide points out various petroglyphs (pecked out images) and pictographs (painted images) on the canyon walls. Some images such as horses are easy to interpret; others need explanation.

On this petroglyph are a kokopelli (Hopi word; Dineh word is different but, to me unpronounceable) and both a positive and negative hand print. Our guide says the belief is that the negative print indicate a woman made the image. Petroglyph below is of an antelope and a snake.

This image, left, is a depiction of a Spanish massacre of the canyon people. The central figure is a padre or missionary of some type (the cross on the dark robe). The two suns above indicate the length of time the subjugation took (two days), and the two figures at the rear of the procession are supposedly Ute trackers in collusion with the Spaniards. According to our guide, the Dineh, the Hopi, and the Utes at one time lived in harmony in the canyon. The photo below is of Antelope House ruins in Canyon del Muerto.