Cherry Pie in a Hopi Reservation

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Alex’s first words this morning, “Why can’t we go to Michigan?” He has been involved in the route planning and this is his latest dream.

Tuba City is named after Tuuvi, a Hopi Indian who converted and became a Mormon. Perhaps it was a similar story to Pine Springs. We had breakfast at the local, Kate’s. We were definitely out of place there, but we’re getting comfortable in our awkwardness. It was by far one of the best meals on this trip….great coffee and haveros rancheros.

We bought gas here!

We passed a sign last night that advertised dinosaur tracks. How could we pass up this chance? So we retraced our route for 5 miles and saw tracks, claws, and bones.

Eleni’s latest refrain, “I want to be a cowgirl!”

We left Tuba City for the greater wide open spaces where you can see the sky for a full 360 degrees. We passed fields of corn supported by springs in the canyons, men walking along on the road all by themselves hitch-hiking (the only place in the USA where we’ve seen people walking on the side of 2 lane highways), and a school bus stop in the middle of seemingly nowhere.

The Hopi Reservation is right in the middle of the Navajo Reservation. You cannot take photo of the land, people, or even the in the museum.

It takes around ten minutes to walk around the museum. Neil and I were taken by the turn of the century photographs, and the kids were mostly interested in the replication of the ancient Pueblo buildings and the kachina "dolls" (the Hopi’s special protectors). Neil took the kids for a while so that I could look around some more and I fell into a lengthy conversation with Mike, who was sitting at the desk guarding the museum. In line with respecting their privacy I won’t relate our whole discussion, but I think it’s fitting to mention that Mike was in the Marines and served for 3 and ½ years in Vietnam. I related the fact that my Dad served in the Marines, and I think that that fact opened the door to our half hour conversation. 

The other thing that I'll share here because it will help set the scene for where we are and the controversial issues at hand, is that Mike joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs when the major land claim clash between the Hopi and the Navajo intensified in the 70s (this has only been officially settled 2 years ago and some Navajo are referring to this as the second relocation). Mike’s first job was to find the USA sanctioned borders from the 1880s. After his first day, he returned to the BIA and told them he couldn’t find any posts. And so it continued. Eventually, he only found one of the posts, and it was unlike any one that he had been trained to find. Border markers are usually brass plated and entrenched deep in the earth, but on this border the US government only used cedar logs with the numbers burnt on them. According to Mike, the Navajo had clearly encroached on Hopi territory. He was trained as a Ranger and he had to carry a gun with him because of the strains between the two tribes. Once the border was surveyed, he helped with putting up the fence. The workers would put the fence up during the day and then the Navajo side would tear it and take it down that night or the next day. Tension ran high; he was almost killed by some Navajos one day, but he told them, “I didn’t decide to do this, this is the Federal Government’s doing. This is just my job.”

I left the museum and found my family eating cherry pie and ice-cream in the restarunt. Ironic?

Further down the road we stopped at Hubbell's Trading Post, one of the original and certainly most authentic remaining examples. 

Above the door
We saw lots of stray dogs in Navajo Nation. This one limped...

We drove further, passed through the Canyon de Chelly National Monument, and found our next home close by. This is the sunset we watched.

The kids found friends and played hide-and-seek for over an hour in the cactus and sagebrush terrain! 

We were even invited for smores for an after dinner treat! Sorry for the list like sequence here, but we're on borrowed time and energy usage as it is!