The Navajo Nation

We traveled across the Navajo Reservation on the way down to Tucson for the opening of the Mountain Oyster Club Art Show I mentioned last week. I’ve traveled across the rez numerous times. In the late 1980’s when I was showing at the Grand Canyon and other venues in Arizona, Highway 160 became all too familiar.

Not much has changed since then. It’s still a long drive. A few signs along the roadside warning the weary driver of the possibility of horses on the pavement. Signs warning of cattle, flash floods and ice too have been added. Nothing mentioning sheep, goats, dogs or Navajos however.

Tuba City has grown some as has Keyenta. One noteable addition on Red Mesa is a housing development that would rival something in a southwest metro area. Red Mesa isn’t even close to anything. As you come over a rise in the road you can’t help but notice a number of red roofed stucco houses on the north side of the highway. From the road they look right uptown except for the chain link fence surrounding the subdivision, if you can call it that. Pretty impressive out there in Navajo Land. Our tax dollars at work there no doubt.

When I was on the Crow Reservation working as a lease agent, Melvin Lefthand told me about a similar attempt by the white man to integrate the Crows into “civilization”. The feds built a bunch of houses for them some years ago. All wired for electricity, with indoor plumbing and propane furnaces. The problem was that the closest electricity was miles away from the homes and the Crows couldn’t afford the propane. He told me that they did make an attempt to live in them but that when you build a fire in the middle of the wood floor in the living room to heat and cook with, the fire has a tendency to burn everything else down around it. He just laughed. I hope the Navajos fair better.

I said I’d report on my findings at the Mountain Oyster Club. I must say that the facility is impressive and they did serve up some Mountain Oysters for the patrons and artists. Tasty they were. Attendance was good and a lot of pretty good art hung for the show and sale. It was encouraging to see a number of the paintings had sold within the first couple hours of the preview. No word on mine however as of yet. A good time was had by all. The show hangs through December so if you are passing through Tucson stop in and check it out. Tell them I sent you.

No doubt everyone who wanted it got their fill of turkey yesterday. I hope you all were properly thankful for whatever is important to you too. I know I am.

This column originally appeared in the Scene Magazine of the Montrose Dailly Press. http://www.montrosepress.com/