Navajo Country Through a Son's Eyes

Dappled shadows cast by a moody sky over Monument Valley prompted writer-photographer LeRoy DeJolie to title this photograph “Stone Light.” Reaching this vantage point on Hunt’s Mesa requires hours of hiking or back-road venturing. ■To order a print of this photograph, see page 1.

Images of Navajoland

In Navajoland: A Native Son Shares His Legacy, recently published by Arizona Highways Books, author and photographer LeRoy DeJolie takes readers on a visual and spiritual tour of his homeland. The mesas, canyons and mountains captured in the 80-page book represent far more than scenery for DeJolie; they remain the source and inspiration for his culture and identity. Mystery writer Tony Hillerman, who wrote the foreword to the book, observes that for the Navajo photographer, this landscape is a Holy Land. What follows is an excerpt from the foreword.

by Tony Hillerman

Why would a cameraman born to the Diné (Din NAY)-the name traditional Navajos call themselves-see his homeland in a way different from any other talented photographer? The answer lies in cultural values. LeRoy DeJolie was born to the Rock Gap People, his mother's clan, and the Red House People of his father. The photographer was raised among people who see more than mere mountains, dry washes, expanses of sage, and the solidified lava flow of exhausted volcanoes when they look at the landscape around them. DeJolie has heard the "winter stories" in which children of traditional Navajos learn lessons of their genesis from the start of creation.

For example, when a traditional Navajo focuses his camera on the old volcano we call Mount Taylor, he sees Tsoodził, the Turquoise Mountain. The story of the Navajo Genesis tells how First Man formed the mountain of material brought up from the world below, decorated it with blue beads, pinned it to the Earth with a flint knife, and made it the home of the spirits Turquoise Boy and Yellow Corn Girl (the Yei'or Holy People known as 'Ashkii Dootl'izbii and 'At'ééd Litso naadáá). On this mountain, the sacred southern boundary post of the Navajo Holy Land, the twin sons of Changing Woman-armed with weapons stolen from Sun-killed the Ye'iitsoh, the chief of the evil monsters who had followed the Diné up from the underworld. The lava flow, which forms the remarkable landscape we drive through south of Mount Taylor, consists of the dried blood of that monster. To traditional Navajos, the mountain remains an enduring reminder of how a harmonious family partnership allowed good to overcome greedy evil. From the "winter stories" based on oral accounts from tribal mythology, traditional Navajo children learn their goal in life is not to be richer or more powerful than one's fellows. To the contrary, life's purpose is to remain in harmony with the great, interconnected cosmos of which they are a part-along with fellow humans, the birds, the wolves, the rivers, the hornets, the winter winds, the piñon trees and the bark beetles that feed on them, and even the mesa cliffs that change sunset colors with the changing seasons. They are not (as the Bible's "Book of Genesis" suggests) born to be master of the planet and all upon it. Instead, Navajo children learn they are among the cogs in an endless natural process, which includes not just us humans and not just all living things like the grass underfoot and the red-tailed hawk above, but also Earth itself, the starry sky, the clouds that drift through it, and the blessed rain they bring. . . .

[ABOVE] In his new book, author LeRoy DeJolie depicts elders such as this grandmother who strive to give children a context for life and to instill the Navajo culture in them.

[LEFT] "Soft, sweet light bathes the canyon walls and plateaus of my homeland on the Colorado Plateau in brilliant bands of dark rose, pink and tan. Although I often feel dwarfed by the immense size and striking shapes of these timeless sentinels, I live for the opportunity to capture them on film," says DeJolie.

A Navajo student in a class I taught years ago told me that if I wanted to find witchcraft on the reservation, "Look for a Navajo who has more of everything than he needs."

Images of Navajoland

A Navajo student in a class I taught years ago told me that if I wanted to find witchcraft on the reservation, “Look for a Navajo who has more of everything than he needs.” Another Navajo friend told me that saying “rich Navajo’ is like saying 'healthy corpse.” Alex Etcitty, my favorite Diné philosopher, explained that “having what you need is good. Having more than you need, with needy people around you, is a sign you’re an evil person.” “Why evil?” I asked Etcitty. “Because this sort of greed disrupts hozhó. And hozhó-a concept which includes not just harmony but contentment and family love-is the ultimate goal.” Thus, a traditional Navajo does not want to appear richer, or otherwise superior, to his neighbors. Instead of appearing wiser than others, he will precede an explanation with “They say,” thereby giving the impression that he simply is passing along the knowledge. Or, for another example, a Navajo friend explained that his brother, who had won three consecutive rodeo bull-riding prizes at the Navajo Tribal Fair, would not enter the next year “because he has been winning too much.” A Tony Hillerman, the Albuquerque writer who popularized the Native American detective novel, has had decades of close association with the Navajo Tribe.Part of Arizona Highways Books' Special Scenic Collection, the soft-covered NavajoLand ($12.95 plus shipping and handling) can be ordered online at arizonahighways.com or by calling toll-free (800) 543-5432.

Geronimo, pictured here in 1890, reportedly had many mystical powers, including one that people believed kept him alive through 50 years of warfare.

GERONIMO MAN OF MYSTICAL POWER THE LEGENDARY APACHE WIELDED GREAT INFLUENCE AS A HEALER, SEER AND INVINCIBLE WARRIOR by Sharon S. Magee

>>>>>>> GERONIMO SAT ON A ROCK deep in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona. His head rested in his hands. His face, wet with tears, revealed his deep grief for his wife, Alope, his three children, and his mother, who had been killed by Mexican soldiers only a short time before.Suddenly a voice called his name, Apache Sam Haozous told Geronimo's biographer, Angie Debo, in Geronimo: The Man, His Time, His Place. Geronimo looked around, but saw no one. Three more times he heard his name called. As he continued to look for the source, the voice said, "No gun can ever kill you. I will take the bullets from the guns of the Mexicans, so they will have nothing but powder. And I will guide your arrows."

Geronimo would eventually have many powers, but he believed this power to be his most potent and impor-tant. Protection from death was widely respected among the Apaches, and because of it, he fought fearlessly and earned a reputation as a great Apache war leader.

"Bullets cannot kill me!" Geronimo reportedly told artist Elbridge Ayer Burbank in 1897, long after the old warrior had fought his last battle and was a prisoner of war at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Over the years, his power continued to reaffirm this prophecy. In 1870, his sister Ishton lay close to death as she endured a horrendous labor. Years later, Daklugie, the son to whom she was giving birth, told the story to Eve Ball, who recorded it in Indeh: An Apache Odyssey.

His father was on a raid, Daklugie said, so Geronimo had come to officiate at the birth as medicine man.

"For four days she suffered terribly," Daklugie related. "Geronimo thought that she was going to die; he had done all he could for her, and was so distressed that he climbed high up the mountain behind Fort Bowie to plead with [the Apache god] Ussen for his sister's life. As Geronimo stood with arms and eyes upraised Ussen spoke. Geronimo heard His voice clearly, as distinctly as if on a telephone. Ussen told Geronimo that his sister was to live, and he promised my uncle that he would never be killed but would live to a ripe old age and would die a natural death."

Daklugie told Ball that he believed this power gave Geronimo his great courage. "He was by nature already a brave person, but if one knows that he will never be killed, why be afraid?"

Apaches believe power of all kinds pervades the universe and is available for good or evil. "Power is never overtly sought, and when it comes, it comes suddenly and unexpectedly. It was the life force of the universe,