Window Rock, Capital of the Navajo Nation

At Window Rock, Arizona, in northeastern Apache County not far from the New Mexico line is the headquarters of the Indian Service for the Navajo Indian Reservation.

The vast and extensive administration of the reservation has its center here. Here the Navajo deals officially with the United States Government and through this agency has contact with Washington, D. C.

Here in September of each year until war interfered was held the Navajo Fair, one of the most interesting Indian events presented by Indians in this country. Like all of the United States, Window Rock is keyed to the war effort, and from here issues in part the stimulus to the Navajo in contributing men and material to victory.

"ST. MICHAELS, FRANCISCAN MISSION." Along the Trading Post Trail

(Continued from Page Nineteen) faded and their jewelry scant and of poorer quality.

The road east out of Dinnehotso is so little traveled as to be hard to find but after circling around desert paths bordered by wild sunflowers so high we couldn't get our bearings, we finally emerged on the road to Mexican Water-nineteen miles of solid rock over which the traffic leaves no trace so the road is outlined at intervals with smaller piles of rock marking the way. This rock bed is the top of a high mesa of solid red sandstone, slow going either in first or second gear the whole way, but safe enough as, unlike many of the roads in the Indian country, it can neither be washed nor blown away! Crossing this mesa is one of the loneliest trips in Arizona; even that familiar land mark of the lonely places the Navajo hogan-is missing here as there could be neither grazing nor farming through this desolate stretch. There are canyons off to the south, mesas off to the north, but in all this vastness you'll see no smoke from a campfire; no riding Indian in the distance; no bird, bug or beast from one horizon to the other. If you waited long enough a horned toad might come your way but even that would not be a safe bet to make, so isolated is the country.Coming off the rock mesa, the road swings down to Mexican Water Trading Post a spot of green in a pocket of red cliffs. Mrs. Wether ill's father dug water at Mexican Water before their Kayenta days began that was a long time ago and the good water has been flowing ever since. There is enough of it to support a few small Indian farms and the post; a few fruit trees and a freckle of a green lawnone of the most luxuriant things you can imagine in the land of red sand and rocks. The Indians originally called the place "Water of the Moving People" because, after digging it for their camping needs, the Wetherills moved on. The post at Mexican Water was established about forty years ago; before the war a few travelers interested in the remoter parts of Navajoland passed through that way but since the war and the resultant tire shortage there are no travelers except a few truckers freighting in supplies from Colorado and New Mexico.Leaving Mexican Water you are told you have passed the last of the rock road and just when you begin to breathe more easily you encounter such drifts of sand that only a running start will see you through and then only with luck. Getting sand-stuck, however, is not serious if you work it right. Immediately on finding your wheels bogged down, cut the motor and be certain not to spin the wheels any deeper into the sand. Throughout these sandy regions a worthless desert shrub called puncture weed and consisting of thorns and stickers manages to grow quite luxuriantly, worthless, that is, for any purpose but roadpadding in sand. After cutting your motor you get out your gloves and shovel and start digging puncture weeds by the dozen, packing them under the submerged wheels and along the tracks you will travel to get out. The thorns provide the necessary traction and although you may be stuck again a few feet further on you can always get yourself out by this method.

After some thirty-five miles of alternate sand and rocky roads-but mostly sand-many dips and washes, the road swings around the bend of a hill and Teec Nos Pos suddenly appears in a cottonwood-lined cove. From here it is only seven miles to the four corners-the only point in the United States common to four state corners.

The name Teec Nos Pos means "Trees all around" and that is just what it is a narrow valley, a cove, cottonwoods and the small stone trading post backed against the Carrizo mountains; the last post in northeastern Arizona. Established about forty years ago, the post is situated in a section of Navajoland in which are the most interesting and beautiful of all the Navajo rugs. Teec Nos Pos Indians are extremely skillful and their designs and colorings are so different from all other Indian designs and colors that even a stranger unacquainted with the Indian craft of rugweaving can spot a Teec Nos Pos rug any time. In front of the post is an old fashioned corn-grinder placed there years ago by the government for the Indians to use in grinding their corn. In order to eventually pay for the grinder the government charged the Indians 15c per one hundred pounds of corn ground. The corn grinder at the time cost $25.00. However, whether due to recurrent grasshopper plagues or Indian negligence is not known but the fact is that the Indians rarely had more than a total of 15c worth of corn at the end of the year's grinding and consequently it has taken some twenty-five years for the $25.00 corn grinder to be paid off!

From Teec Nos Pos to the east the country is considerably more inhabited, the roads better traveled, but as a result, the trip is less interesting. In due time you come to U. S. Highway 66 near Shiprock, New Mexico and, following it south, arrive at the junction some miles north of Gallup where the road to Window Rock turns west and starts back into the Indian country.

Six miles north of Window Rock is FortDefiance and Dunn's Mercantile Company, established there in 1905, is today the most modern of the posts carrying large stocks of all kinds of merchandise, both hardware and wearing apparel, and such food delicacies as ice cream, fresh fruits and vegetables and frozen foods products. Fort Defiance is fairly close to the railroad at Gallup and because there are large government hospitals and schools situated there, the Indians of that district have become very modern and have developed a taste for what might be called luxury products.

From Fort Defiance it is only about thirty miles to the J. L. Hubbell post at Ganado, one of the oldest posts in Arizona and the first of several Hubbell posts that were to follow. Today the name of J. L. Hubbell, his hospitality to wayfarers, his wisdom in dealing with the Indians is legend. His son, Lorenzo, who has since died, later established a post among the Hopi Indians at Oraibi, carried on the tradition of hospitality and friendship of those who passed that way. Often when travelers came to the post, Mr. Hubbell would outfit them with supplies, horses and pack animals without remuneration if their interests in the country, its Indian population and archaeology, were sincere. In the early days Mr. Hubbell became so friendly with the Hopi Indians that he was admitted to the most secret of their rituals, the ceremonies in the kiva preceding the performing of the snake dance. As far as is known no white man before or since has been allowed this privilege.

Every year Mr. Hubbell used to give what was called "a chicken pull" and although it seems rather barbarous to us now, it was a favorite sport with the Indians and chicken pull day was like a county fair day in our times. The game consisted of having a chicken buried in loose sand and an Indian rider, coming by at a gallop, was supposed to swing down and pull the chicken out of the sand without slowing his pace or dismounting. Later a canvas bag filled with sand was used; after the Indian got the bag the rest of the tribe would converge on him and whoever was able to snatch the biggest piece of the bag was given the prize.

The old Hubbell home is a museum of articles given to and collected by Mr. Hubbell through his many contacts with artists, writers and visitors to the region. In the living room alone are two hundred and sixty-six Hopi baskets of varying ages, sizes and designs, some new and some brought from ruins deserted by their inhabitants more than a thousand years ago. These baskets are nailed to the beamed ceiling between the rafters bottoms up -it was the most convenient way of hanging a great number of them. Some years back a fresh young man from an eastern university asked Mr. Hubbell why the baskets were placed in such a manner, and Mr. Hubbell replying, "We turn them up when it rains to catch water where the roof leaks." The young man: "Then what do you do with the water?" and again Mr. Hubbell: "Oh we use that to catch suckers in!"

From Ganado the road swings north some thirty-five miles to Chinle, skirting Beautiful Valley on the way. This valley is of a painted desert formations with rich taupe and mulberry colorings predominating; another of Navajo-land's colorful desolate wastes. Chinle, meaning "place where the water comes out" lies at the entrance to Canyon De Chelly and Thunderbird Trading Post lies right in the mouth of the canyon.

Judging from the name "De Chelly" one might think some early French explorer or trader had been through the region and given his name to the canyon. The best explanation however, is that De Chelly is a corruption of the Navajo word-Tsegi meaning canyon -and De Chelly was as close to the spelling and pronunciation of the Indian word as the old timers could come to.

Thunderbird Post was established in 1899 thus being one of the oldest posts on the reservation and because of its location from which trips into Canyon De Chelly may be made, it has been the stopping place for famous travelers ever since its founding. Today it serves the Indian population living on the floor of the two canyons that comprise the De Chelly area; living and working their primitive farms as did their ancestors a thousand years ago.

Following the Chinle wash north from Thunderbird, the road weaves through increasingly lonely lands and swinging past a great red table of rock called Round Rock, elevation 6,000 feet, comes suddenly upon one of the loneliest of all posts, Round Rock Trading Post established in 1890. Here the government has erected a flour mill for the use of the Indians and the post has installed a hay baler taking one out of every ten bales of hay baled by the Indian as payment. Such is the simple way of Indian economy; a trip to the post to trade, i. e. sell their corn, hay, wool, hides, blankets or jewelry and to buy dry goods or ready-to-wear clothing, hardware, staples and fancy goods. Then, when another crop of lambs or hides is ready, another trip to the post again.

From Round Rock we back-track to Ganado again, then west to Jeddito, another of the older posts. Here under the inevitable cotton-woods we saw the first airplane observation post with telephone communication to other points. Here also, Indians may register for the new vocational school recently opened at Fort Wingate to train the Indians in Military English, courtesy, origin and geography of war, first aid, personal hygiene, etc, preparatory to enlistment and regular army training. Prior to starting this basic course, there were many of the more backward Navajos who couldn't speak English and had no conception of current events beyond the daily doings of their immediate neighbors and who were, of necessity, passed over by the army as being unfit for regular training.

A group of Navajos were in the post not long ago and told the trader that the snakes, locusts, prairie dogs and lightning were fewer on the reservation than had ever been the case before, at least within their memory. Their conclusion from this remarkable fact: that the snakes, locusts, prairie dogs and lightning had all gone to war to fight the enemy! And perhaps they are right. Who knows how close to fact some Indian fancies may be? Surely the enemy is being increasingly plagued as time goes on.

From Jeddito the road swings past the Hopi villages on the three tips of Black Mesa; there are trading posts owned by the Indians themselves such as that owned by Tom Pavatea at Polacca and trading posts trading with the Hopi such as the old and famous one operated by the late, fine, Lorenzo Hubbell at Oraibi. But the Hopi Trading Posts are another story and we leave the reservation at this point.

The trading post from the early Mormon post at Lee's Ferry on the Colorado to Richardson's modern post and motel on the Little Colorado; a span of only eighty years and some one hundred miles and yet what changes have come to us within that time. The changes have also come to the Indians and yet, in their changeless ways, they have been able to remain apart from our modernism and going out Among the Navajos, one is able to turn back the pages and live again in the time when only a ferry crossed the Colorado and only an Indian pony trotted the trails from one red butted-horizon to the other.

Chuck and Esther

(Continued from Page Two) Desert Riders and as a hobby began taking pictures of some of his guests. He had a knack with the camera and decided to give it a serious whirl. In the meantime he organized a cowboy outfit that trekked through the east each summer giving cowboy dinners at fancy clubs and private homes and made such a name for himself he ended up among the "interesting people" of The American Magazine. Interesting, indeed! He made several trips into Arizona while at Palm Springs and liked the spaciousness of the place and all the photogenic scenery lying about. He finally went to work for the Tucson Sunshine club, helping spread the name and fame of Tucson through publicity photography as well as putting in a part-time chore for ARIZONA HIGHWAYS.

Two interesting people and two interested photographers like Chuck and Esther couldn't help meeting each other in a town like Tucson and the first thing you know Spring came to the desert, and as the good old western saying goes: "They got hitched!"

When the war came along, Chuck wanted to put his nickel's worth into the war effort and the first thing we know he was a truck farmer and still is near Tucson. The Abbotts call their place "Lucky Acres." He still takes pictures but his main interest right now is making four acres of potatoes come to life and making 36 other acres of vegetables grow green and strong. They need good vegetables around Tucson these days.Esther maintains her studio in the fall and winter months, helps farm and takes pictures and when she isn't doing anything else devotes her maternal attentions to Carl Abbott, who, incidentally, arrived in the Abbott household a few months ago.

Chuck and Esther plan after the war to do a book in pictures, black-and-white and color, on all of western America from Alaska toGuatemala. You can bet your last dollar it will be a whizz. R. C.

The Navajo Indian At War

(Continued from Page Twenty-three) The sale of war bonds and stamps goes on continuously and at a level that surprises even those who know the Navajos well. None has made such a record as Henry Chee Dodge, 83-year-old former chief and present Tribal Council Chairman. During the long government campaign to reduce Navajo livestock in the interests of range conservation, and as a means of providing food for war needs, the old man sold all the sheep and cattle he had been running on the Navajo range. From the proceeds of his cattle sales he purchased $30,000 worth of war bonds. Asa Tracy, a truck operator and livestock owner, casually purchased $2,000 worth of bonds on a recent visit to town. There is an impression that this is only an incident to Tracy's bond-buying.

Navajos say very little about their bond buying, very little about any of their war activities. To most of them the war is a first order of business, a vital personal matter which must receive all possible attention. Parents and clan relatives of the boys and men in the Service ask many questions of Indian Service employees and others who can read and write. Letters are received from many distant lands and these letters must be read aloud by friends, then interpreted, discussed, and finally answered.

Traditionally the Navajos are home people. So attached are they to their mesas and mountains and canyons that through the years they have at times shown a willingness to die rather than to depart. Even the modern, educated Navajo would far rather come back to the homeland than to work elsewhere. Yet, for the purpose of engaging in war work, they show a willingness to go far away. They work in war factories throughout the West, at Naval bases, on the railroads, in mines and on construction jobs in places they had never heard about. Occasionally they come back to visit, to attend a ceremonial, or to transact business. But they go back to their jobs. The work and the attitude of the Navajos at the Navajo Army Ordnance Depot symbolizes the war spirit of the whole tribe.Bellemont was a trading post, a post office and a Santa Fe Railroad station 9 miles west of Flagstaff, Arizona, quiet, remote and peaceful. In May of 1942, the Army and the contractors began converting 44 square miles of mesa into one of the important ordnance de pots of the world. Speed, skill and loyalty were vital factors in the task of erecting the numerous and complex buildings, railroads, highways and other essential installations. Lt. Col. E. B. Myrick, commander of the post, had had experience with Navajos in the construction of the Fort Wingate Depot and he had made plans to employ as many of them at Bellemont as he could obtain. His associates, he said, were dubious, if not scornful, and very articulate.

"They told me" the Colonel related, "that I was making a big mistake to depend on Indians for a heavy proportion of the work here. They said the Indians didn't know how to work in the first place and wouldn't work, even if they did know how. I knew these things were not true and I persisted in hiring Indians. The result is we have about 1,500 of them working here now and everybody who knows anything about them agrees that they are one hundred percent loyal. There is no worry about sabotage or any kind of disloyalty as far as the Indians are concerned. Their patriotism and loyalty are simply taken for granted."

Indians are driving trucks and tractors, some are foremen, some are mechanics, electricians, stone masons, and clerks, interpreters and laborers. They possess many skills, plus the gift for hard work.

One story is typical. Due to workers' carelessness and other causes, ten or fifteen fires a day were started until Indians were put in charge of fire protection and fire prevention. The average has been reduced to one fire per month. Many more fires than one a month are started, but they are extinguished so quickly they are hardly worth recording.The Army thinks so highly of its Navajo workers that they have been permitted to live within the Depot enclosure. Workers and their families live here in tents and in hogans which they build with materials furnished by the government and on government time. Here almost at the foot of the San Francisco peaks, snow-covered, sacred mountains of the Navajos, these Indians work, live and play, in the midst of an atmosphere of modern structural magic. Surrounded by high pressure construction men, railroad builders, road crews and many other technicians, all engaged in a task of momentous importance, prosecuted at un believable speed, the Navajos are placidly holding their own. They not only have the ability, but they have the will to do their share, and more.

Recently there was a run-off election to choose a Chairman of the Navajo Tribal Council. The Indians at Bellemont were desirous of casting their ballots but they were even more desirous of remaining at their work. Time would have been wasted in traveling to thepolling place and this they did not like. A delegation was sent to the Central. Agency at Window Rock to petition the Superintendent to let them have absentee ballots. John Collier, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, happened to be in Window Rock on a brief visit and he and James M. Stewart, the Superintendent, reluctantly told them there was no way for the Navajos to amend their own voting regulations on such short notice. The Indians argued long and eloquently. They insisted that their people would not leave their work no matter how earnestly they wished to vote. "To leave our jobs would be just like helping Hitler and those Japanese," a spokesman said, "and this our people will not do. They will not leave for a day or even for an hour, if it helps the enemies of our country."

A recent session of the Tribal Council devoted to many important business matters, had so crowded a schedule that the meeting lasted all day, all evening, and until 2:30 the next morning. Yet delegate after delegate took time to talk about the importance of the war and the urgent necessity for everyone to make whatever sacrifices will help our country win. If a digest of these comments were made, it would read something like this: "The war is our war. It must be won. No matter how much our people are doing, they do not mind doing it if it helps to wipe out the enemy; they even want to do more. We are fighting for our homes, for our children. We will go wherever the government needs us. We will work, we will go without things to which we have grown accustomed. We will keep on sending our sons and brothers to fight, as many as the government wants. This, and more, we will do because we are fighting for our land and for our way of life, the free way that we have known."

THE WHITE MOUNTAINS:

I would like to tell you how much our people appreciate that April issue of the ARIZONA HIGHWAYS magazine. I can see that you have done a very careful and very thorough job, and we have had lots of comments not only from local people but from those that are coming in here from the outside points to spend their vacation, summer coming this early already. Everyone in this part of this country is very, very grateful to you personally, to your assistants, and to the Arizona Highway Department for doing the excellent job that you have in showing the country our wonderful White Mountain-Blue Range playground. We have people in here from New York, Switzerland, Los Angeles, and many other points, and they say that this is one of the most wonderful countries in the whole United States. Otherwise, they would naturally not invest as much money here as they have. These people have often wondered why our part of the country has been given so little publicity. Your help in the ARIZONA HIGHWAYS magazine will go far towards helping us along, and we are very, very grateful to you all.

Julius Becker, Becker Mercantile Co., Springerville, Arizona.

I have just read with pleasure your April issue of the ARIZONA HIGHWAYS. It is indeed historical and shows that a great deal of time and effort was spent by you obtaining authentic data.

It is certainly a credit to yourself with a wonderfully true picture of the many resources of the northern section of our state.

White Mountain Sportsmens Ass'n. Earl Albright, Secretary.

ISSUES TAKEN:

Since I ran across your magazine on a trip to the Grand Canyon, I have been a subscriber, and prefer it to other outing magazines that I take. I do not know that I have ever written a letter to a magazine but there are a couple of things in your April 1943 issue that are on my mind.

Years ago, I remember reading of the Mountain Meadow massacre in Utah, and it stated that after the assassins had finished off the Arkan sas party, they went over to Hamblin's for a beefsteak breakfast. I have always associated Hamblin with that horrible affair. Your article on page 31 makes him out quite a different man. If he furnished a beefsteak breakfast to the Mountain Meadow murderers it does not seem he is entitled to so much space in such a fine magazine. Maybe I am wrong.

H. H. West, Los Angeles, California.

JACOB HAMBLIN:

This is by way of expressing my appreciation and the gratitude of my whole family for the splendid article appearing in the April issue of your magazine with my father, Jacob Hamblin, one of the Mormon pioneers.

The article was well written and the photography was very good. Various members of my family have expressed surprise and appreciation for the honor accorded the memory of our father.

Father had much to do with the early activities of the Mormons in Arizona and our family has always been active in the work of our church in Arizona. His interest in the Indians is a matter of history. The article which you published developed many interesting sidelights of his character and his work. Please accept our humble thanks for the way you handled the story of his life.

Dudley J. Hamblin, Phoenix, Arizona.

RETURN TO THE STATES:

Returning to the states after being in Australia with the 2nd Field Hospital, where due to disability incurred in line of duty necessitated return, may I inform you that one of the magazines I most enjoyed while overseas was the Highways.

Some of the officers with my outfit had been at Williams and Luke fields as well as myself, others had served at other points in the state and all enjoyed "dibbs" on the magazine. All invariably spoke of the swell pictures and dandy stories. The pictures brought back vividly to memories the gorgeous scenery and feeling within that only one who loves the great outdoors could appreciate.

While traveling between Wellington and Auckland, N. Z., some of us standing on deck one Sunday morning, with a purple haze in the early morning light, looking toward shore a few miles away observed some mesas, buttes and tablelands and with their colorings. While not so vivid as those of our state, it reminded one very much of the grandeur of an early morning sunrise looking east towards the mountains from nearby countryside around Phoenix.

Several of the families I had the pleasure of visiting enjoyed looking at the pictures and were especially interested in the work of the Navajos and Hopis. Luckily I was able to show some Hopi work as I had a ring on my finger, which was also admired by a lady, a clerk at the desk in the largest hotel in Brisbane. In fact she said "Of all she had observed on hands of officers of the American Army, this was the best." So the wonders of your state have traveled far and wide.

The picture "Billy the Kid," filmed in Monument Valley, produced great admiration amongst the "Aussies" for the splendor and vastness of the scenery, and being in color added that much more charm.

Thought maybe you and your readers might like to know your book gets around places besides Alaska and way points. I left instructions with my old outfit "down under" to pass the magazine along among the fellows instead of sending it back to the states, though I missed several copies.

Maynard C. Crawford, Major M. C. U. S. A., Ret., Los Angeles, California.

PICTURE OF A BOY FISHING:

... The picture by Chuck Abbott of a little boy fishing which appeared on page 36 of the April edition of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS, is most intriguing. Is there any way I can get permission to use it as the front cover illustration for the NEWS DIGEST, our employes' magazine? I would be certain, of course, to give credit to both ARIZONA HIGHWAYS and to Chuck Abbott, It seems to me, looking at that picture, that it typifies the thing that really we are fighting for in the world today the right for our children to carry that kind of a look on their faces, to have their dogs sit with them just as this lad is doing.