NAVAJO TRIBAL FAIR

Scores of cook fires were coming to life and a pall of smoke hung in a great grey blanket over the valley camps.

To Kii yazhi it was a very special sun that peeped over the plateau of his native Navajoland that cool mid-September morning. With his robes pulled tightly about his shoulders he sat leaning against a wheel of his father's wagon anxiously watching the eastern sky. He had waited silently in the darkness long before the first rosy glow of dawn tinted the wispy clouds. In his hand he clutched his life savings: thirty-six cents. In all his eight years Kii yazhi had never greeted a day with such great expectations, for this was the opening day of the Navajo nation's great tribal fair. Kii yazhi was not alone in his eager early morning vigil for scattered on the hillside around his father's camp and far below in a wide oval surrounding the Navajo tribal fair grounds scores of cook fires were coming to life and a pall of smoke hung in a great grey blanket over these valley camps.

From all over the 25,000 square miles of reservation the Navajo had traveled by wagon, auto, horseback and on foot bringing their choice livestock, crops, crafts, rugs, jewelry, etc., to enter in the fair at Window Rock, capital area of the Navajo nation. This exhibition was a broad crosssection of the Navajo way of life and culture at its best. In Kii yazhi wished for a moment he could be an eagle that he might soar over the great Navajo Fair Grounds and drink in at one glance every detail of the excitement below.

Kii yazhi saw Navajos enjoying brightly colored soda pop and ice cream cones.

Navajoland distances are long, the way is dusty and rough and for every one out of the 65,000 Navajo population who can come perhaps 50 must stay at home. Many families arrived in trucks and cars after comparatively few hours travel, but those who came great distances in wagons were resigned to many tiring days and nights along the road.

OPPOSITE PAGE

(Above) “Navajo Audience” BY ALLEN C. REED. The favorite robe of the Navajo seems to be a Pendelton blanket. In the cool of the evening the grandstand vibrates with the color of many blankets.

(Below) “Squaw Dance” BY ALLEN C. REED. All night long in the soft light of the moon, Navajo couples shuffle tirelessly in their native dances to the throb of a drum and the singers' chant.

To Kii yazhi's wide eyes this was all a new and thrilling sight, for, with the exception of a single trip to the isolated trading post many miles from his family's hogan, his life had been a lonely one caring for his father's sheep on the silent windswept plateau. There had been no tribal fairs in Kii yazhi's lifetime. For during the war years with 3600 Navajos in the armed forces and 15,000 more away at war jobs, the Navajos had discontinued their fairs. This September morning in 1951 marked the beginning anew of the annual event.

Here was so much to see that Kii yazhi wished for a moment he could be an eagle that he might soar over the great Navajo Fair Grounds and drink in at one glance every detail of the excitement below. Kii yazhi had no stomach for breakfast. Every moment must count on this wonderful day. His day would be filled to the brim. There were hundreds of Navajos wherever he looked and scores of camps to visit. Dust was already stirring from the roads to the parking area where white tourists and visitors were arriving in bright shinning cars. Kii yazhi hurried around to the exhibits where he learned much about his people's way of life on all parts of the reservation. In the permanent fairgrounds museum there were graphic displays of Navajo education and health programs and of resources and industry such as stock raising, coal mining, oil, timber, farming and handicrafts. Blue, red and white ribons decorated the finest specimens of each exhibition class. Kii yazhi marvelled at the fine cattle and sheep and the bright red apples, the golden grain, the lush peaches, grapes and squash and many other examples of Navajo farming that he had not known existed. There is little wonder that Kii yazhi had never before gazed upon such luxuries, for only a minor part of the Navajo lands are capable of responding to the patience and toil of the Navajo farmer. Ironically, the inadequate resources and large areas of barren wasteland in the reservation make by sheer force most of this bountiful appearing exhibition the exception rather than the rule. There were commissary stands where Kii yazhi saw Navajos drinking brightly colored soda pop from glass bottles and clutching cones topped with wonderful flavored snow called ice cream. The smell of sizzling hamburgers and hot dogs permeated the air and Kii yazhi traded sparingly but completely his finances for tastes of these strange but delightful treats.

The great steps carved in the hillside above the arena to serve as a grandstand were filling with Navajo spectators. Soon a colorful Navajo parade was in progress past the grandstand led by an all-Navajo band. The Navajo police force in their smartly tailored olive green uniforms proudly rode their well-groomed horses in an orderly column. In the judges stand tribal leaders and rodeo officials made announcements and speeches over a public address system and directed the program throughout the afternoon. Scores of Navajo cowboys displayed their skill at bronc riding, roping, bull dogging, wild cow milking and many other events. The Navajo rodeo clowns were on hand to add to the fun.

At dusk two great camp fires blazed in the arena like giant yellow kleig lights and between them the evening performance took place. The firelight reflected on the mass of colorful Pendelton blankets in the Navajo packed spectator stand. With only the black night for a curtain the actors appeared in sequence from out of the dark into the firelight to sing and dance and perform Navajo rituals.

In this way Kii yazhi saw the great Navajo fair put on by Navajos for the Navajo people. Of course, white visitors were welcome and though they came from many states to take advantage of this outstanding opportunity to mingle with and better know this largest tribe of Indians in the United States, the minority of white visitors was lost in the sea of copper skinned, brightly dressed Navajos.

It had been a long hard day for Kii yazhi and by the time the evening show was over, he was glad to trudge up the hill to his father's camp. There were many questions to ask and many wonderful things to tell, but that would have to wait. Kii yazhi was more pleasantly tired and happy than he had ever been in his life. All the rest of the night the soft chant and moccasined shuffle of a squaw dance drifted up the hill but Kii yazhi in his blanket didn't hear. The Navajo moonlight revealed that he was asleep with a happy smile on his face. His day had been complete.