Map of Apache County

BY: Wayne Davis

MAP OF APACHE COUNTY NOTES FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS OPPOSITE PAGE

"LITTLE COLORADO IN MT. BALDY WILDERNESS AREA" BY WAYNE DAVIS. This photograph was taken about five miles above Sheep Crossing in the White Mts. In a protected area of the U. S. Forest Service, it can only be reached by horseback or by hiking. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; 150mm Symmar lens; f/16 at 1/25 sec.; early morning in July.

FOLLOWING PAGES

"VIEW OF SHUSH BETOU LAKE" This is one of the newest White Mt. Lakes, being filled for the first time in 1968. It is one mile north of Arizona 73, almost at the junction of Hawley Lake Road. 4x5 Arca-Swiss camera; E3 Ektachrome; f/18 at 1/50 sec.; 6-in. Dagor lens; bright day in September.

"FALL COMES TO CHRISTMAS TREE LAKE" This is an L-shaped lake nestled high in the White Mts. surrounded by beautiful pine timber intermixed with aspen. It is between Fort Apache and Hawley Lake, off the East Fork Road. This lake is not visited much because fishing is prohibited as it is being used to propagate native species of trout.

"INVITATION TO HORSESHOE LAKE" Horseshoe Lake may be seen from. Arizona 73 a few miles east of McNary. This is one of the most popular fishing and camping places in the White Mts. Big Tank Lake is just about a half mile north of Horseshoe.

"MORNING AT EARL PARK LAKE" Earl Park Lake is one of the newer lakes built by the Apaches to attract summer tourists to their White Mt. reservation lands, rapidly becoming one of Arizona's most popular summer vacation areas. This lake is near Hawley Lake. The photographer in these lake photos used the same equipment as described with his photo of Shush Betou Lake. Taken in early June.

"LEE VALLEY LAKE IN THE WHITE MTS." This is one of the most charming lakes in the White Mts. More lakes are being constructed each year in the area and more are being planned. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f/22 at 1/25 sec.; 210mm Symmar lens; bright sunny day in August.

"BECKER LAKE WHITE MTS." Becker Lake is one mile north of Springerville and was originally built by the pioneer Becker family, Springerville merchants. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f/22 at 1/25th sec.; 150mm Symmar lens; early morning in early Sept.

"LUNA LAKE NEAR ALPINE, ARIZ." Luna Lake is one of the many attractions which visitors find at Alpine, a popular resort in the White Mts. Same camera equipment as above. Taken late in the afternoon of a mid-Sept. day.

"PINE-FRINGED HAWLEY LAKE" Hawley Lake was one of the first lakes developed by the Fort Apache Indian tribe to turn their mountain land into a summer visitor's paradise. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f/22 at 1/25 sec.; 150mm Symmar lens; August.

"SUMMER THUNDERHEAD OVER TONTO LAKE" August is the month of dramatic skies for the White Mts. Afternoon storms come sweeping in bringing rain and great, white, fluffy clouds. August. Same equipment as above.

"CLOUD-FILLED SKY OVER CRESCENT LAKE" This lake adjoins Big Lake, two popular lakes in the highest parts of the White Mts. and exceedingly popular fishing areas. August. Same equipment as above.

"APACHE DANCERS AT WHITERIVER, ARIZ." This photograph shows a group of Apache clown dancers during a Coming Out ceremony, one of the most beautiful of Apache dances. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; Ektachrome; f/11 at 1/30 sec. with #33 Flash Bulb; 135mm Symmar lens; late at night in Sept.

"APACHE MAIDENS, BEAUTIFULLY DRESSED" Traditional Apache dress, worn mainly at ceremonies, is unique and attractive. Apaches are noted for their exquisite bead work.

NOTES FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

"APACHE ROUNDUP" This photograph was taken near Whiteriver, Ariz. on the Apache reservation in Apache County, during the October roundup. Apaches are fine cattlemen and are proud of their fine Herefords. 5x7 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f/14 at 1/50 sec.; 210mm Symmar lens; mid-day of a bright October day in White Mts.

"SPRINKLING CORN POLLEN AT APACHE CEREMONY" Taken near Whiteriver, Ariz. This is one of the final parts of the Apache Coming Out Ceremony.

"IN THE HEART OF PETRIFIED FOREST NAT'L PARK" This park, under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, is attracting more and more visitors each year. Here earth reveals a story that goes back millions of years. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f/22 at 1/50 sec.; 150mm Symmar lens; late afternoon of an early afternoon in August.

"VIEWS OF PETRIFIED FOREST" Photos on pages 22 and 23 (pages following the center panel) show various aspects of the Petrified Forest. Here is a truly fantastic landscape.

"PORTRAIT OF A SAWMILL McNARY, ARIZ." McNary, high in the White Mountains of Arizona, is one of Arizona's most important timber centers. It is operated by the Southwest Forest Industries. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f/22 at 1/25 sec.; 150mm Symmar lens; early morning in early Sept.

"LAVISH FLORAL DISPLAY NEAR ALPINE, ARIZ." The time is August in the White Mts. The good earth responds to the summer storms bringing welcome rain. Taken along US 180 just east of Alpine.

"LITTLE COLORADO NEAR ST. JOHNS" This photo was taken 5 miles south of St. Johns on the Little Colorado River, shown here overflowing a small diversion dam. Mid-morning in early July.

"LAZY LITTLE COLORADO ABOVE EAGAR" Eagar is a small community near Springerville, located in a charming valley dotted with small farms. Photo taken a few miles up river from Eagar. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f/32 at 1/10 sec.; 150mm Symmar lens; early morning in July.

"STANDING ROCKS IN CHINLE VALLEY" View made from bluff at north end of Lukachukai Mts. in the Navajo Reservation. Standing Rocks are near Rock Point Trading Post. A mile hike east of reservation road from US 164 to Round Rock offers this exciting window in Standing Rock Country. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f/20 at 1/50 sec.; 15" ApoRonar Rodenstock lens; Oct. afternoon with low key, hard edged autumn light.

"WHEATFIELD LAKE NAVAJOLAND" Wheatfield Lake is one of several lakes that have been developed on the Navajo Reservation for the pleasure of visitors. It is located about 15 miles south of Lukachukai.

"IN LYMAN LAKE STATE PARK" This lake, originally built by early day settlers, is 13 miles south of St. Johns on Highway 180.

It is a popular recreational center for people of the area.

"IN BEAUTIFUL VALLEY NEAR CHINLE, ARIZ." Here is another vista of beauty and expanse the visitor finds on the Navajo Reservation.

THE TWO NAVAJO STUDIES below the Beautiful Valley pictorial were taken in Canyon de Chelly Nat'l. Monument. This area has long been a revered part of the reservation for Navajos.

"GNARLED JUNIPER AND SLICK ROCK - NAVAJOLAND" BY DAVID MUENCH. This photograph dramatically portrays the effect of wind and weather erosion in the high plateau part of the Navajo Indian Reservation. View looks into Kah Behghi Valley below the east flank of the Carrizo Mts.

WESTWARD EDEN EMIGRANT SETTLERS' PARADISE

Arizona 666, from Springerville north, passes Lyman Lake State Park and a buffalo reserve. Lyman Reservoir is a 15,000 acre lake stocked with bass, catfish and trout. Originally built by Mormon settlers to contain the Little Colorado for irrigation, the first dam broke in 1915, flooding all the farms in the valley and drowning eight people. The new dam was completed in 1923 and the lake has become a popular boating, water-skiing and fishing resort.

North of Lyman Lake is the county seat of Apache County, St. Johns. St. Johns was settled in 1871 by Solomon Barth and a group of Mexican families from Cubero, New Mexico. Sol Barth, a Polish emigrant, had pushed a peddler's cart from the east coast to Utah with a wagon train of Mormons; had built up a mercantile business in San Francisco; had fought with Confederate guerillas in southern Arizona; had hauled gold ore; contracted mail for the Pony Express; traded with the Apaches; guided railroad survey parties; and started a prosperous freight business hauling grain from Dodge City, Kansas, to Fort Apache. The freight trail to Fort Apache crossed the Little Colorado at a rocky crossing called El Puente, The Bridge. Here, Sol Barth brought the Mexican families to settle and raise hay and grain. Three years later, more colonists from the Rio Grande Valley arrived and settled nearby, at a crossing known as El Vadito. El Vadito was renamed San Juan in honor of the first woman to live there, Señora Maria San Juan Baca de Padilla. The Postmaster General thought the name too all-fired foreign-sounding and changed it to St. Johns.

Sol Barth married Refugia Landazo in 1874 and built a home for her. The adobe home became the Barth Hotel, famous in the 1880s and 1890s. The hotel stands on the main street of St. Johns now, as it did then, filled with antique furniture and china, old photographs, paintings, Indian pottery, baskets and artifacts. It is well qualified to become, someday, a National Historic Site.

In 1879, a band of Mormon pioneers led by Ammon Tenney were sent from Utah to colonize the colonize the St. Johns area. The Mormons bought 1200 acres of land from Sol Barth for 770 cows and $2,000 in goods. By the 1880s, the industrious Mormons had built homes, a school house, a church, a co-operative mercantile and a flour mill. Farms, orchards and cattle flourished, although St. Johns was formed in troubled times.

LITTLE CONCHO

Fifteen miles west of St. Johns on U.S. 80 is the town of Concho. The main building is the gas station, which is also the post office, public library and general store. It is difficult to believe that Concho was once the center of a sheep industry that supported three banks. Solomon Barth, who founded St. Johns, was not a gambling man. However, a gentleman in Los Lunas, New Mexico, who owed him money, threatened his life if Barth did not give him a gambler's chance to square his debt. When the poker game was over, Barth had won 8,000 head of sheep. Barth brought the sheep to Concho mucho muy pronto, where the water and feed were good, and placed them under the management of Manuel Candelaria.

At the edge of Concho is a light green farmhouse with a white porch. Fields of chile and corn surround the house and a vegetable garden lies behind it. Apples, pears and plums grow in an orchard. A corral holds a couple of milk cows and some hogs. The Leo Garcias need all the food they can grow. They have eleven foster children.

Barbara Garcia put down the basket of steaming laundry she was carrying to the clothesline. She sat on a bright orange bench outside the back door of the farmhouse and talked, while the melting snow dripped off the roof. She is small, wiry, energetic, and she smiles a lot.

Barbara came to Concho fifty years ago when she was one year old. Her foster father, Jesus Romero, herded sheep for the Candelarias. Her foster mother was an invalid for seventeen years, and so Barbara learned to work when she was very young. In 1936, all the young girls in Concho had permanent waves and Barbara wanted one. Her parents asked Leo Garcia, who owned an automobile, to take her to Holbrook to get a permanent. A year later, Barbara married Leo. He worked on construction, then drove the mail truck to Vernon and Piñon. When the snow was deep, he delivered the mail on horseback.

The first welfare child they took was named Stephen and they adopted him when he was fourteen months old. He is now married and a student at Northern Arizona University. They took the four Perea children. The oldest, Mary, attended Highlands University before she was married. Angela Perea went to Phoenix Junior College, marrying Mr. Pat Murphy. Linda graduated from high school at sixteen and will start college next year. Alex is a junior at St. Johns High School. Barbara's only regret is that the Perea children had wanted to call her "mother." Afraid that they might be taken away from her at any time, she said, "No, just call me Barbara."

Five years ago, the Garcias added three Apache girls to their household . . . Darlene, Marilyn, and Berdina Nosie. They are good students and very inquisitive. Barbara says, "I tell them they are always asking questions because they are Nosies." The next year, they took a boy named Johnny Chavez, who is in the 7th grade. Last September, two more Nosies arrived, a two-year-old boy named Reece and a four-year-old girl named Sharlene. "We wanted to adopt more of the children, but we couldn't afford to educate them," says Barbara. "We do the best we can by raising foster children."

On November 29th, the Garcias celebrated their 31st wedding anniversary. The children were all there... Stephen, Mary, Angela, Linda, Alex, Darlene, Marilyn, Berdina, Johnny, Reece and Sharlene. "I'm still washing sheets and towels!" Barbara laughed. The white laundry flapped in triumph on the clothesline.

North from St. Johns, U.S. 666 passes through badlands, then up Tucker Draw, the long pass between dark piñon and cedar ridges. In a gradual descent, the road drops to the flat land that stretches out to salmon-pink cliffs in the north. The sky looks like a floor swept by lazy children. The tense rails of the Santa Fe run from east to west. Parallel to the railroad is Interstate 40, dividing Apache County in half like a lead pencil mark. The Puerco River follows the highway as errat-ically as a drunk who doesn't care when he gets to Holbrook.

BURR PORTER AN UNFORGETTABLE PIONEER

James E. Porter, Marvin's father, came to Apache County in 1884 as a government surveyor. Marvin's mother taught school in St. Johns in the early days. In the 1890s, James Porter's brother, Burr, came out west and they bought Commodore Owens' old homestead near Navajo Springs.

James Porter went into the cattle business. Burr Porter went into the sheep business and expanded his ranching country to ten townships, from Navajo to New Mexico. A man named Hootch Marley hadn't been able to pay off his bank loan and the bank had called in his sheep. He gathered several thousand sheep, put them on the train in Winslow, unloaded them in Holbrook and vindictively turned them loose on the main street in front of the bank that was repossessing them. Burr Porter bought Hootch Marley's sheep and relieved the banker of his awkward situation. A man who wanted the Porter brothers out of circulation got a cowboy drunk and hired him to kill them. James found out, borrowed a gun from Billy Scorse in Holbrook, and waited. He was standing in a doorway when the cowboy rode in to town, holding a rifle. "Are you looking for me?" James asked. The cowboy raised his rifle and James, regretfully, shot him dead. In the 1920s, Navajo became the biggest cattle shipping point between Los Angeles and Chicago. Cattle were driven to the railhead from the Mogollon Rim, Springerville, St. Johns, and across the San Augustine Plains from Magdalena, N.M. The sheep and cattle businesses were prospering and Burr Porter bought the general merchandise store at Navajo, where he had a good Indian and ranching trade. His nephew, Marvin, worked for him. When Marvin was only twenty, Burr would give him a satchel full of $5,000 in silver and send him, alone, to the reservation, to buy sheep and cattle.

Marvin took care of the livestock, managed the store and ran errands for Burr around the country. Once Burr hired a drunken clerk, who used to tank up on lemon and vanilla extract. Marvin came in one morning at six o'clock and the clerk, full of extract, attacked him with a broom. Marvin decided he had enough of cantankerous clerks, hungry livestock and long hours and he quit. He quit Burr every once in a while.

When Marvin left that time Burr hired a cowboy named Charlie Lamb to help in the store. An eastern lady came in one day and asked Charlie where the rest room was. Charlie had never heard that particular term for outhouse and thought the woman wanted to rest. "Just sit down anywhere in the dining room, ma'am," he said. The woman stamped out in a rage. Burr told Charlie, "Don't you know she wanted the toilet?" "Then why in hell didn't she SAY so?" said Charlie.

Burr was always calling Marvin and saying, "Kid, come back, I need you." If Marvin was sufficiently rested he would return. To Marvin, life was not as full in his father's house as it was with Burr. He worked for Burr for $35 a month and board. "Board meant anywhere you could lay your bedroll," Marvin said. "Burr didn't mind how many hours you worked. You didn't need a bedroll, you needed a lantern."

When Marvin wasn't running a store, he was hauling sheep and wool. Burr would take him someplace in the truck and forget about him until Marvin walked in at sundown. "He always had a very short memory," says Marvin.

In 1927, Burr bought a new Buick on the west coast, but didn't know how to drive it. When he got back to Navajo, he sent Marvin out on "old train Number One" at four a.m.

Pedestal Rock - Petrified Forest Nat'l Park PETRIFIED FOREST AND PAINTED DESERT TOO

Twenty-eight miles west of Sanders lie the remains of a forest which lived 200 million years ago. The Petrified Forest National Park is 94,189 acres big. Scattered along the washes, on the mesas and through the badlands are pieces of trees that grew on the highlands above a swampy plain in the Triassic period. The pine-like trees aged, fell and decayed. A few were washed down from the highlands and buried under mud, sand and volcanic ash. In nature's good time, shallow seas covered the swampland. Thousands of feet of sediment were deposited over the fallen logs. As the pressure intensified, the sediment turned to rock. Water containing volcanic ash seeped down through the rocks to the buried logs. Gradually, silica filled the pores of the logs and turned them to hard stone. Some were tinted yellow, orange, red and brown from iron oxide; some were stained blue, purple and black from manganese oxide; some remained white and grey. During the last 70 million years, the whole area uplifted and the Rockies and Sierra Madre of Mexico were created. This uplifting changed the climate of the Southwest to semi-arid and the process of erosion began. Running water wore down the face of the earth until it was wrinkled with arroyos and scared with mesas and buttes of resistant rock. Wind-blown sand sculptured pinnacles, shallow caves and natural bridges. The petrified wood was uncovered.

In the Petrified Forest are over 300 ruins of houses built by the Anasazi, a Navajo word meaning “The Ancient Ones.” The country along the Puerco and Little Colorado Rivers was a frontier where several cultures mingled. Pottery and artifacts provide evidence of these cultures. The ancients lived, successively, in caves along the rivers, in pit houses, in large communal dwellings, and in fortress-like Pueblos built into the shallow caves of canyon walls. In the latter part of the 13th Century, the Southwest suffered a long drought. About the same time, the Athabaskan Indians were taking over the area and making raids on the Pueblo people. The combination of drought and enemies caused the Pueblo people to abandon their settlements and come together for protection. The Hopis and Zuñis are probably their descendants.

The Anasazi left writings on canyon walls called petroglyphs, which seem to be religious symbols, clan symbols, signs indicating game, trails, water and settlements. Newspaper Rock, in the Petrified Forest, is a good example of these petroglyphs.

In the 1890s, enterprising people from surrounding towns carried off petrified wood by the wagon loads. The logs that took 200 million years to appear were dynamited for the quartz and amethyst crystals they contained. A few civic leaders, alarmed by the devastation of the petrified wood, petitioned the President of the United States. In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the area a National Monument. National Park status came in 1962.

Across the Puerco from the Petrified Forest lies the Painted Desert, 44,000 acres of banded colors extending to the northern horizons. In the 1880s, the area was known as “Robber's Roost,” because of the outlaws who escaped across the hard clay where ponies left no tracks.

to go after the car. A few days later, Marvin arrived with the shiny new Buick. “Kid, I want you to teach me how to drive it,” said Burr.

Burr was on the Board of Supervisors, so Marvin took him to a meeting in St. Johns while he was giving the driving instructions. Burr left Marvin at a cafe. “Kid, when you get through eating, I want you to meet me. I bought a blue ribbon ram.” When the Board meeting was over, they drove to a ranch and loaded the ram, who filled the whole back seat and seemed to enjoy the plush upholstery. When they got home Burr's wife was staring out the kitchen window and the ram was staring back at her through the rear window of the Buick. Grace was furious. “We'll never get the smell out,” she said. Burr said, “By God, the sheep paid for it so they can damn sure ride in it.” From 1939 to 1946, Marvin Porter was manager of the Navajo Tribe Livestock Project. He bought and sold sheep for the government and set up a slaughterhouse and cannery at Chinle. Burr was supposed to have been retired, but he called Marvin in 1941 at Chinle. “I just bought 8,000 Lorenzo Hubbell lambs,” he said. “What in hell are you going to do with them?” asked Marvin. “I told Hubbell I knew you'd take care of them,” said Burr.

Burr Porter died at Ganado in 1943, but people in Apache County will be a long time forgetting him.

Window Rock scenic background for Navajo tribal capital WINDOW ROCK HEART OF NAVAJO COUNTRY

The northern half of Apache County lies within the boundaries of the 14,450,369 acre Navajo Reservation. One road to the reservation turns north at Lupton, winds through the cedars between high sandstone cliffs, passes Bowman Tribal Park in the pines, goes through a long valley and comes out south of Window Rock, near the Tribal Fair Grounds. In the future, the valley south of Window Rock will be dammed to make a lake larger than Roosevelt for fishing, boating and camping. Window Rock, the tribal capital, is a modern town with a tribal museum, visitor center, arts and crafts guild, the Navajo Council chambers and rows of office buildings. At the restaurant, you can order almost anything from lobster tails with drawn butter to fry bread and mutton stew. The new Fed Mart Discount Shopping Center rivals any in Phoenix.

The other road to the reservation turns off U.S. 40 at Chambers, passes wide ruins and Klagetoh trading posts and ends at Ganado. Down on the wash called the Pueblo Colorado is the old trading post built by Don Lorenzo Hubbell. About 1876, a wealthy Navajo named Ganada Mucho, Many Cattle, asked young Hubbell to build a store there, promising him a large trade from all his clansmen. Don Lorenzo named the place Ganado, after his friend. The trading post is now a National Historic Site.

The Bull Pen, as the store itself was called, has been remodelled to restore the flavor of the 1890s when the Hubbell hacienda was the center of a great trading empire. Visitors may take guided tours of the rug room, which is filled with Hopi pottery and baskets; antique rifles; side saddles; Plains Indian shields, bows and quivers; game trophies; throwing sticks for rabbit hunting; cases of old books; stacks of fine blankets and rugs. The great hall of the Hubbell home is just as it was when Don Lorenzo lived there. The walls are covered with paintings by artists who enjoyed Hubbell hospitality. The dining room, with its heavy oak furniture, looks as it did when Hubbell entertained politicians, artists, miners, bullwhackers, merchants, scientists and Indians. Next to the 'Bull Pen and house are the warehouses and corrals. Here, more than a million dollars a year in wool and hides alone was handled. Here, goods were stacked as they were unloaded from the big woodenwheeled freight wagons.Don Lorenzo, half Mexican, half Connecticut Yankee, spent his life building a successful Indian trade, a freighting business, encouraging the Navajo arts of weaving and silversmithing. He had been sheriff of Apache County from 1882 to 1886, during the county's most lawless years. He had served in the Territorial Legislature from 1893 to 1912. He had known several American presidents. Theodore Roosevelt visited him twice. His life was a full one, even for a man of his era. When he was old, he wrote: I'm old and in poor health. My life is all in the past. But by los todos santos, what changes and what times I've seen! You who are younger by many years will live to see even greater changes. We've only seen the beginning.

The Navajos have progressed from the starvation of the 1920s to the prosperity of the 1960s. They have built schools, hospitals, chapter houses, roads, an automated sawmill, new lakes and parks and recreation facilities. Children are healthy and well educated. Pickups drive over pavement where horsedrawn wagons rattled along washboard roads a few years ago.

CANYON de CHELLY

One of the new roads goes north from Ganado, following Beautiful Valley to Chinle, on the western edge of Canyon de Chelly National Monument, the largest archaeological area operated by the National Park Service.

Once is not enough to visit Canyon de Chelly. If you sit quietly on the flat rocks above the canyon at night, you can watch the stars appear, so bright that it seems as if each one wants to be remembered. In the darkness, you might hear a lone horseman coming up the trail from the canyon, singing some night riding song composed a long time ago when the first Navajos who saw the Spanish mustangs thought that they were a gift of the gods. If you stand on the floor of the canyon, you can feel the cool water of the wash on your bare feet and look up past thousand-foot-high cliffs to a slice of blue sky. You can just make out the little toeholds in the side of the canyon which the Navajos have used for centuries, which the Anasazi used before them, and which Navajo children still use in order to catch the school bus on top. If you are there in late summer, you might hear a storm break and see the lightning striking at the rimrocks and the dark purple clouds open up and the rain water streaming down the sheer rock walls. In spring, at sheep shearing time, you might see children driving their sheep and goats up the narrow trails from the canyon to the hogans along the rim.

Canyon de Chelly has been a Navajo stronghold for three or four hundred years. To punish Navajo raiders who had been stealing livestock, a Navajo campaign was begun in 1860. Colonel Kit Carson was ordered to "prosecute a vigorous war upon the men of this tribe until it is considered at these headquarters that they have been effectually punished for their long continued atrocities." Kit Carson was an army officer and could not disobey orders, although he disagreed with the way the Indian campaigns had been executed. On January 6, 1864, two commands left for Canyon de Chelly, where groups of Navajos had been holding out. Soldiers composed a song for the occasion: Come dress your ranks, my gallant souls, a standing in a row, Kit Carson he is waiting to march against the foe; At night we march to Moqui, oe'r lofty hills of snow, To meet and crush the savage foe, bold Johnny Navajo; Johnny Navajo! O Johnny Navajo!

With 400 soldiers, Kit Carson flanked the south rim of the canyon. The other command made their way down icy trails into Canyon del Muerto, the Canyon of the Dead Man. The soldiers camped on the canyon floor, using the ruins of the ancient ones for shelter. High above them, a few Navajos appeared on the cliffs. Some old women threw rocks at them and shouted insults. The next morning the "savage foe" appeared . . . a small starving band of Navajos. Colonel Carson assured them that they would not be killed. He gave them leave to go back for their families and told them to come to Fort Canby, now Fort Defiance, in ten days. All spring the hungry people came, because to surrender was better than to die. In April, 2,400 Navajos began the first "Long Walk" to Fort Sumner, 400 miles away, where they would die of disease and malnutrition or remain as prisoners of war until the 1868 Peace Treaty.

An old lady lives in Chinle with an old dog. She was born in 1864 on the Long Walk. Last summer, her great grandchildren told her of the Navajo Centennial plans to re-enact the Long Walk. She frowned. "Why do they want to do that?" she said. "They did that once."

From Chinle, the road goes through the wide Chinle Valley, north to Many Farms, where the first college on an Indian reservation is being established. North of Many Farms is Round Rock. The Chinle Valley widens out into a broad plain and the brick red rock formations begin to take on the forms that culminate in Monument Valley to the west. From the Chinle Valley, you look east at the flat-topped escarpment of sandstone which is the western side of the mountains called Chuskas, Lukachukais, or Tunitchas.

THE LUKACHUKAIS TOP OF NAVAJO WORLD

Until recently, the Lukachukais have been inaccessible for most people. Women would go to these mountains to gather the special roots, berries, herbs and bark they needed for wool dye and for medicine. People would take their families in autumn to gather piñon nuts. Navajo families would bring their herds to the mountains in summer and camp with them. In her book Kaibah, Navajo author Kay Bennett tells of her family's move to the mountains: Keedah hitched the horses to the wagon, and the boys yelled at the sheep to get them started again. They climbed higher, and soon began to see the pine trees and scrub oak along the trail. The air became cooler and the trail changed to a smooth, sandy road, which wound its way through one small valley to another. Friends who had already moved up to their summer hogans greeted them as they rode by. It was almost dark when they reached their own hogan. Kaisheen came to help turn the sheep into the corral. They were too tired to unpack anything except their bedding and as soon as Tesbah had fed them, they rolled up in their blankets and went to sleep. The Navajo Emergence Myth tells that in the autumn the gods came calling to the people out of the mountains. The gods, called Yei, were tall and thin and had bodies of white, blue, yellow and black. They made the people into human beings. Before that, people and animals had all been alike and could talk to one another. The gods took a perfect ear of white corn and a perfect ear of yellow corn and made First Man and First Woman. The Holy Winds gave them life. The gods took the first people to their home in the eastern mountain and taught them how to make masks of the gods, how to sing sacred songs, how to make prayer sticks and sand paintings, how to cure the mind and body. This knowledge is still with the people.

Now, roads go into the Lukachukais. On top of Roof Butte Navajo Tribal Park, you can look out over hundreds of square miles to see the landmarks of the reservation. The figures of Yei are everywhere . in the tall, slim buttes; in the red and yellow rocks that protrude from cliffs and canyons. The whole Lukachukai range is the male Yei figure of the east. His head is Carrizo Mountain, called by the Navajos Dzil Naozue, the Whirling Mountain. Far to the west lies the female Yei. Navajo Mountain is her head. Between these sacred figures lies the land, timeless and impassive.

FOUR CORNERS TOMORROW IN EVERY DIRECTION

Beyond the Lukachukais is Four Corners Navajo Tribal Park. It is a bleak place, flat and windy, where the soil of Arizona meets the soil of New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. This is the northeastern corner of Apache County, U.S.A. Long and narrow, the county lies with its head in the sun and its feet in the clouds of the White Mountains. It could make boasts to shame its own mountain men, loggers, cowpunchers, fishermen and hunters, who are among the world's most talented boasters. But Apache County does not need to boast. The great ponderosas, the tough little cedars, the renegade rivers, the ancient rocks and the virgin blue sky speak for themselves. Hozhoni is a Navajo word meaning "that which is good, peaceful, beautiful." Hozhoni is Apache County.