Rock Art

TEXT BY MARTIN LINK PHOTOGRAPHS BY JERRY JACKA THE ROCKS THAT SPEAK NAVAJO SAND PAINTERS MAY OWE THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY PEOPLE TO THEIR FOREFATHERS WHO CARVED THEIR SECRETS ON SANDSTONE WALLS

It had been the opportunity of a lifetime, an invitation to observe the creation of a sand painting associated with a Navajo ceremonial rarely conducted today: the Plume Way or Feather Chant. An honor, to say the least. But what made this chant-way particularly memorable for me was the realization that the design I saw developing in the painting I had seen many times before — in the canyons and on the mesas of the ancestral homeland of the Navajo.

A Hataalii, a “chanter” or “medicine man,” had been paid to perform a Plume Way chant for a friend's ailing father in his hogan near Chilchinbito in northeastern Arizona on the sprawling Navajo Indian Reservation.

As prescribed by generations of accumulated knowledge, this particular chant stresses hunting and the origins of agriculture in its stories and related sand paintings. The visual renditions are created on a smooth bed of sand laid out on the floor of the hogan, using pulverized gypsum, ochre, sandstones, charcoal, cornmeal, and dried flower petals to achieve a spectrum of colors.

I watched, enthralled, as the chanter and his assistants trickled the pigments of the colored substances between their thumbs and flexed forefingers, creating a two-dimensional design that soon would become the centerpiece of a ceremony to summon the supernatural forces that might effect a cure for the patient. Gradually, as the sand painting materi-alized, I recognized several of the Holy People: the figures of Talking God and Calling God, male and female Yeis, and others. As each figure unfolded, I became more aware that these sacred works had their origins as rock art in Dinetab, the Navajo homeland.

Painted on the dirt floor of this 20th-century hogan are the same sacred fig-ures, passed down from generation to generation, that I had seen so often in Dinetah, a region generally along the upper reaches of the San Juan River in the north-central part of New Mexico. It defines the geographic area of 17thand 18th-century occupation by the Navajo and a large number of Pueblo refugees, people who had fled their Rio Grande villages after the Spanish returned in force following the Pueblo Revolt of 1680-1692.

By about 1700, the diverse groups of Pueblo refugees moving into Dinetah began gradually to assimilate and even intermarry with the Navajo.

This resulted in the infusion of a large number of Pueblo cultural traits into the Navajo life-styles, including masonry architecture, decorated pottery, weaving, an expanded clan system, a matrilineal family structure, and a very highly complex package of ceremonies, legends, rituals, and art forms, including the creation of petroglyphs.

Prior to this time, as far as I can determine, there are no existing examples of this rock art (either petroglyphs or pictographs) that can be definitely attributed to the Navajo.

But soon designs and life-forms, in two dimension and predominately of a sacred nature, began to appear in secluded canyons and on cliff faces throughout the region. These panels consist of one to more than a hundred elements, depicting human, animal and bird forms, supernat-ural beings, symbols, rectilinear and curvilinear designs, plants, stars, hunting scenes, and “story panels” relating to the Origin or Emergence story.

On many sandstone cliffs and outcroppings there is a patination, or surface film, of manganese dioxide, known as desert varnish. Petroglyphs, those designs made by pecking, abrading, or incising through the desert varnish to expose the lighter underlying sandstone, rely on this color contrast for artistic effect.

Pictographs, on the other hand, are painted on the rock surface and depend on various colors for effect. Pigments were created by mixing natural materials (charcoal, gypsum, ochres, hematite, copper ores, etc.) with a binding element such as adobe mud or animal fat, and then applying them to the rock surface with a yucca-leaf brush or a finger. In many instances, the color materials (obviously without the binding elements) were identical to the materials used in the sand painting I witnessed at Chilchinbito.

Pictographs, on the other hand, are painted on the rock surface and depend on various colors for effect. Pigments were created by mixing natural materials (charcoal, gypsum, ochres, hematite, copper ores, etc.) with a binding element such as adobe mud or animal fat, and Many of the motifs and designs show an unmistakable Puebloan influence, as well as strong Navajo traits. Generally, they tended to ignore physical proportions, depth perception, or any relationship to a background. Attention to detail

seemed to center around the masks and body ornaments of the portrayals of the different Holy People.

While the purposes and functions of these drawings are still a matter of conjecture, they always seem to be directly related to sacred shrines or sites of great mythological significance. Even now, as I wander about the canyons of Dinetah, there seems to be a feeling of power and mystery and a sense of the shadowy presence of the Holy People.

Although individual elements and figures in these ancient rock-art panels are generally identifiable, the composition of them into complex units similar to modern sand paintings, including the one I witnessed, is often lacking.

An interesting exception is a panel depicting Coyote stealing fire and taking it to First Man and First Woman, a panel more than 200 years old that is very similar to its modern sand-painting counterpart.

During the late 1700s, as the Navajo gradually moved west into what now is eastern Arizona, they took the concepts of their Holy People with them. As they abandoned Dinetah and the cliff panels of sacred images that were sources of power, their only recourse was to replicate the Holy People in some form of "portable power" that could still be in direct association with their ceremonies: sand paintings.

Unlike the earlier Pueblo people, who re-created their sacred images on the walls of their ceremonial kivas, the Navajo, who lived in log-constructed hogans, used the dwelling's flat floor as a base for re-creating the visual forms of the Holy People. These creations were transitory in nature, lasting only for the duration of the accompanying ceremonial, and imparting healing powers to the patient within the time span of a single day. Over the years, and through the course of several generations, changes in the fig-ures, the composition of the various ele-ments, and complexity of design were inevitable, but still, it is amazing how close to the originals the contemporary sand-painting designs appear to be.

An interesting evolution in the rock art of the Navajo took place as they were migrating into Arizona during the 19th century: the creation of secular, or nonreligious forms such as horses and horse-back riders. There seemed also to be an increasing naturalness of expression and attempts toward real composition.

One of the most spectacular concentrations of these transitional styles of rock art can be found on the soaring cliff faces of Canyon de Chelly and other nearby canyons and in caves in northeastern Arizona.

Several of the panels, including the Spanish riders at Standing Cow Ruin and the antelope at Antelope House Ruin, have been attributed to Dibe' Yazzie

(Little Sheep), who may have painted them in the 1820s-1830s.

By the early decades of the 20th century, Navajo artisans had access to paper, colored pencils, and watercolors. A few were receiving some semblance of formal art training at the Indian school in Santa Fe.

Many of these early paintings or drawings depicted religious motifs, while others emphasized horses or pastoral scenes from Navajo life. In almost all cases, the renditions were two-dimensional, a tradition that we now know has extended back in time some 300 years.

I look at these creations today and can't help admiring the subtle color combinations, balance of design, harmony of line, and the wide variety of subject matter that still reflect a sensitivity and awareness of a cultural tradition that flows through the centuries of Navajo history.

As I sat on the soft, warm, sandy floor of that hogan in Chilchinbito and saw the creation of the Holy People, I became aware, once more, of the power of legends and the sense of mystery that surrounds the Emergence stories of these native inhabitants of New Mexico and the high plateau country of northern Arizona.

I, like the patient himself, renewed my appreciation of the fundamental necessities of life in this stark but beautiful land: corn, the misty rains, and the fertility of the Land.

THE HEAVENS PLAY A CRUCIAL ROLE IN NAVAJO RELIGION. DURING THE EARLY 1800s, INDIANS USING CACTUS-FIBER BRUSHES AFFIXED TO LONG POLES STAMPED THE STARS IN THE CONSTELLATION SCORPIO (ABOVE) ON THE 20-FOOT-HIGH CEILING OF ROUND CAVE IN CANYON DE CHELLY. A VIEW FROM THE CAVE (LEFT) OFFERS A GLIMPSE OF THE SOARING WALLS OF THE CANYON THAT SHELTERS SEVERAL SUCH PLANETARIUMS, SOME OF WHICH ARE STILL VISITED BY NAVAJO MEDICINE MEN.

Author's Note: One of the best places in Arizona to see Indian rock art (prehistoric Anasazi and historic and contemporary Navajo) is at Canyon de Chelly National Monument near Chinle in the far northeastern part of the state. Antelope House, which gets its name from drawings of antelope created by a Navajo artist, can be viewed on one of the two rim drives available to monument visitors. Many other pictographs are in canyon areas accessible only with a park ranger or authorized guide. These include the Navajo painting of a Spanish cavalry unit and a Catholic priest, and the blue-andwhite cow pictograph that inspired the name of Standing Cow Ruin. Guided fourand six-wheel drive and horseback tours of the monument are available, as well as local guest lodges and a campground. (Reservations are recommended.) recomm For further information about the pictographs and ancient ruins in the park, contact the Canyon de Chelly National Monument Visitors Center, P.O. Box 588, Chinle, AZ 86503; (602) 674-5436.

Martin Link has published numerous articles and books on the Navajo people. At present, be is a bistory instructor at the Gallup Branch of the University of New Mexico and the publisher and co-owner of The Indian Trader newspaper. Jerry Jacka and bis writer wife, Lois Essary Jacka, bave produced numerous books and special issues of Arizona Highways magazine on Native American art.