Event of the Month

Event of the Month Sample a Navajo Country Fair at Chinle

The Window Rock Tribal Fair is bigger, splashier, and more photographed, but this one in Chinle is a real Navajo country fair: rural, slow-paced, neighborly.

The Central Navajo Fair takes place every year in August during the monsoon season. As we drive north on U.S. Route 191 through Beautiful Valley, the land spreads out before us, earth and sky in changing harmonies of shadow, form, and color. Little shafts of rainbows on the tops of mesas appear like diaphanous butterflies.

Traffic streams toward Chinle. Muddy pickup trucks pull horse trailers from distant hogans. Ranchers mostly, country people coming in from a 100-mile radius. Friends and relatives don't see each other often in this giant land.

Tourists from around the world are drawn to Chinle to see Canyon de Chelly National Monument, but few take time to meet and visit with the Navajo

WHEN YOU GO

people who live in the area. In August you can do both.

The Central Navajo Fair is small, as fairs go. The main part of the action takes place on Saturday. Like all good Western fairs, this one starts with a parade down main street and ends with a country-western dance. I'm sitting in my pickup with two teenage girls waiting to see if the parade has been rained out. It's been sprinkling all morning, a light, warm drizzle. Then we hear a band and know the parade is on. Dignitaries, cowboys on horseback, princesses sitting atop cars, dripping bands, and soggy crepe paper proceed through the mist. Candy is tossed to the children who line the streets, oblivious of the weather. Rain is always a blessing in Navajo country.

By noon the sky clears, but the roads are sticky. Slowly the procession of vehicles moves to the fairground. The first sound we hear is the whine of tires spinning in the Chinle clay. Then, the sound of 4-H Club cattle, sheep, and poultry being groomed for competition; the sound of Navajo singers as a traditional social dance starts at the pavilion, melding with the sound of country music and an announcer's voice from the rodeo grandstand. We watch the show for a while. It reminds me of the old times when rodeo was the way working cowboys tested their skills, before it became a professional sport.

The girls head for the carni-val rides and a chance to spot cute boys. My friend and I wan-der toward a brush ramada where we see other grandmas and know a fry-bread contest is in progress. We watch with ad-miration while the cooks build campfires, make dough, stretch and shape the bread, and heat grease in Dutch ovens. No pack-age mixes, no microwaves out here. Just lots of experience.

Late afternoon. We still have time for the powwow in the school gym. We crowd in among hundreds of spectators from many tribes. This powwow has nothing to do with tourism. It has to do with the pride of native people, with dignity, tradition, and spiritual unity. The dancers move across the polished gym floor... hoop dancers, eagle dancers, war dancers, drummers, and singers. We don't listen to the drums. We feel them in our hearts.

This year the Central Navajo Fair at Chinle will take place Wednesday through Sunday, August 24-28. Attractions will include the traditional all-Indian rodeo, carnival, parade, market, Indian arts and crafts, traditional Navajo singing and dancing, powwow, Miss Central Navajo pageant, Western dance, 4-H contest exhibits, mud bog race, and traditional food.

To get to Chinle from Interstate 40 in northern Arizona, turn north at Chambers onto U.S. Route 191 and proceed to Ganado. (Be sure to allow time to visit Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site.) West of Ganado, turn north again to Chinle and Canyon de Chelly National Monument.

Rain is a possibility, and nights can be chilly at 8,000 feet, so take a water-repellent jacket and plan to stay in one of the local motels or campgrounds. Call 674-2052, 674-3614, or 674-3611. For more information on admission, accommodations, and the events schedule, call the Navajo Nation Office of Tourism, (602) 871-6436. To ask about Hubbell Trading Post, call (602) 755-3254; for information about Canyon de Chelly, contact the Canyon de Chelly Visitor Center, P.O. Box 588, Chinle, AZ 86503; (602) 674-5436.