Back Road Adventure

Canyon del Muerto's Massacre Cave Shrouds History's Tragic Moment

The first time I visited Can-yon del Muerto on the Navajo reservation, I was struck by what seemed a contradic-tion: how could a place of such great natural beauty a mini-ature Grand Canyon, really come to be named Canyon of the Dead? Later, when I be-came more familiar with the lamentable history of this idyl-lic spot in northeastern Ari-zona, I realized the name made perfect sense.

High in the canyon walls there are several large caverns, one of which is known as Mas-sacre Cave. Nearly 200 years ago, a brutal confrontation oc-curred there between well-armed Spanish soldiers and a nearly defenseless group of Navajo women and children. The record of Spanish colo-nization in the Southwest isfilled with bloody confronta-tions. In the 16th century, the Spaniards came north from Mexico City and claimed the Indian lands as their own. Then they imposed their reli-gious beliefs on the natives and set out to "civilize" them ac-cording to European standards. If the Indians did not cooper-ate for instance, when the Spaniards took their sons and daughters as slaves the Spaniards reacted by killing or mutilating them.

It is also true that the In-dians in this case the Navajos were not always in-nocent bystanders. The Span-iards had introduced horses, cattle, and sheep to the South-west, and for nearly 200 years both Spaniards and Indians stole animals from each other and then fought to regain what each felt was rightfully theirs. The Spaniards were particu-larly defensive about the land they had seized, and eventu-ally they began settling in the vicinity of Mount Taylor near the New Mexico village of Acoma. Then as now, the Navajos considered Mount Tay-lor also called Turquoise Mountain to be sacred, and in 1804 several Navajo leaders went to New Mexico Governor Fernando Chacon and made a peaceful appeal for the Span-iards to move away. When that failed, the Navajos declared war on the Spaniards.

By 1805 hostile relations between Navajos and Spaniards had reached a crisis point. In January of that year, the military governor of New Mexico ordered Lt. Antonio Narbona later to become governor of New Mexico to go to Canyon del Muerto to find and destroy the Navajo strongholds believed to be located there and to subdue the Navajos forever. Narbona, with a strong force of Spanish soldiers supplemented by Opata Indians from northern Mexico, engaged the underpowered Navajos in battle in Canyon del Muerto. The Navajos, defeated and on the run, concealed their women, children, and elderly in a natural cave high on the face of a sandstone cliff and then tried to lure the Spaniards away from the area.

The Spaniards began leaving and probably would never have noticed the people hidden in the cave, but an old woman, who had once been a slave, evidently could not resist the temptation to say her piece. Thinking the cave impenetrable, she moved to the edge of the precipice and began shouting epithets at the Spanish soldiers far below. Others started throwing rocks and hurling insults at the Spaniards.

The incline from the canyon floor to the cave was steep and treacherous, but not impossible. Narbona ordered some of his men to scale the slope to the cave. The first soldier to get anywhere near the cave encountered a strong and angry Navajo woman. In their scuffle, the two slipped off the ledge and fell to their deaths below.

Whether that incident triggered what happened next, no one can say, but the soldiers unleashed a barrage of gunfire, ricocheting bullets off the overhang that formed the top of the cave, until they had

(LEFT) From Massacre Cave Overlook, visitors have a good view of the killing ground, which really is more of a ledge than a cavern. (RIGHT) The pictograph and building in the Standing Cow Ruin were probably created by Navajos. killed or wounded enough Navajos to make access to the cave possible.

Historian Raymond Friday Locke described what happened then: "Entering the cave they finshed off the Navajos, the aged, hysterical mothers, and crying babies, to the last person. Then they methodically crushed the skulls of the dead and dying with their gun butts and cut off the ears for trophies."

Canyon of the Dead. No wonder.

Today the scars in the cave walls where the bullets struck are still visible. Narbona said in his report to his superiors that nearly 10,000 rounds were fired that day.

Visitors on backcountry tours can get near, but not in, Massacre Cave and along the way see dozens of Anasazi cliff dwellings but you must be on a tour or have a Navajo guide. This is not the kind of back road trek you make on your own.

Canyon del Muerto is a branch of Canyon de Chelly (pronounced duh-SHAY). The canyon is about 50 yards wide in some places and a half mile in others. In both canyons, ocher-colored sandstone walls, often streaked or banded with a black residue, rise as high as 1,000 feet. Canyon del Muerto stretches from a few miles southeast of Chinle northward for some 30 miles to the Lukachukai Mountains near Tsaile.

Jeep tours leaving the vicinNational Monument visitors center go east to the junction of Chinle Wash and Tsaile Creek, where both canyons come together. To see Canyon del Muerto, visitors must sign up for a full-day tour which includes both canyons. However, anyone with a four-wheeldrive vehicle can hire a Navajo guide through the visitors center and bypass the commercial tour operators, who charge around $50 per person for the all-day tours. Individual guides are paid an hourly rate, which varies from one person to another.

I signed up for the tour at the historic Thunderbird Lodge, just down the hill from the visitors center, and spent the next eight hours traversing a relatively smooth though unpaved thoroughfare (most of it was simply wash bottom). The four-wheel-drive truck I was in had bench seats mounted on the bed, enough to accommodate 24 persons. In the fall and early spring these vehicles are ideal for the scenic tour, but I made the trip in June, and the beds in these tour trucks are not shaded.

Which may explain why one of my friends at Tsaile, hearing that I was making the trip, said, "Oh, you're going to take the Shake 'n' Bake Express, are you?"

Yes, you do shake, and it does get hot, but it isn't all that bad if you wear a hat and smear yourself with sunscreen. All of the vehicles carry plenty of drinking water, and a box lunch is provided.

TIPS FOR TRAVELERS

Be aware of weather and road conditions, and make sure you and your vehicle are in top shape and you have plenty of water.

Don't travel alone, and let someone at home know where you're going and when you plan to return.

Odometer mileages given may vary by vehicle.