Arizona,
on the road to Page, the Navajo Nation
Without leaving the vast Grand Canyon area, Route 64 heads east and the crossroads with route 89.
Since Colorado plateau at 2,200 meters, the road descends a long slope towards another plateau, 700 meters lower, cut by the narrow and deep meanders of another long canyon.
It is that of the Little Colorado River, which joins its large brother, the river Colorado, 30 km as the crow flies north, after bumping from the east southeast into the same Colorado plateau.
The Navajo Nation
The confluence between the two beds, that of the red waters of Colorado and the so-called blue waters of Little Colorado, is a sacred site for the Navajo.
And wherever we go then, the employees and the people belong almost exclusively to this ancient Indian nation.
'Because here we are in the great land of the Navajo Nation which encroaches on the four states of Utah in the northwest, very little on that of Colorado in the northeast, mainly on Arizona in the southwest, and that of New Mexico in the southeast. Its surface area of 69,000 km² is of the same order of magnitude as our region "Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes" for example.
The ancestral delimitation is bounded by the sacred places of "Hesperus Peak" in the north center, "Blanca Peak" in the northeast, "San Fransisco Peaks" in the southwest and "Mount Taylor" in the southeast.
- much later, from 500, their sedentary descendants, whom the Navajo called the Ancients, the "Anasazis", inhabit semi-troglodyte cubic constructions at the foot of impressive natural walls.
- they speak the " uto-Aztec " language.
- a millennium later, from 1540, their descendants will be named " Pueblos " by the Spaniards who arrived there. It is from this lineage that comes among others the great tribe of Hopis ("the people of peace").
- the Navajo and the Apaches came much more recently (but when?) from Canada to this same region.
- they speak the " Athabascan " language and are nomads.
- the "Anasazis", the Navajos adopted the principles of a matrilineal society (see below), but also the way of cultivating, raising livestock, and developing craftsmanship.
- the Hopis gently call them "Tasavuhta" (those who smash skulls).
- the Navajo steal livestock and crops from the Hopis; conflicts between the two peoples (those who smash skulls and the people of peace ..., a beautiful antinomy) are frequent, until the 20th century.
- the tensions between Navajo and Hopis, after in 1868 the attribution of the Navajo reserve territories with within it the Hopi enclave did not subside until 2009.
Etymology :
The name "navajo" or "navaho" is the phonetic transcription done by the Spaniards occupying the region from 17th century of the word "navahu", which in the language meant "pueblo" (still a Spanish-speaking heritage), "field near a stream" or "large fields".
But the the original name given to themselves by the Navajo is "Diné", "the people".
With today 175,000 people on this territory and more than 300,000 people for the whole of the USA, it is the 2nd Amerindian nation after the Cherokees. In clear growth, after the decades which decimated it.
But from where these Indian populations were coming?
The territory of the present-day Navajo Nation, with its phagocytosed Hopi enclave to the west is a bit of a summary of the Amerindian history of this region.
Very broadly:
- 12,000 years ago, Mongolian hunters came from Asia via the Berhing Strait who settled here and further south.
History (too) summary of the modern era (after the attempts of total submission by the Spaniards, Mexicans, Americans in the 19th century) :
Many say that the Navajo Nation was born in fact in 1950, after many uncertainties. However, in 1953, with the law of "termination", the federal government wants to assimilate the Indians, liquidate the special status of the Indian nations
Then in 1962, at the same time that Kennedy (in 1961) annuls the law of "termination", the Navajo tribal decisions are codified according to a federal format. "In a broad sense, this codified tribal code was the first Navajo Constitution ...". But the most advanced statute of the Navajo Nation was born and developed from December 1989, with the separation of the three powers.
Of course, the preeminence of the Federal State remains, and the relationship between the Navajo Government and the US Home Department is strong; partnerships with host states of the Navajo Nation are more complex, less narrow, more prone to confrontation.
Organization, culture and spirituality:
The Navajo are divided into more than 50 clans, in a structure called " matrilineal », ie transmitted by women. The marriage bond inside the clan is a real taboo : partners must belong to two different clans. The husband lives with his wife's family and the patrimony belongs to the latter, remaining in his family. In particular, the woman has the power to repudiate her husband.
In the status of Reserve, the Navajo Tribal Police (and not the Sheriff of the county) deals with misdemeanors and offenses, crimes remaining under federal jurisdiction (FBI).
In this semi-desert region, which some say is one of the most inhospitable in the world, the climate is very harsh with extremes of -20 ° C and + 45 ° C.
Living conditions are extremely harsh because of the drought, and resources are scarce. You had to survive first.
Navajo spirituality and its culture are integrated into this hostile and inevitable environment, which must be accommodated and taken advantage of, without seeking in vain to combat it.
They are therefore based on the cult of nature and the necessary harmony with it, which under the term "hozho" also includes health, beauty, order….
Broken, it is the origin of all evils : illness, catastrophes, wickedness ...
Economy and resources:
The economy is subsistence, with herds of sheep, goats, a few cattle, horses. The latter, especially mustangs, descend from horses brought by the Spaniards, then returned to the wild after remarkable adaptations to the climate and the country.
Some jobs are more or less reserved, especially in tourism (see Monument Valley).
The artisanal component is also highly developed, of high quality, today the main destination of tourism.
In addition to the opening of gambling houses authorized in 1980, natural deposits (petroleum, minerals, etc.) have enriched the Navajo economy, but still arouse the envy of the federal state and host states, with recurring disputes and disputes. financial compensation ($ 554 million paid by the USA in 2014) that the US Government would prefer to annuities.
Astonishing status of this nation in the nation, which tries to safeguard the identity and the ancestral Diné culture, with all the more pugnacity as its population grows significantly.
A few miles further east, Route 64 passes through the "Navajo Tribal Park", the Navajo Nation Park, in the State of Arizona.
From time to time by the side of the roads there are car parks for "scenic overview" or "scenic turnout").
Small wooden huts with a canvas roof that flies in the wind shelter somehow from the oppressive sun (at least for passing tourists, much less for the Navajo) a few sellers of local products, trinkets, jewelries, reproductions of bows, arrows, amulets of all kinds, but also, what seems the most authentic, large panels woven in the local way.
The Little Colorado is a very long serpent with infinite sinuosities. Its canyon impresses by its vertical cliffs 450 meters high, regularly striated, at the bottom of which the river flows, which is clearly ocher (seasonal effect) and not blue.
Often, attached to the cliff and standing out from it, towers emerge, with almost regular shapes, which seem about to tip over, similar to the skyscrapers of a post-apocalyptic ruined megalopolis.
The plateau is cut vertically, leaving a dark fault 250 to 300 meters wide.
According to the information boards, for tens of thousands of years, at the snowmelt and the mighty summer storms, the fury waves dug and dig still the rock like a colossal scalpel.
In the large and almost empty parking lot, information panels alert passers-by on the precautions to be taken towards reptiles of all kinds, rattlesnakes, lizards, spiders, centipedes, scorpions ... Don't lift any flat rock. But no animal, and Marlene doesn't care.
The 64 goes down again, and reaches the crossroads with the road 89 which we take towards the north.
A lost corner, but with one of those rare gas stations where we do not miss to refuel ... a half-fill for $ 20, which would cost maybe double in France.
As few and far between as the hamlets are.
It is also our first encounter with one of these huge motorhomes, in fact a converted bus, which tows the extra car, here a powerful 4x4. Probably a rental?
We also find here a rather edifying and educational small museum on the history and the local culture, in particular about the "Trading Post", which contributed to the history of the west conquest.
Cameron's village just at north, where 89 crosses Little Colorado barely brings together a few spaced houses.
Along this road to the north, eroded gelogic formations play on the overbidding of colors, strata and curves.
In the semi-desert interval between the road and the foot of the mountain to the east, a few Navajo dwellings stretch out, modern-looking wooden houses, all on short stilts, and vast and thin meadows. where horses frolic.
As we will see others at the foot of the mountains, almost as far as Page.
Then the road climbs in balcony through a small mountain range whose massive crest soars towards an intense and burning sky. We go up from 1300 to 1740 meters.
The immense plateau at our feet is cut of the dark gash of the Little Colorado Canyon. Towards the horizon on the left, it is the north rim of the Grand Canyon.
