August 17, 2022

August 17, 2022

From Monument Valley we drove southeast across the huge Navajo Nation. By necessity it was another zigzag route because of tall sandstone cliffs everywhere. It is mostly rangeland. After almost three hours we reached the capital at Window Rock. It sits at higher elevation on a pine forested plateau.

We first visited the Navajo Nation Museum which is mostly about the Treaty of 1868. On display is an original signed copy. The treaty allowed the Navajos to return to this area from their forced exile in New Mexico. Not mentioned is the main criterion that the Navajos had to agree; to stop terrorizing their Hopi and Zuni Pueblo Indian neighbors. On leaving the museum, we were amused by the stop sign in their native language.

We visited the Window Rock Tribal Park just a mile north. There we see the city's namesake Rock Window with a memorial to the Navajo Code Talkers in the foreground. It is quite scenic.

From Window Rock we popped across the border to New Mexico and drove south past Gallup to the Zuni Pueblo stopping first at their Visitor Center. We then moved across town to the A:shiwi A:wan Museum. The colon in the name represents a pronunciation pause. The museum mostly covers their contact with the outside world with special emphasis on Coronado’s attack on the main settlement of Hawikuh. Coronado thought it was the fabled Cibola, City of Gold. There are many artifacts from Hawikuh, especially a nice variety of colorful clay pottery. Because of the remote location (even today), the Zuni Pueblo had limited contact throughout history, and they seem to like that. The Zuni-Cibola Complex was approved as a National Historical Park by Congress, but the Zuni people reconsidered the idea and backed out.

From the Zuni Pueblo we drove back into Arizona and continued south following Coronado's Expedition trail. We stopped for the night in the town of Alpine. The village deserves its name sitting at 8000 feet in the pine forested White Mountains. We have dinner at a local bar while being serenaded by live music. During our meal it begins to pour, and the temperature drops to 60F. This cannot be Arizona!