Navajo Country and Sand Painting, Shiprock NM

Friday, Joya invited me to the Nataani Nez Navajo Elementary School in Shiprock, New Mexico where she teaches art to the little ones. About an hour Southeast from Mancos. I was privileged to meet a Navajo sand painter named Eugene Baatsoslanii Joe, a friend of Joya's. He came to teach the 3rd graders about how to make a sand painting. Turns out my skills meet such a level. My pride remains intact. Haha. Yeah…so good Mr. Joe shared about the history of sand painting. It developed as a ceremonial practice created only within the sanctity of the hogans. Hogans are eight-sided structures, in which Navajo perform healing and ceremony. In 1958 in Sheepspring New Mexico, Fred Stevens was the first Navajo sand artist. Stevens is Eugene’s clan uncle. Clan identity remains to be of central importance to most if not all Navajo people. Joya explained it is not uncommon for those of different clans to create social walls between each other. The second artisan to learn sand painting was the couple Francis and Patsy Miller, who painted on ply wood. The base material of ply wood, transitioned to press wood, and now is replaced by masonite. Eugene’s father was the next to adopt the art form. His name was James C. Joe. He was half Navajo and half Zuni. A very spiritual man. Incorporating Navajo myth and symbolism, the sand paintings are used to enliven strength, health, prosperity and remedy many other forms of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual ailments. Each painting traditionally evolves within a four day period. Eugene learned from his father and described how he paid his dues before being initiated into the practice. He first learned discipline - sweeping floors, preparing the sand with an old-fashioned meat grinder. Hard work. As his father, James C. Joe, began to expand his art through what we call “creative license,” many traditionalists denounced his work as secular. He placed symbols differently and used colors based more on preference and aesthetic taste. He may also have painted outside the hogan, which would have heightened controversy. In effect James Joe accepted their criticism and stepped out of the ceremonial realm of sacred art. Eugene was therefore taught sand painting more as an art form than an expression of healing. Controversy continues to surround the issue, even in an elementary school classroom. Eugene is, however, known as one of the most accomplished sand painters in that region of Navajo country. He is hoping to further is expression though contemporary sand art. I had the opportunity to speak with him after the lesson as I finished my small painting on a paper plate. I learned a lot that day about the incredible symbolism that upholds Navajo spirituality. The six directions. The importance of remaining in tune with spiritual preparation before we blossom in our life path. Connect the dots first. The value of age in wisdom. And the prejudices that many Navajo still carry against white people. The history still burned in tribal memory, and the bitterness that white people owe something. Many want to be gifted and given material goods. He eyed my Peruvian necklace with the hunger for a gift. Even a hint for a gift of honor. As I sat there with total respect, love, and gratitude, he tried to degrade me and threw in sour humor about Joya, as she cleaned up after the kids. He is a talented and fun-loving man, and I still enjoyed the meeting. Other teachers I met were more opened and a couple endearing. I was able to speak with the Navajo language teacher, who taught me to say the “shl” sound properly. Thank God. Not an easy one. As we left for the day we acknowledged the great mythological bird, who flew into the ground. His wing still sticks up, and many call the amazing rock formation a ship, thus the name Shiprock.

Before I knew the significance of Gobernador Knob, I knew it was important to visit. In fact, one of the few places I was dedicated to make the trip down the enigmatic road the googlemaps refused to disclose. It is relatively close to Shiprock in northwest New Mexico. I planned to stay the night in Shiprock and visit the Mountain early on Saturday. However, Joya and Joanne explained how there is not a way by road in which to access the mountain, (that is, assuming that you find the road to it at all). They, themselves, only made it so far down the bumpy road until they saw the peak from afar, barely towering over the surrounding mountains. I now understand the role of Gobernador Knob (Spruce Mountain) as the birthplace of the Navajo Goddess, Changing Woman. She was found at the hump at the end of Spruce Hill, a steep little rise of ninety or a hundred feet. Her name comes from the cycle of changes in her age: young in the spring, mature in the late summer, old in winter, and young again the following spring. Gobernador Knob is a small and especially sacred mountain, which is considered to be the heart of Navajo country. I realized that I could access the site energetically, while my feet remain here in Mancos. There is always a way around natural gas wells. What I mean by that tangential statement is the hundreds of wells dug around the sacred Knob and throughout the Navajo country of New Mexico, usurping nature’s gifts, causing ecological imbalance, and producing high levels of air pollution…Honor the “heart” with greater potency than the suffocation of toxic fumes.