Spider Rock in Canyon de Chelly, northern Arizona on the Navajo Reservation. Spider Rock is an 800 foot column of sandstone topped with a white cap of limestone. Canyon de Chelly is sometimes referred to as the Navajo Eden. In the early days, many Navajo families lived in this protected canyon raising beans, corn, and squash and grazing their sheep on the rim. Navajo legend has it that Spider Woman, a Navajo deity, lives on top of Spider Rock. Mother's sometimes scolded their naughty young ones and told them to be good or Spider Woman would see and take them to live with her on Spider Rock.
WoW!! WoW!!! WoW!! fantastic photo... I love this... where did the Navajo go, after they left the Canyon ..do you know?
Some still live there and sell their artwork to tourists, We have a house full of it. One example: The object on the left is a Navajo contemporary hand carved Kachina that I bought from a Navajo artist while I was touring Canyon de Chelly with a guide. It is a sunface Kachina carved from cottonwood root and is used as a cultural teaching tool for children. The Tile on the right is a north pacific coast Indian art piece depicting a killer whale catching a salmon.
Oooh that's wonderful that they're still there...cute artefacts, I suppose that's their only way of making a living is it?
They also have small farms in the canyon and still have their sheep herds with a few goats for meat. Many of the locals work for the National Pars department because Canyon de Chelly is a National Park within the Navajo Reservation. One big project they were working on when I was there in 2006 is the eradication of Russian Olive trees, an invasive species within the Park. The main part of the Navajo Reservation is huge, some 27,000 square miles of high desert, their preferred land. They are self-governing with their own police force, have several huge coal mines and operate two very large power plants selling electricity to California, They also have petroleum resources as well as gas wells so they do okay.
I don’t know what part of Arizona they were in; but when my mother was a little girl , my grandfather was an Indian agent on the Navaho Reservation. My mother went to school with the other kids at the Indian school, and he very best friend ever was a Navaho girl she went to school with. They made her a special silver bracelet engraved with Indian designs for friendship, and my mother wore that bracelet all of her life. It was the only piece of jewelry that I ever saw her wear. She would tell us the stories about riding to school in the buckboard wagon and being chased by the longhorn cows; but I am not sure if that happened in Arizona or when they lived in Texas.
@Jeff Tracy , Great pictures. Love the sunset. Wow! The Chinese writing in the bottom left corner of the Jasmine one, do you know what they mean? @Ted Richards , the frog made me , @Lon Tanner , Granny is a tough old gal, isn't she?
(The Chinese writing in the bottom left corner of the Jasmine one, do you know what they mean?) I hand painted that symbol after looking up the symbol for Jasmine.
Octillo Cactus in full bloom near Kingman Arizona. It's even sprouting leaves, must have been a wet spring!
First from me in the Isle of Wight, GB. An island a few miles of the English south coast and populated by about 140,000 souls. This is Bonchurch near the south. mike
Dobra...great to have you here on Senior forums... long time no see from a previous forum we were once both members of ( my name was different then) ... looking forward to all your beautiful photos... I remember so many you used to post of the IOW
Thanks Holly! About thirty years ago, Carol, I and her late brother went into a weinstube in Ruedesheim near Frankfurt a M, Germany to have a light bite and wein, and the American couple were sitting opposite. It turned out that he was stationed in the USAF in Frankfurt (nicknamed Mainhatten by the locals) and they lived in those luxury apartments near what is now the European Bank. Some of you may remember them? However, from her expression, she remembered everything he said in a voice increasing by the minute and looked at me, glancing up at heaven at her old bore. Found this slide recently, so scanned it (amongst 100 others).