Navajo nation, USA

The Navajo Nation Lands


Horseshoe Bend
Teenagers lurk in the depths of Horseshoe Bend, a whimsical meander of the Colorado River outside Page.
Settlers & Settlers
US and Navajo Nation flags wave near the Navajo Bridge.
Colonization Veins
Roads run along the reddish expanse of the Colorado Plateau.
Entering Navajo Reservation
Sign at the entrance to Navajo Bridge marks entry into Navajo Nation territory.
Navajo Bridge
Navajo Bridge's steel spans that span the canyon as the Colorado River flows into Marble Canyon.
ahead of the rain
Mobile home RV (Recreation Vehicle) moves away from a front of damp air.
Colorado River
Colorado River flows through a deep gorge along the Navajo Bridge.
Marina with pine cone
Hundreds of pleasure boats docked at the Wahweap marina near Page.
Live Elevated
Outdoor welcomes those entering the state of Utah, north of Arizona.
the one in the desert
Transit beats an S on one of the roads that runs through Marble Canyon.
Marble Canyon
Cars traverse a valley between Marble Canyon's colorful slopes.
Multi-Destinations
Road indicators at a Marble Canyon intersection.
Lake Powell
Rainbow adds color to the eccentric setting of Lake Powell, next to Page.
TIR
Truck approaches Kayenta under a strong wind.
Navajo
Navajo native to one of Monument Valley's iconic formations.
From Kayenta to Page, passing through Marble Canyon, we explore the southern Colorado Plateau. Dramatic and desert, the scenery of this indigenous domain, cut out in Arizona, reveals itself to be splendid.

A powerful wind lashes the desert and, as is supposed in these North American confines, sweeps rolling bushes back and forth along Highway 89's endless straights.

But neither the sandstorm nor the tumbleweeds unwary disturbam the sovereign trajectory of the classic Buick Le Saber we were driving in cruise control, there are already thousands of kilometers.

They separated us 160 km from Page. We covered the distance in three hours with a strategic stop at the Navajo National Monument to admire the ancient Indian village of Betatkin, sheltered under a huge hollow cliff, in the image of Colorado's neighbor Mesa Verde.

Arrived at the destination, we settle in and recover from some accumulated road fatigue.

Page: a Desert Denial

Clumsy and makeshift, Page is the gateway to the second-largest water reservoir in the US, augmented in 1963 by the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam that capitalized on the immense flow of Lake Powell.

Marina with pine cone

Hundreds of pleasure boats docked at the Wahweap marina near Page.

This one appears like a gigantic mirage of blue, nestled in the desolate vastness around it. The privilege of its vision and the fun it provides attracts travelers from neighboring states but also a little from the rest of the country and the world. But it was work and not play that gave rise to Page.

The work proved to be long and exhaustive. It required the permanent effort of thousands of migrated workers. The houses assigned to them and the businesses that followed, eventually formed the city.

The dam's future seems doomed by a prolonged drought that, since 1999, has shrunk the reservoir to half its capacity, exposing petroglyphs, arches, caves, dinosaur footprints and other previously submerged attractions.

But even shrunk, the lake retains a strong charm, reinforced by many of its 3200 km of coastline bordering the mystic Utah, which we ended up making the occasional brief foray.

Live Elevated

Outdoor welcomes those entering the state of Utah, north of Arizona.

Sometimes on the way out, sometimes on the way back, we find high points that reveal an almost marine vastness and the hundreds of houseboats lined up in the Wahweap marina, anchored until the arrival of the holidays and the owners' families.

We wonder if, at the rate at which water is consumed by thirsty cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, the vessels will soon be dry docking.

Back in Arizona, we detour to the eccentric Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River.

Colorado River

Colorado River flows through a deep gorge along the Navajo Bridge.

There, some visitors are afraid to reach the high bank and exchange muffled shouts: "Don't take any more chances, Kerbie, this whirlwind is the worst!" Just two more steps, Will. Two steps and we should already have a view”.

It didn't take us long to understand why the commotion. Despite being held to the surface by the heights that rise from the desert, the wind rose from the deep gorge of the river with inordinate force and provoked violent gusts and eddies.

We redouble our care.

One, more retiring, is holding his feet than he comes forward, while this one, lying on the rock, faces the worst of the vortex but has the privilege of looking down and contemplating the perfect horseshoe carved by river erosion with more than 300 meters of depth.

Horseshoe Bend

Teenagers lurk in the depths of Horseshoe Bend, a whimsical meander of the Colorado River outside Page.

We survived the stunt and left some teenage disciples to follow suit. When we get back to the car, it occurs to us whether we would not have inspired a tragedy.

We progress into southern Arizona parallel to the tight bed of Little Colorado and notice that the entire region is being invaded by a cold front pushed by clouds of increasingly dark blue.

As we drive towards Marble Canyon, the temperature follows the steep drop.

Marble Canyon

Cars traverse a valley between Marble Canyon's colorful slopes.

Even out of season, we are treated to a surprise snowfall that reduces visibility to almost nothing but, as the cold is not enough at ground level, it never gets to paint the landscape in white.

Colorado is now facing us. We cross it first on foot, contemplating its flooded canyon and then in the car, through one of the two arms of the Navajo Bridge and back to the starting point.

Navajo Bridge

Navajo Bridge's steel spans that span the canyon as the Colorado River flows into Marble Canyon.

A scenic flight over the great Colorado Plateau awaited us on Page.

In the Navajo Skies of Arizona

At 7:45 the next morning, we are already at the airport. We are told that the wind has dropped and is staying within the limits where Westwind Air Service usually flies. We receive the information with an inevitable distrust that only increases when we see a teenage-looking female pilot sitting in the cockpit.

Experienced for her age, Jerrine Harrel has little to fear. In the hyper-confident American manner, he greets the passengers with a wide smile, hands us the briefing of security and lifts the small plane to the again crystal clear skies of Arizona: “Ladies and gentlemen, believe what I tell you.

You'll never forget these views again.”

Colonization Veins

Roads run along the reddish expanse of the Colorado Plateau.

Same, beforehand, we agree without reservation. So soon we wouldn't have another opportunity to photograph a terrestrial surface like that from the air. Thus, we abstract from the abrupt jumps that the aircraft takes and cause the machines to fire probably too many times.

We flew over the heart of gigantic Lake Powell where we discovered unthinkable nooks and crannies. We climb over Page and soar over the crimson expanse of the Colorado Highlands, carved out of prehistory.

We see sedimentary hills and plateaus lost in nothingness, branching courses of extinct rivers, stone arches, rock needles projecting from the ground and sharp hills. In between, also an improbable village or two somewhere between two and thirty or forty rusty trailers, given over to aridity and rattlesnakes.

To the east, the eroded surface locks us in with a surprising concentration of other exuberant geological sculptures. We suspect that we are over the Monument Valley and the pilot's narration confirms it. Jerrine makes the plane circle the area twice. The uniqueness of the landscape is illusory.

Downstairs, the Navajo Nation remains in the hands of its embattled natives.

From Alaskan Tundra to US Integration

The Athabaskan tribes that gave rise to the Navajo are believed to have migrated to the southwestern US in 1400 CE from eastern Alaska and northwestern Canada. Upon coming into contact with the Puebla civilization, they adopted its cultivation techniques and agricultural productions.

From the Spanish colonizers – who first called them Navajos – they assimilated the habit of raising animals in herds and herds for food and to exchange for other foodstuffs. There followed the learning of weaving and the production of clothes and blankets.

By the 1860s, the Spaniards realized that the Navajo had thousands of head of cattle, vast cultivated areas and a past of territorial expansion, redefining their identity and connecting with neighboring Pueblos, Apaches, Utes and Comanches which oscillated between military incursions and commerce.

But the Apaches were also in the path of the conquerors. Fulfilling tradition, these inaugurated a long period of attacks and pillages on the Indians.

Navajo native to one of Monument Valley's iconic formations.

A few years later, the United States expelled the Spanish and Mexicans from the area and took over the annexation of Navajo territory using a strategic network of forts. Angry about the construction of railroads, mining, and invasion in general, the Navajo retaliated like never before.

Simultaneously with the carnage of the American Civil War, the years 1860-61 proved to be so punishing for the colonists and military that they became known as “The fearing Time".

The reaction did not wait. Based in New Mexico, Union forces commanded by Kit Carson systematically burned Navajo crops.

Long Walk Violence and the Marginalization that followed

They led us first to the surrender and then to the condemnation of the long walk, an infamous deportation in which some 9.000 men, women and children had to walk in the desert for nearly 500 km to Fort Summer, where the US government had installed Bosque Redondo, the first major Indian reservation.

Settlers & Settlers

US and Navajo Nation flags wave near Navajo Bridge

After 18 days of marching, there were more than 200 dead.

Thereafter, the military authorities were able to maintain and control the Navajo on this and other reservations that grew in size to their original territory.

Many natives were integrated into the army as scouts, but the permanent aggressions of the civilian settlers and prejudice prevented a better relationship between the two peoples. These days, this ethnic and cultural divide remains unresolved.

As part of the Navajo Nation, Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park was never integrated into the North American network of National Parks.

Entering Navajo Reservation

Sign at the entrance to Navajo Bridge marks entry into Navajo Nation territory

Accordingly, all the ten dollars paid by the visitors are used to support the Navajo people who, after a long dispute with the federal governments, also won legislation (based on the tribal code), their own Council and Supreme Court - installed in the capital Window Rock – as well as the right to have autonomous forces of authority.

The Unusual Military Mastery of the Navajo Indigenous

Despite the bipolar relationship that Native Americans have always had with Washington, the Navajo have, in fact, gained a curious military reputation. are yours famous code talkers recruited by the Marines during the 2nd World War for the Pacific theater, in order to transmit secret tactical messages via telephone or radio, based on indigenous dialects.

For many natives, this and other collaborations never paid off. A few years earlier, the United States had denied the Navajo social assistance because the Indians lived in a communal society. More recently, federal funding for the indigenous sub-nation has proved insufficient to supply the interiority and the gaps that victimize it.

During the second half of the XNUMXth century, uranium and coal mining represented a significant source of income.

But demand for uranium has decreased and, worse than that, the Navajo population, uninformed about the harm caused by radioactivity, suffered serious ecological and biological damage which, in 2005, led to the cancellation of the extraction.

It is now known that Navajo Nation lands are home to the most important mineral resources in all of the native domains of the United States, but the Navajo continue to depend on other activities.

Crafts and tourism complemented each other and while many families have artisans, some of their elements also dress up as cowboys to represent the missing protagonists.

Key West, USA

The Tropical Wild West of the USA

We've come to the end of the Overseas Highway and the ultimate stronghold of propagandism Florida Keys. The continental United States here they surrender to a dazzling turquoise emerald marine vastness. And to a southern reverie fueled by a kind of Caribbean spell.
tombstone, USA

Tombstone: the City Too Hard to Die

Silver veins discovered at the end of the XNUMXth century made Tombstone a prosperous and conflictive mining center on the frontier of the United States to Mexico. Lawrence Kasdan, Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner and other Hollywood directors and actors made famous the Earp brothers and the bloodthirsty duel of “OK Corral”. The Tombstone, which, over time, has claimed so many lives, is about to last.
Grand Canyon, USA

Journey through the Abysmal North America

The Colorado River and tributaries began flowing into the plateau of the same name 17 million years ago and exposed half of Earth's geological past. They also carved one of its most stunning entrails.
unmissable roads

Great Routes, Great Trips

With pompous names or mere road codes, certain roads run through really sublime scenarios. From Road 66 to the Great Ocean Road, they are all unmissable adventures behind the wheel.
Monument Valley, USA

Indians or Cowboys?

Iconic Western filmmakers like John Ford immortalized what is the largest Indian territory in the United States. Today, in the Navajo Nation, the Navajo also live in the shoes of their old enemies.
Death Valley, USA

The Hottest Place Resurrection

Since 1921, Al Aziziyah, in Libya, was considered the hottest place on the planet. But the controversy surrounding the 58th measured there meant that, 99 years later, the title was returned to Death Valley.
Albuquerque, USA

When the Drums Sound, the Indians Resist

With more than 500 tribes present, the pow wow "Gathering of the Nations" celebrates the sacred remnants of Native American cultures. But it also reveals the damage inflicted by colonizing civilization.
Jabula Beach, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa
Safari
Saint Lucia, South Africa

An Africa as Wild as Zulu

On the eminence of the coast of Mozambique, the province of KwaZulu-Natal is home to an unexpected South Africa. Deserted beaches full of dunes, vast estuarine swamps and hills covered with fog fill this wild land also bathed by the Indian Ocean. It is shared by the subjects of the always proud Zulu nation and one of the most prolific and diverse fauna on the African continent.
Thorong La, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal, photo for posterity
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit 13th: High camp - Thorong La - Muktinath, Nepal

At the height of the Annapurnas Circuit

At 5416m of altitude, the Thorong La Gorge is the great challenge and the main cause of anxiety on the itinerary. After having killed 2014 climbers in October 29, crossing it safely generates a relief worthy of double celebration.
Itamaraty Palace Staircase, Brasilia, Utopia, Brazil
Architecture & Design
Brasilia, Brazil

Brasília: from Utopia to the Capital and Political Arena of Brazil

Since the days of the Marquis of Pombal, there has been talk of transferring the capital to the interior. Today, the chimera city continues to look surreal but dictates the rules of Brazilian development.
Adventure
Volcanoes

Mountains of Fire

More or less prominent ruptures in the earth's crust, volcanoes can prove to be as exuberant as they are capricious. Some of its eruptions are gentle, others prove annihilating.
shadow of success
Ceremonies and Festivities
Champoton, Mexico

Rodeo Under Sombreros

Champoton, in Campeche, hosts a fair honored by the Virgén de La Concepción. O rodeo Mexican under local sombreros reveals the elegance and skill of the region's cowboys.
Emma
Cities
Melbourne, Australia

An "Asienated" Australia

Cultural capital aussie, Melbourne is also frequently voted the best quality of life city in the world. Nearly a million eastern emigrants took advantage of this immaculate welcome.
Meal
World Food

Gastronomy Without Borders or Prejudice

Each people, their recipes and delicacies. In certain cases, the same ones that delight entire nations repel many others. For those who travel the world, the most important ingredient is a very open mind.
Culture
Markets

A Market Economy

The law of supply and demand dictates their proliferation. Generic or specific, covered or open air, these spaces dedicated to buying, selling and exchanging are expressions of life and financial health.
Reindeer Racing, Kings Cup, Inari, Finland
Sport
Inari, Finland

The Wackiest Race on the Top of the World

Finland's Lapps have been competing in the tow of their reindeer for centuries. In the final of the Kings Cup - Porokuninkuusajot - , they face each other at great speed, well above the Arctic Circle and well below zero.
Las Cuevas, Mendoza, across the Andes, Argentina
Traveling
Mendoza, Argentina

From One Side to the Other of the Andes

Departing from Mendoza city, the N7 route gets lost in vineyards, rises to the foot of Mount Aconcagua and crosses the Andes to Chile. Few cross-border stretches reveal the magnificence of this forced ascent
Barrancas del Cobre, Chihuahua, Rarámuri woman
Ethnic
Barrancas del Cobre (Copper Canyon), Chihuahua, Mexico

The Deep Mexico of the Barrancas del Cobre

Without warning, the Chihuahua highlands give way to endless ravines. Sixty million geological years have furrowed them and made them inhospitable. The Rarámuri indigenous people continue to call them home.
Portfolio, Got2Globe, Best Images, Photography, Images, Cleopatra, Dioscorides, Delos, Greece
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

The Earthly and the Celestial

Selfie, Wall of China, Badaling, China
History
Badaling, China

The Sino Invasion of the Great Wall of China

With the arrival of the hot days, hordes of Han visitors take over the Great Wall of China, the largest man-made structure. They go back to the era of imperial dynasties and celebrate the nation's newfound prominence.
tarsio, bohol, philippines, out of this world
Islands
Bohol, Philippines

Other-wordly Philippines

The Philippine archipelago spans 300.000 km² of the Pacific Ocean. Part of the Visayas sub-archipelago, Bohol is home to small alien-looking primates and the extraterrestrial hills of the Chocolate Hills.
ala juumajarvi lake, oulanka national park, finland
Winter White
Kuusamo ao PN Oulanka, Finland

Under the Arctic's Icy Spell

We are at 66º North and at the gates of Lapland. In these parts, the white landscape belongs to everyone and to no one like the snow-covered trees, the atrocious cold and the endless night.
View from the top of Mount Vaea and the tomb, Vailima village, Robert Louis Stevenson, Upolu, Samoa
Literature
Upolu, Samoa

Stevenson's Treasure Island

At age 30, the Scottish writer began looking for a place to save him from his cursed body. In Upolu and the Samoans, he found a welcoming refuge to which he gave his heart and soul.
Tibetan heights, altitude sickness, mountain prevent to treat, travel
Nature

Altitude Sickness: the Grievances of Getting Mountain Sick

When traveling, it happens that we find ourselves confronted with the lack of time to explore a place as unmissable as it is high. Medicine and previous experiences with Altitude Evil dictate that we should not risk ascending in a hurry.
Mother Armenia Statue, Yerevan, Armenia
Autumn
Yerevan, Armenia

A Capital between East and West

Heiress of the Soviet civilization, aligned with the great Russia, Armenia allows itself to be seduced by the most democratic and sophisticated ways of Western Europe. In recent times, the two worlds have collided in the streets of your capital. From popular and political dispute, Yerevan will dictate the new course of the nation.
Merganser against sunset, Rio Miranda, Pantanal, Brazil
Natural Parks
Passo do Lontra, Miranda, Brazil

The Flooded Brazil of Passo do Lontra

We are on the western edge of Mato Grosso do Sul but bush, on these sides, is something else. In an extension of almost 200.000 km2, the Brazil it appears partially submerged, by rivers, streams, lakes and other waters dispersed in vast alluvial plains. Not even the panting heat of the dry season drains the life and biodiversity of Pantanal places and farms like the one that welcomed us on the banks of the Miranda River.
Boat and helmsman, Cayo Los Pájaros, Los Haitises, Dominican Republic
UNESCO World Heritage
Samaná PeninsulaLos Haitises National Park Dominican Republic

From the Samaná Peninsula to the Dominican Haitises

In the northeast corner of the Dominican Republic, where Caribbean nature still triumphs, we face an Atlantic much more vigorous than expected in these parts. There we ride on a communal basis to the famous Limón waterfall, cross the bay of Samaná and penetrate the remote and exuberant “land of the mountains” that encloses it.
Characters
Look-alikes, Actors and Extras

Make-believe stars

They are the protagonists of events or are street entrepreneurs. They embody unavoidable characters, represent social classes or epochs. Even miles from Hollywood, without them, the world would be more dull.
Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, Mme Moline popinée
Beaches
LifouLoyalty Islands

The Greatest of the Loyalties

Lifou is the island in the middle of the three that make up the semi-francophone archipelago off New Caledonia. In time, the Kanak natives will decide if they want their paradise independent of the distant metropolis.
Young people walk the main street in Chame, Nepal
Religion
Annapurna Circuit: 1th - Pokhara a Chame, Nepal

Finally, on the way

After several days of preparation in Pokhara, we left towards the Himalayas. The walking route only starts in Chame, at 2670 meters of altitude, with the snowy peaks of the Annapurna mountain range already in sight. Until then, we complete a painful but necessary road preamble to its subtropical base.
The Toy Train story
On Rails
Siliguri a Darjeeling, India

The Himalayan Toy Train Still Running

Neither the steep slope of some stretches nor the modernity stop it. From Siliguri, in the tropical foothills of the great Asian mountain range, the Darjeeling, with its peaks in sight, the most famous of the Indian Toy Trains has ensured for 117 years, day after day, an arduous dream journey. Traveling through the area, we climb aboard and let ourselves be enchanted.
Weddings in Jaffa, Israel,
Society
Jaffa, Israel

Where Tel Aviv Settles Always in Party

Tel Aviv is famous for the most intense night in the Middle East. But, if its youngsters are having fun until exhaustion in the clubs along the Mediterranean, it is more and more in the nearby Old Jaffa that they tie the knot.
Visitors at Talisay Ruins, Negros Island, Philippines
Daily life
Talisay City, Philippines

Monument to a Luso-Philippine Love

At the end of the 11th century, Mariano Lacson, a Filipino farmer, and Maria Braga, a Portuguese woman from Macau, fell in love and got married. During the pregnancy of what would be her 2th child, Maria succumbed to a fall. Destroyed, Mariano built a mansion in his honor. In the midst of World War II, the mansion was set on fire, but the elegant ruins that endured perpetuate their tragic relationship.
Ross Bridge, Tasmania, Australia
Wildlife
Discovering tassie, Part 3, Tasmania, Australia

Tasmania from Top to Bottom

The favorite victim of Australian anecdotes has long been the Tasmania never lost the pride in the way aussie ruder to be. Tassie remains shrouded in mystery and mysticism in a kind of hindquarters of the antipodes. In this article, we narrate the peculiar route from Hobart, the capital located in the unlikely south of the island to the north coast, the turn to the Australian continent.
Bungee jumping, Queenstown, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown, the Queen of Extreme Sports

In the century. XVIII, the Kiwi government proclaimed a mining village on the South Island "fit for a queen".Today's extreme scenery and activities reinforce the majestic status of ever-challenging Queenstown.
PT EN ES FR DE IT