Monument Valley, USA

Indians or Cowboys?


trailer park
Trailer camp and the like over the reddish expanse of Monument Valley.
pure aridity
Desert shrubs proliferate in the inhospitable environment of Monument Valley, located in the heart of Colorado Plateau
Navajo Nation II
Navajo Nation flag flies above one of the Mittens.
Navajo Nation II
Navajo Nation flag flies above one of the Mittens
equine domain
Adrian makes Pistol, his black horse, rear.
John Ford Point II
One of Monument Valley's most iconic – and explored – views of Monument Valley.
John Ford Point
Signpost marks one of filmmaker John Ford's favorite places, which he included as a plan for several Westerns he shot in Monument Valley.
Merrick Buttea
The detached needle of the Merrick Butte, one of Monument Valley's whimsical formations.
Erosion
Monument Valley circular formation carved by wind and occasional rain.
Air Valley Memorial
Monument Valley geological formations, seen from the air.
Navajo coiled
Kenan Chico is stationed in the stable the Navajo maintain near John Ford Point
Navajo youth
Kenan Chico and two younger Navajos by the John Ford Point stable.
margaret b.
Margaret B. Gray, an indigenous Navajo craft seller
Navajo or cowboy?
Adrian, one of the Navajo Indians who plays cowboys at John Ford Point, to the delight of Westerns admirers.
The Mittens
One of Monument Valley's most iconic formations.
Merrick Buttea
The detached needle of the Merrick Butte, one of Monument Valley's whimsical formations.
Monument Valley Monument
Desert vastness of Monument Valley, part of the vast Navajo Nation.
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.

The afternoon is late as we hit the dirt road around Monument Valley National Park.

We admire the Mittens and Merrick Butte geological formations, then Elephant Butte and the Three Sisters. In the distance, between the last two, we also glimpse what appears to be a cowboy rearing a horse on the edge of a precipice.

View from John Ford Point, Monument Valley, Nacao Navajo, United States

One of the most iconic views – and explored by John Ford – of Monument Valley.

We then came across John Ford Point, one of the favorite points of view of the director who filmed “Horse Ride” and six others of his Western classics in Monument Valley.

Next door, young Navajo ethnic guides take care of a stable and the horses they use in the mounts they organize.

Navajo Indians Make a Living as Cowboys

Kenan Chico approaches us. He wears a plaid shirt, neckerchief, black-brimmed hat, and maintains a firm posture that matches Duke's.

We gained the courage to ask him the right question and the answer, slow and thoughtful, justifies the Indian's cowboy look: “those times are long gone and cultures mixed.

A good part of the Navajo wear cowboy clothes: jeans and riding boots, and so on. etc.

Navajo Natives, Monument Valley, Navajo Nation, United States

Kenan Chico and two younger Navajos by the John Ford Point stable.

It doesn't mean that we don't preserve our identity. Besides, we don't have another chance here. Whoever arrives at John Ford Point wants to see cowboys and it fell to us to play the part. The biggest one is still there Adrian. If he had lived at the right time, John Ford would have filmed him, it was him.” ends with a shy mood.

The John Ford Point Monumental Framework

A group of Korean tourists arrives at the headland. Adrian starts the new take. He advances to the edge of the plateau and makes Pistol, his black horse, rear up again. The acrobatics leaves visitors to sigh for grand Westerns.

Adrien cowboy Navajo, Monument Valley, Nacao Navajo, United States

Adrian makes Pistol, his black horse, rear.

Once the scene is over, the young Navajo returns to socializing with his friends and exclaims: “These are the ones that vibrate the most. These and the Japanese really go into ecstasy!”.

We were still halfway through the 27 km itinerary and the afternoon was drawing to a close. Thus, we return to the circuit and identification of the remaining formations.

We find the Three Sisters, Camel Butte, and the exuberant Totem in their almost religious balance.

We look for viper tracks in the waves of Sand Springs and examine Artists' Point, where a creative new composition of small plateaus and spiers can be seen.

Merrick Butte, John Ford Point, Monument Valley-Navajo Nation, United States

The detached needle of the Merrick Butte, one of Monument Valley's whimsical formations.

North Window suggests a similar but more restrained framing and, as the name implies, The Thumb, a thumb that points to the darkened firmament in which the first stars appear.

We settled in front of the Mittens and admired the different shades with which the twilight colored that Navajo, cowboy and monumental Arizona.

The Mittens, Monument Valley-Navajo nation, United States

One of Monument Valley's most iconic formations.

The Navajo Nation Lands

The next day, we spent some time in Kayenta, the strange gateway to Monument Valley.

According to the Diné dialect (the Navajo call themselves Diné, or Diné people), Kayenta means marshy hole.

Even though the place is, today, mostly dry, it remains isolated at the entrance to one of the noble geological, ethnic and movie-phile areas of the United States and retains visitors as if it were a swamp.

With 5300 inhabitants, Kayenta does not form a city, not even the equivalent of what we might consider a village. It consists of a cluster of typically American businesses - including the most popular - installed between one or another hotel, service stations, and trailers distributed along the junction of the highways 160 and 163.

Camp, Monument Valley, Nacao Navajo, United States

Trailer camp and the like over the reddish expanse of Monument Valley.

Despite this strange profile, and the McDonalds logo prominently high above, Kayenta is the only municipally governed settlement in the Navajo Nation, the largest semi-autonomous Indian Territory in the US (71.000 km² of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico) that is home to more of 300.000 inhabitants.

The Navajo Nation: A Bipolar Survival

Both Kayenta and the Navajo Nation generally elicit mixed feelings.

The towering figure of John Wayne riding a lush canyon at sunset and the Marlboro Man overlooking a skyline of towering cliffs are on-the-spot images that have filled many millions of screens and enriched the cowboy imagery shared by the world.

But the Navajo Nation also preserves the condemnation of a people who were defeated by white settlers and saw their civilization give way without appeal.

Navajo Adrian, Monument Valley, Navajo Nation, United States

Adrian, one of the Navajo Indians who plays cowboys at John Ford Point, to the delight of Westerns admirers.

Alongside the iconic meaning and historical value of the scenarios, we detect evidence of poverty, depression, poor nutrition in Kayenta (guilt of the fast food that has come so far) and the alcoholism that now plagues all native communities in the United States.

In the time we spent there, the search for a less harmful diet ended up providing us with curious experiences. As we sought to escape the siege of the worst franchised restaurants, we found ourselves in the earth's hidden and poorly stocked supermarket, the only outsiders to shop among the throngs of Navajo who stocked their homes.

Later, we had lunch at a small Chinese restaurant and devoured chop sueys among obese Indians with proud cowboy looks.

Margaret B. – A Charismatic Navajo Elder

Still near Monument Valley Park, we stopped at a roadside shop to appreciate Navajo art and ended up trying to converse with Margaret B.Gray, an Indian matriarch of haughty bearing who, despite her name, only articulates a few English words.

Navajo Elder, Monument Valley, Navajo Nation, United States

Margaret B. Gray, an indigenous Navajo craft seller

With the gradual increase in visitors, the sale of native handicrafts has proven to be an attractive business and more than 60% of the nation's families have at least one element that produces them. Some manage to sell their goods in privileged stores such as the Visitors Center.

Others, in tents set up next to the main geological formations in the park.

Others still bet on different deals. They have ignored their former enmity with the usurpers of indigenous lands and, like Kenan Chicko and Adrian, make a living in their skins. 

From Alaskan Tundra to Navajo Nation Integration in the USA

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.

Around 1860, 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 connection with the neighbors 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.

A few years later, the United States expelled the Spaniards and Mexicans from the area.

They assumed 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.

Flag, Monument Valley, Nacao Navajo, United States

Navajo Nation flag flies above one of the Mittens

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 Infamous Torture of the Long Walk

The reaction did not wait. Based in New Mexico, Union forces commanded by Kit Carson systematically burned the Navajo's crops and led them first to surrender and then to the condemnation of the Long Walk.

The Long Walk resulted in 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. 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.

Flag USA, Navajo Nation-Monument Valley-nacao navajo, United States

Navajo Nation flag flies above one of the Mittens.

The Navajo's Complex Relationship with the United States of America Sovereigns

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

Accordingly, all ten dollars paid by visitors go towards supporting the Navajo people which, after a long dispute with the federal governments, also won legislation (based on the tribal code), its own Council and Supreme Court – installed in the capital Window Rock – as well as the right to dispose of autonomous forces of authority.

Despite the bipolar relationship that Native Americans have always maintained with Washington, the Navajo have, in fact, gained a curious military reputation.

are yours famous code talkers recruited by Marines during World War II for the Pacific theater 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 proven 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.

The demand for uranium has decreased and, worse than that, the population navajo uninformed about the harmful effects of radioactivity, suffered serious ecological and biological damage which, in 2005, led to the cancellation of the extraction.

Monument Valley from the air, Navajo Nation, United States

Monument Valley geological formations, seen from the air.

It is now known that the ocher lands of the Navajo Nation are home to the most important mineral resources of all native US domains but the Navajos 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.
Shows

The World on Stage

All over the world, each nation, region or town and even neighborhood has its own culture. When traveling, nothing is more rewarding than admiring, live and in loco, which makes them unique.
Sainte-Luce, Martinique

The Nostalgic Projectionist

From 1954 to 1983, Gérard Pierre screened many of the famous films arriving in Martinique. 30 years after the closing of the room in which he worked, it was still difficult for this nostalgic native to change his reel.
Navajo nation, USA

The Navajo Nation Lands

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.
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.
Perth, Australia

The Oceania Cowboys

Texas is on the other side of the world, but there is no shortage of cowboys in the country of koalas and kangaroos. Outback rodeos recreate the original version and 8 seconds lasts no less in the Australian Western.
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.
Masai Mara Reservation, Masai Land Travel, Kenya, Masai Convivial
Safari
Masai Mara, Kenya

A Journey Through the Masai Lands

The Mara savannah became famous for the confrontation between millions of herbivores and their predators. But, in a reckless communion with wildlife, it is the Masai humans who stand out there.
Thorong La, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal, photo for posterity
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 13th - High camp a Thorong La to 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.
Treasures, Las Vegas, Nevada, City of Sin and Forgiveness
Architecture & Design
Las Vegas, USA

Where sin is always forgiven

Projected from the Mojave Desert like a neon mirage, the North American capital of gaming and entertainment is experienced as a gamble in the dark. Lush and addictive, Vegas neither learns nor regrets.
Boats on ice, Hailuoto Island, Finland.
Adventure
Hailuoto, Finland

A Refuge in the Gulf of Bothnia

During winter, the island of Hailuoto is connected to the rest of Finland by the country's longest ice road. Most of its 986 inhabitants esteem, above all, the distance that the island grants them.
Correspondence verification
Ceremonies and Festivities
Rovaniemi, Finland

From the Finnish Lapland to the Arctic. A Visit to the Land of Santa

Fed up with waiting for the bearded old man to descend down the chimney, we reverse the story. We took advantage of a trip to Finnish Lapland and passed through its furtive home.
Museum of Petroleum, Stavanger, Norway
Cities
Stavanger, Norway

The Motor City of Norway

The abundance of offshore oil and natural gas and the headquarters of the companies in charge of exploiting them have promoted Stavanger from the Norwegian energy capital preserve. Even so, this city didn't conform. With a prolific historical legacy, at the gates of a majestic fjord, cosmopolitan Stavanger has long propelled the Land of the Midnight Sun.
young saleswoman, nation, bread, uzbekistan
Meal
Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, The Nation That Does Not Lack Bread

Few countries employ cereals like Uzbekistan. In this republic of Central Asia, bread plays a vital and social role. The Uzbeks produce it and consume it with devotion and in abundance.
Horseback riding in shades of gold
Culture
El Calafate, Argentina

The New Gauchos of Patagonia

Around El Calafate, instead of the usual shepherds on horseback, we come across gauchos equestrian breeders and others who exhibit, to the delight of visitors, the traditional life of the golden pampas.
combat arbiter, cockfighting, philippines
Sport
Philippines

When Only Cock Fights Wake Up the Philippines

Banned in much of the First World, cockfighting thrives in the Philippines where they move millions of people and pesos. Despite its eternal problems, it is the sabong that most stimulates the nation.
Fruit sellers, Swarm, Mozambique
Traveling
Enxame Mozambique

Mozambican Fashion Service Area

It is repeated at almost all stops in towns of Mozambique worthy of appearing on maps. The machimbombo (bus) stops and is surrounded by a crowd of eager "businessmen". The products offered can be universal such as water or biscuits or typical of the area. In this region, a few kilometers from Nampula, fruit sales suceeded, in each and every case, quite intense.
Maksim, Sami people, Inari, Finland-2
Ethnic
Inari, Finland

The Guardians of Boreal Europe

Long discriminated against by Scandinavian, Finnish and Russian settlers, the Sami people regain their autonomy and pride themselves on their nationality.
ice tunnel, black gold route, Valdez, Alaska, USA
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

Sensations vs Impressions

Christiansted, Saint Croix, US Virgin Islands, Steeple Building
History
Christiansted, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands

The Capital of the Afro-Danish-American Antilles

In 1733, Denmark bought the island of Saint Croix from France, annexed it to its West Indies where, based at Christiansted, it profited from the labor of slaves brought from the Gold Coast. The abolition of slavery made colonies unviable. And a historic-tropical bargain that the United States preserves.
Mexcaltitán, Nayarit, Mexico, from the air
Islands
Mexcaltitan, Nayarit, Mexico

An Island Between Myth and Mexican Genesis

Mexcaltitán is a rounded lake island, full of houses and which, during the rainy season, is only passable by boat. It is still believed that it could be Aztlán. The village that the Aztecs left in a wandering that ended with the foundation of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the empire that the Spanish would conquer.
St. Trinity Church, Kazbegi, Georgia, Caucasus
Winter White
Kazbegi, Georgia

God in the Caucasus Heights

In the 4000th century, Orthodox religious took their inspiration from a hermitage that a monk had erected at an altitude of 5047 m and perched a church between the summit of Mount Kazbek (XNUMXm) and the village at the foot. More and more visitors flock to these mystical stops on the edge of Russia. Like them, to get there, we submit to the whims of the reckless Georgia Military Road.
Almada Negreiros, Roça Saudade, Sao Tome
Literature
Saudade, São Tomé, São Tomé and Principe

Almada Negreiros: From Saudade to Eternity

Almada Negreiros was born in April 1893, on a farm in the interior of São Tomé. Upon discovering his origins, we believe that the luxuriant exuberance in which he began to grow oxygenated his fruitful creativity.
Praslin Island, Cocos from the Sea, Seychelles, Eden Cove
Nature
Praslin, Seychelles

The Eden of the Enigmatic Coco-de-Mer

For centuries, Arab and European sailors believed that the largest seed in the world, which they found on the coasts of the Indian Ocean in the shape of a woman's voluptuous hips, came from a mythical tree at the bottom of the oceans. The sensual island that always generated them left us ecstatic.
Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
Cable car connecting Puerto Plata to the top of PN Isabel de Torres
Natural Parks
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

The Dominican Home Silver

Puerto Plata resulted from the abandonment of La Isabela, the second attempt at a Hispanic colony in the Americas. Almost half a millennium after Columbus's landing, it inaugurated the nation's inexorable tourist phenomenon. In a lightning passage through the province, we see how the sea, the mountains, the people and the Caribbean sun keep it shining.
At the end of the afternoon
UNESCO World Heritage
Ilha de Mozambique, Mozambique  

The Island of Ali Musa Bin Bique. Pardon... of Mozambique

With the arrival of Vasco da Gama in the extreme south-east of Africa, the Portuguese took over an island that had previously been ruled by an Arab emir, who ended up misrepresenting the name. The emir lost his territory and office. Mozambique - the molded name - remains on the resplendent island where it all began and also baptized the nation that Portuguese colonization ended up forming.
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.
Soufrière and Pitons, Saint Luci
Beaches
Soufriere, Saint Lucia

The Great Pyramids of the Antilles

Perched above a lush coastline, the twin peaks Pitons are the hallmark of Saint Lucia. They have become so iconic that they have a place in the highest notes of East Caribbean Dollars. Right next door, residents of the former capital Soufrière know how precious their sight is.
Burning prayers, Ohitaki Festival, fushimi temple, kyoto, japan
Religion
Kyoto, Japan

A Combustible Faith

During the Shinto celebration of Ohitaki, prayers inscribed on tablets by the Japanese faithful are gathered at the Fushimi temple. There, while being consumed by huge bonfires, her belief is renewed.
Chepe Express, Chihuahua Al Pacifico Railway
On Rails
Creel to Los Mochis, Mexico

The Barrancas del Cobre & the CHEPE Iron Horse

The Sierra Madre Occidental's relief turned the dream into a construction nightmare that lasted six decades. In 1961, at last, the prodigious Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad was opened. Its 643km cross some of the most dramatic scenery in Mexico.
In elevator kimono, Osaka, Japan
Society
Osaka, Japan

In the Company of Mayu

Japanese nightlife is a multi-faceted, multi-billion business. In Osaka, an enigmatic couchsurfing hostess welcomes us, somewhere between the geisha and the luxury escort.
Coin return
Daily life
Dawki, India

Dawki, Dawki, Bangladesh on sight

We descended from the high and mountainous lands of Meghalaya to the flats to the south and below. There, the translucent and green stream of the Dawki forms the border between India and Bangladesh. In a damp heat that we haven't felt for a long time, the river also attracts hundreds of Indians and Bangladeshis in a picturesque escape.
Fluvial coming and going
Wildlife
Iriomote, Japan

The Small Tropical Japanese Amazon of Iriomote

Impenetrable rainforests and mangroves fill Iriomote under a pressure cooker climate. Here, foreign visitors are as rare as the yamaneko, an elusive endemic lynx.
Napali Coast and Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii Wrinkles
Scenic Flights
napali coast, Hawaii

Hawaii's Dazzling Wrinkles

Kauai is the greenest and rainiest island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is also the oldest. As we explore its Napalo Coast by land, sea and air, we are amazed to see how the passage of millennia has only favored it.