Last night was warmer than we expected! By dinner time the clouds had started to clear and stars began to peek out above the canyon walls. We had Southwest vegetarian burritos for dinner and then turned in for the night.
Cheryl, Maria and Kerrie started in the old Hogan but the smoke drove Maria back out into a tent. The Hogan is 200 years old and has been part of Winnie's family and land for generations.
Sunrise the next morning was beautiful - not a cloud in the sky and the red canyon walls glowing.
After breakfast we started out on our biggest hike - to Spider Rock. We started out cross country along Winnie's land and the canyon walls. We came to a spot where Winnie's family had once had a Hogan, but after one of their children died they moved across the river and built another one. Again they lost another child, so they moved to the site where Winnie's Hogan stands today and we are camping.
Winnie talked to us this morning about the "Carson Killing Days". Kit Carson and his men entered the canyon in the 1860's and forcibly removed the Navajo to Fort Sumner in a 350 mile march. Women and children who were too difficult to move were slaughtered in the canyon along with all those who tried to resist. After four years, a treaty was signed which allowed them to return to their land. Winnie said most of the people didn't understand what they signed - they just agreed to get out of Fort Sumner. One of the requirements was that the Navajo had to send their children to school. When Winnie grew up, there was no school nearby and her family wanted her to stay home so they hid her in the canyon. Eventually she was discovered and went to boarding school when she was 15.
The Navajo's ownership of the land in the canyon under the treaty is tenuous. Winnie maintains the old Hogan on her site to help prove her ownership. As we walked, Winnie showed us caves where her family had built adobe storage boxes for corn and other food. They used cedar chips on the floor as a preservative and stored the food for use in the winter.
We passed many Anasazi ruins, petroglyphs and pictographs, along with ruined Hogans. We passed the Beehive Trail where Winnie and her family would hike out to their winter home. It was called "Beehive" because there used to be Anasazi houses high on the cliff and their windows and doors were like little black holes.
Winnie pointed out some more ruins in a large cave down the bottom. Her mother told her that in the Carson Killing Days, two sisters had hid there to escape the slaughter, and her mother was descended from one of them.
On Winnie's father's side of the family, her great grandmother had been kidnapped and sold to a Mexican in Fort Sumner. Her great grandmother was raped by her owner and fell pregnant. His wife helped her to escape and she walked all the way back to the canyon, giving birth on the way.
One night while she was camped with her baby in a cave, she woke to see a bear sleeping on the other side of the fire. Terrified, she lay still and tried to go to sleep. In the morning the bear was gone. When she got back to the canyon, the elders consulted the stars and told her it wasn't really a bear, but the spirits guiding her home.
As we walked along the canyon walls, each twist of the trail showed a picture postcard view of new canyons. After fording many streams and scrambling up hills, we saw Spider Rock - an awe inspiring, towering column in the middle of the canyon. We ate lunch at the base, and Kerrie, Beth, Chrissy and Marion scrambled part of the way up.
After a leisurely lunch, we made our way back along the trail. Not far from the rock, Winnie stopped to talk to us. She handed each of us a flower and told us that even with one petal missing, it was still beautiful. No matter what challenge we found in our lives, we should just remember that flower and we will find the strength to go on.
Then Winnie prayed in Navajo to the spirit of Spider Rock and told us wherever we go someone would be looking out for us.
Yesterday Winnie told us how her father would get supplies into the canyon.
He would throw firewood over the edge above their Hogan, and after it hit the bottom it would smash into kindling which Winnie and her brothers would collect.
Every now and then he would ride into Chinle to buy tinned food. He'd have that hauled to the edge of the canyon, then tie it up in a sack. Then he'd chop down a tree, attach the sack to it, and throw it over the edge at Wild Cherry Canyon, with the tree acting as a parachute to break the fall.
After our prayer with Winnie, we continued along the trail, back to camp for dinner! The whole day was gorgeous - sunny, hot enough for shorts and T-shirts, and stunning views.
