Sentinel at Monument Valley

Postcard Scene

Monument Valley, Navajo Reservation, USA   2013

 A lone Navajo man on horseback gazing out onto Monument Valley was the ultimate photo back in the day. I’d seen it in a magazine when I was in my 20’s…a long time ago.

In those days, the nearest town, Kayenta, Arizona, consisted of a trading post and a small motel. I remember walking out of my motel room one morning and seeing a Navajo couple across the road. They stood in the shade of the trading post veranda. She wore the full tiered skirt and velvet blouse typical of her tribe. Her hair was tied behind her head in the Navojo style and she carried her baby in the cradle thing we associate with the word papoose.

I wanted to stare at them, to talk to them, and maybe photograph them. But I had read that the Navajo were extremely shy and did not want to be photographed. So, I didn’t. I’m not sorry that I didn’t get a picture. I know that my memory is a thousand times better than any photo I could have taken.

The Navajo man in the photo above dresses like a cowboy, but the man in the photo that I remember wore feathers in his hair. I didn’t see any hair with feathers when I was in Arizona a few weeks ago. I did see babies in those papoose cradles, but the mothers kept them hidden under a baby blanket. I guess I don’t blame them.

I have the feeling that if I go back to Monument Valley and contact Clifford, my Navajo guide, that I could ask him to arrange for me to photograph a papoose.  I think he’d do it if he could. Clifford was very accomodating.  He offered to make me some ‘Frybread’ when I told him I hadn’t eaten any. I didn’t let him. I ate some in a restaurant, though. It’s a thin piece of dough, fried in a skillet to a crisp golden brown. Who wouldn’t like that?

 Contact Clifford at http://blacksmonumentvalleytours.com/

Standing Watch

Another version, but shot from below. Here the story is all about the lone figure in an empty landscape. Which is better?