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I am proud of my heritage and have learned that the Cherokee Indians were make to walk west on foot by the military during the winter season losing 1/4 of their tribe. How sad.
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Yep. We have Blackheart Jackson to thank for that.
I know and he's still on the $20. I keep hoping a real movement to remove him will take place. It would be going in a different direction, but it might be neat to replace with him Frederick Douglass. Although if it needs to be a President or VP maybe Charles Curtis to replace Jackson as Curtis was 3/8th Indian and a descendant of Chief Pawhuska. (It seems like he wasn't that good of a VP though, not even for Indian interests, but it's something)
Just because you don't particularly like the lifestyle of some Native Americans doesn't mean you should think their lifestyle is something horrible.
I think the 4 corners area as someone said before has a lot of Native American culture. I admire the Hopi too in that they want to keep the true way of their ancestors. If this was the religion forum I could have gone a long time about their prophecies and their coming Red savior from the west, but that is another topic. I just think they represent the true Native American way but I don't think you will be able to visit their reservation. I think some areas of the Hopi reservation are accessable but some are not as they value their privacy. I do know that the Las Vegas area, you can probably find a lot of Native Americans and their culture. But I even saw sometimes in the Chicagoland area there were some Native American stores popping up in malls. When I went to NYC, the local US Customs building was a Native American museum and it did show an Indian dance but I don't know if it was of any particular tribe and it was more general in nature. In general, you can probably a lot of Native American stores spread in anywhere in the country. I found some even in San Diego too. If you want to experience their culture, the 4 corners area is good, Oaklahoma in some parts is also good too. In truth they are all spread out across America but the above places have greater concentrations of them.
I dont think he was saying he didnt like their lifestyle, from the sound of it, he found it depressing, there are some really really poor areas in NW New Mexico, actually all of NM, but NW New Mexico is worse off, lots of poverty,alcohol abuse,drug abuse,no jobs, and to a certain extent, even some incest. I've seen it with my own two eyes. It is a depressing scene.
I dont think he was saying he didnt like their lifestyle, from the sound of it, he found it depressing, there are some really really poor areas in NW New Mexico, actually all of NM, but NW New Mexico is worse off, lots of poverty,alcohol abuse,drug abuse,no jobs, and to a certain extent, even some incest. I've seen it with my own two eyes. It is a depressing scene.
You're right. It IS depressing to travel through there. Alcoholism among the locals is so rampant that one has to be careful when driving, particularly at night, because of so many pedestrians. According to a friend of mine who was a cop in Gallup, that's because a lot of Navajoes have lost their drivers licenses because of DWI's.
You're right. It IS depressing to travel through there. Alcoholism among the locals is so rampant that one has to be careful when driving, particularly at night, because of so many pedestrians. According to a friend of mine who was a cop in Gallup, that's because a lot of Navajoes have lost their drivers licenses because of DWI's.
I actually saw 3 separate 'pedestrians' walking along Rt 491 north, all carrying brown bags, in about a 5 mile stretch, just north of Gallup. It's not laid out like most people's worlds. I am not so sure one would want to go there just to absorb the Native American culture. A better argument couuld be made for the landscape, terrain, natural features. There are hardly any more spectacular than around this area.
491 used to be called Rt 666, a spur route of the original Route 66. The locals thought that by changing the number of that road, it would change the rate of accidents. Of course, that's nonsense. You need to change the condition and the culture of the people living there in order to do that.
I actually saw 3 separate 'pedestrians' walking along Rt 491 north, all carrying brown bags, in about a 5 mile stretch, just north of Gallup. It's not laid out like most people's worlds. I am not so sure one would want to go there just to absorb the Native American culture. A better argument couuld be made for the landscape, terrain, natural features. There are hardly any more spectacular than around this area.
491 used to be called Rt 666, a spur route of the original Route 66. The locals thought that by changing the number of that road, it would change the rate of accidents. Of course, that's nonsense. You need to change the condition and the culture of the people living there in order to do that.
I nearly ran over a pedestrian one night on old NM-44, back before it became US-550 between Farmington and Bernalillo. He was drunk as a skunk and leading a white horse right down the center line at about 2 AM.
If the horse had been any other color, I would have gotten them both.
We just spent 4 weeks in Indian Country (that's what the AAA map calls the 4 corners region) and had a wonderful time seeing incredible natural beauty and meeting many Native Americans in many states: New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Oklahoma. It is truly amazing how much land is Indian sovereign nation land, meaning they own it and make the rules. A lot of it is off-limits to non-natives.
In the Albuquerque and Santa Fe area there are many different tribes/pueblos/owingehs and I was very impressed with the native people I met in their galleries or as tour guides.
I personally in 4 weeks and 5 states never saw one instance of drunkeness but of course it must occur. It's pretty hard to get a drink anywhere in Indian Country, very few liquor stores. The powers that be make it difficult to get liquor. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Canyon de Chelly a couple days and it was funny to hear people in the restaurant "WHAT? I can't get a beer?" We don't drink so no problem for us.
The locals we met in Chinle and Gallup were also very welcoming, much nicer than we've been treated when traveling on the East Coast, for example.
One of the fun and interesting encounters was all the native jewelry vendors we met. Chinle, which is Navajo controlled, allows vendors in the park at almost all the Canyon de Chelly landscape points. They were never forward, you had to approach them. I enjoyed looking and buying. Many earring purchases, quite cute for $5-$10 each almost all with silver and turquoise and some necklaces too.
In Gallup we ate at Earls' which allows vendors to come to your table. You can get a card stating you aren't interested and they won't visit but I liked to look. We were there during the pow-wow called Ceremonial and it was neat to see all the local ladies out eating dinner in their velvet dresses and gorgeous turquoise jewelry. I noticed they would purchase things too so it wasn't just a "tourist trap".
Gallup has dances downtown EVERY EVENING not just pow-pow days. The dancers are amazing and photography is not just allowed but encouraged. This was nice because at many pueblos photography is not allowed which is understandable, people don't want to be photographed like animals in a zoo.
The Monument Valley Park, also Navajo Nation, is absolutely awesome. We heard European languages all around us watching the sunset. The native gallery there is one of the best for jewelry I saw featuring Navajo and Hopi artists and also quite reasonable prices. They also had clothing, pots, rugs, etc.
All in all I learned a lot about a part of our country I never would have without visiting in person.
Every tribe is a little different from the other, just like Georgians are different than Minnesotans.
I loved it and want to go back next year for more exploration.
BTW every national park we visited had a great selection of books on their particular area and tribes there. Did you know that Navajos are more closely related to native Alaskan and Canadians than they are to other Southwest natives?
I've also visited Cherokee NC but the native culture isn't as dominant there or as obvious as it is in the southwest. Or maybe I didn't see the right people. :-)
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Window Rock, AZ
It's a center of government and administrative services on the Navajo Reservation. It's in a beautiful high altitude area of red rock and desert and ponderosa forests. The Navajo Code Talkers Memorial is there which is a WWII chapter in history that is not told often enough.
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The Dakotas?
