Navajo Sacred Mountains

• 29 Contested Landscapes of Navajo Sacred Mountains Kevin S. Blake Sacred mountains are integral to the Navajo worldview, yet their land use is often incongruous with their spiritual significance. Nearly all of the land of the six massifs that are deeply symbolic within Navajo ori gin stories is located beyond the Navajo Reservation on federal land. This paper compares Navajo symbolism to land use at Blanca Peak (CO), Mount Taylor (NM), San Francisco Peaks (AZ), Hesperus Moun tain (CO), Huerfano Mountain (NM), and Gobernador Knob (NM). Each mountain has mullicul/ural symbolism and land use that imprints several layers of meaning upon the peaks. Non-Navajo uses include transmission towers, ski areas, mineral development, and moun taineering, whereas Navajo use includes visits to collect plants and soil for ceremonies and to connect with spiritual powers. Public land management allempts to balance contrasting environmental percep tions, but competing resource demands and mountain aesthetics often create contested landscapes. Keywords: Navajo (Dine), moun tains, sacred places, contested landscapes, public land management, American Southwest, environmental ethics. On the way down the sacred Francisco Peaks, I stop to pass mountain I meet a group of Nava time with one of the adult leaders. jo schoolchildren, chattering their His first words, "How far to way along the steep and forested heaven?" strike a chord with my path. Weary from the icy and purpose of climbing that day: to snowy stretches of trail that took gain a beller understanding of the me to the summit of the San landscape character and Navajo The Nonh American Geograph~r. ;\ (1). PI'. 29-62. ~ 200/1Jy Tilt' North American Gt'ogmpher. 30 The North Americun Geographer symbolism associated with the different visions expressed in the mountain and to compare its land landscape of what constitutes use with its cultural meaning. walking in beauty. His name is Norman Jensen, and Among the most ecologically he is leading this group from diverse landscapes on Earth, Tuba City, Arizona, to visit each mountains evoke emotions rang of the Navajo sacred mountains. ing from sheer terror to glorious He says ,ost kids are unaware inspiration. Billions connect to that there are sacred mountains, peaks in a spiritual way, finding so they' are starting with the them integral to their worldview basics of where the mountains and daily lives (Bernbaum 1990). are, how they deserve respect, High peaks also serve as multi and how people can connect to faceted cultural symbols, repre and appreciate their spiritual senting everything from mineral power. Their goal that day is not resources to sacred beliefs, from to reach the top, but rather to recreation to community identity reach a point with a view toward (Blake 1999a). Norman Jensen's Agassiz Peak, second-highest group illustrates the potential summit in the massif, and the ski individual. and cultural signifi area facilities that snake their cance of mountains to the Navajo way up the mountain. Here they or Dine, the People, the most will see first-hand the scale of populous reserv;Jtion-based development that is possible on a American Indian nation in the sacred mountain, yet still feel for United States, who also occupy themselves the spiritual power the reservation with the largest that remains. Norman and J fin land area (Griffin-Pierce 2000). ish chatting about the interpreta Within the Navajo homeland tions that are possible of a sacred nearly all aspects of the natural mountain, and depart with mutu world have cultural meaning, but al wishes to "walk in beauty," the mountains are especially signifi Navajo phrase implying a com cant in oral traditions and cere plete and harmonious spiritual monies, forming the cornerstone connection with the environment. of a Navajo sacred geography But before each of us leaves the (Reichard 1950; Jett 1992; Jett mountain that day we will see far 200 l). Navajo landforms are Blake 31 deeply embedded in the image of by the Bureau of Land Manage the American Southwest, result ment or the U.S. Forest Service, ing in an increasing appreciation resulting in a distinctive set of and awareness of sacred place multi-cultural symbols for these symbolism (Byrkit 1992; Lloyd places and offering a case study 1995), yet the land use of the for the power of sacred symbol Navajo sacred mountains is often ism and mountain iconography to incongruous with their symbol cross borders in the Southwest. A Ism. FurthemlOre, little under review of secondary literature standing exists of the syncretic sources explains Navajo symbol processes that bind people to the ism, but fieldwork forms the cen sacred peaks and how land use tnll element of this study. The ret1ects the divergent attitudes sacred mountain landscapes were that achieve landscape expression intimately explored several times This article examines the con by foot over the past ten years. tested landscapes of six Navajo The land use information on pub sacred mountains by describing lic land maps was compared with the Navajo symbolism, compar first-hand observations, and dis ing secular and sacred land uses, cussions were held with land and exploring several dimensions managers and the Navajo. While ofland use cont1icts. Concluding public visitation could be inter the article are visions of what the preted to diminish the perceived future could hold for the Navajo power of holy places, an under sacred mountains. By examining standing beyond the Navajo cul the six most deeply symbolic ture of the sacred mountains is Navajo sacred mountains, rather necessary to ensure their proper than only the four that symbolize respect and protection. Further the outer limits of the Navajo more, specific and vulnerable homeland (e.g., Goodman 1982), sacred sites should be kept secret, a more complete and integrati ve but little objection exists to the view is possible of land use and discussion and knowledge of landscape symbolism. Almost all major sacred landmarks (Jett of the land of the six mountains is 1995). located beyond the Navajo Reser The implications of this study vation on federal land managed run deep for southwestern land- 32 The North American Geographer scape images, Navajo cultural 1995). To harm sacred land is a identity, and the management of violation causing the loss of heal sacred mountains. The American ing power and the ability of a Indian Religious Freedom Act of mountain to restore harmony to 1978 mandates access to sacred Navajo lives (Michaelson 1995). places and the consideration of such sites in federal land-use Navajo Sacred Mountains directives (Kelley and Francis More than repositories of spiritu 1994; lett 1995). A May 24, al power, mountains are elemen 1996 Presidential Executive tal in Navajo prayers and chants Order further charges each feder (O'Bryan 1993) as well as the al agency with accommodating ceremonial Blessingway (Wyman American Indian access to and 1970), Beautyway (Wyman ceremonial use of sacred sites 1957), and Mountainway and preserving the physical (Wyman 1975). Mountains also integrity of the sites. Seemingly create symbolic boundaries, clear directives may nevertheless repeat a favorable pattern of pro be widely interpreted. Contested tection and well-being through landscapes evolve when differing out Dine Bikeyah, the land of the environmental ethics and cultural Navajo, and embody powerful identities collide in places with mnemonic devices to conjure the deep meaning. Although the atti thoughts and lessons associated tudes of anyone culture may not with places (McPherson 1992). be stereotyped into neatly defined Some Nav ajo places have a packages, such as Navajos greater sanctity according to their always supporting the option of prominence in Navajo events and least development or non-Indians the importance of their associated always favoring mineral develop supernatural beings (Jett 1992). ment, this article is mostly con Mountains were the first places cerned with the relationship of created in this world; thus here sacred places to Navajo cultural the Holy People are most evident identity, for the believers in or accessible to mortal pilgrims, Navajo religion perceive the and mountains connect people greatest risk of loss in the spiritu with their origin and anchor the al power of these places (Jett correct pursuit of the Navajo Blake 33 ways of life (Kelley and Francis can only imagine the long-range 1994). vistas possible in the days before The significance of mountains fossil fuel emissions - even in to the Navajo is even more tangi recent years I have seen land bly evident in the views of and marks 125 miles distant on the from mountains as well as the Colorado Plateau. collection of soil, stones, herbs, Six earthly mountains mani and water (lett 1995). Mountain fest the most significant places in soil symbolizes the Earth's flesh the Navajo origin and worldview (lett 2001) and the mountain soil (O'Bryan 1993; Kelley and Fran bundle (dah nfdiilyeeh) carried cis 1994; Frey 1998; Linford by traditional Navajos represents 2000). Additionally, the Blessing the medicine bundle of First way ceremony, the backbone of Man, out of which came all life Navajo religion and most revered (Gill 1981). Mountain products ritual, has six important peaks are collected by Navajo singers (Wyman 1970). Four of these (medicine men) for ceremonial sacred mountains are aligned in and healing use (Mayes and Lacy cardinal directions on the bound 1989); the spiritual power of aries of the historic core of Nava stones from the sacred mountains jo settlement in the Southwest was recognized in their use for (Dinetah), supporting the Navajo the altar in the Crownpoint, New sky and serving as the energy Mexico Catholic Mission (Guter source for animate beings (Farel son 1997). Singers make regular la 1984). Two other sacred moun pilgrimages to the sacred moun tains, Huerfano Mountain and tains to rejuvenate the Blessing Gobernador Knob, are at the cen way prayers (lett 1992) and to ter of the homeland in New Mex pray for relief from drought ico (Figure 1).

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