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Just do hours and hours of research for days and days.....Then you develop a passion...or maybe you already had a passion.  You become more passionate.You ignore other writing projects...that news article about the bats in school...hmmm that could be fun...who ever heard of a bat day off from school?  Two actually.   OK save that for the next project.You ignore your family....as much as possible.(photo by Suchitra Baker)You do more research and have some fun along the way.  Then you write ane write and write.....  The you rewrite and rewrite and rewrite....Then you [...]

I have never met friendlier people than the Navajo but making true freinds takes time.  As I prepared to come to the reservation in Chinle, I asked a Native American friend if he thought people would accept me here.  His advice was to just be myself.  Native Americans, he suggested, would judge me by my authentic nature.We have been here two years.  I have heard that the Navajo are so used to people coming and going that they are slow to make freinds with Anglos who they believe will be gone in the [...]

Jim Kristofic grew up in Ganado Arizona on the Navajo reservation after moving there with his mother and brother at the age of 7. Ganado is 30 miles from where I live in Chinle.   His book Navajo Wear Nikes, A Reservation Life is a compelling account of an Anglo growing up in an unfamiliar world which he eventually comes to love.    He is honest about the difficulties for a young child as he struggles to be accepted into a new culture and adept at writing about the changes that take place [...]

NOW, THEREFORE, I, RONALD REAGAN, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate August 14, 1982, as National Navaho Code Talkers Day, a day dedicated to all members of the Navaho Nation and to all Native Americans who gave of their special talents and their lives so that others might live. I ask the American people to join me in this tribute, and I call upon Federal, State and local officials to commemorate this day with appropriate activities. Ronald Regan 1982Yesterday, August 14, I traveled to Window Rock Arizona to be [...]

This is part of a series on stuff I collect. If you follow my blog it will be no surprise that I love rocks and stones.  Unfortunately I could not bring this happy fellow home from Sand Canyon where I collected this photo instead.I can never go anywhere in the natural world without filling my pockets with rock and stones.  I should have been a geologist.  My collections fill my house and yard and garden.  I love the colors and shapes and textures.  They are all treasures to me.  On a recent hike [...]

(hogan prepared for Kinalda)Several weeks ago I had the honor of attending a traditional Navajo puberty ceremony for the daughter of family freinds in Saw Mill.First I had to find my way to Saw Mill.  I arrived in time for the Noon run.  The girl must run to the east from the entrance of the hogan, three times a day, morning, noon and evening.  Her friends and family join her and cheer her on with long, loud, high- pitched yelping sounds.  I ran too.Then we all helped to prepare a feast and ate: [...]