Navajo Lecture (evening of 6/25/09)

This evening we had dinner at the restaurant at the inn (no other choice really unless you want to drive 45 minutes in either direction). After, Daniel wrote postcards while I attended a lecture on Navajo Culture presented by the owner of the Jacob Lake Inn. His name is John and he has incredible passion and compassion for these people and their culture. He told all kinds of interesting stories from when he was a kid including the one about how he and his Indian buddies used to put a juniper berry in their mouths whenever they would go on all day errands on their horses because there is NO natural water to drink in this area. I guess if you bite down on a juniper berry every once in a while it causes you to salivate and keeps you from getting thirsty. I’ll have to try that sometime.

The whole point of the lecture had to do with John’s concern that the art of rug making—for which the Navajo are known—is dying out, and it sort of is. Only about 2,000 of a population of 300,000 weave and that number is reduced by 10% yearly. And why? Chaulk it up to another casualty of the collision between the ancient and modern worlds. First, the Navajo believe that if you weave for too long, you can get sick and you need a cleansing ritual to get well. Second, it takes a lot of time to make a rug and the pay averages out to a lot less than what you can earn at McDonald’s or Wal-Mart. And third, you need a pretty distraction-free environment in which to weave a rug. The Navajo rug weavers credit “Spider Woman” for giving them the inspiration for their designs. Nothing is preplanned. Working from an established pattern is about the worst thing you can do. All the counting and stitching has to come from your head and heart. If you are constantly distracted by kids, ringing phones, TV, etc. you can’t make a good rug because you lose your concentration. The rugs John showed us were so beautiful. I would have loved to take one home except that they cost a minimum of $400 a piece for a 2’x3’ rug. The ones I really like were way more than that because they weren’t traditional.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself with the exception of the annoying lady who kept saying things like “That’s exquisite!” and “What a celebration!” every time John showed us another rug. Then she’d nod her head furiously whenever she liked a point he had to make as if he were addressing only her. Toward the end of the lecture, Marilyn, the Navajo rug weaver stopped by. She is employed by the inn to weave in the lobby for guests to see. I had spoken to her for a while earlier in the afternoon. She was very shy and didn’t want to talk in front of others. So what does Annoying Lady do? Annoying Lady insists on hugging Marilyn. And it wasn’t just a quick hug with a pat-pat-pat on the back. It was a LONG, meaningful hug accompanied by a drippy, heartfelt “Thank you for your wonderful spirit and work.” I wanted to vomit.