MONUMENT VALLEY AND THE NAVAJO RESERVATION
Nicky Leach
64 pages. Oversized 10”x13”
ISBN 1-58071-059-X
$9.95

This stunningly beautiful, oversized book is lavishly illustrated with breathtaking color imagery by America’s leading landscape photographers. In addition to the stunning photography, the book also includes detailed maps of the park and region and insightful, heartfelt narratives detailing the park’s natural and human histories.

It’s sunset on a cool October evening when the Chevy Suburban pulls up outside a sprawling homestead near Torreon in the southeastern corner of the Navajo Nation. My two Navajo guides—seniors working as part of Cuba High School Travel Academy’s unique cultural tourism program—introduce me to Pasqualita Toledo, a recent graduate, and her family. After touring Chaco Canyon all afternoon, I will be staying in one of their hogans tonight, sharing the space with their brother’s girlfriend. She and the youngest Toledo boys are watching a movie inside the hogan, seated on an old couch, giggling shyly as I enter.

The hogan is typical of thousands on the reservation. It’s circular with a hard dirt floor, a roof hole, a wood stove for heat, and a door on the east, facing the sunrise. I unroll my sleeping bag on a bed on the west side, traditionally reserved for guests, place a water bottle by the door, and go for a walk. The Toledo outfit, set at the edge of a pretty mesa, has a frame house and two hogans, and a spectacular view of Cabezon Peak in the Rio Puerco valley. I take all this in from a doorless outhouse standing on its own between the hogan and the cliffs. My every move is watched by curious goats and sheep in a nearby corral. Several ducks floating on a pond start squawking as I return to the hogan. The cacophony bounces off sandstone walls, the only sound for miles around.

...Early the next morning, I leave the Toledo homestead, after breakfasting on scrambled eggs, homestyle potatoes, and fruit rustled up by Peter Toledo. As I leave, everyone gathers around a freshly butchered sheep, which Peter and his son slaughtered as we sat inside eating. It will keep the Toledos in mutton stew for a week or more, and every piece of the animal will be used. Despite the TV, the kung fu posters, the kid’s Spiderman pajamas, and tubs of Blue Bonnet margarine in the fridge, this is an America that few Anglos experience. For those of us that have, it offers a window into another world and a reflection on our own that remains in the memory forever. Every encounter on the Navajo reservation offers an opportunity for such experiences, if you’re willing to take the time to get to know the people for whom this is truly home.

—From the Introduction to “Monument Valley“ by Nicky Leach

Monument Valley and the Navajo Reservation
Nicky Leach
64 pages. Oversized 10”x13”
ISBN 1-58071-059-X
$9.95

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