Tse
biyintzis gaii—”The Space Between The Rocks”—is
the name some Dine (Navajo) give for what white people
call Monument Valley. The landscape of Monument Valley
is internationally recognized but intimately known only
by those few Dine who live there. The rock monuments
are icons of a West which exists mostly in celluloid
imagination, but they also define one of the most beautiful
parts of Dinetah, Navajo Country.
In
a remote part of Monument Valley, a Dine woman sits
in front of her upright loom. Her long, graying hair
has been carefully combed with a be’ezhoo, or
grass brush, and tied into an hourglass shaped knot
in back as instructed by the holy ones. Her name is
Mae. She wears a long full skirt of pink cotton that
complements her maroon velveteen blouse.
Mae’s hands look much younger than her years.
A lifetime of working with lanolin-rich wool has kept
them soft. A finger on each hand is ringed with silver
and turquoise the color of the sky. With her left hand
she deftly plucks the woolen warp and slides the batten,
fashioned of hard oak but grooved along the edges by
countless days of weaving. The weft dances across the
warp like sheep gamboling through the sage. The pattern
is spun from her history, trails of her memory. It is
the pattern of life.
—From
“The Space Between The Rocks” by Stewart
Aitchison
The
Space Between The Rocks
Stewart Aitchison
48 pages. 8.5”x7.375”
ISBN 0-939365-38-3
$7.95 
- OTHER TITLES THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
Monument Valley &
The Navajo Reservation by Nicky Leach
- Monument Valley Postcard Book
- Windows of The Past: The Prehistoric Drama by Florence Lister
- Ruins of The Southwest Postcard Book
- Art on The Rocks: Stone Wonder by Bruce Hucko
- National Parks of Utah: A Journey to The Colorado Plateau
by Nicky Leach
- Peaks, Plateaus, and Canyons: Scenes from the Grand Circle by Jeff Nicholas and Jim & Lynn Wilson
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