Canyon de Chelly, AZ (Canyon del Muerto)

DAY 9
FRI 5 OCT 2012

This little documentary is both eloquent and moving: youtu.be/J0jEaEkj0Pg

Canyon del Muerto is a legendary place, one that figures prominently in Diné oral history.

Tséyi, (meaning "the place deep in the rock") - is home to three major canyons: Canyon de Chelly, Canyon del Muerto, and Monument Canyon. The Diné have settled here long before European recorded history, and they have long suffered numerous attempts to dispossess them of their land, livelihood, and culture – first by the Spanish and later by American soldiers and settlers.

In 1805, Canyon del Muerto was the site of a Spanish invasion and daylong battle that left over a hundred men, women, and children dead; and numerous survivors captured and taken as slave by the Spanish.
In 1864 the United States instigated a “scorched earth” policy, burning Diné farms, cutting down orchards, slaughtering animals and killing many Navajo.
Those who survived the periodic purges, enslavement, and forced marches - returned home to retell their stories, and to reaffirm their identity and kinship to the land.

Canyon de Chelly’s red earth symbolizes to the Diné, not only death and bloodshed, but also rebirth and survival; its deep canyons are doorways that open into the past, present, and future.

Tourists now flock to the cottonwood trees at Antelope House, and stroll about where long ago, Diné blood once flowed in these same canyon trails.