May | June 2006 Volume 80 Issue 3 |
||||
Feature Article New Mexico's Gallup-Zuni Loop
Zuni Pueblo, the largest of New Mexico's 19 Native American pueblos, is freezing on a December midnight. Tribe members and the occasional brave visitor huddle outside around bonfires. Suddenly a pair of alien shapes materializes out of the dark, naked to the waist, their heads oversized and misshapen. They are mudheads, important figures in Zuni cosmology, and they are here for Shalako, one of the country's most amazing and authentic Native American ceremonies. The mudheads enter a house specially built for the occasion. It's packed with spectators and decorated with colorful rugs. Other viewers watch from outside through large windows damp with the heat of the crowd. At the center of the large room, wildly costumed figures dance to a slow and steady drumbeat. It's an honor to be chosen to embody the Zuni spirits, and every step must be just right. Over them all towers the 10-foot Shalako, a messenger from the gods with a snapping birdlike beak and a ruff of black feathers at the neck. During the two-day ceremony the figures will dance continuously to ensure prosperity, long life and fertility for the tribe. The dancing doesn't really get going until after midnight, but if there's one thing worth staying up for all night in the Southwest, it's this. Visitors are welcome, but are expected to behave respectfully and not take photographs—this is a religious event, not a show. While most visitors to New Mexico head to Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos, a driving loop from Gallup to Grants on the western edge of the state offers a special glimpse into the state's rich past—a past which spanned thousands of years before the area became part of the United States in 1848. Gallup was founded as a railroad town and trading center in 1881. Today the unpretentious city of 22,000 is the most important commercial center for the Navajo Nation, the largest Indian reservation in the continental U.S., with more than 250,000 inhabitants. Even though it's just outside the boundary of “the Rez,” Gallup claims the title of “Indian Capital of the World.” Downtown, near the Santa Fe Train Depot, a stretch of old Route 66 is lined with classic neon motel signs and more than 100 trading posts, galleries and shops specializing in Native American crafts. Hand-woven rugs, turquoise and silver jewelry, baskets, paintings and sculptures made by the Hopi, Navajo and other tribes fill timeworn places such as Tobe Turpen's Trading Post (open since 1939) and Richardson's Trading Company (opened in 1913). Will Rogers called the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial, held here since 1922, the “Greatest American Show.” Members of more than 30 tribes gather every July from as far away as Mexico and Alaska for one of the largest annual Indian gatherings in the country. Participants compete in rodeos, parades, art displays and ceremonial dance contests. Advance tickets are a good idea. For an overview of the area's history, stop in the Gallup Cultural Center by the train tracks, and make sure to book a room at El Rancho Hotel, a proud shrine to Hollywood's golden age of Westerns. Opened by director D.W. Griffith's brother in 1937, it quickly became a second home to movie stars such as Ronald Reagan, Kirk Douglas, Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. Signed publicity photos decorate the hallways of this National Historical Site, and mounted deer heads and a huge crystal geode decorate the ornate two-story lobby. While Albuquerque is world-famous for its hot-air balloon festival in October, many pilots prefer Gallup's gorgeous scenery, smaller crowds and milder winds during the Red Rock Balloon Rally in early December. The red rock landscape that surrounds the city is also ideal for hiking, mountain biking and rock climbing. Two good hiking trails, the Pyramid Rock Trail and the Church Rock Trail, start at Red Rock State Park, which protects 640 acres of beautiful scarlet canyons about six miles east of Gallup. The Northside Bike Trail offers 18 miles of singletrack through the piñon-juniper desert, and the High Desert Trail System north of town is open to bikers and hikers. Rock jocks head to the nearby Mentmore climbing area for more than 80 climbing routes. From Gallup, head south on Rte. 602 for 36 miles to reach Zuni Pueblo. Spanish conquistadors arrived here in 1540, amid rumors that the original Zuni settlement of Hawikku was one of the fabled “Seven Cities of Gold,” but found only an adobe village and eventually left empty-handed. Zuni Pueblo occupies a valley surrounded by high mesas that glow red and orange at sunset. The mission church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, built in 1629, was reopened to visitors only last year. Twenty-four life-sized paintings of Zuni ceremonial figures, including a soaring Shalako, decorate the inner walls of the crumbling adobe building. The astonishingly vibrant scene, painted by tribal artist Ken Seowtewa, has been called the “Sistine Chapel of the Southwest.” As with all Zuni religious culture, photography is not permitted. Learn more about the Zuni culture at the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center, where you can ask about visiting the studios of local artisans. The tribe is known for carving small animal fetishes from semi-precious stones, including turquoise, jet, onyx and coral. Each figurine is said to embody the spiritual power of the animal it represents. A large selection is available at the local crafts cooperative. Route 53 continues east from the pueblo for 21 miles to El Morro National Monument, centered around a 200-foot sandstone bluff covered with more than 2,000 inscriptions and petroglyphs. For centuries, “Inscription Rock” drew passing travelers with a hidden spring at its base. While they recovered from the difficult journey across the high desert, many left their marks carved into the soft stone. The long list includes prehistoric petroglyphs left by Ancestral Puebloan Indians, the baroque signatures of Spanish priests and governors, and the plainer names and dates of American railway surveyors. A short trail heads past the inscriptions, while another leads to the top of the massive formation for views of the Zuni Mountains and the volcanic craters and lava flows to the east. Also on top is Atsinna, the ruins of an 875-room pueblo that may have once held 1,500 people. Keep going east on Rte. 53 to the Bandera Volcano. A trail leads to the top of the crater, which is 750 feet deep and nearly 1,200 feet wide at the top. Beneath the crater awaits one of the stranger sights in this land of oddities. With a temperature that never rises above 31ºF, the “ice cave” is a perfect natural cooler. Despite summer temperatures that climb over 100ºF, nearly 20 feet of green-tinted ice has accumulated here, and was once mined by Indians and early European settlers. The Bandera Volcano is just one feature of the vast malpais, translated from Spanish as “badlands.” Most of this moonscape of lava southwest of Grants was spat out by the eruption that formed Mt. Taylor millennia ago. El Malpais National Monument protects 114,000 rugged acres, including cinder cones, lava flows and giant tubes left when flowing lava emptied out of a hardened shell. The area is considered sacred by local tribes, who once traveled over the Zuni-Acoma Trail between the two pueblos and still leave ceremonial offerings among the formations. Bring plenty of water if you plan on hiking the ancient route today; it usually takes six to seven hours to cover the entire seven miles across four lava flows. Venture inside subway-sized lava tubes in the Big Tubes area on the western side of the monument. La Ventana Arch, one of the state's largest natural arches, is just a short walk from a parking area. Route 53 rejoins I-40 at the former uranium mining boomtown of Grants at the base of Mt. Taylor. The Navajo call the 11,301-foot mountain Tsoodzil, “the sacred turquoise mountain of the south.” Along with Blanca Peak near Alamosa, the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, and Mt. Hesperus near Durango, Mt. Taylor marks one of the four corners of Dine Bikeyah, the traditional Navajo territory. It's only been about 100 miles since Gallup, but between the trading posts, ancient tribes, historic inscriptions and volcanic eruptions, you'll feel like you've traveled through a thousand years. Julian Smith is a writer and photographer and the author of the award-winning guidebook Moon Handbooks Four Corners. He is based in Santa Fe.
|
