Southwestern Souvenirs

A journalist from the East Coast once visited the famous Southwestern writer Edward Abbey. He told him that after viewing the landscape he felt he was “getting religion.” Well, Abbey replied, he thought that the landscape was religion. If you’re looking for a book to take out on vacation and haven’t read this yet, Abbey’s Desert Solitaire is a brilliantly lyrical narrative about the Utah and Arizona wilderness. And don’t hang back because you think nature books are dull; Abbey is also the author of the infamous novel, The Monkey Wrench Gang, about environmentalists who want to blow up Glen Canyon Dam and restore the wilderness lost under Lake Powell’s waters.

Dead Horse Point State Park, Utah

The Native peoples of this Four Corners region, those who are gone and those who live there still, associate nature with religious beliefs. Respect for land, water, fire, and the elements pervades their artistic creations. Having an affinity for the landscape as a tourist will only bring you closer to understanding and appreciating the color and finish of pottery, the fine weave of baskets and textiles, the substance of silver and stone jewelry.

White Rim Overlook, Canyonlands National Park, Utah

These arts have their own physical origins in the soil, and their aesthetic reflection in the mountains, mesas, buttes, rivers, and vegetation of the countryside. Vast vistas and distant peaks permit the human in this landscape to understand how fragile and temporary he or she is, how tiny a player in the story of the world around us, and how much still remains beyond our control.

Since we’re interested in marketing and retail trends in Indian Country, we noted with approval the appearance of a paperback edition of a great text at several trading posts in northeastern Arizona. Navajo and Photography by James Faris has been around for a few years. Seeing it for sale at the Tuba Trading Post, among other locations, prompted me to finally buy a copy. This is great book, scholarly in subject, but written very accessibly in a popular history tone. It documents the history of non-Native photographers’ successes and failures in photographing the Navajo, and touches well on the issues surrounding such depictions.

Navajo and Photography

The truth is that many Navajo, especially traditionally raised individuals, dislike having their likeness captured on film (and now digital image). One explanation widely offered to non-Natives is that they fear such an image might capture their soul and be used for bad purpose. Of course, the explanations can be more complicated than that. Many of these photographers, just like many tourists, felt that such discomfort could be eased with financial incentive. Many of them also felt their artistic documentation should rate higher than momentary discomfort—their imagery would aid a dying or dwindling people.

What intrigues me most about the appearance of this book is that it sends visitors a subtle message: if you really are interested in Navajo culture, you should read the whole story.