Canyon Connection

For some 5,000 years, people have lived in, and worshiped in, Canyon de Chelly. When I went there as part of the Native American Cultural Tour, I rode in a 'group jeep' that drove deep into the canyon (and then back out). It stopped a couple of times, at places with portable outhouses and vendors. At one of those stops, I walked past a pickup, noticing that two little girls were sitting in the cab. One of them seemed quite anxious to connect with me. She climbed over to the driver’s side window and rolled it down, waving her box of Minute Maid apple juice (inadvertently sprinkling me). I talked to her briefly then, when she opened the back cab window and climbed through, met her at the back of the truck. She began playing with two little carved turtles. Everything else on the truck bed display seemed pretty feminine but when I asked her if one of the turtles might make a nice gift for my son, she smiled. So I bought it and her grandmother put it on a cord. I asked the girl’s mother if I could take her picture and she said yes (you can see the mom’s arms in the photo).

Connections are possible everywhere.