Back to Window Rock

Window Rock Again, 10x10

I go back to Window Rock on Sunday, and make this 10x10 of Window Rock. It's windy this afternoon, but I'm able to position the van to block most of the wind. 

I have been hoping to go back and paint there a third time, but between the people working at the Navajo Nation, and the days of even stronger wind than Sunday, I don't make it back. 

Still, I have made two nice plein-air pieces, and taken a whole lot of photographs, and I think I will paint Window Rock again when I get back to Wachapreague. 

My painting in the landscape

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Here's another view, earlier in the day.

 

Horses on the way to Ganado. 

The Ganado Wash is an occasional river that runs near the Hubbell Trading Post in Ganado. 

In  1851, the US government established Fort Defiance, to have a military presence on the Navajo reservation. The fort was built on valuable grazing land, and the government kicked the Navajo off of it. Fighting followed, and in 1864, the US government forced the Navajo people from their reservation. They were made to walk, at gunpoint, to Fort Sumter in eastern New Mexico. 

When they returned in 1868, they found their herds gone, their homes ruined, their fields destroyed. Trading became more important than ever. 

The Hubbell Trading Post introduced Navajos to items like flour, sugar and coffee, and the Navajos brought wool and sheep, jewelry and rugs, baskets and pottery to trade. 

Those items are still for sale at the trading post, along with sodas and candy, postcards and books. There's amazing stuff to see, to touch and to buy, as well as exhibits, demonstrations and more. The Hubbell Trading post is the oldest continuously operating trading post on the Navajo Nation. 

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Dog of the Day

This sweet, shy girl was hanging around the Hubbell Trading Post in Ganado.

 She was very hungry, but too scared to get too near me.