 Today, where cornfields grew and memories were born, the canyons echo
the grinding gears and hissing lines of the oilpatch. The Gobernador lies hidden in
the broken land between the old trade fair grounds of Abiquiu on the east, and the new oil
boom center of Farmington on the west, in the backcountry of today's New Mexico. When the
wind blows, white dust moves up the canyons, rising like a mirage along the crumbling rock
walls. The center of Dinétah lies here as well. All around are sacred peaks: Sisnaajiní, or Sierra Blanca on the eastern horizon, Tsoodzil, Mount Taylor, in the south, Dook'o'ooslííd, San Francisco Peak, far to the west, and Dibé Nitsaa, Hesperus, on the northern horizon. Closer are two mesas which mark the middle of the land: Dzil Ná'oodilii, Huerfano Mesa, and Ch'óol'í'í, Gobernador Knob. In the Gobernador, the building stones and roof beams of old houses are turning into new stories as archaeologists trace the history of the region's foragers, farmers, refugees, and raiders. In Dinétah, the old stories that trace Navajo origins rise out of the rock and wood to be told again. The place where stone and stories come together is both Gobernador and Dinétah: a place to learn of the past and a place to remember history. |
| Navajo
History | Early Archaeology | Pueblito Architecture | Clothing & Tools New Spain (1600-1700) | Modern Archaeology | Timeline | Acknowledgements Exhibition Schedule |
