Stark and I spent 2 1/2 months as volunteers at this World Heritage Site. In the description, I touched on some of the major points for anyone interested in this place...a place that can be absolutely magical, but has the potential of leaving a bitter taste in your mouth. When we were there, it was estimated that 9 out of 10 volunteers were chased out of the park with their tails tucked between their legs. There was definitely some meanness there. I called it the Curse of Chaco Canyon...a curse that just made some of the Park's staff downright mean. I saw it happen and I felt it directed towards me on a number of occasions. We were counseled on this by one of the longtime residents and, to be frank, we had a lot to offer the Park and were given a pretty wide berth. Initially, we were welcomed aboard because we had an RV and were willing to host at the campground and because I could operate a large telescope and had a more-than-average familiarity with the night sky. We had to leave the Park to stock up on supplies and when we returned, it seems that some people had bet against our coming back (It was 140 miles round trip...42 of which was brutal washboard). "No one comes back," we were told.
When the Chief of Interpretation found out that I had a particular and specialized skill, he challenged me to perform an extraordinary task. In order to do this, I needed access to Navajo-controlled maintenance area. White men were clearly not welcomed back there. The Navajo crew was told by the Park to cooperate with me, but I got a lot of nods and grunts and "You go figure it out." Let's face it...everything is fuckin' sacred to The People and I wasn't about to go nosing around to find things that I needed and I wasn't going to complain to the Park...which would have just got us thrown out. Besides, parts of The Navajo Nation are known to be the most violent places in the United States. Enter Teddy.
Teddy was a medicine man and, clearly, the elder amongst the crew. He was just sittin' around when I approached him. Everyone knew Teddy.
"Hi Teddy. How yah doing?"
No response.
"Chaco sure is a beautiful place."
"Chaco is fuckin' ugly," he blurted out.
"What do you mean? Chaco is beautiful!"
"Chaco is fuckin' ugly. If you can find me a place uglier than this ugly place, I wanna know."
"Well, Teddy, it may be ugly but there's some magic here."
Teddy sat up straight and asked me what I meant. "Follow me. I'll show you." I turned and headed to the woodworking shop that I was using, with Teddy in tow.
As I explained in the description. Chaco Canyon is a very harsh place and quite often, hurricane force winds blow through. Leaves blew into the shop and were all over the floor, mixing in with the saw dust. When we got to the shop, I pointed to the floor and said, "Look."
"What am I supposed to be lookin' at?"
"Well, Teddy, as you can see, I've been using the table saw. When I push the wood through the blade, all that dust falls to the floor." Pointing at the saw dust, laced with leaves, I continued, "The saw dust falls to the ground and begins to turn back into a tree," bending over and combing through the dust and leaves. Teddy let out a long howling laugh and walked away.
Around an hour later, the head of the crew came by and asked me if I needed any cordless tools. Later that evening, we got invited to a tribal dinner in honor of a recently deceased Navajo. The next day, one of the crew came by the RV to fix a plumbing problem created by the brutal ride in. From then on...it was smooth sailing...
