Navajo Canyon Country

Photography: Avalon Daggett
Establishing shot:  Full frame map of the United States, which then cuts to a close up of different states (including New York, Arizona, and New Mexico)
Named locations: America; Northern Arizona; New Mexico.
Major themes covered: Overview of the Navajo people; Navajo (Diné); The relationship of Navajo to their land. Landscape and geology of Northern Arizona. Hogan architecture. Economics of Sheep Herding; Canyon de Chelly; Petroglyphs; Cliff Dwellings; Navajo Prayer Pile (Tsenadjihih). Summer and winter camps.

Native activities shown: Navajo woman sitting on a large rock formation in a skirt; Navajo riding horses; Woman leaving hogan; Navajo children playing near their hogan; Boy sitting outside of hogan with a goat; Woman exiting her hogan while narrator explains why the door must face east; daily life and leisure; Sheep herding, wool sheering, preparing wool for market; Reenactment of hiding from Kit Carson in Canyon de Chelly; Laying juniper cuttings and stones to a “prayer pile” (Tsenadjihih).

Individuals Named: No named individuals
Native language spoken: No native languages spoken
Audible: Good quality English narration
Noteworthy elements: Photographed by Avalon Daggett; beautiful Kodachrome footage of Navajo Country.
 

--Mikel Stone, 2012