Navajo Nation

The Honors Program sponsors a bunch of activities they allow the students to sign up for. They are as simple as a paddle boarding excursion at night, to a four day road trip to Navajo Nation. I signed up for the Navajo Nation thinking that I wouldn't get in and that it was forever away. Then someone else couldn't go and I was informed it was in two days. I am the world's worst decision maker and I had a hard time deciding to go. I would miss 5 dance classes and a biology class, plus the possible opportunity to go to the BYU-Boise game and the singles ward. But I might never get the chance to go to Navajo Nation and I didn't want to regret the "what if's?"  College is for being a little crazy, going out of your comfort zone and utilizing all your resources and claiming every opportunity. So I decided to go. I met the group at 6:55 am, realizing that I was about to spend 7 1/2 hours in a car with people I didn't know. What was I thinking??
But the car ride was surprisingly short and I learned a lot about my peers and Tiffany, the faculty adviser. I love learning about people's stories and lives. It humbles me and reminds me to never judge someone else. It's also good for the inner author in me. The more I meet interesting people, the more I want to tell their stories or just tell the story of a character I make up. It gives me direction or evidence or experience to be able to create a character more fully and realistically.
The first day, we went to the Miss Navajo Nation competition. It's a pageant of inner beauty. The contestants must be able to speak Navajo fluently, be able to complete traditional home-making skills and lots of other qualifications. The craziest one is being required to slaughter and prepare a sheep!! These young women are educated, confident, connected to their heritage, prepared, dedicated and truly beautiful. Our booth was right by the missionary booth, so we met 8 elders. A few were from the same exact mission as my friend Evyn, but they didn't know him since he's so new to the field.
On Friday, we went to the fair to run the UVU booth and wander around. There was gorgeous art and fun booths. A Navajo art guy from California gave Savannah and I his number, haha! It was 9/11 and his father, the main artist, gave us quite the speech on how the Americans learned a bit of what it was like to be targeted and hurt by terrorists because the Americans have done the same things to them. He asked Savannah, the history ed. major, if she would tell the "politically correct" version of America's rise to prominence, or the truth, which involves some embarrassing and horrible facts about the treatment of Native Americans.
So, Native Americans prefer that name: Native American. Not Indian. They are not from India. Columbus thought he had found India and the name they gave the "savages" just stuck. But it's not true and doesn't really describe them as a people. The people we met also refer to themselves as the Dine (pronounced Dee-nay) people, not the Navajo people.
The museum was extremely cool. I learned a lot. The zoo had foxes and bears and some cute animals. The cages seemed kind of small and the bears looked so very bored, but I guess all zoos are like that! My favorite thing was the red fox.
We also went to a pow wow that night which was so neat! (pow wow by the way does not translate into any Native American tribal language, I don't know where it comes from) The people wore outfits that they call regalia. A costume is something you wear to become someone else, but their traditional dress is worn to become even more themselves, so it's called regalia.
On Saturday, we woke up at 4 am to be in the parade. While we waited in line, we folded T-shirts and draw-string bags to throw out. It was freezing!
The parade was crazy! There were so many people and it was along one straight 4 mile road. We gave nice water bottles to the older men we saw and bags of flour or a blanket to the older women.  Everyone wanted a T-shirt! We also threw pencils, rulers, candy, sunglasses and balls and water bottles.
The people seemed very nice and friendly to me. They are warm and proud of where they come from. A guy we met in McDonald's started telling me all about how Star Wars has been translated into Navajo! And how there is a documentary about his son's star athletic track career. :)
After a very relaxing swim and hot tubing and phone-looking-at while Toy Story was playing, we left the hotel again to go to the fair. We looked at some beautiful jewelry and blankets. I found a really pretty turquoise ring for $15 that I still regret not buying!! I am the worst spender. I always over-analyze and worry about spending too much. It's the traveler in me I guess ;) You can only go on trips if you save! I'll just have to spend the $15 on gelatto in Rome :) We went to another, bigger pow wow where we heard the president of Navajo Nation speak. He said that putting elders in nursing homes is a big no-no in the Dine culture (those were his exact words) and some things about keeping the culture alive. He said how sad it was that they were given fences and put in reservations, but that all people were brothers and sisters. It was the longest prayer I have ever heard. ;)
We had an 18 hour day yesterday, so I slept very very well. We got hot chocolate in the lobby every night and thoroughly enjoyed the continental breakfast each morning. I love hotels! They are especially luxurious after living in a dorm for three weeks :)
Now for the 7.5 hour car ride. Wish we luck!!