Canyon de Chelly holds special place in Indian heritage

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CHINLE, Ariz. -- You can't drive around on your own in the Canyon de Chelly National Park here or hike where you please, and you should ask permission before taking photographs of the Navajo Indians who still live and farm here.

These rules are worth observing in order to spend a few hours in Canyon de Chelly National Monument, which occupies a unique place in the heritage of American Indians.

Canyon de Chelly is entirely within the Navajo Reservation. You can drive the park rims by yourself and hike one route, the White House Trail, but the canyon interior can be explored only in the company of a Navajo guide, whether on foot, on horseback or by Jeep.

The park is celebrating its 75th anniversary in the national park system this year. Yet its history goes much further back in time, from 1,000-year-old cliff dwellings to drawings etched on rocks, some from the 19th century and others much older.

Though summer is peak season for many destinations in the national park system, don't hesitate to plan a fall visit here. "In October, the cottonwood trees turn golden," says Dave Bia, a Navajo guide who leads Jeep tours from Thunderbird Lodge, the only hotel inside the park.

The park's human history, rather than its natural beauty, is what draws most visitors. The Anasazis, who are believed to be the ancestors of modern Hopi and Pueblo Indians, built intricate homes here between 1100 and 1300, using bricks carved from the soft red sandstone. Some of the dwellings were up to five stories high and housed 30 to 40 families. Several sites include kivas -- large round rooms dug into the ground that were used for ceremonies.

The tours also visit sites in the canyon where conflicts took place between Indians and whites -- from 16th-century Spanish conquistadors to such 19th-century Americans as Kit Carson.

Carson led a detachment of the U.S. Cavalry here in 1864, forcing 8,000 Navajos on the Long Walk, a 300-mile march to Fort Sumner in New Mexico.

Mr. Bia points out a towering rock wall where Indians tried to hide but says they were forced to choose between starvation and coming out after white soldiers destroyed the crops on which they relied for subsistence. Four years later, they were allowed to return to their homeland.

About 80 Navajo families still live in the canyon, many in traditional hogans with six or eight sides. "From the 1800s on, there has been farming going on here -- corn, squash, melons, beans, alfalfa, peaches, apples, pears and plums," Mr. Bia says.