Elder Bert Mexican in background and Elder Albert Deschine (my companion)
in the foreground during a Kayenta District outing to some small Anasazi
ruins located between Tsegi Canyon and Black Mesa (August, 1978).
A very artistic (meaning badly exposed) picture of a dragline at the
Black Mesa coal mine.
A photo of me on Black Mesa circa Christmas, 1978.
Me on transfer from Black Mesa to Fort Defiance. The picture was taken behind the Kayenta chapel before I moved my luggage from our truck. The winter had been rather messy - note the mud caking my pants legs (and this was from just getting out of Black Mesa that morning!).
A view of Tsegi Canyon taken from the Tsegi Canyon Trailer Court.
Similar view of Tsegi Canyon taken in winter.
A view of the Tsegi Canyon Trading Post.
Elder Deschine making a new friend.
As was the case in so many places on the reservation in wintertime, things got so muddy we had to park our truck on the highway and walk in to people's houses. Here I am in the standing in the mud with Black Mesa behind me and pausing as we head in to see a family.
Our district visited Betatakin one morning, but got there too late to take the tour down to the cliff dwellings. Here's the disappointed group, most of whose names I've forgotten. Me at far left, followed by Elder Deschine, then Elder Bileen (I think). Can't remember the Sisters' names though. If you know, E-mail me with the answer.
A closer view of a dragline in operation at the Black Mesa Mine.
View of a muddy, rutted, wintertime road somewhere in Black Mesa. This was the winter I kept asking my parents to send me a Hi-Jack for Christmas. They never could understand why....
The coal storage silo at the foot of Black Mesa. A very long conveyor belt carried coal from the mine to this silo (you can see the conveyor belt rising up to the silo on the right of the picture). A freight train picked up coal at the silo and carried it to the power plant at Page, AZ. I didn't really appreciate all of this Black Mesa Mine business until I read the "Monkey Wrench Gang" some years later.
The Black Mesa Mine set out some coal that was free for the taking to locals. This is part of a load of coal we picked up for an elderly lady who lived alone and had no way of getting coal down off the Mesa for herself.
Here the trader is pulling the Branch President's truck out of the snow. My memories of this winter are overloaded with getting trucks unstuck!
The fearless daytime lock-checker standing outside a hogan, somewhere in the Black Mesa area.
A view of the Kayenta water tower taken behind the Kayenta chapel.