Travel the Trails

Trip 17: NR-12 South: Lukachukai to Window Rock

56 miles (90.1 km) from Lukachukai to Window Rock

Disclaimer: NANACT trip guides are based on information from Native Roads: The Complete Motoring Guide to the Navajo & Hopi Nations, 2nd Edition by Fran Kosik (Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2005). Some information may have changed since the publication of the book. While NANACT will attempt to maintain current information, consider verifying the current operation/existence of businesses, accommodations, dining and similar interests before planning your trip.

Scenic & Historic:

Lukachukai

Lók’a’ch’égai is the Navajo word for “slender reeds.” It is descriptive of the cove at the base of the pass over the Lukachukai Mountains, located at the end of town.

Community of Tsaile(West)

Tséehyíl• (pronounced SAY-lee) means “flows into the rocks” and refers to Tsaile Creek, which flows into Canyon del Muerto.

MM 69 Tsaile Butte

To the east, this sacred place known as Tsezhin Dits´in is frequently visited by medicine men to collect herbs needed for ceremonies. It is an igneous volcanic formation.

Chuska Mountains

This mountain range to the east extends from Lukachukai all the way to Window Rock. In Navajo, ch’ooshgaii means “white spruce or fir.” In Navajo tradition, the spruce is a sacred tree that attracts rain.

MM 44–45 Green Knobs

A most amazing but subtle color change occurs around this volcanic plug. You’re traveling along at 55 mph (89km/hr) enjoying the beautiful red rock sandstone when suddenly the area turns green, then back to red again. The reason is that peridotite, a volcanic rock made up of green ferromagnesium minerals and olivine, covers this area. This material forms the semiprecious stone peridot. Green Knobs is a highly sacred place to the Navajo people. Please do not walk on or take any of these fragile rocks.

MM 41.5 Bowl Canyon Recreational Turn-Off

Head east for about nine miles (14.5 km) on a dirt road to get to this campground. At the entrance to the area is Cleopatra’s Needle. As you travel into the bowl made from a dry lake bed, you’ll see Venus Needle. Camp Assayi for children is located in the recreation area. The cabins and running water are for Navajos only. You may camp anywhere in this 645,000-acre (2,600 sq km) designated area, but RVs are not recommended because of the rough road.

Fort Defiance

Take a right at the stoplight if you are traveling south from Tsaile. If you are traveling from Window Rock, continue straight through the stoplight. Go all the way to the end of the road to the Indian Health Service hospital. The fort was located at the end of the canyon, but no ruins remain.

Col. Edwin Sumner, known as Bull Head Sumner after a musket ball bounced off his head without causing any damage, was in charge of building Fort Defiance in 1851. He chose this site, at the junction of Bonito and Black Creeks, for its defensive position in a box canyon. Bonito Canyon surrounds the fort with sheer red cliffs on the east, north, and west. The top of the cliffs mark the boundary of the Defiance Plateau. Actually, this site was not a very secure position, because the Navajos could spy on the soldiers’ activities from the top of the plateau.

Fort Defiance Indian Health Service Hospital

The area in front of the hospital, planted in cottonwoods, was the parade ground used by the military at Fort Defiance. The Episcopalians at the Good Shepherd Mission down the road were actually the first to provide health care to the people in this area. The Indian Service built a 110-bed hospital and tuberculosis sanitarium here in 1938. Emergency room number: (928) 729-3209.

BIA Boarding School

Located across from the Indian Health Service hospital, the buildings now house BIA administrative offices, but they were once part of the first government boarding school built on the Navajo Reservation. It was established in 1881, thirteen years after the signing of the peace treaty that promised an education for every child from age six to sixteen.

Even though the signers of the treaty saw the benefit of educating their children, they did not know it would mean sending them to boarding school. As one mother said, “It is like giving up our hearts.” In 1887, Congress passed a law to force Navajo parents to send their children to school. This led to even more problems and hard feelings between parents and Bureau of Indian Affairs officials. Mission schools became popular at this time because parents were able to choose where their children would go to school rather than being forced by government authorities.

Good Shepherd Mission

The “woman who laughs,” Eliza Thackara, superintendent of the mission, opened the first hospital in Fort Defiance in 1897 on a forty-eightacre (0.19 sq km) plot deeded to the Episcopalians. As you drive through the mission gates, the old hospital is the first building on the right. It is now the administrative building.

The Chapel of the Good Shepherd, the first building to the left as you drive through the entrance, honors the charitable work of one of the mission’s more generous contributors, Cornelia Jay of New York. It was built in 1954 by architect John Gaw Meem, who was renowned for his Southwestern style of architecture. Some of his most famous buildings are the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, and Scholes Hall and Zimmerman Library on the campus of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Navajo Nation Tribal Council Chambers

Designated a National Historic Landmark in 2004, this beautiful 1923 building is constructed in the shape of a traditional Navajo hogan, with the door facing east to allow the Holy People to enter. Handpainted murals by Navajo artist Gerald Nailor depict Navajo history and cover the interior walls of the council chamber. A bell given to the Navajo Tribe by the Santa Fe Railroad sits next to the entrance. It commemorates all of the Navajos who helped build the railroad.

The council holds regular sessions four times a year but calls many special sessions as well. Much of its deliberations are in Navajo. You are welcome to visit the council chambers during the day. All of the tribal council meetings are open to the public. For more information call the Office of the Speaker at (928) 871-7160.

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Fort Defiance

Fort Defiance Indian Hospital a 245,000 square foot facility, is a state of the art rural hospital that opened in August 2002, about 8 miles north of Window Rock, Arizona (the capitol of the Navajo Nation). Fort Defiance Indian Hospital boasts a 24/7 Level 2 Emergency Room, and is licensed for 56 inpatient beds. 928-729-8000; FAX: 928-729-8019

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Permissions

• Trip information is condensed with permission from Native Roads: The Complete Motoring Guide to the Navajo and Hopi Nations, by Fran Kosik, Rio Nuevo Publishers, Tucson, Arizona, 2005. Trip numbers generally coincide with chapter number in the book. Fran's full book contains much more wonderful information on traveling our Native roads. For more detailed information, the book can be purchased from:

  Museum of Northern Arizona bookstore, 3101 N. Ft. Valley Rd., Flagstaff, AZ 86001; phone #: 928-774-5213 or direct 928-774-5211 + Ext 261. Or, contact the publisher, Rio Nuevo Publishers, PO Box 5250, Tucson, Arizona 85703; phone #: 520-623-9558 or 800-969-9558. Trip numbers generally correspond to chapter numbers.