Crownpoint

Long, interesting day! My sweetheart is flexible and adventurous enough that when the old guy looked out at the sunny morning and said, "Let's go to Crownpoint!" she was willing to go!

We went down by way of Shiprock, Naaschitti and Tohatchi on US 491, then across on Navajo 9 to Crownpoint, not exactly the fastest way, but pretty in the morning sun. Coming back we shot up NM 371 to Farmington and home, at least a half-hour faster.

I haven't been in Crownpoint in at least a dozen years and haven't been to Kin Ya'a, one of four Chacoan outliers administered by Chaco Culture NHP, in 20 years. We went to Kin Ya'a first.

The two-story remnant of the tower kiva is shown from inside in the bottom picture. The next picture up shows that it rises out of a huge rubble mound, indicating the original tower kiva probably four stories above the surrounding countryside!

There's a story from the Chaco Project, late 1970s and 1980s, that someone on top of a ladder extending above the tower kiva to its probable height in the AD 1100s was able to see a railroad flare ignited from a point on the edge of South Mesa in Chaco Culture NHP, about 30 miles away. And that the reason the sites were intervisible was because a Pueblo road between the two locations cut through a knoll at exactly the right place to make it possible. Those folks did landscape architecture on a grand scale!

We had a good $5 lunch at the Navajo Technical College cafeteria in Crownpoint. The other places to eat that we saw were mainly a collection of pickup- and trailer-lunchstands on a corner in "downtown" Crownpoint (earlier I had noticed "Spam and eggs" advertised at a pickup-stand in Shiprock). One of the lunchstands advertised Chinese food!

Anyway, it was nice to revisit the college, formerly Crownpoint Institute of Technology. Most of the buildings are new, not fancy but serviceable. They're one of the 35 or so tribal colleges in the United States and have plans for expansion to sites in Shiprock and Chinle. They emphasize vocations, and have a culinary arts program that is frequently a prize-winner in competitions. I was interested in possible links with SW Open Schools, especially for post-secondary opportunities for our Navajo students.

Tribal college students tend to be older than the students in other colleges, and frequently have families. The day care center is shown, with its playgrounds, and there is also a childcare center on campus, for younger kids.

When I proofread the latest issue of Tribal College Journal, published right here in Mancos, I was impressed to see that NTC has a rodeo team, from its veterinary department. Didn't get to see any rodeo activity on Feb. 19, though!

In the evening, we went across the highway to the Scotts' Sundance Bear B&B for a Mancos meeting of the Culture Café. Nice attendance; Mancos calligrapher Beth Wheeler (an Artisans of Mancos member) is shown toward the end of her illustrated history of calligraphy presentation. tv