Toadena- Where the Mountain is Split and the Water Flows

Toadlena, Where the Mountain is Split and the Water Flows
by Johnny Rustywire

I stand way up high on the edge of the world, this place a clearing in
the pine trees and a large open area where the cliff drops off. Here
the earth meets the turquoise blue sky that has no ends and settles in
a haze on the red sandstone and all shades of soft glowing pink to
light brown on the East side of our mountain. . The place called
Toadlena, my community lies near the base of this mountain, hiding In
the foothills, this secret spot at the highest point of my world in
Navajoland...a part of the Chuska Mountains.


Below me there is the flatland, Halgai, it runs East from the base of
the mountain to the horizon, there just below, five miles to the East
are the two rocky monuments of Two Grey Hills and further beyond where
two pinnacles stand as sentinels protecting the long narrow ribbon of
road known as Route 666, going North to South, it looks from here as a
string lying on the ground, it meets our road at Burnham Junction, 16
miles of ribbon that brings us back and forth to home.


On the North the violet blue outline of Shiprock sticks out of a flat
plain piercing the sky, further beyond is the outline of Sleeping
Mountain of the Utes. It was easy to see how the Winged Monster Bird
of Shiprock flew this open land from the North to the South to Laguna
and to Zuni in the South, and throughout Navajoland.


Looking Northeast there is Dibensa, one our Sacred Mountains in the
range above Durango, Colorado, lying at it's foot is Mesa Verde, just
a haze from here. On the East near the horizon is Chaco Canyon, land
of the Anasazi, Ancient Ones, it lies at the peak of a low rise in the
land that hides the valleys and kivas there. The sky is clear and is
so large that meets the land with no beginning or end.


Below me are the summer sheep camps on a step above Toadlena, and I
can see the tiny dots of homes of the families here, the Deals,
Upshaws, Cambridges, Curleys, Tauglechees, Belones, Bitsilly's,
Jumbos, the Mikes and many more, the boarding school, two churches and
the old trading post. This place where the mountain is cracked and the
water flows freely. This place where life, work and hardship, and
happiness go on.


I can see the flat plain to the Southeast reaching onward to the sky,
it hides Crownpoint and below the foothills to the South is Sheep
Springs. Looking straight South is the ridgeline running into the
trees, my father walked this line from Sawmill to Crystal to here and
down to home along time ago, he was surprised there was a fence; there
were no fences before in those days, it extended from above Tohatchi
to the Southeast toward Coyote Canyon. That was back in 1920's, he
often said why have a fence, now they are all over.


Ah, yes to the West are the many small lakes and streams that make
this the place of Tsiinabiilnii, the Mountain People clan, my fathers
people, farther west you drop off to Wheatfields Lake and Star
Mountain and further West to Canyon De Chelly, where Spider Woman
weaves her blankets of life still.


This is the place of my father and grandmother, of old hogans and
sheep trails, wood gathered and sings, of weavers with fingers on the
loom, and workers of silver, of meals served and of ancient war
stories, legends and coyotes.


It is also water hauling, travel to work many miles away, kids waiting
for school buses and Saturday trips to Gallup and Farmington to buy
food, getting the ol' chidi (car) or chidi be chuggi (truck) worked on
and visiting old friends.


How far have I gone, where have I been and where will I go, questions
float in the wind. Will the wind blow my footprints away with nothing
left behind. I now live far away, many of those here have left and are
here no more. I can see mountain tobacco plants sleeping for summer
just below. Now it seems the old and young walk these dusty places and
mountain trails. This moment in time, there is all this around me and
I am very small in it. I can hear myself I want to sing, Is this the
Beautyway, wherever I go this place is with me, this place home...

rustywire