SnakeMedicine_Book1

ON LOCATION
9 I BLACK MESA, ARIZONA
Rising like a black giant high above the flat grasslands of northeastern
Arizona, Black Mesa, or “Big Mountain,” is a land feature easily
recognizable from hundreds of miles away. A mesa, a geological table
in arid clime, is often vast, uncharted, and barren of most signs of
human habitat. Over 8,000 feet high, Black Mesa is located near
Kayenta, Arizona, due west of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The town of
Kayenta is a Navajo settlement on the Kayenta Formation plateau. This
plateau is the foundation for Zion National Park, Capitol Reef National
Park, and Canyonlands National Park.
Kayenta is also the home of the Monument
Valley Film, Blues and Arts Festival,
created by Navajo Nation citizens.
Not a true mesa, the plateau is rich
with veins of coal. Hence, the popular
name of Black Mesa. Coal mining began
in the 1960s by Peabody Coal Company.
Subsequent owners, continue the lucrative
process, despite cultural and environmental
protests.
As early as 1900 B.C., corn was harvested
here by ancestors of the Hopi Indians.
Later, the Anasazi, too planted their crops
along the river. But without irrigating
channels, they, too, were forced to abandon
their agricultural endeavors at Black Mesa,
leaving around 1150 A.D. In “Conversations
with the Artist” below, Angus has a lot to
say about the picture. The power of the
site clearly impresses him.
Today the Hopis still farm in the
southern and central parts of the region.
Yet their reservation is surrounded by
Navajo lands. Long-seated tensions remain.
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