Monument Valley Utah

garyhaupt wrote:
Phil..I was going thru this thread and realized I had forgotten to mention something to you. You had talked about "art by individual that made it"...and, sadly, if you were to look closely at most of the art offered at the tables, they are 'questionable'. The silver rock/stone holders are right out of the store in Window Rock..they also sell the rocks that go into the holder, with the neck chain as part of the package. Very, very few of the offered items are actual works of art. Mostly just schlock.

Now..if you are looking for the good stuff..I can help you with that.

Gary ... the only things we bought in Monument Valley while down there in our RV were from that lady in my one photo. We talked with her at length about where her items came from. She told us all about her family, gave us some of their names, including the name of her relative that supposedly made the actual things we bought. We always try to buy that way ... not just pickup and look, then pull out the wallet. I guess that we took a chance that at least the items we bought were "Native Made".

As a side note, one time we stayed in an RV park on a Native American reservation just outside of the Badlands. We paid the Native American woman manager of the park ($$$) to take us - in her own vehicle - on a personal tour of the reservation. We met the past president of the Tribal Council, saw the school were her children attended, ate in a small restaurant where only reservation folks eat, etc.. It was a wonderful experience all around.

Suzzeee ... you don't have use your RV or it's towed vehicle to visit Monument Valley. You can pay for a tour in one of the Native American driven jitneys that go on the valley floor route. There were several jitneys down there passing us in our motorhome ... as we went really slow over the rugged road for safety and so that we could stop often and take photos. What would have been REALLY NICE would have been able to drycamp down there on the valley floor ... but it's not allowed.