There are over 300 ruin sites and nearly as many rock art sites in Dine'tah-Hajiinei. Most sites have not been stabilized. They however now are on a national historic registry due to those of us on the documentary project, and help from the author, Tony Hillerman.

The Dine' speak for having the slay seven 'monsters' in order to occupy their southwest U.S. homeland. this panel speaks of having seven unstrung bows, hence the completion of slaying all seven monsters. The panel in the background represents the spiritual travel available to people with a higher consciousness. Each of these panels deserves many hours of lecture to truly represent them with the proper dignity and respect.

This significant panel represents the changing of the Dine' culture from a patrilenal to a matrineal society after arriving in the Dine'tah-Hajiinei region. It also speaks of adopting one aspect of an Anasazi ceremony. The Dine' curenly use this aspect in their 'enemy way' ceremony for protection and for those going into battle.

Francis Canyon is a place where the Anasazi, Southern Athapaskan people lived together for several generations. This site is especially vital in that it shows the combined architecture of the Anasazi and Southern Athapaskan people. The stone walls are Anasazi, while the wooden beam dwellings, stemming from fork-stick hogans are Southern Athapaskan.

This rock art image is highly significant in that it depicts the essence of the Blessingway ceremony indigenous to the Dine' people in the southwestern U.S. This panel is in the region referred to as Dine'tah-the place of emergence for the Dine' people. This image was made on Plus-x b/w 6x7cm film as part of a 5 year documentary project by invitaiton of Navajo medicine men and women. The project was funded by the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and became a 3 year national traveling exhibition.

We camped every seasonof the year over a five year period in order to complete our documentary project. Here we were Delgato Canyon. People in the image are: Alfred Nelson-video artist, Rudy Begay-painter, Krista Elrick-photographer, and Rich Rollins-photographer.

Lawrence was one the artists we invited in to assist in creating the traveling exhibition and documentary project. He is a professor of photography at the U. of Texas in Austin. 

The figure on the right depicts a Holy One or Soul Friend known to some as a Yei'bi'chi. The hand on the left represents the human as the 5-fingered people. Around the hsnd are 'light dancers' those beings who have special healing abilities. After the first frost of the Fall has passed, these nine-day long Yei'bi'chi ceremonies may begin. They generally start late in the evening and last through the small hours of the morning. There may be some dancing in the afternoon, depending on the group. They are healing ceremonies invoking the aid of the Holy Ones and the Talking God. The most common is the Beautyway. The Nightway is another form of these healing ceremonies and invokes a special category of Holy People known as Yeis - beings generally well disposed toward the Navajos, together with their leader and grandmaternal ancestor known as Yei'bi'chi. The uniqueness of the Nightway stems from the physical appearance during the ceremony of the Yeis themselves, impersonated by masked and ceremonially attired Navajos. "On the final night of the ceremony, the Yeis execute a public performance,"

The shield is a protection shield and the Yei yellow figure represents a Holy One-similar to God or a Soul Friend in some spiritual circles. The Dine' are famous for their rug weavings, and one rug design depicts the Yei figures.

There are those that carry special knowledge, those that bear fruit in what they do, how they conduct themselves-thus they are seed bearers, especially good at connecting with children inorder to continue spiritual and healing teachings. They are similar to prophets; those that can see in the distance and contemplate with wisdom the nature of reality. 

Rudy was highly involved in the Dine'tah project with Will Tsosie and myself. He paiinted a whole series of Navajo history posters after our project concluded. This is a section of one of the posters that are used as educational material for Native classrooms across the nation.

My neighbor for years when i lived on Navajoland was Andy Tsinijinnie, as master Navajo painter. This is one of the pieces i have of his. It depicts how those that lived in Dine'tah had mastery of the elementals, thus animals could be handled in the manner dipicted in Andy's work. 

will Tsosie and I traveled to the University of Colorado in boulder, where many artifacts are stored. These artifacts were removed my Earl Morris in the early 1900's from Dine'tah. My understanding is that some of the artifacts are also in a museum in NY, and some fell into private hands. There is a vast amount of pottery, medicine bundles, clothing, utensils etc at CU. 

there is a horse rescue ranch in the middle of Dine'tah. The horse was also used by the indigenous people who resided in Dine'tah. The horse also is considered a timekeeper, and has been present throughout time and various civilizations, albeit smaller in size in the past.