Who gets so lucky to attend something as special as the 2nd Annual Native American Music Festival held at the Navajo Community College in the Tsaile Mountains of Arizona? We do, of course. From traditional native sounds to metal and hip-hop, this festival had a little bit of everything. Caroline and I had already been in America for two years by this time, but this wasn’t our first time on the Navajo Reservation. The opportunity to dip into some authentic culture absolutely justified the 5-hour drive north to get up this way. That, and the roast mutton and pine nuts.

For those of you who may be stumbling upon my blog and find these old posts that predate the existence of blogs: these get posted from time to time after I’ve scanned in old photos or negatives. Even though the old film quality nature of the images and our cheap scanner leave a lot to be desired, I still enjoy the images that inspired us to continue exploring our world. Being able to extract enough data to pinpoint certain aspects of these times is also helpful. While I’d forgotten what year and the specifics of the event, we still have a t-shirt with the dates and list of performing acts.

Traveling with my 29-year-old wife (who looks like a 15-year-old boy here), and I was Mark Shimer, who was still living with us at the time while he and Caroline worked for the Marion Foundation. Those two are pictured here at Canyon de Chelly National Monument of the Navajo Reservation.

Seeing we were in the area, an obligatory stop at Petrified Forest National Park was in order, especially because Mark had never been here. Notice my lack of a beard? This has only happened on very rare occasions.

Taking sunset photos from the car has never proven very worthwhile, but that hasn’t stopped us in the 30 years we’ve been doing just that.