Navajo, or Dineh - as they call themselves, is the largest tribe of North American Indians. Long ago, the ancestors lived in Northwestern Canada and Alaska. Over 1,000 years ago they began to travel south and reached the southwestern United States. They met farmers who are known as Pueblo Indians, and the Navajo began to settle near them and learn from them. The Navajo learned how to plant corn, beans, squash, and melons. The Navajo also began to learn a similar style of weaving, making clothing and art from the Pueblo Indians.
Today, the Navajo reservation is currently the largest in the United States. It has over 140,000 people with 16 million acres most of which are in Arizona. They still weave from wool and use natural vegetable dyes for color. Today, some live like the old days the best they can with the modern lifestyle, but others use modern technology to live.
Depicted here are the silvery blue/green sage plant. The Navajo culture uses plants extensively in healing and ceremonial practices. Sage and sagebrush are only a few of the plants used in Navajo culture. The sage plant has many varieties, and many uses, as an herbal enhancement to meals, as a medicinal herb for helping with colds and other ailments, and for use in spiritual purification practices.
I sometimes will rework older images like my 'Deep Talus' which was used here with a change in sun position and plant populations hopefully improving upon the original. The terrain was originally derived from a DEM file and converted to a .ter of the 'Bright Angel' area of the Grand Canyon.
Enjoy.
