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Photo: Roy Kady sits in southwestern Colorado, adorned by a textile he wove from the wool of a Navajo-Churro sheep. (Chris Clements / KSJD)
On the Navajo Nation, a rare breed of sheep is treasured by herders and weavers.
The sheep were once nearly driven to extinction by the U.S. government.
Chris Clements and Clark Adomaitis visited a community celebration of the breed in southwest Colorado.
Navajo-Churro sheep, a breed considered sacred to the Navajo, are a source of community and artistic expression for a group of herders and weavers in the Four Corners region.
At Fozzie’s Farm in Lewis, Colo., Tyrrell Tapaha wove the beginnings of a Navajo tapestry with a loom.
He used wool from flocks of Churro sheep that he dyed brilliant shades of lavender, red, pink, and orange.
“In the summer times, I’ll pull 16-hour days weaving. It’ll be like three in the morning. This is my whole life. This is how I make my income.”
Tapaha, a member of the Navajo Nation, is part of a group of apprentice weavers in the Four Corners region who are herding Churro sheep.
In the late 1500s, Spanish colonists brought the Churro to the region, and Navajo people came to depend on them for the breed’s meat and uniquely durable wool.
But Churro sheep almost became extinct — twice.
During the Long Walk of the Navajo in 1863, the U.S. military forced the tribe to relocate as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
U.S. government livestock reduction policies during the Dust Bowl decimated the breed again.
Roy Kady is a master fiber artist and sheep herder from Goat Springs, Ariz. He led the group of apprentices, including Tapaha.
Kady spoke to around 20 community members at Fozzie’s Farm about the history of Churro sheep.
He and his apprentices were at Fozzie’s as part of a partnership with Montezuma Land Conservancy, a land trust that manages the farm.
They allowed Kady and his apprentices to graze their sheep at the farm. In return, the weaver provided education on the breed to the general public.
“Not all of the Navajos went on the Long Walk. The ones that didn’t were the ones that helped save this breed of sheep. They took it with them across the San Juan River, hid high in the mountains, and some down in Canyon de Chelly.”
Tapaha described the responsibility he feels to keep the tradition of sheep herding and fiber weaving alive.
“We don’t own it. It’s knowledge that we should pass on since we don’t have ties to it in that way. You don’t have to practice this. You don’t have to live this way, but just as long as you know.”
For lunch, the weavers roasted a sheep they slaughtered earlier in the morning.
Attendees gathered around the grill and watched the fire hiss and sputter as the mutton cooked.
Above the flames, wisps of grayish-yellow clouds slid over the farm and nearby Sleeping Ute Mountain.
Kady discussed sheep herding’s importance to generations of his family.
“I’m filling these big shoes that my mother wore as an agro-pastoralist. I continue those traditions with the next generations to come. In caring for the land, in turn, the land takes care of you.”
Kady said that today, younger generations don’t need to weave rugs and textiles solely to sell products, as was common during the trading post era.
“That was imposed on us as a part of colonization because this was being woven for the trading post, for their sole purpose to sell it to the tourists and to profit from three or four times fold. Now, you’re the artist. Now, you’re in control of your own artistry, your interpretation of what you want to design and to weave.”
Tapaha is one of Roy Kady’s many fiber-weaving apprentices. He’s grateful for Kady’s leadership.
“There’s always a teacher and a student, and I think that dynamic has always been positively enforced in my life.”
Kady added: “I was once them, their age, and I was once taking that unknown path and wondering where my life would be. Continuing that journey in my life into old age makes me happy. It fulfills me.”
The legacy of Navajo-Churro sheep herding and weaving will live on in similar community celebrations.
They’re happening all across the Navajo Nation, most recently at the Dził Ditł’ooí School of Empowerment, Action, and Perseverance (DEAP) in Navajo, N.M., where Kady visited last week to give weaving demonstrations to students.
Kady and his apprentices continue to educate the public about spinning and dyeing Churro wool, and the history that lives in between each thread.
Photo: Maria Palma / KUNR
A new mobile clinic is now serving about 2,000 Tribal patients in rural Nevada.
It’s one of the latest beneficiaries in the region of a federal grant program.
KUNR’s Maria Palma reports for the Mountain West News Bureau.
The unit will provide services to both the Lovelock Paiute Tribe and the Yomba Shoshone Tribe.
Without a mobile clinic, medical staff would make weekly trips in multiple vehicles covering hundreds of miles to provide medical services.
Cathi Williams-Tuni, Chairwoman of the Fallon Paiute Shoshone Tribe, says it’s a dream come true.
“We have the remote locations at Yamba and Lovelock and sometimes to go out to Lovelock, they always have to take the four by fours, because of the roads. Much of the road is dirt.”
Clinical nurse Joy Schultz says the mobile clinic will bring people immunizations, lab testing, physician and nurse visits, wound care, prescription medicine distribution and education.
“We can say we’ve actually saved lives, we’ve saved limbs, we’ve saved communities from COVID.”
The new mobile clinic was funded through a $670,000 Rural Emergency Health Care grant, provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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