On Sacred Ground

On Sacred Ground. Los Caminos Antiguos Scenic and Historic Byway. Isolated from the rest of Colorado, the San Luis Valley is often a forgotten place. For Native American tribes including the Utes, Apache, Navajos, and others, this Valley is a source of life - a place where humans and spirit enter and leave this world. Majestic Sierra Blanca (White Mountain) before you is considered by the Navajos as one corner of their sacred home., "We are the ‘Dine’ (pronounced dee neh); the Spanish called us the Navajo. We call the mountain that stands before you ‘Sisnaajinii’. This mountain is one of our four sacred peaks in the Navajo Land. You may now know this mountain as Mount Blanca; it was given this name by the first Spanish explorers who came to the San Luis Valley., “‘Sisnaajinii’, or ‘White Shell Mountain’, is the eastern boundary and the doorway into Navajo Land. We believe that the first beings, ‘First Man’ and ‘First Woman’, came up from the underworld and placed a grain of sand that made these four mountains. We dressed them in four colors and put them at the edge of Navajo Sacred Land.” , The Navajo People, [Captions:] , The Sangre de Cristo Mountains were given their name by Father Francisco Torres. Father Torres was mortally injured in an encounter with the Navajo people. As he lay dying, he looked up at the crimson light of the setting sun on the mountains and cried out “Sangre de Cristo” (Blood of Christ)., “Dinétah” was homeland to these Athabascan people called the Navajos. Wars between the Utes and other people forced the Navajos to move west. , , When you arrive here, you climb 2000 feet into this high mountain desert. You are over half way to the top of Sierra Blanca!, Medano Creek disappears into the earth to replenish the giant aquifer flowing beneath you., Did you know that you are standing over a giant aquifer?