Navajo Skirts

About five years ago, I packed up my family and moved 1500 miles from Indiana ( Logansport to be exact). Everyone told me I was crazy, single mom with three kids moving to the middle of the Navajo Reservation. It was the best decision I have ever made.

I worked as a Public health Nurse for Shirley Stoner in the Chinle Service Area. She was a great boss - expected me to do my work with a minimum of hand holding. My office was in Tsaile, where my friend Helen still lives. I loved it there. I made some of the best friends I have ever had - Helen, Barb, Steph (of wedding fame), and Jim and Brenda. Tsaile is a bitty town - two gas stations, a Christian church, Dine College, chapter house and a grade school. The middle school and high school is 30 miles away in Chinle. It is at 7,000 feet elevation and the Lukachukai, Tsaile and CHuska mountains could be seen from my house. The scenery looks more like Colorado than Arizona - arroyos, creeks, Ponderosa Pines, Pinion Pines, rabbit and sage brush.

As a public health nurse, I got a stack of referrals, hopped in my Jeep and went to visit people everyday. Often times I had to use an interpreter - usually Ernie Begay or Marilyn Yazzie - two of my favorite people on the planet. Marilyn was the first one to clue me in on the skirts.
On the reservation, most of the roads are red dirt - there is a shortage of bathrooms and many houses have outhouses as their sole means of bathroom. When we were up in the mountains or off on the backroads, there is no gas station to pee. You gotta go on the side of the road - something I have grown quite proficient at.

So Marilyn told me the trick - Navajo Shimas(grandmas) wear skirts - both for their emphasis on feminity and functionality. If you have ever tried to discreetly tried to drop your drawers and pee on the side of the road - you know just how much flesh is showing. However, if you have a broomstick skirt on, you just move the fabric aside and do your duty - remaining covered.

Odd as this sounds, because most of the women there did not wear pants - and because I was immersed just long enough, I still wear the skirts, they are comfortable to me and I let my hair grow long because any woman worth her Navajo salt knows that a woman's beauty is complimented by her long hair.

So that is the reason for the skirt - so you can lean your bum on the bumper, relieve yourself without any "southern exposure".

This is making me homesick - I miss it there and look forward to the day I can go back. Maybe I need to post some pictures and share the love with y'all.