Shiprock, NM by 2010-2011 Featured Photographer
Kirt Kempter
Shiprock is much more than a landmark, although it can been seen from as much as 50 miles in all directions, it's power is in it's spirituality! One can actually feel the power of this spirituality the closer you approach. It's awesomeness makes you think and wonder!
Did we violate or offend by approaching even after having felt it's power and spirit? I envy the Navajo Nation for keeping this as it is.
It would probably be easy to turn it over so that brown-green suited, empowered government people could tell you what you can do, what you can do, what to feel..and what people ten thousand years ago felt ...and that it remain the same, BUT changed forever.
No..these people know how to keep it the same (see video). Dan
The most famous and prominent landmark in Northwest New Mexico, Shiprock (
Tsé Bitʼaʼí, "rock with wings" or "winged rock" in the Dine' language) is in the
Navajo Nation (The Dine' People) in
The Four Corners area of the state.
The Navajo name Tsé Bitʼaʼí, "rock with wings" or "winged rock", for the peak refers to the legend of the great bird that brought them from the north to their present lands. The name "Shiprock" or Shiprock Peak or Ship Rock derives from the peak's resemblance to an enormous 19th-century clipper ship.
However Anglos first called the peak "The Needle," a name given to the topmost pinnacle by Captain J.F. McComb in 1860. United States Geological Survey maps indicate that the name "Ship Rock" dates from the 1870s.-Wikipedia

Encaustic (wax) work by Navajo Artist and 2011 Featured Artist
Michael Billie
Click Image To View Larger Version
With a permit from the Navajo people, climbers, backpackers, photographers, painters and movie makers have made this sacred place famous.
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Painting By Featured Artist MJAckley
"Sunset Behind Fall Tree II"