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Show "Oljato (pronounced Ole-jay-toe)," she explains, "is Navajo for 'place of the moonlight spring.'" Besides transacting the post's regular daily business, busi-ness, Jensen carries on a lengthy trader custom as letter let-ter reader, form filler (mostly insurance), and message mes-sage taker for the Oljato Chapter, one of 110 local units that comprise the Navajo Nation. In addition to seasonal tourists, the trading post services about 300 people in the Oljato community, where patrons occasionally ride up on horseback and bartering still is an acceptable form of exchange. "Rugs, pottery, baskets, fancy beadwork ..." Jensen recites. "Yes, we'll trade." Locals contribute about 80 percent of the on-premise on-premise crafts at the post. On this particular day, artisan Garry P. Holiday Jr. is displaying his baked clay sculptures and bow-and-arrow art. Holiday's creations surface from "the sum that's in me," and he credits his grandparents with instilling his artistic sense and skills. "We didn't have toys like other kids," he explains, "so we used to make our little cars out of clay, our animals and people; our bows and arrows out of wood we found those were our toys, and that's when I began (sculpting, crafting)." Jensen's friend, Dean Lewis, assists her, taking on additional but necessary services like tire repair. The two swap out the 1 1 -hour-day, seven-day -a-week demands of the post. To make ends meet, Jensen also offers horseback and trail rides, her favorite pastime, as an auxiliary operation. She's also planning a bed & breakfast, which would carry on yet another longstanding long-standing tradition at Oljato. "In the early years," she says, "the Navajo people would come such long distances in their wagon or on horseback. They would stay in the hogan out front and were provided water by the trader. They were welcome to stay as long as they wanted or needed to." An unplanned but humane extra provided by Jensen is that of acting local animal shelter. Kiersten looks up from her place atop a stool of three stacked milk cases behind the cash register, where she counts out customers' cus-tomers' change, and says that "30 horses, one cow. 14 dogs, and 12 cats" are on the grounds. Maintaining the old ways The one-story adobe and log structure that has served as home to die trading post is brightened by the presence, inside and out, of timeless antiques and artifacts. Welcoming patrons at the entrance to the outside courtyard court-yard is a vintage red gravity-flow gasoline pump in use through the 1940s and early '50s. Though no longer operative "it's just there for looks" the pump hints of a time when business was busy but life was simpler in Tse Bii Ndzigaii, the "plain among the rocks." Running for 2,600 feet adjacent to the post is a once-active timeworn asphalt airstrip where about one plane a month now lands. 74 III iiiiiiiiiwiwwura? y1?'" ' fJ-ji-T (r' - ezd'i r fell thvtA A dl - I , Jensen offers horseback and trail rides across Monument Valley's rugged, breathtaking landscape. With so much of the past inherent at the Oljato post, as well as within her native Navajo heritage, maintaining the "old ways" is of singular importance to Jensen. "One of die traditions that must be carried on is the Navajo language." she says. "It's up to us, the generation Locally made pottery, jewelry, rugs, and other crafts are displayed throughout. i t "T . - if r - v -f, ;f l J ' Wk ' L ' , kla who still knows the language fluently, to teach the younger ones. Even my two adult children do not speak Navajo fluently, so they cannot communicate with my mother their grandmother because slie never went to school and, as a traditional Navajo lady, does not understand the English." As to the future of the Oljato Trading Post after she is gone, Jensen is unsure. "Maybe my son. Gunnar, will continue. He has expressed an interest in it." she says. "For sure, we'll have to build around it the bed & breakfast, cabins, maybe an RV park. If one of my kids doesn t take over, then 1 don't know." Indeed, the building has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 19K0. In the meantime, life goes on unhurried at the core of commerce in Oljato, a piece of living art within a setting of some of the deity Yeibechei's best natural masterpieces. With a noteworthy calendar event coming up later this year. Jensen whimsically ponders her l()th anniversary as keeper of the post. "I'm not really into celebrating it. but who knows," she says with a laugh. "I just might decide to harness up my horses to the wagon and hike it out there and serve up some free hot dogs." 1- Alan Ross is a fredanct writer living in MimtatgU. Term. American Profile Page 7 |