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Good afternoon.
I'm Laurie Hrosa.
Welcome to a special edition of Making a Difference Today.
Most of us learned American history from the day Christopher Columbus landed in the New
World.
But a rich culture existed far before that day in 1492.
That culture, that of the American Indian, is still very much alive today.
It is developing, changing, and struggling to survive.
Recently photographer Chris Wheeler and I visited the southwest, parts of Colorado,
New Mexico, and Arizona.
We talked with six American Indian artists who are the living masters.
There are secrets here.
Secrets of a culture 1400 years old.
The American people have no idea that there's this incredibly deep and rich heritage of
the American Indian right here in our own western United States.
Treasures of the past are hidden in the land.
The canyons and the plains of the southwest shape the lives of the ancient ones.
That link to the land is a tradition carried on by the American Indian today.
One of the most eloquent ways they express their connection to their own past is through
their art.
That's part of their culture still intact, as withstood the inroads of urban industrial
culture, and is in fact vital and very alive today.
They are really building on the history of their own artistic expression and keeping
it going.
Changing it, modifying it, innovating as artists do, but yet still reckoning back to their
own history.
The art builds on the tradition that connects us to the land.
The people who create it are the living masters.
The rhythm of the Navajo language is in tune with the land.
This was Joe Ben Jr.'s way of life.
He grew up herding sheep and learning legends.
He grew up listening to his father tell stories of the Navajo people.
He's telling me how we came to be there and what all these landmarks, what they meant.
Both father and son know it's important to pass on the legends.
He's telling me the story of how, the history of how we, our family came to be here and
the pride that he's instilling in me goes into my work.
This is a great, great color.
Joe Ben Jr.'s works are sand paintings.
He uses the old Indian tools to grind the earth into grains of sand.
Grains of sand poured through his fingers form designs.
Joe Ben draws on thousands of years of religious ceremony to create an example of ceremonial
sand painting.
This is a female Yavache dancer.
What Yavache means is dancers depicting different gods and this is the design taken out of a
bigger sand painting.
For religious purposes, sand paintings are drawn on the floor and they only last as long
as the ceremony.
It's a spiritual thing.
It's the expression of yourself, what you're composed of.
This is what Navajo are composed of.
This is what makes a Navajo strong.
This is what makes a Navajo believe in himself.
It is the strength of all of the grains of sand together that make Joe Ben's permanent
sand paintings spectacular.
That's what I try to put into my work, where people of different cultures will have an
understanding of what Navajo is and have an understanding of what a human being is.
Their place in the universe, how insignificant we are.
Human beings, if you ask me what significance they have in the universe, it will be just
like one grain of sand in this whole painting.
You pour out your soul when you do this.
You're putting down on this what's you.
The Navajo, the ultimate artist, the true artist is the works of nature.
I'm not a creator.
I'm an interpreter.
What I'm doing here is interpreting the rich culture that I'm from.
But there was a time Joe Ben's culture almost died.
In 1864, U.S. Army soldiers came and took the Navajo people from this land.
They were imprisoned for four years at Fort Sumner until a treaty was signed in 1868.
When the Navajo people came back to this land, they found their crops, livestock, and way
of life had virtually been destroyed.
In the case of the Long Walk, the Navajo walked down to the Pecos River in order to make them
good civilized people.
In so doing, the U.S. military, without them realizing what they were doing, killed half
of them.
They killed half of them because the Navajo became so sad and so depressed that they fell
prey to European diseases and died quickly.
Still, the language, the land, and the Navajo way of life survived.
And Joe Ben Jr. says now it must be kept alive.
I don't want them to have suffered in vain, have gone all through this for nothing.
With my artwork, I think I'm contributing to that fact and to project that image that
we are alive.
And we're going to keep living, the Navajo people.
I really don't think of myself as being sick.
Big ideas are a specialty at the Colorado National Banks, like the nebulizer that helps
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I'm not like other kids, but, you know, that's one of the best things I've got going for
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It's just another way we make big ideas happen for businesses and for people like Jason.
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It's this irresistibly lovable, unsurpassably colorful, and innermostly soulful.
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Hi, I'm Montel Williams.
For the last three years, I've been traveling all over this country speaking to students
about taking control of their lives.
And there are a lot of factors out there that are affecting America's youth, from dropping
out to drugging out to teen pregnancy to violence to gangs.
And all of those things can be nothing more than impediments to your success.
If you want to know how to make a difference in your life and turn your life around, join
me April 8th right here on Channel 9.
Montel Williams delivers his inspirational message live from South High School at 10 a.m.
and again at 7 p.m. April 8th on Channel 9.
Sun paints ruins red, ruins that were built around 1300 A.D.
What you see when you see those buildings are people just like us trying to build those,
in this case, monuments to maintain our lives forever into the future with great hope.
I see a reflection of us a thousand years ago.
The ancient people strung stones for jewelry.
Richard Chavez cuts his stones on machines which whirl at speeds of 3500 revolutions
per minute.
For my grandfather, I learned how to work with the stones because if it wasn't for him,
I wouldn't be in this business.
For him, I learned how to cut stones and how to polish and to use the kind of machineries
that you need to use in order to come up with the finished product.
When this piece is finished, it will be a pin.
Richard works with the stones, fitting them into sterling silver channels.
You need a steady hand.
Richard uses the heat of the solder gun to mold the metal.
He's always striving for balance.
A lot of times you have to think about what you're doing and how you want a piece to
come out.
You can make changes if you decide that something needs to be added.
Richard studied architecture in college.
That background is reflected in his jewelry.
A lot of the ideas are purely designs, circles, triangles, straight lines.
The ideas come from my training in architecture.
With the precision of an architect and the passion of an artist, Richard Chavez balances
tradition with pure modern design.
Being in two worlds, being able to go out and relate to other people, do interaction.
And when you get through that, coming back to your community and being a part of that,
to me that is a new Indian.
The new Indian artist relies on the images of the past.
Most images have been fired into pottery for thousands of years.
The craft of pottery is perfected 400 feet above the New Mexico plains.
In the mornings I have a couple of teats that I've made that I call my mellow week of tea.
Thomas Natsue tunes into today's world, but his pottery is rooted in the past.
Tom's treasure is in the earth.
He combines dirt with shards of old pottery to make clay.
The pieces of old pots are like the glue that holds the clay together.
It keeps the clay from falling apart.
With his fingertips, Tom blends the past with the present.
I think if the potter way back knew that pieces of his pots were being used again now in making
pottery, I think he would be glad.
But Tom only uses a few shards of old pottery.
He's a miniaturist and his pots measure only a quarter of an inch.
He's any artist, something that you create, it's like your baby.
Tom puts his soul into his work.
He relies on the designs of the past for inspiration.
The best place to learn from is from the masters, and the masters are my ancestors.
That's why I have all these old pictures there.
And then I look at the pictures of the old pottery and I say, where did they get their
ideas for their designs?
That's how it has fascinated me.
People find Tom's pots fascinating.
Each is a copy of an ancient pot, detailed to perfection in miniature form.
His wife Charmé uses a river rock to polish her seed pot.
It's a technique she learned from a master.
I think about my grandmother a lot.
She's too old now to pick up a paintbrush, but she started painting when she was a young
girl.
She was one of the better known potters.
Charmé says, like her grandmothers before her, this is a tradition she feels compelled
to pass on.
Everything today is dying out, our culture, our customs, our language.
And there's really going to be nothing to pass down.
To keep it alive, Charmé builds on the traditional ways.
I consider myself a contemporary potter, but I like to think that I'm as qualified as she
was to carry on the tradition.
Part of carrying on that tradition is keeping to the old ways.
The flatter the better they stand.
The ancient potters used cow chips to fire their work.
Tom and Charmé do that too.
I've seen some over there.
It gives them a chance to get outside the studio and to take in the land.
It's stoic.
You get a feeling of being part of the mesa, being part of the open land.
Tom and Charmé's lifestyle blends the present with the past.
It's a depth that's reflected in their art and inspired by the land.
Just sit there and enjoy yourself and watch the sun set.
And imagine what it was like years ago.
Who walked through here?
Who actually stepped where I stepped?
It's just something to think about all the time.
I think about that all the time.
You got the right one baby.
You got the right one.
Everybody.
There's only one right one baby.
You got the right one baby.
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The Colorado National Bank would like to put banking aside for a moment
and talk about our people.
People making life easier for the handicapped and the elderly.
People providing role models for children.
And people helping adults learn to read here at the Adult Learning Center.
Colorado National Banks encourages employees to get involved in their communities and their people.
And we applaud their efforts with the help of its people.
Colorado National Banks is a company making a difference.
The tradition of excellence.
Award winners.
More time than any station.
Anywhere in the U.S.
Getting the shots.
Telling stories.
National Press Photographers Association.
Award winning again and again.
And again and again.
Tradition.
I do.
There's an old trading post in Ganado, Arizona.
The floor creaks with 120 years of trading.
Trading posts like this popped up all over the southwest in the 1870s.
This one was one of the more successful ones.
It was built in 1878 by John Lorenzo Hubbell.
And it is one of the few trading posts that is still in operation today.
Bill Malone is the trader now.
These days busloads of tourists fill the rooms.
Okay, what about these?
And Bill takes credit cards.
And this particular lady drove about three hours to get here today to sell us this rug.
The foundation of the trading post lives on.
It's still a bridge between cultures.
Ready?
Ready.
We try and get a picture every time we buy a rug.
It helps the person buying the rug know who the weaver is.
Historically weavers have always relied on business at trading posts.
But the inspiration for their craft comes from someplace else.
It's a place where Navajo legends echo off the canyon walls.
The weaver's legend comes from the heart of Canyon De Chez.
The canyon is carved into the northeast corner of Arizona.
It's been Navajo land for thousands of years.
The legend says she lives here, high atop these needle rocks.
She is the Spider Woman.
The legend is that we learned from the weaving from the Spider Woman.
She's the one that taught the Navajo woman to weave.
After we do the shearing, she picks out some of the wool.
It's an art that ties generations together.
29-year-old Menor Davis learned to weave from her mother, who learned from her mother.
I'm the only one in my mother's family that's learned it.
If I ever get a little girl, I would love to teach her how to weave.
Menor sits by her loom, keeping the patterns of the past alive.
What I'm going to do, what kind of designs I'm going to use, what kind of colors, how I'm going to put my colors together.
Like right now I'm thinking I'll have a red background.
And I think, no, I'll just outline it in red.
I think it's more of a pride in the weaver to carry on that tradition than anything else.
I think it's just something that every Navajo woman should know.
295 and 395. So all together it's $885.
When she's not weaving, Menor shares her craft with others, working at Hubbell's Trading Post.
When they go into the rugs room, they say, well, this is really expensive, you know, I can't afford this.
And then if you start showing them, you know, then they'll really start to appreciate it.
Menor's rugs cost about $1,000, but it takes her an entire year to finish one rug.
Woven into Menor's latest work, you'll find this traditional symbol. It's called the Spider Woman's Cross.
I am, I'm proud of who I am. And I like to share my culture and what I do with other people,
and make them understand that others are boring to us, that we keep up this tradition.
Voices from the past rise up through the mist.
Voices Rhonda Holybear captures in her dolls.
My mom tried to take my dolls away when I was like 12, and I remember sitting there, I was really mad.
And I said, I'm going to always play with dolls.
Starting to take shape.
Dolls, I guess I'm trying to make them into little people.
Rhonda's people come from the plains of South Dakota.
I was like everybody else, I had a Hollywood image of what Indians were, until I started really working with the dolls.
And then I got a clear perspective as to where I came from.
And I was very, very proud of where I came from.
Rhonda knows where she came from, because for each doll she makes, she spends hours in the library doing research.
They represent the plains' culture, and the images that they wore in the 1800s.
And I think people really enjoy looking at things like that.
They're going to get focused.
She makes the clothes her dolls wear, carrying on the tradition of her culture, one bead at a time.
So I just love the beads, and I get a hold of the beads, I've got handfuls of them.
I sit at home, I bring them home, and I'm playing with them, and I'm imagining what's going to happen to them.
Rhonda hopes something happens to the people who see her dolls.
They get inspired by the dolls.
When they start doing research, dolls again are like an old learning device, an old teaching tool
that all cultures have used throughout the ages.
I want them to learn about my culture, but I also want them to maybe look into their own culture too.
The magic of dolls is in their message.
They tell a story that bridges all cultures, the story of survival.
The survival of a culture is a treasure.
Yes, it would be a great tragedy if we urban industrial Americans continue to ignore the past,
if we continue to ignore the past, we will destroy what remnants of the past still remain.
Oh, there's a lot of both.
The question is whether we can get, develop that appreciation fast enough to help save and continue the existing Indian cultures
before both are destroyed.
It's a really race against time.
But the legend of the land and the secrets of the earth offer hope.
It's time to kick up your heels.
The Nine Country Music Series is in high gear, bringing you the best in country music live at the Grizzly Rose.
April 9th and 10th at 8 p.m.
Don't miss the sassy sounds of country's great Tonya Tucker.
Tickets available at Ticketmaster or the Grizzly Rose.
The very best in country music is brought to you by Channel 9 and the Nine Country Music Series.
We're now performing live at the Grizzly Rose.
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PC News is up next, followed by 9 News at 5.
I'm Laurie Hirose. Have a great weekend.
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