Tuba City, AZ - Opening June 19, 2007 Explore Navajo Interactive Museum made a grand debut and permanent home in Tuba City, Arizona. What once, was a vision and then an Olympic reality for the Navajo Nation, has now become part of the majestic landscape of the great Southwest.

Presented to the world at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah and now returning to the Navajo Nation; the Explore Navajo Interactive Museum plays an important tourism role to the Navajo people. Generating interest from all over the world, this venue is the first of its kind and will allow visitors the opportunity to experience the Navajo Nation first hand.

Four is a sacred number to Native people and the pattern of four repeats throughout the Interactive Museum. The Navajos observe the four directions as an organizational force for life and the four seasons as governing all personal and group activities. Explore Navajo Interactive Museum approximates the journey Navajos take through life. Four monumental directional symbols divide the Museum into four quadrants.

The journey begins in the East with an Emergence Theatre where the Navajo night sky introduces visitors to the lessons of Navajo constellations. The guest emerges from the First Three Worlds into the Fourth or present world where they are invited into a full-scale Navajo Hogan, which is located in the center of the Interactive Museum.

Outside the Hogan, traveling clockwise from the east a visitor is introduced to the history of the Navajo as told through photographs, words and voices. Some key events explained here:

• Athabaskan Heritage and Migration Theories
• Navajo Origin Stories
• Spanish & Mexican Colonial Periods
• United States Military Conquest: the Long Walk
• American Colonization
• Navajo Nation as a Sovereign Nation

Weaver: Rosie Taylor & Owner: Leonard Gene - Company: A Touch Of Navajo,

We at Explore Navajo, applaud and respect our local artists who are retaining the artwork of their families. We want to recognize a duo, who has been keeping their traditional ties strong with every masterpiece created.

Leonard Gene, a Navajo, born and raised on the reservation, is a self-taught silversmith. Mr. Gene's jewelry portrays the Navajo traditional stamp work combined with contemporary patterns; he designed all of his own stamping tools, often from old chisels and files. Mr. Gene also works with gold and does precious gem settings. His gold works are from fabrication and also form castings.

Silversmith is more than just a skill for Mr. Gene. He strongly believes that it is a way of keeping up his native heritage and enjoys sharing this with others. In that spirit, he also enjoys learning about different native cultures and traditions.

Each unique piece of jewelry is made with pride and joy. Mr. Gene hopes buyers of his work will enjoy his creativity and wear his jewelry proudly. Leonard Gene has traveled to many Indian Art shows throughout the United States and has won numerous awards in the jewelry category for his creations. Some of his pieces are displayed and included in the Heard Museum Indian Market in Phoenix, Arizona.

(Courtesy of http://www.leonardgene.com)

Rosie Taylor is a Navajo woman from Indian Wells, AZ. She is Kinya'aanii and born for the Totsohnii clan. She is the daughter of the master weaver, Lillie Taylor.

As a young girl, she took care of the sheep. Herding them from sunrise to sundown. She knew her way around a large herd. (Culturally it is the woman who inherits the sheep) Years later at eight years old, she learned how to shear, card, and spin wool. Her mother showed her how to do simple straigt line designs and then advanced to adding step designs to her rugs. Later on, she learned how to gather plants to dye her own wool. The dyeing process of colored yarn is a delicate one. A weaver must know how much color is needed.

To date, she still uses the same techniques that was given to her to create traditional and contemporary designs that have artisitic and cultural meaning.

Both Mr. Gene and Ms. Taylor have been integral parts to their families traditions and skills.

Visitors are welcomed with open arms in Navajoland.
Here are some guidelines to help you acknowledge the Navajo people and their customs:

1) Please try to be unobtrusive when visiting a Navajo performance or event. Please try to be patient and considerate.

2) Please applaud only if it is apparent it is an acceptable custom.
Please ask permission before taking photographs of people and surroundings

3) Please understand some traditional ceremonies are not open to the public, so if you are asked to leave, please do so quickly and quietly.