Navajo tapping in to cash crop

Grand scope: Indian Country in the US south-west’s Four Corners area provides a magnificent backdrop to tribal oil and gas exploits

TOM DARIN LISKEY

By TOM DARIN LISKEY Four Corners US

 26 July 2012 22:59 GMT

THE traditional Navajo almanac says that Ya’iishjaastsoh (July) is the month in which tiny green shoots of squash, corn and beans grow after having broken through the carefully tended topsoil of this parched land.

But in the mesas and canyons of Dine Bikeyah, or Navajoland, which occupies portions of northeast Arizona, south-east Utah, and north-west New Mexico, Indian shepherds and farmers are gathering wood.

With the chill of winter still months away, the backcountry denizens of the largest tribe in the US are hoarding wind-twisted lengths of cottonwood and other trees in wood cribs near their hogans, the traditional Navajo dwelling. Even the woodpiles next to more modern-day homes are growing with each passing day.

In this vast stretch of such a prosperous nation, the summer wood…

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