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Without further ado! Here are highlights from the installations over on the Dine reservation. Stay tuned, because the Hopi installations have not been posted yet.
Elvira was our main contact at the Tsaile/Wheatfields Dineh Water Users. She and the office maestro were a great asset to helping plan and organize all 25 of the installations we did over on the Dine reservation. The first install that we did was for Elvira’s Uncle, who had an electrical pole right next to his house, but couldn’t afford to have electricity. His house was wired for it, but he mostly cooked with propane and read by candle or flashlight.
We traveled about 45 minutes off dirt back roads to get to the edge of a canyon for this installation! His beautiful contemporary hogan was wired for contemporary AC electricity, but the only way he had to run the lights was with a generator. This medicine man held ceremonies out of this humble abode with a dirt floor. He was all smiles to express his gratitude for the silence of solar powered lights during ceremony, instead of the loud hum of a generator all night.
Since we had enough crew members, we split up into two crews for many of the installations. This was the first day we did so, but since we were out of a truck we didn’t know how we were going to do it! Thankfully this woman was so eager to get her kit that she met us at the Dineh Water Users office and drove us back and forth to her cabin in the woods. It was such a beautiful location, but it got so muddy she was concerned about us making it out there without getting our vehicle stuck!
This was the first family that we did in our series of installations! Tammy was a nurse that worked at one of the local hospitals (when we say local… we mean almost an hour away). We certainly did some mud bogging to get to this house! Our truck got stuck and we almost couldn’t do it this day, but thankfully Tammy and her 4WD and determination was able to haul us and our gear out to her hogan. Because she had a regular job, she worked during the week and would not have been available for installations otherwise. Glad we were able to make it so they could have lights and a charging system!
This is the last installation we did as a crew of four. From here, Onyx and Jessie stayed on the Dine reservation to complete installs while Stephanie and Debbie went off with two new crew members (Chris and Jonathan) to the Hopi reservation. This was a chair member for the board, and was excited about not having to use a propane lamp anymore while eating dinner. He owned a flock of sheep and wanted to offer us a meal to share from his sheep, but the opportunity didn’t present itself. The timelines were too crunched and we weren’t able to try some Navajo mutton at the potluck barbecue.
Jessie, do you remember anything about this installation?
Hang tight! We have some more installation pictures from the Dine reservation coming up! Follow us on Facebook or Instagram for instant updates as soon as we load them.
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Forward to the Hopi installations (just kidding! Coming soon!)