April 18…. WTF

Two days ago I was in shorts and walking around in the desert. This afternoon, I’m sitting by a fire shivering and getting snowed on. Again. 🤨

We’re visiting Kanab Utah. Very pretty countryside, I like it here. If I had just come straight here from home, I’d call this desert, but we’ve seen real desert now and this ain’t it. Lots of vegetation, grazing land with cattle and horses, occasional water… just scarce on trees.

We visited Pipe Springs National Monument this morning. A historic site (for this area), Pipe Springs was a long disputed place. A reliable water source. Between the original inhabitants, the Paiute people, then Mormon settlers, then toss in the US government, someone was always wanting control of it.

I’m old school and still think Indian, but nowadays we’re supposed to use indigenous people or Native Americans.

The Kaibab Band of Paiutes is the Indian tribe that has lived in this area for centuries. Way before the US claimed it. Way before the Mormons claimed it. Way before Mexico claimed it. Way before the Spanish explorers claimed it. They lived here and raised families. Mostly a hunter-gatherer society, they had a different relationship with the land than did later settlers. “Land ownership” was a foreign concept. Christianity was a foreign concept too, but the Mormons took advantage of the second one and the US the first. Now the tribe is “confined” to a reservation here of just 188 square miles.

Whatever it’s called, “manifest destiny” or “eminent domain”, settlers moved in, claimed the territory, and then screamed for the government to send the Army when the Indians resisted.

This area also has a long history with the Mormon faith. Mormons were forced to leave New York. Then Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, and finally driven to settle beyond the US border in what would become Utah. Building temples, towns, cities, sending out missionaries, growing their numbers, the Mormons just tried to live their faith. But again, too many people back east didn’t agree with the tenets of that faith (which was what caused their westward migration), so that when the US finally purchased and laid claim to the west, the US sent in the Army and the Mormons were told they could no longer live life their way. Their safety this time lay in numbers. Approaching a million strong, the LDS Church could negotiate with the US, and basically gave up some things in exchange for statehood. Utah became the 45th state.

Enough history lesson.

After Pipe Springs, we went to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. Beautiful area of enormous sand dunes, roaring with the sound of off-road vehicles going up and down the dunes. NOT coral pink though, more of an orangey reddish color. Susy got a little sporty on a big one and rolled all the way from top to bottom.