Posts tagged ‘hiking’

Window Rock, Arizona – This park near the Navajo Nation Administration Center features the graceful redstone arch for which the capital is named. The Navajo Nation headquarters and other government offices were built in close proximity to this mystical rock formation. More recently, the Navajo Nation has built a Veterans Memorial at the base of Window Rock to honor the many Navajos who served in the U. S. military. Many Navajo soldiers are recognized in the annals of history for their role as Code Talkers, whereby they used the Navajo language to create a code that was never broken by the enemy. Historians credit the Navajo Code Talkers for helping to win World War II.

June 9 Window Rock Code Talker

It is more than just your ordinary “service person’s memorial” if you knew the story interlaced with is architectural design you would see that it is indeed something worthwhile to visit and an area every American should pay respect to. Its significance and story is one that can easily measure up to Washington D.C.’s Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial, endearingly called “The Wall”.

This park is significant because it was designed and built by the Navajo, it is their “living” Veteran’s Memorial. The idea for the Memorial evolved from within a group of Native Vietnam Veterans, Navajo Code Talker’s, and culturally important, Navajo medicine men. After much deliberation the preliminary sketches and designs for the Memorial were drawn out.

The park has many symbolic structures:  a circular path outlining the four cardinal directions, 16 angled steel pillars with the names of war veterans, and a healing sanctuary that is used for reflection and solitude that features a fountain made of sandstone.