Animal Encounters: Navajo Lamb, 1953

As I've shared in several previous posts*, in 1953 we drove up into the highlands of the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. Here's a picture of me in the corral of one of the hogans we visited hugging a very cute lamb.

[From my personal collection]

*The first photo in this post shows Mother and me with the Navajo family whose relatives we were visiting and this weaver is the man's sister.


© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Opal May Slater (1890 - 1973) Part 2

Looking through newspapers I was able to find out more about Opal's teaching career before she left for Harvard than was apparent using city directories and census lists.

In 1913 she was granted a Teacher's Certificate for second grade in Kansas according to The Eureka Herald and Greenwood County Republican. 

[Source: Newspapers.com]

Later that year the same newspaper's social pages identified Opal as a teacher at Hamilton Schools while reporting on her visit to her uncle James Slater.

[Source: Newspapers.com]

The next time I found Opal's name was in a May of 1916 list of people receiving first grade Teachers' Certificates in  The Santa Fe New Mexican.

[Source: Newspapers.com]

From this clipping from The Clayton Citizen we learn Opal's job in New Mexico was Principal of the local high school.

[Source: Newspapers.com]

[Detail of Union County, New Mexico, including Clayton from Clason's Guide Map Of New Mexico. Published By The Clason Map Co. Denver, Colorado. Copyrighted 1915 by The Clason Map Co. Denver, Colo. 1916 Edition. Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.]

Here's another story from the same source mentioned Opal as the assistant director of the school play.*

[Source: Newspapers.com]

*This isn't the first time I found Opal connected with the stage as you can see in this 1912 clipping from The Denver Rocky Mountain News. (And that's not counting her interest in Aesthetic Dance.)

[Source: GenealogyBank.com]

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Maria De Guadalupe Lujan (1809 - 1884)

This formidable matriarch flanked by two of her granddaughters is the 4X great grandmother of a friend of mine. Her name is Maria de Guadalupe Lujan and she was born near Santa Fe in 1809. She was only 13 when she got married Francisco Estevan Quintana in 1823.

[Maria de Guadalupe Lujan de Quintana and her two Herrera granddaughters]

After making several trips to California in the late 1830s, Estevan, a prosperous livestock trader, decided to move his growing family there in 1843. The Quintanas eventually settled in San Luis Obispo where they spent the rest of their lives.

Guadalupe is buried in the Old Mission Cemetery in San Luis Obispo.

[Find A Grave Memorial# 74831355

Record & photo added by Joan (#47528113)]

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Manuelito, New Mexico, 1951

Here's a picture of 5-year-old me sitting atop an Indian pony during our stay at Manuelito, New Mexico. If my vague recollection of this event is correct, all I did was sit on the horse and wasn't allowed to actually ride around.

Here's the setting for that photo.

And of course I played with the local kids. This little girl was showing me her baby rabbit when Dad snapped the photo.

[All photos are from my personal collection]

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Navajo Land, 1953

On our way to South Dakota in 1951 Mother and Dad became acquainted with a Navajo couple who passed by our camp near Shiprock one evening and kept in contact with them. Two years later on our next trip east we met up with them at Window Rock where the husband had gotten a job.*

One day during our visit, we all piled in the truck (men and little children in the cab, women sitting in the back of the truck) and headed way off the main road and deep into the Reservation to visit some of our friends' relatives.

This is the husband's sister who was working at her loom when we arrived and allowed Dad to take her picture.

[From my personal collection]

*I've posted a picture taken at Window Rock that included this couple and their little daughter. (I have chosen not to share their names here.)

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Near Manuelito, New Mexico

On our way to South Dakota in 1951 we spent several days at Mike Kirk's Trading Post in Manuelito, New Mexico, located on Route 66  just west of Gallup. By that time the original founder of the trading post had been dead for many years and it was owned by John Wall from whom Dad bought several Navajo rugs, one of which is now on display at Marston House here in San Diego. I also still have some of the jewelry we acquired during that stay.

This Navajo family were on their way to shop at the trading post.* Everyone is smiling for the camera.

[From my personal collection]

[August 7, 1956: The Gallup Independent from Gallup, New Mexico · Page 35. Source: Newspapers.com]

[Detail from Shell Highway Map of Arizona and New Mexico, 1951. Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

*According to Dad's recollections, John Wall "had no use" for Navajos once they were able to afford to buy a car because then they could make their purchases in Gallup and were no longer forced to buy goods from him. Since the trading post was actually on railroad right-of-way, not the reservation, Mr. Wall didn't have to conform to federal rules.


© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.