91´«Ã½

I got an early start, dropping my kid at the airport to head back to Brooklyn following his quick visit to celebrate my birthday (GO !) and check out the film set. (He was the guy with the clapper during our filming at Las Cruces—a very effective clapper!) I picked up Leah and Nikita, and we headed to Santa Fe for a few days.

91´«Ã½

Given check-out and check-in times, we had a few hours to fill before we could settle in and watch film, so we headed to . We’ve seen so much beauty on this trip, the rivers of Rhode Island, the lush green mountains of southern West Virginia, the vast plains of Kansas. The descent from the rim to the bottom of Frijoles Canyon was something different. We were stunned by the light and the heat, the stone and luff. Walking the trails and learning about the Ancestral Pueblo people who made this land home was an extraordinary privilege.

91´«Ã½

It was hard not to be struck by the contemporary name of this place. Adolph Bandelier was a Swiss-born anthropologist whose research focused on kinship structures and governance in Pueblo cultures in the Southwest. His work led in part to the establishment of this monument in 1916. That this land and its rich history would bear his name opens a host of questions about the country we are driving through. Our time also made me acutely aware of everything I don’t know about American Indian heritage, culture, and contemporary experience. Working with President-Elect Cindy Hohl, just the second Native president of the 91´«Ã½, has introduced me to new ways of thinking and new vocabularies, knowledge that was not taught to me in any of my formal educational experiences. As I get ready to pass the gavel, I am grateful for what she has taught me and what we will all learn from her in the coming year and the ways she will galvanize all of us into action.

Mileage: 65

Soundtrack: High winds

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