Food is healing’
Cooks share expertise at Bears Ears gathering
By Krista Allen
Special to the Times
BEARS EARS NATIONAL MONUMENT
Twenty-nine-year-old Diné chef Josh Nez’s wooden bear fetish stood at a corner of his cutting board as he broke down a lamb to a primal cut.
He smiled and laughed as he talked to friends who stopped by his bustling, makeshift kitchen near Bears Ears on the evening of July 20.
Not long ago, Nez bought three bear fetishes in Albuquerque. He kept one and gave the others to each of his two daughters.
“I had this on the dashboard,” Nez said, “so it would give me safe travels from Albuquerque to (Bears Ears). This bear protected me and now it’s (standing) by me (while I cook). It’s my medicine.”
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