Historical film clips, photos roll back time in Kayenta

Posted by Bill Donovan | Jun 25, 2015 | News |

A participate hops across the field during the men’s gunny sack rack on June 20 at the Kayenta Field Day. Winners received a field day T-shirt. (Times photo – Krista Allen)

KAYENTA, Ariz.

For the past 30 years, Shonie De La Rosa has been delving into the history of Kayenta, collecting film clips and photos showing what the Navajo community looked like in the old days and how it has changed over the years.

Designed to test physical strength and mental grit, a team swims across a pool of water on the mud run obstacle course during the Kayenta Field Day on June 20. (Times photo – Krista Allen)

To celebrate this year’s Kayenta Field Day, which was held over the weekend here, De La Rosa posted film clips of a field day over 75 years ago to Kayenta Township’s Facebook page.

The clips show people involved in such activities as tug-of-war, food scramble, and chicken pulls. In photos provided exclusively to the Navajo Times by the Begay family of Black Mesa, Ariz., even elderly women participated in events such as tug-of-war.

According to De La Rosa, the event was founded sometime in the 1930s and once featured events like a chicken pull and the tug of war, according to De La Rosa.

It used to be held in conjunction with the annual Fourth of July celebration, but because it competed with more popular events like the rodeos, powwows, and song and dances, it broke away.

Today is has become an event that has attracted many in Kayenta and its surrounding areas, and many from across Navajo, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and the world.

“We have something for everyone,” De La Rosa said of today’s event. “It doesn’t matter what age you are or what color you are. We even have tourists that come and check it out, and it’s all free.”