Blue Feather (The Navajo & Anasazi )

Blue Feather is one of Zane Grey's stories that is unusual in that it is his interpretation of a folk tale passed down by Navajo clans through the generations and finally told to Louisa Wetherill, friend of the Navajo people.  Louisa was the  wife of the Native American trader, guide and amateur archeologist, John Wetherill.  Grey visited the Wetherills often at their Kayenta home on trips to the Rainbow Bridge area with John.  Louisa passed the story on to the Western author in hopes he would publish it.  Though Grey died in 1939, the story was not published until 1961. 

The story tells of a mysterious warrior "from the north" who falls in love with a Sheboyah (Anasazi) princess. Ultimately, they betray their people and suffer the outcomes of that betrayal.   You can read the entire story online if you:

Click here. 

The folk tale, more than anything, is about the factors leading to the abandonment of Pueblo Bonito in Chaco canyon. 

Louisa Wetherill’s version, which she heard from some old-time Navajos, was that the Navajo did have some ancestral connection to Pueblo Bonito. Certainly some Navajo clans believe that they have some Anasazi blood through intermarriage. It is well established that the people of Chaco Canyon, when they left, migrated to the pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona, and the Hopi mesas. It should be noted that, while Navajo traditions and folklore suggest a direct genetic tie to the Anasazi, such a link is still an ongoing discussion. 

The National Park Service explains the relationship between Chaco Canyon and the Navajo people, “The sites are part of the sacred homeland of Pueblo Indian peoples of New Mexico, the Hopi Indians of Arizona, and the Navajo Indians of the Southwest, who return to pay respect to their ancestors. (1) Pueblo descendants say that Chaco was a special gathering place where many peoples and clans converged to share their ceremonies, traditions, and knowledge. Chaco is central to the origins of several Navajo clans and ceremonies. (2)

The following images are an actual photograph of Pueblo Bonito and an artist's rendition of how it likely appeared in its heyday. 

Zane Grey's interpretation was far different from the folk tale shared by Louisa Wetherill.  Grey's sets the Sheboyah pueblo on a high mesa.  Pueblo Bonito is located at the bottom of a cliff. Although both tales speak of droughts that many believe caused the Anasazi to move, he steered the story toward a much more violent confrontation in which the Sheboyah are defeated in a battle with a more powerful tribe.  The folk tale shared by Wetherill had no battle.  Rather, a tall stranger comes from the SOUTH and corrupts the Anazasi men by giving them a strange "blue gum" that clouds their minds.  As more and more men come under the influence of the drug, the stranger is able to take control of the tribe.  Eventually, the stranger is killed, but the pueblo's crops fail and the Anasazi are forced to leave.   

Louisa Wetherill and the famous archeologist Byron Cummings co-authored an article in Art and Archeology, Volume 13 entitled "A Navaho Folk Tale of Pueblo Bonito" (1922) which provide the entire background on the Blue Feather tale. In the article they clearly state that the drought caused the "Ushinnies" or Salt People to move from Pueblo Bonito to a location near Aztec, New Mexico where they became the Ushinnie clan (Salt People). "Ushinnie" appears to be the anglicized spelling of the ’Áshįįhnii Clan (Salt Clan) who are now extinct. To some degree, the tale can also be seen as tool for Navajo elders to teach young people of the dangers of drug addiction and alcoholism.You can read this article in its entirety here.