Diane Howe sat under the piñon pines in the Chuska Mountains while she and her family picked piñon nuts that the tree graciously sprinkled onto the ground.
Next to her lay a blue tarp to catch falling piñon nuts. Howe said it was the first time since before the pandemic that they can remember this many nuts available for people to pick. Good harvests usually come along every three to four years, experienced pickers will say.
“This is actually the first year again that they have piñons,” said Howe. “Every four years, we’d come up here and pick piñons. It’s been awhile.”
The drive down Narbona Pass, a nearly 30-mile road that winds through the scenic Chuska Mountains in northeastern Arizona, offers a glimpse into Navajo history. Originally named after Col. John M. Washington, who explored the area in the late 1840s during a campaign against the Navajos, the route was renamed in the 1990s by a Diné College student to honor Navajo Chief Narbona, who was tragically killed by Washington’s men.