Marietta Wetherill:
Life with the Navajos in Chaco Canyon (1997)
by
Kathryn Gabriel
Beginning in 1897 Marietta Wetherill set up house in a
remote
archaeological site near the Navajo reservation, while her husband,
Richard,
excavated the Anasazi ruins and created a trading post empire. Marietta and
the Navajo women collaborated in midwifing, healing, and surviving the dry
desert. Medicine men shared their rituals and taught her about the stark
reality of aboriginal life. Out of confusion, rage, or conspiracy, a Navajo
man murdered Richard in 1910, but Marietta's friendships endured. They
beseeched her to tell their story and in 1954, a year before her death, she
recorded her extraordinary experiences on more than 70 audio tapes. These
tapes form the basis for this book.
In 1951, Lou Blachly formed the Pioneers Foundation, an organization which would record the reminiscences of the remaining "pioneers." Caeser Brock was the first of more than 150 individuals who were interviewed by the Pioneers Foundation. The following mp3 files are about 15 minutes of the audio tapes recorded during the interviews.
The files are portions of the interview about the Murder of Richard Wetherill, Marietta's husband in 1910 at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.
59 Marietta Wetherill - 484.mp3.6.fss
![]()