The iconic formation called Ship Rock sails like a stately clipper ship 1,700 feet above the surrounding desert of northwest New Mexico. It’s the craggy remnant of a volcanic explosion that occurred about 30 million years ago, with long dikes extending from its base.
To the Diné, or Navajo, who live nearby, their word for the feature means “rock with wings.”And they have their own interpretation as well.
Steven Semken is a professor of ethnogeology at Arizona State University who studies the human connection to place. While teaching at Diné College in the namesake town of Shiprock, his students said what geologists describe as a volcanic neck, and what tourists consider a classic photo op, the Diné revere as a sacred site.
It’s a place associated with their ceremonies and origin stories, including one that tells how their ancestors flew to the desert peak on the back of a large bird. The bird rescued them from an enemy far to the north. Other stories tell of a thunderbird and a dinosaur-like monster living atop the monolith.
Because of Ship Rock’s special significance to the Diné, it’s been off limits to non-Natives—including climbers—since 1970.
This example of a deep sense of place, Semken believes, can encourage respect of the cultural importance of such landscape features to many Southwestern people.
