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Wikipedia

Shiprock, or Shiprock Peak or Ship Rock (Tsé Bit'a'í, "rock with wings" or "winged rock) is a rock formation rising nearly above the high-desert plain on Navajo Nation land, about southwest of the northern New Mexico town of Shiprock, which is named for the peak.

Name

The name "Shiprock" derives from the peak's resemblance to an enormous 19th-century clipper ship. However Anglos first called the peak "The Needle," a name given to the topmost pinnacle by Captain J.F. McComb in 1860. USGS maps indicate that the name Ship Rock dates from the 1870s.

The Navajo name Tsé Bit'a'í for the peak refers to the legend of the great bird that brought them from the north to their present lands.

Religious and cultural significance

The peak and surrounding land are of great religious and historical significance to the Navajo People. Foremost is the peak's role as the agent that brought the Navajo to the southwest. According to the legend, after being transported, the Navajos lived on the monolith, "coming down only to plant their fields and get water." One day, the peak was struck by lightning, obliterating the trail and leaving only a sheer cliff, and stranding the women and children on top to starve. This gives one reason that the Navajo Nation do not allow anyone climbing the peak, "for fear they might stir up the chį́įdii (ghosts), or rob their corpses."

In a legend that puts the peak in a larger geographic context, Shiprock is said to be either a medicine pouch or a bow carried by the "Goods of Value Mountain", a large mythic male figure comprising several mountain features throughout the region. The Chuska Mountains comprise the body, Chuska Peak is the head, the Carrizo Mountains are the legs, and Beautiful Mountain is the feet.

One legend has it that Bird Monsters (Tsé Ninájálééh) nested on the peak and fed on human flesh. In one version, after Monster Slayer destroyed Déélééd at Red Mesa, he killed two adult Bird Monsters at Shiprock and changed two young ones into an eagle and an owl. (In another version, the Warrior Twins were summoned to rid the Navajo of the Bird Monsters.)

The peak is mentioned in stories from the Enemy Side Ceremony and the Navajo Mountain Chant. It is associated with the Bead Chant and the Naayee'ee Ceremony.

Geology

Shiprock is composed of fractured volcanic breccia and black dikes of igneous rock called "minette". It is the erosional remnant of the throat of a volcano, and the volcanic breccia formed in a diatreme. The exposed rock probably was originally formed 2,500-3000 feet (750-1,000 meters) below the earth's surface, but it was exposed after millions of years of erosion. Wall-like sheets of minette, known as dikes, radiate away from the central formation. Radiometric age determinations of the minette establish that these volcanic rocks solidified about 27 million years ago. Ship Rock is in the northeastern part of the Navajo Volcanic Field; the field includes intrusions and flows of minette and other unusual igneous rocks that formed about 25 million years ago. Agathla, also called El Capitan, is another prominent volcanic neck of this field.

Climbing history and legal status

The idea of climbing Shiprock is repugnant to many Navajo people, and climbing it is now illegal (see below). In spite of this, rock climbers have seen Shiprock as an interesting place to climb, and it was considered a great unsolved problem by the climbing community in the 1920s and 1930s. There was a widespread rumor of a $1000 prize for climbing the peak, which inspired "dozens of attempts by the experienced and inexperienced alike."

The first ascent was in 1939, by a Sierra Club party including David Brower. Since then at least seven routes were climbed on the peak, all of them of great technical difficulty. A modification of the original route is still regarded as the easiest, and it is rated as Grade IV, YDS 5.9, A1.

Shiprock is governed by the Navajo Nation. Recreational activities are administered by the Navajo Parks and Recreation Department. No rock climbing is allowed on Navajo Nation Lands.

Hence climbing Shiprock is illegal. However, permits are available to camp and hike.

In Film

The 2002 film "Rocks With Wings," directed by Rick Derby, follows the Navajo members of the Lady Chieftains, the girls' basketball team from Shiprock High School, as they struggle with a new (black) coach, their own expectations, and those of their community and the "Anglo" world around them.

In Fiction

Tony Hillerman's mystery novel The Fallen Man centers on the discovery of a long-dead climber found atop Shiprock. Hillerman touches on the conflict of attitudes and values between the climbers and the Navajo people. Also, the Helgrind of Christopher Paolini's novels is based on it.