Continuing a 30-year tradition, the Navajo Rug Show and Sale is taking place this weekend, November 8th to the 10th, at Deer Valley’s Snow Park Lodge.

The sale is sponsored by the Adopt a Native Elder program, founded by Linda Myers.

She said she was prompted to set up the program after she saw a documentary screening in Park City about the Navajo elders.

“And I was so moved by the documentary “Broken Rainbow”. That was a very popular documentary in the 1980’s about Natives being removed from their lands. I saw it and then wrote an article in the Park Record, cause I was so moved by it. I couldn’t let go of it, even though I was a business owner on Main Street and busy. I decided I had to go down there. And then when I went down there, I realized that this was something that was not acceptable to me as a person to see these elders being removed from their lands, and the way the government did it.”

The rug sale takes place with the help of over 80 native weavers who have been working on their rugs all year long, plus the help of 260 volunteers and local sponsors providing donations and lodging this week for the visiting elders.

Myers said the events will actually start on Thursday the 7th, when school children are able to visit the elders and watch them practicing their craft.

“One of the important things t I’ve learned is Native kids are no different than the kids here. But the children here only know of them through cowboy movies. And so they used to ask me “Are you afraid of them?” And so that was probably 35 years ago, I started bringing the elders here to teach a little bit about who they are.”

She said Friday will be the opening night at Deer Valley.

“And we have a special guest, the principal dancer from the New York City Ballet, Jock Soto, who grew up in Gallup, New Mexico, is part Navajo, and he will be one of the featured guests over the weekend. And then we have the honoring of the grandmothers that night, but also a 10 percent discount on the rugs for the opening night.”

Admission is $30 that night, with tickets available at the door.

Activities on Saturday run from 10 a.m. to 6, with a $5 admission.

“We have Native speakers in the morning, and weavers demonstrations at 1, and then we have what’s called the children’s dances. And this is a good family event to bring your children to watch the Native children do the traditional dances. And right after that we have what’s called the Shiyazhi Princess contest. And these are local urban native girls who come and try out. They have to be Navajo to become the Princess for Adopt a Native Elder for the next year. And so they have to be able to do a talent and perform and speak their clans to the elders. Just a little scary to do.”

On Sunday, starting at 9:45 a.m., Myers said they are saluting veterans with a ceremony and a speaker.

“The Navajos see this as their country, and they’re the warriors. And many of these Elders lost their children in Vietnam wars. And so we do it out of respect for them, being a way, on Veterans Day to be here, to put on a ceremony to honor their children, as well of all the veterans—any veteran’s welcome to come. The Elders do honor any of the veterans that come. Then we have the weaving demonstrations. And we close Sunday afternoon at 3 with the Urban Indiands Pow Wow.”

Also, the Navajo Elder program is continuing its food runs to the reservation. Myers said when she started 35 years ago, she had 10 recipients. Now she has 650.

“Our Elders have to be 75 on up. Our oldest Elder was 116. We had 114, 110, 108. Today our oldest Elder’s 105. But we start with the older Navajo traditional Elders. And so 75 and up in the areas that we deliver food. We just returned actually mid-October from delivering food to all of them, and getting firewood in for the winter. And people can adopt an Elder when they’re there. There’ll be tables showing food boxes, you order you medical boxes.”

Linda Myers from the Adopt a Native Elder program.