Recession on the Navajo Reservation
by Christina Davidson
Since being laid off two months ago from his job as a tire technician in Tuba City, Alvin has drawn on his surrounding resources in order to earn the dollars required to fulfill needs beyond the most basic required for human survival. In order to make the jewelry he sells at his little roadside stand, Alvin collects red and green jasper and other stones polished to a sparkling shine by the winds that tumble them for miles across the sandy desert floor. Little blue berries from cedar trees become wood-like brown beads when dried and strung on a filament of cotton.
