Elle of Ganado

Elle of Ganado

Elle was photographed by famous Western photographers Karl Moon and A.C.Vroman. The first dated photograph of Elle was taken in 1901 by Vroman of Pasadena, who was traveling with the P.G. Gates Expedition through Navajo Country. An earlier undated photograph shows a young Elle and her husband Tom, who also worked for the Fred Harvey Company, in an unknown location in front of a loom and hogan. The Harvey Company hired Moon to work in its El Tovar Studio at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, where in 1906 he photographed Elle in several different portrait poses. The best-known Moon portrait was copyrighted by Fred Harvey in 1906.

Tom of Ganado

 Prints of Moon's portrait of Elle were offered for sale in a mail-order catalog published by the Harvey Company in 1910 and at the El Tovar Studio at the Grand Canyon. By 1911, nine years after the Alvarado Hotel opened, the Harvey Company had produced and sold more than 3.5 million postcards. Elle and Tom appeared on many of them. Described by the Harvey Company as its "best weaver", Elle was born to the Black Sheep Clan and was known as "Red Woman", or Asdzaa Lichii' in the Navajo language. Navajo sources believe Elle may have gone on the Long Walk and spent time in captivity at Bosque Redondo. A 1903 Harvey brochure mentioned Elle and stated that she was "nearing fifty years of age." Although outwardly exhibiting many of the cultural attributes of a Navajo, there is question about her actual ethnic heritage. 

One story, published in 1922, alludes to Elle's origins: As the story goes, Elle's mother, a Spanish girl of high caste, was captured in one of the frequent raids when she was an infant. She grew up with the nomads and married a wealthy Navajo. It is said that Elle, their child, was one of the most beautiful maidens of her tribe, and was wooed by all the eligible young bucks of Navajo land.