Window Rock Navajo Tribal Park and Veterans Memorial

Window Rock is the sandstone arch that gave the Navajo Nation's capital its name. In Navajo it is Tségháhoodzání, the 'rock with a hole through it'. It stands just north of the Navajo Nation's government buildings, in a small tribal park. A veterans memorial was set up at the base of the arch in 1995. Its statue of a Navajo Code Talker carries the radio used in the Second World War, and steel pillars list the names of Navajo veterans.

The rock is more than scenery. In Navajo tradition it is one of four places where medicine men go with woven water jugs to collect water for the Water Way Ceremony, held to pray for plenty of rain. The town grew up around it only in 1936. That year Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier chose the site for the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Navajo Central Agency. Collier wanted the agency to take the area's ceremonial name, Niʼ Ałníiʼgi ('Center of the World'). Navajos objected, so it was named after the landmark instead.

The Navajo Nation Council Chamber stands nearby, on Tribal Hill Road, sited with a view of the arch. Collier chose its site in 1933, and it was built in 1934 and 1935 with Public Works Administration money. The two-level building is octagonal, made of red sandstone to match the cliffs around it, and designed to evoke a great hogan. Its main entrance faces east, the traditional Navajo orientation. The 24-member Navajo Nation Council meets there. It became a National Historic Landmark in 2004.

Wikipedia lists the Code Talkers memorial as one of Window Rock's tribal attractions, along with the Navajo Nation Museum and the Navajo Nation Zoo, both a short drive south. The town fills up on weekdays, when tribal offices are open. Wikipedia estimates the population rises from about 2,500 residents to around 20,000 people during the working day.

Treat this as a sacred and civic place. The Navajo Nation bans climbing on its monuments, buttes and sacred sites. It also bans drones and alcohol across the Nation, and it asks visitors to get permission before photographing Navajo people. The Navajo Tourism Department lists the park as free and open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Window Rock is on State Route 264 near the New Mexico line, about 26 miles by road from Gallup. Like the rest of the Navajo Nation, it keeps daylight saving time, so from March to November it is an hour ahead of Phoenix.