“In the Dirt” documentary empowers mountain bikers on the Navajo Nation
Not one bike shop exists in on the Navajo Nation's 27,000 square miles.
“In the Dirt” presents mountain biking as a path toward personal growth and community resilience. The Navajo Nation is marked by geographical vastness and limited infrastructure, and bicycles have become more than just modes of transportation.
Gregory Bahe is a Navajo man, cycling coach, and parent. In an interview in the documentary, he spoke about his children’s love for cycling.
“I've been trying to tell my kids, ‘Live your life; you're not promised tomorrow. That's what makes you strong; you just got to keep moving forward, don't give up.’ What they like to do is bike. That helps them relieve some of that stress and just the mental part of it. That's one of the things that we like to do as my family,” said Bahe.
Bahe is from Chinle, Arizona. His children, Owen and Emma, are featured in “In the Dirt.” They traveled to Cortez for the screening.
“The thing I love about biking is the community I ride with,” said Owen Bahe. “I like riding with them. It's a lot of fun. I like how it brings our team together.”
“I love that it connects me more with the outdoors because I just really love the outdoors, and looking at the scenery, and wondering where it can take me,” said Emma Bahe.
Owen and Emma ride with a cycling nonprofit out of Gallup, New Mexico, called Silver Stallion. Silver Stallion is comprised of over 190 adult and children mountain bikers, many of whom are featured in this documentary. Some riders shared their motivation for cycling at a Q+A panel after the screening.
Franklin Cook is from Fort Defiance, AZ. He revealed that cycling helped him battle addiction.
“With my past addiction that I had with drinking, and just hanging out with the wrong crowd, I just decided to pick up the bike again. What I did was just pedal it around, and it got the feeling out of me to not think about drinking and doing stuff again. I found a way to pedal away from trouble, pedal away from the alcohol, pedal away from the drugs, from the gang violence,” said Cook.
Scott Nydam is the director of the Silver Stallion cycling non-profit. He told the crowd watching the documentary that he sees the growth of biking as part of a more significant movement.
“We're working on utilizing the existing health service ecosystem that is in this post-colonial state of which there is self-determination. This project can add to that… This could scale. It starts here. We have attention from the industry,” said Nydam.
Scott Nydam is working on a mobile bike shop that would travel to rural areas of the Navajo Nation. The “In the Dirt” documentary continues to tour nationwide. The film has not yet been released for online streaming.
