Rebecca and Elena Visit Steele Indian School Park (Native American Heritage Month)

Elena Rodriguez and Rebecca Esennath Chavez take a look into the past.

The past is a little grimy.

The gals are at Steele Indian School Park, site of the former Phoenix Indian School, at Indian School Road and Central Avenue. Back when D7ana had announced that November themes include Native American Heritage Month, I'd made noises about doing this photo-shoot. I have since reached the conclusion that I need 45-day months and 750-day years in order to get anything done; but on the verge of running out of November, I hit a couple of hours in which the light, temperature, and energy of the photographer were as ideal as they were going to get, so off we go.

Boil-washing extravaganza plus new dresses to celebrate Rebecca's body transplant

It's amazing how an unexpected visit from one's landlord can suddenly make tidying and cleaning seem so much less onerous, to the point that doing it right now works extremely well. The answer to stress is always boil-washing, which is why there's now a candid shot of some Liv girls with their painted-on pixie cuts.

Alexis seems worried about what Fitzroy's going to do next.

Katie, Hayden, Alexis, and Krys are all getting their hair cleaned and shined because everybody was looking as if they'd been in Arizona for a while -- and frantic cleaning had resulted in putting most of the body farm in a bag in the closet, leaving me free counter space.

Medical science on the frontier

Miss Hanzo has brought Akilah Nichelle to watch a full-body transplant, to reassure her that it really does go fine.

Miss Hanzo's mind is more on a future with additional Warhol nut benches.

Basically, I got home and decided it was time to rip heads off fashion dolls. Fashionista Artsy is the body donor, as she's a generic shade of tan. After I swore up and down that Rebecca Essenath Chavez was not a keeper, just a temporary project... she's the body recipient.

This process did not go as smoothly as I'd hoped.

Hair today!

Pocahontas insisted on wearing a top while showing off her improved hair, pointing out that nude photos are demeaningly reminiscent of health inspections at the old Indian School and make her feel like the subject of an experiment.

She also prefers to be called Rebecca Esennath Chavez, after two of her great-grandmothers in the O'odham (Pima) communities here in Arizona. Her hair improvement is the result of my research after my mother suggested fabric softener, which I don't have in the house -- so I was highly motivated to look for any alternative before trying that.

Ah, the woes that hair is heir to!

Pocahontas struggles her way toward a more modern image as a contemporary Native American woman, handicapped by just having won the award for Worst Hair in the History of Hair, taking it from Experimental Subject #5.

Her hair as rescued from Goodwill was so matted and frizzy that a comb wouldn't go through it. We're not talking "long, tedious job," as Elena Rodriguez's hair was, the result of her being filthy. We're talking hair-that-is-no-longer-hair-like. The comb sticks in it, and if a comb could say 'lol, no!", the comb would do so. This is the same comb with which I remove the cat's mats (because in my home, the mat is on the cat, and not vice-versa), so it's not a wimpy comb. But it's utterly defeated by this... (image after jump because it is too horrifying for mortals to look upon)...