In September 1996 a few hempsters were asked to go to Window Rock in the Navajo Nation. Woody Harrelson, Chris Boucher, Michael Myers, Jim Robinson and I (Richard Rose) traveled there for 3 days, on our dime and at Christie Bohling and Patrick Lange’s request, to consult on hemp with the Navajo Nation administrators and a Judge. They had irrigated land and a closed particle board plant up north. Malcolm MacKinnon from Hemp Times magazine also attended.
Many don’t know that the Navajo were the first tribe to attempt a hemp crop in the modern era. Back in 1996, the Navajo Hemp Project was led by Merwyn Lynch, who died in 2010. He was President of the Wide Ruins chapter. While in Window Rock, Woody appeared on Navajo Nation Television with Suzy Baldwin to discuss the economic viability of hemp agriculture. Unfortunately, severe drought scuttled the experimental hemp crop.
When I first met Woody I said to him before the introduction “aren’t you Brett’s brother?” Yes, I knew who Woody was, but Brett Harrelson was an infamous motorcycle racer in California and I don’t get star-struck like most. He laughed.
I showed Woody my raw Hempeh Burger in a package and being a raw foodie at the time he quickly opened and ate it right then and there. Personally, I prefer to cook it first…
On the drive back from Window Rock to the Albuquerque airport, I smoked a fatty of the hemp flower fines at the bottom of the bag of seed given to the Navajo, to empirically test whether hemp could get one high. It did not, but now I realize I got a bunch of CBD from it.
Woody, Richard, Suzy Baldwin (Navajo Nation):
Suzy Baldwin (Navajo Nation), Christie Bohling, Woody, Richard:
Photos by Malcolm MacKinnon.