Southwest Indian 4 State Trip 2017

The Kaibab Paiute are a small tribe with a 20 square mile reservation in northern Arizona, fifty miles north of the Grand Canyon.  Their existence today, we learned at Pipe Spring National Monument situated on the reservation, is almost miraculous. With an ancestry going back almost 1,000 years in northern Arizona, into the 19 th   century they were a peaceful people practicing a hunting, gathering, and small farming existence.  They were intimately connected to and successful in their ecosystem. It is amazing to learn how they used everything in their dry environment that could possibly have value. The aquifer at the base of the Vermillion Cliffs provides the water source for Pipe Spring which was discovered and used by the Kaibab Paiute before whites arrived.  Spain invaded the Kaibab-Paiute lands beginning 1776 bringing disease and slavery (often aided by other Indian tribes).  Then came the Mormons. American imperialism ousted the Spanish but only clear...

The southwest abounds with wondrous petroglyphs created as early as 2,000 or more years ago by Fremont, Ancestral Puebloan and Hopi peoples which we have viewed in the last week. Their meanings are not clearly known, but are thought to provide detailed information about their lives, including maps, journeys, clan symbols, geography, spirituality, animals that were important to their lives, and economy.  They can be artistic expression as well. Petroglyphs are carved or pecked into the rock (pictograph are another form of rock art which are painted on rock surfaces). Many of the petroglyphs we saw at Capitol Reef National Park along a number of sheer rock walls were faint, but others were clearer.  We saw images of long horn sheep, people, perhaps families, dogs or dog-like animals, perhaps deer. At Taawaki, or Dawa Canyon on the Hopi reservation, a horseshoe shaped 200 foot high cliff considered sacred to the Hopi contains numerous petroglyphs, varying in size and style....

We hope again this year to share our joy, excitement, and discovery as we travel through the 4 Corners area of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico learning about the Southwest Indian nations living there (Navaho, Hopi, Zuni, Acoma, various other Pueblo nations, Southern Ute and Paiute) and viewing the awesome natural environment.  We will send regular blog posts – trying to keep each brief - or you can view the whole blog at    southwestindiantrip.blogspot. com . If you have any thoughts please send them along, and of course let us know if you would prefer not to get these emails.  Peace and love, Carl and Carol

The Denver Art Museum is a wonderful start for our trip. After breakfast and on our way to meet up with Lucy we stopped there for a few hours to take in their Indian exhibit.  It is similarly structured along geographic lines like Nelson-Atkins which we visited last year, but here the art is exhibited in a much larger space so feels more breathtaking.  And the Indians of the Southwest have a  major pride of place (pottery, basketry, clothing, jewelry, katsina dolls, woven items), though Northwest and Plains Indian art is also featured. “Mud Woman Rolls On,” produced in 2011 specifically as the entrance figure for the entire exhibit, is amazing both in its message and in its presentation. The Santa Clara Pueblo (New Mexico) artist Roxanne Swentzall has produced a larger than life sized clay figure (11 feet tall) of a mother holding an older child, holder a younger child, holding a still younger child, and finally a fourth.  It is a depiction of our connection to th...