AZ Speaks

The agave plant was used by Native peoples for numerous utilitarian items. Mescal served as a valuable food source still being harvested and prepared to this day by many Indigenous […]

Symbols come in a variety of forms and can be found in art, speech, and in writing. Knowing and understanding the southwest symbolism from a tribal perspective is one more […]

The U.S. federal government’s harsh policy of compulsory Indian education in the form of boarding schools began in 1879 and continued through the Great Depression, with boarding schools on and […]

During the night of Christmas Eve in 1944, twenty-five Nazi German prisoners of war escaped from Papago Park POW camp on the outskirts of Phoenix and headed towards Mexico. These […]

Originally conceived to celebrate Arizona’s Centennial in 2012, “The Ballad of Arizona” has been updated to provide a more complete survey of important, but often little-known, chapters of Arizona’s unique […]

In 1909 the Territory of Arizona amended its compulsory school attendance bill to give cities and counties the ability to segregate their schools. Inspired by the change in the law, […]

Communication and secrecy were key to the successful operation of the Underground Railroad. Safety was more important than quickness. Both fugitive slaves and members of the Underground Railroad learned to […]

In the early 20th century, archaeologists in the southwestern U.S. viewed a constellation of distinctive cultural traits – multicolored pottery, houses arranged in walled compounds, and monumental architecture – as […]

Women began contributing to aviation from the very beginning. Whether it was training men for the Layfaette Escadrille in WWI, plotting aviation maps in the 1930s, or training men in […]

The First Amendment prohibits the government from abridging “the right of the people peaceably to assemble.” This basic freedom ensures the right of people to come together and collectively express, […]