AZ Speaks

Throughout history, the ability of a people to survive and thrive has been tied to environmental conditions.  The skill to predict the climatic change of the seasons was an essential element in the ability to “control” those conditions. Seasonal calendars thus became the foundation of early cultures: hunting and gathering, planting and harvesting, worshiping and […]

Using interviews with Sedona Schnebly’s children, Lisa Schnebly Heidinger  has put together little-known details about this amazing woman’s life, from being written out of the will for marrying TC Schnebly on her 20th birthday to the fate of the man she didn’t marry. Her story includes the journey west and the comic and tragic details […]

The great West that George Bird Grinnell first encountered in 1870 as a 21-year old man was shortly to disappear before his eyes. Nobody was quicker to sense the desecration or was more eloquent in crusading against the poachers, the hidehunters, and the disengaged U.S. Congress than George Bird Grinnell, the “Father of American Conservation.” Grinnell […]

The American Southwest is world-renown for its colorful and spectacular landscapes like Grand Canyon, Sedona, Monument Valley, the Superstition Mountains, and the Sonoran Desert. But how did these wonders come to exist and what can ordinary rocks tell us about their ancient origins? You’ll be amazed to learn that the Southwest was once the site […]

Just weeks after Pearl Harbor, the War Department announced the construction of a massive ammunition depot ten miles west of Flagstaff at Bellemont on U.S. Highway 66. Flagstaff’s population exploded from five to twenty thousand. The Army rushed the $17 million project to completion in a spasm of boomtown upheaval. Several thousand Navajo and Hopi […]

Featuring compelling documentaries based on interviews, this presentation shares stories about prominent African Americans who contributed to the life and culture of Arizona. Such luminaries include the late Dr. Eugene Grigsby, Betty Fairfax, Judge Jean Williams, Rev. Warren Stewart, Councilman Calvin Goode, and Carol Coles Henry. Each individual’s life is contextualized using prominent events that […]

For centuries, Hopi men grew cotton and wove the fibers into blankets and clothing. In the 1880s, with the arrival of Anglo missionaries and government officials, quilting was introduced to the Hopi people and it quickly became integrated into Hopi culture and ceremony with quilts being used in every Hopi household. Hopis today are 4th […]

While doing research on our centennial book, Lisa Schnebly Heidinger developed a treasure trove of anecdotes that wove through the tapestry Arizona, and can custom fit a presentation to any audience, based on geography, interest and local population. These include but are not limited to little heard details about famous figures (like when the Bucky […]

Martha Summerhayes was a refined New England woman who entered the Arizona Territory in 1874 as the young bride of an Army Lieutenant. Traveling in horrific conditions and dreadful heat, she soon despised the wild and untamed land. She gave birth to the first anglo child born at Fort Apache where the native women took […]

Where lies the cure to diabetes? “Ask the prickly pear, or the mesquite bean pod…maybe they will tell you.” This is the answer you may hear from elder instructors of the Hualapai Ethnobotany Youth Project. The ethnobotanical story of the Hualapai Tribe begins with the plant knowledge the people have inherited from their great grandparents […]