Central Arizona

Survivors of genocide are not victims, they are heroes.  It is hard to imagine that there are real people involved in the dangers of ethnic cleansing, drones and other weapons of destruction.  Have you ever asked yourself, “What happens after war? How do people deal with its effect?  Where are those that have been ravaged […]

With the exception of the most ardent collectors and the older generations, the influence and legacy of the big bands is largely forgotten despite their overwhelming popularity and significant role in early radio.  Join Larson as he revisits the sounds that America listened and danced to for more than three decades.  Learn how iconic artists […]

Consider the taco, that favorite treat, a staple of Mexican and Mexican American cooking and an old standby on an Arizonan’s plate. The corn in the tortilla comes from Mexico, the cheese from the Sahara, the lettuce from Egypt, the onion from Syria, the tomatoes from South America, the chicken from Indochina, and the beef […]

Goldie Tracy Richmond came to southwestern Arizona in 1927 where she lived in a canvas lean-to. To survive, Goldie mined, ran traplines, and operated Tracy’s Trading Post, living among the Tohono O’odham people for four decades. She was a large woman, and the stories told by the O’odham people of Goldie’s life are legendary. Goldie […]

Charles Lindbergh is best known for his famous 1927 flight across the Atlantic Ocean.  But few realize that Lindbergh and his wife, Anne, played a brief but important role in archaeology.  In 1929 they teamed up with noted archaeologist Alfred Kidder to conduct an unprecedented aerial photographic survey of Southwest prehistoric sites and geologic features […]

During WWII a select group of young Navajo men enlisted in the Marines with a unique weapon.  Using the Navajo language, they devised a secret code that the enemy never deciphered.  For over 40 years a cloak of secrecy hung over the Code Talker’s service until the code was declassified and they were finally honored […]

American Indians are the only ethnic group in the United States who, for generations, were subjected to forced education by the federal government.  In the early years, Indian children were hunted down and taken by force to boarding schools, residing there for three or more years.  These children were stripped of their Native identities, not […]

Place names are like fossil poetry: they afford a kind of folk history, a snapshot in time that enables us to read them and reconstruct how people have assigned names to the places to which they come. The U.S. has over 3.5 million place names, and there is no part of the world where nomenclature […]