John Wayne was born in Iowa and lived for most of his adult life in California. Yet, he spent many years exploring, living, and investing in Arizona, where he produced his own films, raised cattle, operated a game ranch, and was seemingly everywhere at once. Wayne remains an iconic presence in American popular culture. In […]
Ancient Native American cultures of the Southwest, including the Mesa Verde culture of southern Colorado and Utah, the Chaco culture centered in northwestern New Mexico, and the Hohokam culture of southern Arizona, developed sophisticated skills in astronomy and predicting the seasons centuries before Old World peoples first entered the region. In this presentation Dart examines […]
Many neuroscientists study music to elucidate mysteries of the brain. Why is music such a rich resource? Not only can scientists physically track the process of learning music as different areas of the brain light up, they can trace music’s powerful effect on our emotions, muscles and memory. The benefits of music span well beyond […]
As editor of the third edition of Fran Kosik’s classic travel book, A Complete Motoring Guide to the Navajo and Hopi Nations, Turner retraced her routes in January 2013, updating information on dozens of intriguing Native American trading posts, prehistoric ruins, museums, and natural wonders. Using the pictures taken on that trip, this presentation creates […]
Discover art educator Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton’s contributions to the progressive education movement and the American Indian arts and crafts movement. Artist, author, ethnographer, educator, and curator, these were but a few of the talents of Colton, co-founder of the Museum of Northern Arizona and early art advocate on the Colorado Plateau. Colton labored to increase […]
Salt has been a valuable trade item throughout human history. Native American salt procurement in the Southwest involved dangerous journeys across sacred landscapes associated with the deity Salt Woman. This presentation focuses on the prehistory of a famous salt mine in what is now known as Camp Verde. In the 1920s, miners discovered prehistoric salt-mining […]
Through his many diaries and letters it is obvious that Father Kino was more than a missionary who worked among the Native Americans. While his name is often associated with the San Xavier del Bac Mission, he was also a skilled mathematician and cartographer. He made more than 40 expeditions during his life while living […]
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 hide-hunters, and the disengaged U.S. Congress than George Bird Grinnell, the “Father of American Conservation.” Grinnell […]
The 81st Hopi Festival of Art and Culture presented by the Museum of Northern Arizona will feature humanities-based programming co-developed by the museum and Hopi tribal members. Through conversations, film screenings, performances, and storytelling, festival goers will engage with Hopi history, philosophy, and culture. This program is funded in part by Arizona Humanities.
In partnership with the Santa Fe Railway, the Fred Harvey company vigorously promoted travel to the Southwest and was an early innovator of “cultural heritage tourism.” Travelers experienced an idealized version of the Southwest’s Native American cultures through the company’s grand hotels along the Santa Fe line, their Indian Department’s museum rooms and curio shops, […]
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