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

In 1864, the Navajo people were forced to walk over 450 miles to Fort Sumner in eastern New Mexico, an unfortunate event that is known in the Navajo language as Hweeldi. The story of this fatal march has been recorded and interpreted in historical literature by many non-Navajo authors and absent from that literature is […]

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 […]

Winnie Ruth Judd, Eva Dugan, Dr. Rose Boido, and Eva Wilbur Cruz shared one thing in common. All were incarcerated at the Arizona State Prison in Florence.  Some of their stories made national headlines. Who were they and how did they end up in the Florence prison? How did their crimes and trials impact Arizona? […]

Facilitated by: Jona Vance, NAU Department of Philosophy Hot Topics Café creates a forum for civil discussion about issues of contemporary concern. Join us to learn more about the issue, and more about other people and their views. NAU’s Philosophy in the Public Interest convenes the Hot Topics Café. Philosophy in the Public Interest is […]

Hang on to your hats as you ride the trails beside some of Arizona’s most wicked renegades during a time when massacres, mayhem and mischief ran rampant throughout Arizona Territory. Learn the sordid details of desperadoes such as cattle/horse rustler and murderer Augustine Chacon who claimed he killed over fifty men, ladies-man Buckskin Frank Leslie […]

On March 3, 2015, Dr. Lisa C. Young (University of Michigan) and Dr. Sarah A. Herr (Desert Archaeology, Inc.) will describe what makes a settlement a village. Archaeology Café is an informal forum where adults can learn more about the Southwest’s deep history and speak directly to experts. We have based Archaeology Café on the […]

Hot Topics Café creates a forum for civil discussion about issues of contemporary concern. Join us to learn more about the issue, and more about other people and their views. NAU’s Philosophy in the Public Interest convenes the Hot Topics Café. Philosophy in the Public Interest is nonpartisan, and does not endorse a position with […]

The American Civil War resulted in the destruction of slavery in the United States, yet it is not always evident how this came about. People argue over who - or what - freed the slaves, the impact of the Emancipation Proclamation, and how the war itself contributed to the destruction of slavery. Perhaps it may […]

In 1933, at the nadir of the Great Depression, the CCC was born. The program was designed to help unemployed and untrained young men learn new skills and earn money to support their families. CCCers fervently claim that the skill-building experiences forever changed their lives. These men built the roads, trails, picnic areas, ranger stations, […]

During the Depression, the Federal Writers Project conducted interviews with over 144 women who arrived in the Arizona Territory between 1850 and 1890. The women spoke of their long and dangerous journeys and with their words paint pictures of the hardships and life-threatening situations of their frontier existence. Through hard work, dedication, tenacity, and humor, […]

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 […]

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 […]

Join Stevenson as she traces Arizona history through women who recorded pieces of their lives in their needlework.  Beginning with 1860s Mexican women, through 1990s Hopi women, this presentation introduces women who pioneered Arizona through quilts they stitched. Some of the women featured are Atanacia Santa Cruz Hughes, Tucson; Viola Slaughter, Southeastern Arizona; Alice Gillette Haught, […]

An ancient set of Indian paths and the natural flow of the Gila River created a major artery for travel through Arizona. The Gila provided a ready route for the earliest traders, including Toltecs of Mexico, who traded with the Mogollon, Anasazi and Hohokam. This program focuses on the varied travelers along this route—their struggles, […]