Come have a taste of the rich and savory history of these food favorites, explore how early peoples used them, and how they have evolved and spread to all corners of the world. Food is a portal into culture and can convey a range of cultural meaning including occasion, social status, ethnicity, and wealth depending […]

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 groups. For millennia people have pit roasted the heart of the plant yielding a nutritious food staple rich in calcium and zinc. This talk includes […]

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 way Arizona celebrates its heritage. Today symbols among tribal nations describe life or convey a much deeper meaning in clothing, footwear, baskets designs and even […]

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 off Indian Reservations remaining prominent through 1970. Presently, boarding schools are still the main means of K-8 education in rural Indian communities. This presentation will […]

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 […]