The Earliest Apache in Arizona: Evidence and Arguments – Prescott

Smoki Museum Pueblo 147 N. Arizona Avenue, Prescott, AZ, United States

How did the Apache impact late prehistoric peoples? Research provides evidence of ancestral Apaches in the southern Southwest as early as A.D. 1300. Evidence comes from chronometric dates obtained from storage features (covered with grass or leaves), on Apache pottery, and from roasting pits, all in direct association with other types of Apache material culture. […]

Free

Boarded Up: Social and Historical Interpretations of the American Indian Boarding School Era

Smoki Museum Pueblo 147 N. Arizona Avenue, Prescott, AZ, United States

This presentation will impart a social interpretation of how life among Indian Nations began to change due to the plight American Indian people were forced into in the name of education.  American Indians are the only ethnic group in the U.S. who were subjected to forced education by the federal government for generations.  Children were […]

Free

The Creation of the American Southwest: 1750 to 1950

Smoki Museum Pueblo 147 N. Arizona Avenue, Prescott, AZ, United States

Professor Gratton examines the role of indigenous persons, Hispanic groups, migrants and immigrants in the region that became the American Southwest.  Maps, census data,  images, video and audio reveal a thinly populated region initially dominated by Indian nations and ravaged by war and slavery. He then surveys the rapid growth of population between 1850 and […]

Free

Plants, Inspiring the People: Reflections on Hualapai Ethnobotanyof the Grand Canyon

Smoki Museum Pueblo 147 N. Arizona Avenue, Prescott, AZ, United States

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 […]

Free

Aw-Thum Bow & Arrow “Don’t Get the String Wet.”

Smoki Museum Pueblo 147 N. Arizona Avenue, Prescott, AZ, United States

Growing up playing and shooting an Aw-Thum bow (circa 1926) was a favorite pastime for Royce Manuel who was told by his father “make your own arrows and don’t get the string wet.” The bow string made from horse intestines were forever changed when the sprinkles of rain came. Manuel’s grandfather shared stories while demonstrating […]

Free

A Boot in the Door: Pioneer Women Archaeologists of Arizona

Smoki Museum Pueblo 147 N. Arizona Avenue, Prescott, AZ, United States

The men who explored Arizona are legends in the history of the region and of anthropology, but what about the women who accompanied them or explored by themselves?  Did you know that Matilda Coxe Stevenson was a member of the first official government survey of Canyon de Chelly or that Emma Mindeleff surveyed ruins in […]

Free

Armed with Our Language, We Went to War: The Navajo Code Talkers

Smoki Museum Pueblo 147 N. Arizona Avenue, Prescott, AZ, United States

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 […]

Free

Native in a Strange Land: The Life of Mike Burns, Indian Scout and Autobiographer

Smoki Museum Pueblo 147 N. Arizona Avenue, Prescott, AZ, United States

Mike Burns lived a long life in two worlds. Born in about 1862 into the Kwevkepaya (Yavapai) people, he was taken prisoner by U.S. soldiers after his family was massacred at a place called Skeleton Cave. He lived for years as something between a captive and a servant until joining the Indian Scouts, riding against […]

Free

Native Roads: A Virtual Guide to the Hopi and Navajo Nations

Smoki Museum Pueblo 147 N. Arizona Avenue, Prescott, AZ, United States

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 […]

Free

Southwestern Rock Calendars and Ancient Time Pieces

Smoki Museum Pueblo 147 N. Arizona Avenue, Prescott, AZ, United States

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 […]

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