English, Hopi, Tewa, Oh My!

 (Painting by Dan Namingha, a Hopi-Tewa artist, via cornell.edu)

Around these parts, the word "Hopi" is uttered thousands of times a day. We are all gearing up for the Hopi festival (and it's all very exciting!) and seeing a lot of wonderful art come in. Part of the Hopi festival, though, is another culture that many of you may not know about: the Tewa. Part of the Tewa tribe was relocated from their Rio Grande locations after the Pueblo Revolts (1680-96) and now lives in Hopi in the pueblo of Hano. Though, over the years, they have become quite integrated into Hopi culture (and there has been room for tons of exchange), they speak a different language (many are trilingual--speaking Hopi, Tewa, and English, but maintainging a strict separation of the languages).

There will be a strong Tewa presence at the 77th annual Hopi festival, and we thought that it would be useful for you guys to know about them. Here are a bunch of different links to give you more information on the intriguing Tewa culture.

1. This is the Tewa origin myth. The story of their creation dictates the order of their internal society. It's also a really interesting story on its own!
2. This is a general overview of the Tewa, including their regional concentrations and a brief history.
3. This is Edward S. Curtis's ethnography of the Arizona Tewa.  It is quite extensive, but also very intriguing and talks a lot about the secretive nature of the Tewa, and how many of their tales will be "buried with the last of its devotees" (Curtis). p.s... there are really great pictures of Tewa settlements in this one.
4. Here is a resource for the Tewa language, which many of the elders are making great efforts to preserve. 


I hope that, as you scan through all of the links, you find yourself as enthralled as all of us in the HP office are with the color, beauty and the richness of the Tewa culture. You can look forward to learning more and seeing their art at the Hopi Festival!

Happy Wednesday,

Love,
The Interns.

Hopi Code Talkers Honored

In our most recent research we've learned that Hopis also served in the armed forces as code talkers. The Navajo-Hopi Observer had a story that was very interesting. Read it here. We'd love to learn more about these individuals and perhaps set up an educational lecture and forum in the future.
-HP Interns

Licking Envelopes

Hello World!

It's Phoebe sitting in the Heritage Program office on this windy friday afternoon. The reason why I'm writing is a little bit selfish today... I'm using it as an excuse to hide from the massive to-do list that's hanging on our wall. I'm also using it to complain a little bit. In this case, complaining has lead me to a momentous realization. There is a large part of the Heritage Program that many of you probably don't know about, and that most people in this office try to avoid-- licking envelopes. I'm not joking. Envelopes are one of our connections to all of the incredible artists that we bring in to the festivals. Today, I was the lucky one who was pinned with the task of stuffing all of the envelopes with application letters for the Celebraciones de la Gente festival that happens in the end of October. Let's just say that the copy room and I need some time apart after this endeavor. To make the job a little bit easier, I chose some vibrant paper colors and tried humming some songs to myself. Still, it was a daunting task. There were about 200 envelopes that had to be stuffed, and one only one person to do it. I spent some quality time (about 2 hours) next to the copy machine, folding fluorescent pink and yellow paper, decorating my hands with paper cuts, stuffing and addressing envelopes. To make it all a little more agonizing, I found out after I parched my tongue licking envelopes that I didn't have to-- apparently there's a machine for that (why should I be surprised?).
I'm not just writing to complain... I'm writing because the monotonous task of folding mountains of paper for hours made me realize how lucky I am to do work that is so far from that. I realized that, despite how busy these days are, I'm lucky that I get to spend them learning about the beautiful Native American cultures of the southwest and talking to artists and having my eyes widened due to some of the things I read. I realized that, in this life, you have to lick your share of envelopes to understand the richness of the world around you.

Hope you all have paper-cut free weekends,
love,
Phoebe.

p.s.: ANNE FIGURED IT OUT!

Mike Kabotie Tribute Video

Hey everyone.
You should all go watch this video: Tribute to Michael Kabotie.

It's a beautiful video of Michael Kabotie's son, Ed, giving at talk at MNA on April 10, 2010 in remembrance of his father.
Happy Friday!
Love,

Anne and the Interns.

1st Trip to the Hopi Reservation

Hey everyone,
Interns here. We're just back from our first experience on the Hopi Reservation on Monday. During this visit, we hung posters for our upcoming collection trip on Friday the 25th. Our journey started Monday morning at 9 and we geared up for the trip, expecting a long day of travel and meeting people. Anne acted as tour guide as we traveled through beautiful scenery and geological features of the land. Throughout the day she also introduced us to many artists and art dealers.
We learned that each of the 3 mesas has a different artistic specialty. Though we only saw the first 2 mesas, we are excited for the end of the month where we'll see them all.

Our first stop was the Cultural Center, a bright orange building on 2nd mesa. After dropping off some flyers and talking to some people in the shops, we stopped by the restaurant for a "quick" lunch of hopi tacos. Randi and Phoebe demolished the gigantic tacos with no problem. I had one with beef and mashed potatoes which was equally amazing. Anne seemed to know everyone in the restaurant and chatted with several old friends.

Amazingly, we managed to stay awake during the rest of the trip after the big lunch. The scenery was too amazing to sleep through. We made it to the tops of the mesa where many of the artists live. Some tourists were there on the guided tours that are available. These are a good idea for learning some of the interesting history of the mesas and aspects of the culture.

Helping fill us in on some of the Hopi culture was Joseph Day, owner of Tsakurshovi, a traditional shop with Hopi art and goods. He explained how his store specializes in items bought by local people for their daily life and art. His wife's motto is "Don't worry, be Hopi." You might have seen these shirts somewhere across the globe in the last 30 years.

The trip home took longer than expected with lots of construction on Hwy 264, so be warned if you go up to the reservation this week! This allowed us to reflect on our trip and think about the exciting Hopi festival that is quickly approaching.

Til next time,

Grant, Phoebe, and Randi (the interns)

Heritage Program Schedule 2010

Heritage Program Schedule 2010

Just your interns here giving you the schedule for the rest of the season's events!

Festivals

77th Annual Hopi Festival of Arts and Culture
Saturday July 3rd, Sunday July 4th
The oldest Hopi show in the world.

61st Annual Navajo Festival of Arts and Culture
Saturday August 7th, Sunday August 8th
Expressions of Beauty and Place

7th Annual Celebraciones de la Gente
Saturday October 23rd, Sunday October 24th
A lively celebration of the Day of the Dead.

Insight Presentations

Saturday, June 12th, 12 p.m.
Navajo Rug Weaving by Dr. Jennifer McLerran

Saturday, September 18th, 2 p.m.
Havasupai ceremonial dances with James Uqualla and Havusupai Dancers

Saturday, November 13th, 2 p.m.
A celebration of poetry and language with Dine poet Laura Tohe

Saturday, December 11th, 2 p.m.
Zuni Emergence and Migration History  by Curtis Quam      
    
Love,

Anne and the Interns

Introductions and the 20th Annual Zuni Festival of Arts and Culture

Hello all!

We're sitting in the admin building at the Museum of Northern Arizona after a busy weekend consumed by the wonderful Zuni festival. Before we move any further, we should probably explain who "we" are...

Writing this fantastic blog will be Anne Doyle and her three Heritage Program interns: Grant Adams, Randi Ringnes, and Phoebe Smolin. We come from various corners of the country to take you with us on this year's adventure that is the Heritage Program.

This weekend, we were thrown into the madness of the Zuni Festival (and we mean madness in a good way). I don't think any of us were expecting the craziness! Preparation began well before we arrived, and thus we were thrown right into the thick of it all. After a week of checking in artists, preparing paperwork for the show, and much more, the real fun started Friday afternoon.

We first had the pleasure of meeting the judges, who were both very welcoming and seemed to know exactly what they were doing. We acted as shadows during the judging process, following them around as they placed the pieces into various categories. After writing what seemed like millions of names onto the backs of ribbons, the festival finally got started with the Members' Preview (as interns, we can only truly comment on what happened behind the scenes, but from what we can gather, it was a successful evening... and there were delicious tacos involved).

We arrived around 9 on Saturday to begin setting up for the long day ahead. After watching the Zuni and American flag raising (accompanied by the Zuni Pueblo Band), we headed off in our different directions to help with the speakers, performers, and the barbecue dinner for the artists. In between all of our internly duties, we got to experience the treasures embedded in the Heritage Program. While translating some English words into Zuni with the help of a prominent Zuni scholar, Dan Simplicio, we headed into an enlightening digression about Zuni culture and the difference between their language and western languages. We were all left wide-eyed. We also got to talk to a bunch of Zuni artists about what they do and what it means to them-- their art is more than just beautiful works but also a deeply rooted tradition. We had some witty yet enriching exchanges with the Zuni Pueblo band, the Young Olla Maidens, and the Nowetsa Family dancers as they were waiting to perform for the festival-goers who were all fascinated by what they saw.

After we folded up our last table, we all walked away from the 20th Annual Zuni Festival of Arts and Culture a new perception of and appreciation for a rich and beautiful culture that is often overlooked by mainstream society. As we catch up on our sleep, we are also preparing for the upcoming 77th Annual Hopi Festival of Arts and Culture on July 3rd and 4th. We all can't wait for another spectacular festival and we hope to see you there!

Love,

Anne and the interns.

p.s. You can look forward to more posting as we prepare for the rest of our festivals!

(photo by Michele Mountain)