We are supporting 2 Hopi families to come to Camp Verde to participate in the Verde Valley Archaeology Center (VVAC) American Indian Art Show, March 18-19, 2017.  

This free event is part of the  Annual Verde Valley Archaeology Fair and Film Festival.

Come an enjoy the art, and Hopi  youth will demonstrate some traditional games.  They will have bull roarers, rattles, tops, darts-corncob game, lightning sticks, piki bread, drawings and paintings for sale.

Location:  Main Street and Holloman, Camp Verde, Arizona–across Holloman Street from the VVAC. Next door on Holloman Street will the Camp Verde Pecan and Wine Festival.  Fort Verde State Park is at the end of Holloman Street.

Time:  10 am – 4 pm

Artists from several other tribes will also participate.  More info here.

entertainment schedule:

Saturday, March 18

• 11:30 am – Aaron White 12:30 pm – Cibecue Creek Dancers
• 1:30 pm – Pima Basket Dancers
• 2:30 pm – Aaron White Aaron White Grammy-nominated Aaron White is a mix of Native American sounds and modern music, mixing the traditional and main stream with world music overtones. From solo Acoustic Instrumentals, Native American Flute melodies to Reggae, and Acoustic Blues Rock. His musical influences come from different experiences from the life he has lived and the people he has met.

Sunday, March 19

• 11:30 am – David Wolfs Robe
• 12:30 pm – Cibecue Creek Dancers
• 1:30 pm – Pima Basket Dancers
  
• 2:30 pm – David Wolfs Robe

International Archaeology Film Festival will also be held at the same site–see film schedule here.

Archaeology Lectures schedule here.

We are supporting bringing members of the Natwanhoyum Tunyata youth farming group to come to:
Archaeology Discovery Days-V Bar V Heritage Site
March 25-26, 2017

The Hopi youth will demonstrate 3 Hopi games which come out of their prehistory.  The first two games listed below involved skill in hitting a moving target.  They will also have a display table.

• Corncob darts 
• Bow and arrow
• Spinning Top game

These games, played by boys, were meant to “improve and strengthen them physically, mentally and spiritually.” (source:  excerpt from Education Beyond the Mesas: Hopi Students at Sherman Institute, 1902-1929.)

Press Release:  “The Red Rock Ranger District, Coconino National Forest, will  demonstrate a variety of ancient technologies to help celebrate March being Archaeology and Heritage Awareness Month in Arizona.

Activities will emphasize a better understanding and appreciation of the Native American cultures in the Southwest that have been practiced for hundreds of years.

Details:  held at V Bar V Heritage Site the weekend of March 25-26 for Archaeology Discovery Days from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visitors can enjoy learning about ancient techniques for spinning and weaving cotton, making bows and arrows, flint knapping and many other interesting tools. Visitors can also try their hand at making “pinch pots” with clay and throwing a dart with an atlatl.

Yavapai-Apache Bird Dancers

The learning continues with information about plants and animals useful to Native Americans and displays of Mountain Men in their living-history camp. Also, learn about traditional games and farming methods from a Hopi youth group.

Mountain Men display booth. They will be camped at the site as will the Hopi youth.

Dancers from the Yavapai-Apache Nation will perform at 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. on March 25 at the V Bar V Heritage Site, where one can view over 1,000 petroglyphs at the heritage site and learn about the people who made these markings.

The V Bar V Heritage Site is located 2.8 miles southeast of I-17 exit 298, just past the Beaver Creek Day Use area. Red Rock Passes are required for parking and will be available at V Bar V for $5 per car, or a Federal Interagency Passes can be displayed.  For more information, please go to www.fs.usda.gov.coconino or call (928) 282-3854.”

Hopi Orchard Projects

We are sponsoring our 3rd annual permaculture style orchard project training day, March 19, led by Mario Valeruz, Sedona orchardist, for the Hopi youth farming group.  He will continue work with the orchard that was planted 2 years ago with trees and drip system we supplied.  Mario will also give guidance on pruning and restoring an historic orchard.

Dry Farming: The Seed of Hopi Culture

“The art of dry farming requires patience, humility, hard work, and most of all, after the teachings of Màasaw, a “heart full of prayer.”

“The Hopi people have always held tightly to their age-old practices and exercised caution in accepting modern methods and technologies. This reverence for tradition is today manifest in the traditional Hopi art of dry farming. Because of the scarcity of water, it is a rigorous and labor-intensive method of farming. With annual precipitation of 12 inches or less, the Hopi have been able to sustain and adjust in a region that offers a harsh, sometimes cruel, environment, and have developed skills in analyzing soil types and adapting planting methods to their environment.

Photo: saving blue corn seeds for next year’s planting by Stewart B. Koylyumptewa

Agriculture has always played a central role in the Hopi culture, not only as a means of sustenance, but also in a ceremonial role. Believing that they are carrying out the instructions of Màasaw, the caretaker, guardian and protector of the world, the Hopi have entered into a spiritual covenant with him for the ages. Throughout their migrations to the Hopi mesas, they have brought his agricultural teachings with them.

Today Hopi traditional farming is still performed entirely by hand. Although some Hopi use tractors to plow and plant their fields, all care and harvesting of the plants is done manually. Major fields are mainly located at the bottom of the mesas, within an average 10-mile radius of the villages.

After the fields are planted, the Hopi farmer must commit himself to protect the plants from any harm. He regularly searches for cutworms in the soil around the corn, sprinkles the plants with a fertilizing solution made with dog feces and water, and uses bundles of snakeweed to protect plants from coyotes and other predators.

The art of dry farming requires patience, humility, hard work, and most of all, after the teachings of Màasaw, a “heart full of prayer.” The harvest season is a joyful time of year, and yields of corn, beans, and squash are piled high and ready to be stored for the winter. Women in the villages hurry to stack the corn in order for it to properly dry. When all the crops have been picked, Hopi farmers head back to the fields to prepare them for the next season.

Through the keeping of their covenant with Màasaw, Hopis have farmed successfully for centuries and, through their traditional agriculture, have built a unique lifestyle; it has become the foundation on which all Hopi culture is built.”

source:  Library of Congress, The American Folklife Center: Local Legacies, Celebrating Community roots, 1999

“Hopi Dry Farming” Ahkima’s Field Hopi Reservation

Published on YouTube Jun 4, 2012

This will give you an idea of how traditional Hopi dry farmers plant with simple tools in the clayish sand. Miraculously they have supported life here for hundreds of years with these farm-with-nature skills, prayers, songs, and a lot of hard work.

Happy Spring to you
from the Crossing Worlds Hopi Projects Circle