United States Destinations

Rediscovering Arizona’s Native American roots

By Toni Dabbs

I had checked into the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale at Gainey Ranch late at night. Now, the following morning, well rested and having enjoyed a scrumptious breakfast, I was beginning to explore the Arizona resort’s many amenities.

As I was leaving the hotel’s Hopi Shop, after examining its exquisite arts and crafts, I glanced across the lobby and noticed an alcove with displays of similar items. I had discovered the resort’s Native American and Environmental Learning Center.

A Hopi gentleman wearing khaki slacks and a crisp white shirt greeted me. Lance Polingyouma is one of the centre’s cultural interpreters.
“Hopi is one of the few Native American cultures of the Southwest that is still intact,” said Polingyouma. “Through the centre, we’re trying to bring our experience to visitors in a place where they feel comfortable.”

The exhibits that had attracted me form a mini-museum that, while low-key, is intended to draw visitors who are curious about native clothing, customs and ceremonies.

“We're not trying to sell the Hopi story here,” said Polingyouma. “But if someone is interested, we try to be approachable and to answer their questions.”

One of my questions about the Hopi philosophy of land stewardship and conservation prompted Polingyouma to take me on a tour of the Native Heritage Seed Garden, which occupies a plot near the resort's swimming pool.

“The garden has more than 30 varieties of indigenous plants,” he explained. “It was developed to represent traditional agricultural practices of Southwest native peoples.”

I had arrived in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area with no set plans, but leaving Polingyouma I had a list of local attractions that I now wanted to see.

I headed straight for Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological Park, a prehistoric Hohokam village within the city of Phoenix, where I met ethnobotanist Dave Morris.

“The Hohokam people occupied much of southern Arizona from the beginning of the Common Era to about 1450 CE,” according to Morris, a Choctaw himself. “They constructed more than a thousand miles of irrigation canals and grew more than a dozen different crops.”

He guided me along the Pueblo Grande outdoor interpretive trail, pointing out remnants of the canal system and identifying ruins of adobe structures. The village included platform mounds probably used as ceremonial and administrative centers, storage rooms, living quarters and even a Mayan-like ball court.

Inside the museum, a video presentation supplies background information about Pueblo Grande and the people who built it. Exhibits provide insight into the life of the Hohokam people: their agriculture, architecture and arts. A three-dimensional map illustrates the sophistication of their irrigation system.

To learn more about the cultures of the Southwest, I visited the Heard Museum in Phoenix’s arts district. Established in 1929, the museum has achieved international acclaim for its extensive collections of Native American art and artifacts.

There was no way that I could see it all, so I focused on the Native Peoples of the Southwest Gallery. It alone contains thousands of objects, including nearly 500 Hopi katsina dolls from the collections of Senator Barry M. Goldwater and the Fred Harvey Company. The gallery also features basketry, jewelry, pottery and textiles.

A reconstruction of a hogan, with rugs and tools used for daily life, represents the Navaho nation. Beadwork and buckskin clothing represent the Apaches.

The museum complex has 12 galleries in all, plus an education center, research library, auditorium, bookstore and café. I could easily have spent an entire day there.

I had one more “must see” on my list, though: the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix’s Papago Park. The garden includes arid-land plants from around the world but emphasizes those of the Sonoran Desert, which covers 120,000 square miles in Arizona, California and Mexico. The garden features five themed trails, with two devoted to the Sonoran Desert.

The Sonoran Desert Nature Trail is a quarter-mile loop with dramatic vistas of distant mountains and close-up views of desert life. I spotted a spiny lizard sunning on a rock and a family of Gambel’s quail scurrying among the cholla, ocotillo and prickly pear cactuses.

The Plants and People of the Sonoran Desert Trail explores the many uses of desert plants for food, construction, tools, basket making and more. At interactive stations along the route, I tried my hand at twisting agave fibers into twine and pounding mesquite beans to make flour.

I had managed to learn a lot in one day, but now I needed to return to the Hyatt, where I was meeting a friend for a Southwest dinner at the resort’s Squash Blossom restaurant. Shopping would have to wait until tomorrow.

More info

Hyatt Regency Scottsdale at Gainey Ranch
7500 East Doubletree Ranch Road
Scottsdale AZ 85258
phone 480-991-3388,
www.scottsdale.hyatt.com

Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological Park
4619 East Washington Street
Phoenix AZ 85034
phone 602-495-0901,
www.pueblogrande.com

Heard Museum
2301 North Central Avenue
Phoenix AZ 85004-1323
phone 602-252-8840,
www.heard.org

Desert Botanical Garden
1201 North Galvin Parkway
Phoenix AZ 85008
phone 480-941-1225,
www.dbg.org