audio descript 1

Who were these ancestral Sonoran Desert people?

The text on this panel reads, "No one alive now knows what name the people who built the Casa Grande called themselves centuries ago. Archeologists today use the term HOHOKAM to label the culture that flourished here from 1,500 years ago to 550 years ago. At archeological sites, like Casa Grande Ruins, you can see similar platform mounds, ball courts, irrigation networks, and homes placed around plazas inside walled compounds. These ancient sites also share adistinctive red-on-buff pottery and carved shell jewelry.Six tribes in today's Southwest still have histories that linkthemselves to the people who once lived here. For thesetribes, Casa Grande Ruins is a sacred place."

The panel background has painted scenes of these peoples by M. Chiago, a Tohono O'odham artist. Across the top of the image is a line of ten people, walking in a procession to the left. The first four figures are dressed in long white robes with colorful sashes over their shoulders. Each holds a pole in front with a totem figure on its top. The next three figures wear long sleeved shirts and long skirts. Each holds a basket or pot above their heads. The last three carry musical instruments—a flute, a rattle and sticks.

Underneath this scene is a desert panorama with three small houses. The houses have flat roofs and a stovepipe projecting from one wall. Purple and blue mountains rise in the background.

Along the bottom of the panel is a desert scene with three women harvesting the red fruits of saguaro cactus. One uses a long pole to reach the top of the cactus. Two others carry large baskets full of the fruit on their heads.

At the left side of the panel is an image of a round woven basket design, dark brown lines on a lighter tan. From a circle in the middle, four geometrical patterns radiate. Around the image are the names of six tribes: Gila River, Hopi, Zuni, Ak-Chin, Tohono O'Odham, and Salt River –Pima Maricopa.

As you face this panel, the visitor center is behind you and the Great House is ahead to your left. In front of you are two tall saguaros and smaller creosote bushes. The ground is beige with a slight pinkish tint. In the distance are low mountains. Behind the sign is a large rock with petroglyphs on one side of the dark surface.

To reach the next sign, step to the right of this sign and move straight ahead about 70 feet down the sidewalk.

 

• Community Ties

  
  

  Leigh J. Kuwanwisiwma. Director at the Hopi Tribes Cultural Preservation Office, and Angela Garcia-Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community discuss some of the Native American ties to the Casa Grande.

  Credit / Author:

  NPS, movie outtakes, thanks to volunteer editor Jenise Cook

  Date created:

  05/09/2016

  Audio Transcript

  My name is Leigh J. Kuwansiwma, I'm currently the director for the Hopi Tribes Cultural Preservation Office. Casa Grande Ruins in Hopi migration and traditional knowledge is called in Hopi language-Naas a-vee. And the word Naas a-vee means the village in the middle of the valley. The Hopi people have a general cultural interest into the greater Southwest. And into areas like Casa Grande currently is-is at. And because that is told in our migration stories so here in Naas a-vee the Bow Clan were the ruling clan here, the Greasewood Clan as well as the Bamboo Clan were among the clans that in our tradition lived here. So subsequently the place named (Naas a-vee) is carried into Hopi. And today is still used in ceremony to reflect and remember this village that this uh place is special to.

  My name is Angela Garcia-Lewis. I am a member of the Gila River Indian Community. But I also have relatives at Salt River and the Tohono O'odham Nation. We are the O'odham. We have 4 different federally recognized tribes that make up our entire nation. And that’s the Gila River Indian Community, The Salt River-Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, the Ak-chin Indian Community and the Tohono O'odham Nation. A lot of the popular literature the prehistoric cultures here says that people that lived here were the Hohokam. And they were here from about 300 A. D. to about 1500. And about that time period they just up and disappeared like dust in the wind. It was, it’s a very odd concept to us here within the community because those are our ancestors. We’ve always lived here.

 

On to Wayside 2

Link to continue the tour with wayside number 2 audio description page.

Continue the Tour at Wayside 2