Article Origin
Volume
Issue
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United States
Guide to Indian Country Page 25
A growing interest in Native American culture has caused a major
economic boom for Indian people in America's four Corners region where
Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico meet. And if current trends
continue, tourism will provide even more to the local economy in the
near future.
In the early 1930s, when Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, Canyon
de Chelly National Monument in Arizona and similar protected sites were
first established, Native Americans received little economic benefit
from tourism. A few worked at menial tasks, for menial wages, in
non-Native hotels and businesses. More sold their hand-made crafts for
a pittance of their real worth, often to retailers who earned far more
on each sale than the original artisans.
But today, much of that has changed. Not only are Native Americans
working for the park service and private tourism businesses at
reasonable wages, they are running their own enterprises and selling the
creative work as fine art.
On the Hopi Indian Reservation in Arizona, for example, over 70 per
cent of the people earn at least a part of their income from the sale of
arts and crafts. The Hope Arts and Crafts Guild now has a membership of
several hundred silversmiths, basketweavers, potters, textile workers
and Kachina doll carvers.
A small hand-made clay pot, which would have brought its creator a few
coins in the 1950s, today sells for at least $20. A Navaho wedding
basket, which takes many hours to weave, would have brought two or three
dollars to its maker. They now sell for over $100.
"There's a lot more that goes into making our crafts than people
realize," said Anna Silas, a Hopi tribal member working at Arizona's
Second Mesa Hopi Cultural Center. "Our people must fully understand the
traditions of their people before they can legitimately make kachina
dolls (or other Hopi artifacts.) They must be initiated into the
culture and often, they must go through a long training period to learn
the spiritual and traditional meaning of the items."
At Chinle, Arizona, on the Navaho Reservation, glass artist David
Martinez runs his own studio and sales rooms, with most of his work
selling to tourists. His stained glass creations range from small
framed pictures, which sell for less than $100, to huge murals and
picture windows, costing several thousand.
In addition to selling his own work, Martinez also handles glass art
and other works by a variety of Navaho craftspeople. He also works with
several area architects on original glasswork and sells his art at other
retail outlets.
"The art work and commission sales don't pay all the bills," Martinez
admits, "but I do framing and things like that, so I get by."
Carl Begay, another Arizona Navaho, isn't an artist but he also earns
his income through tourism. A tour guide at Canyon de Chelly National
Monument, Begay has lived in the park most of his 60 years and knows it
intimately.
"I can talk to people about our traditions and culture, both in the
past and today," he said.
"I can show them the yucca plant that we make our ceremonial shampoo
from, and the juniper berries we use for belly aches. My family still
owns farm land in Chinle, Wash., and I help a little, planting corn,
squash and melons or looking after our sheep. But I make most of my
cash from the tourists that I take around the park.
One of the park's many authorized Navaho guides, Begay takes his
clients to visit the many prehistoric ruins in the canyons, but he'll
also take them to see his private living quarters, a tiny house, without
running water or electricity, on the plateau of a mesa.
Virginia Tso-Jim, who lives on the Navaho Reservation in Utah, also
works for the U. S. Park Service, welcoming visitors to Hovenweep
National Monument in Utah. She says more than half the people who work
at Hovenweep, and the nearby Mesa Verde National Park, are Native
Americans.
On Colorado's Ute Reservation, near Mese Verde, the tribal council has
stablished its own park with local people helping visitors explore
ancient Anasazi ruins. The affiliated Ute Mountain Pottery continues
the traditions of the people's Pueblo ancestors. Tribally-owned motels
and restaurants at the Havasupai and Hopi Reservations also provide
management and hospitality industry opportunities for many of the local
people.
At Grey Hills High School in Tuba City, Arizona on the Navaho
Reservation, a hotel management and hospitality training program runs a
32-bed hostel, offering rooms and meals to visiting guests.
"We still have a long way to go," Tso-Jim said," but there's certainly
a growing trend toward our people benefiting truly from the tourism
potential of our culture and heritage. We get a lot of white Americans
and foreign visitors and we're learning from them about this industry.
I'd like to see us have more Native American visitors, so we can share
information and advice."
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