Arizona
Hopi Mesas & Navajo Lands of Canyon de Chelly & Monument Valley
Program No. 18591RJ
Gain a deeper understanding of Hopi and Navajo cultures as you visit their reservations to experience the landscapes, artifacts and traditions that have shaped their ancient story.
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800-454-5768
Select your type of room
Price will update based on selection
Prices displayed below are based on per person,doubleoccupancy.
DATES
& starting prices
PRICES
Oct 13 - Oct 19, 2024
Starting at
1,899DATES
& starting prices
PRICES
Sep 22 - Sep 28, 2024
Starting at
2,269Oct 13 - Oct 19, 2024
Starting at
2,2697 days
6 nights
17 meals
6B 5L 6D
1
Check-in, Registration, Orientation, Welcome Dinner
Flagstaff, AZ
2
Museum of Northern Arizona, Travel to Hopi Mesas
Hopi Indian Reservation (Second Mesa)
3
Hopi Mesas, Cultural Talk, Local Artist, Village Field Trip
Hopi Indian Reservation (Second Mesa)
5
Canyon de Chelly North Rim & Inner Canyon
Chinle, AZ
7
To Flagstaff, Program Concludes
Flagstaff, AZ
At a Glance
Stay on both the Navajo and Hopi reservations and immerse yourself in these cultures with exposure to native speakers and artisans who share insights into their life ways. Visit one of the oldest Hopi villages atop a windswept mesa. At Canyon de Chelly, field trips visit both North and South rims and the inner Canyon. Experience Monument Valley’s iconic formations and sweeping vistas.
Activity Level
Keep the Pace
Walking up to one mile daily over varied terrain. Optional longer hike at Canyon de Chelly to Ancestral Puebloan ruins. Elevations up to 7,300 feet.
Small Group
Love to learn and explore in a small-group setting? These adventures offer small, personal experiences with groups of 13 to 24 participants.
What You'll Learn
- Enjoy two Navajo/Diné-led 4x4 adventures to see ruins, petroglyphs and natural beauty.
- Enjoy a docent-led field trip to the Museum of Northern Arizona and learn about Native past, present and future.
- Visit Hubble Trading Post and hear from Navajo/Diné and Hopi speakers about their cultures and challenges.
Featured Expert
All trip experts
Eric Kee
Eric Kee was born and raised on the Navajo Reservation in Tuba, City, Ariz. In addition to sharing his Navajo culture, Eric enjoys spending his spare time building Native American flutes, working with silver and enjoys hiking, kayaking, camping with his family. He met his wife in Florence, Italy during his three years teaching English and working Italian camps for kids. He, along with his wife and three children, currently reside in Tuba City, Arizona.
Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.
Eric Kee
View biography
Eric Kee was born and raised on the Navajo Reservation in Tuba, City, Ariz. In addition to sharing his Navajo culture, Eric enjoys spending his spare time building Native American flutes, working with silver and enjoys hiking, kayaking, camping with his family. He met his wife in Florence, Italy during his three years teaching English and working Italian camps for kids. He, along with his wife and three children, currently reside in Tuba City, Arizona.
Filmer Kewanyama
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Fil Kewanyama was born in the village of Shungopavi on Second Mesa on Hopi Land in northeastern Arizona. He is of the Qalwung'gwa (Sun Forehead) clan and grew up with all the ceremonies that are still a part of his life. Following his military service, Fil moved to Phoenix and then Prescott, Arizona where he started focusing on his art. Fil says he grew up learning to draw, paint and carve as it was all around him in the form of Hopi ceremonies and rituals.
Robert Sanford
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Buck Sanford graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.S. in natural resources and spent several years working in Costa Rica as a freelance tropical biologist and research station manager. After a Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, he held positions at Stanford, NC State, and Colorado State. He was a biology professor at Denver University for several decades. Following a stint as a program director at the National Science Foundation, Buck worked as a professor and an administrator at Northern Arizona University, retiring in 2021.
Suggested Reading List
(9 books)
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You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
Hopi Mesas & Navajo Lands of Canyon de Chelly & Monument Valley
Program Number: 18591
The Fourth World of the Hopis: The Epic Story of the Hopi Indians As Preserved in Their Legends and Traditions
Folklorist Courlander traces Hopi legends from the tribe’s search through the wilderness for its home location to its settling on the Hopi Mesas and development thereafter. 239pp
Hisat’sinom: Ancient Peoples in a Land Without Water
The national monuments of Wupatki, Walnut Canyon, and Montezumas Castle showcase the treasures of the first people who settled and developed farms, towns, and trade routes throughout northern Arizona and beyond. The Hopis call these ancient peoples Hisatsinom, and Spanish explorers named their hard, arid homeland the sierra sin agua, mountains without water. Indeed, much of the region receives less annual precipitation than the quintessential desert city of Tucson. In Hisatsinom: Ancient Peoples in a Land without Water, archaeologists explain how the people of this region flourished despite living in a place with very little water and extremes of heat and cold. Exploiting the mulching properties of volcanic cinders blasted out of Sunset Crater, the Hisatsinom grew corn and cotton, made and traded fine cotton cloth and decorated ceramics, and imported exotic goods like turquoise and macaws from hundreds even thousands of miles away. From clues as small as the tiny fingerprints left on childrens toys, postholes in the floors of old houses, and widely scattered corn fields, archaeologists have pieced together an intriguing portrait of what childhood was like, the importance of weaving cotton cloth, and how farmers managed risk in a harsh environment. At its peak in the late 1100s, Wupatki stood as the region's largest and tallest town, a cultural center for people throughout the surrounding region. It was a gathering place, a trading center, a treasury of exotic goods, a landmark, and a place of sacred ritual and ceremony. Then, after 1200, people moved away and the pueblo sank into ruin.
Native Roads : The Complete Motoring Guide to the Navajo and Hopi Nations
Using the mile markers of the US, Arizona, and Navajo highways and routes running through the Navajo and Hopi nations as her organizing principle, the author offers a travel guide to the sites found in the area. Natural, historical, and cultural points of interest are covered, along with some information on lodging and services. 280 pp
Diné: A History of the Navajos
This comprehensive narrative traces the history of the Navajos from their origins to the beginning of the twenty-first century. Based on extensive archival research, traditional accounts, interviews, historic and contemporary photographs, and firsthand observation, it provides a detailed, up-to-date portrait of the Diné past and present that will be essential for scholars, students, and interested general readers, both Navajo and non-Navajo.
Warriors: Navajo Code Talkers
The American offensive in the Pacific during World War II [was] hampered by the Japanese ability to crack the most secret U.S. Codes. Navajo was virtually unknown outside the reservations, ... and [their] code proved uncrackable. Kenji Kawano's striking photographs capture the quiet dignity of the surviving veterans as they recall their actions --Los Angeles Times 128 pp
Following the Sun and Moon: Hopi Kachina Tradition
A guide to Kachinas written by a Hopi author
Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West
In the summer of 1846, the Army of the West marched through Santa Fe, en route to invade and occupy the Western territories claimed by Mexico. Fueled by the new ideology of “Manifest Destiny,” this land grab would lead to a decades-long battle between the United States and the Navajos, the fiercely resistant rulers of a huge swath of mountainous desert wilderness. In Blood and Thunder, Hampton Sides gives us a magnificent history of the American conquest of the West. At the center of this sweeping tale is Kit Carson, the trapper, scout, and soldier whose adventures made him a legend. Sides shows us how this illiterate mountain man understood and respected the Western tribes better than any other American, yet willingly followed orders that would ultimately devastate the Navajo nation. Rich in detail and spanning more than three decades, this is an essential addition to our understanding of how the West was really won.
Me and Mine: The Life Story of Helen Sekaquaptewa
An energetic Hopi woman emerges from a traditional family background to embrace the more conventional way of life in American today. Enchanting and enlightening—a rare piece of primary source anthropology. 262 pp
Roadside Geology of Arizona
The 18th printing of this book in the Roadside Geology Series offers a mini-course in geology, focusing on what can be seen from Arizona highways. Although written especially for those with little or no geologic training, there's plenty here for the professional geologist as well--a great introduction to Arizona and its past. Geologic terms are defined where first used and again in the glossary. Inside the front cover is a legend to geological symbols and abbreviations commonly used by geologists.
321pp