Hopi and other Native understandings of Rainbow Bridge

When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time fishing and water skiing on Lake Powell. While having fun on the lake, one of the places that we used to visit was Rainbow Bridge National Monument in southern Utah.

On YouTube, I came across an interesting video of Hopi oral histories of the bridge. In 2009, the U.S. National Park Service conducted the interviews to mark the Monument’s 100 year anniversary. The Hopis in the video include Wilton Kooyahoema (Hotevilla), Floyd Lomakuyvaya (Shungopavi), and Rod Duwala (Oraivi).

Members of the Navajo, Kaibab Paiute, San Juan Paiute, and White Mesa Ute nations were also interviewed for this project. I have posted their segments below.

3 thoughts on “Hopi and other Native understandings of Rainbow Bridge

  1. All five National Park Service (You Tube)videos played fine here using Mac, OS 10.6.8, on DSL.

    These five videos conveyed important tribal perspectives however the first interview from a Hopi perspective was done outdoors at Rainbow Bridge whereas the others were likely completed at some NPS offices. Still it is good to see all of the Rainbow Bridge interviews as it reminds one, like the European view of San Francisco Peaks, where thirteen different cultural groups hold that mountain sacred, there are often numerous perspectives of what one group might think is only one view and yet all of these different views are often paradoxically similar.

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