Category: Hopi artists

Beyond the Mesas – A Conversation with Michael Adams (Hopi/Tewa)

On By Matthew Sakiestewa GilbertIn Beyond the Mesas, COVID-19, Hopi art, Hopi artists, Hopi authors, Hopi education, Hopi Runners, Hopi students, Hopi videos, Indian boarding schools, Indian running1 Comment

Earlier this month I had an opportunity to interview counselor, jeweler, and author Michael Adams (Hopi/Tewa) from the village of Tewa on the Hopi reservation in northeastern Arizona. The interview covers a range of topics, including the role of family in one’s education and career paths, the process of overcoming challenges, schooling beyond the Hopi mesas, and the importance of positive thinking. The interview was conducted on June 10, 2020 via Zoom. To learn more about Michael Adams and his counseling resources and art, please visit:

www.nextwavewarrior.com (Next Wave Warrior)

www.gourdjewels.com (GourdJewels)

Youtube: (Michael Adams)

Hopi engineer and artist to receive honorary doctorate

On By Matthew Sakiestewa GilbertIn Hopi artists, Hopi news, Hopis and the academy1 Comment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Matt Lazier
805-756-7109; mlazier@calpoly.edu

Cal Poly to Confer Three Honorary Doctorate Degrees at Commencement June 15, 16

SAN LUIS OBISPO — Rodeo icon Cotton Rosser, agricultural industry leader James W. Boswell, and engineer-turned-artist Alfred Qöyawayma — all Cal Poly alumni — will receive honorary Doctor of Science degrees at the university’s spring commencement ceremonies Saturday and Sunday, June 15 and 16.

Qöyawayma will deliver the keynote address at Saturday’s event, and Boswell will give the keynote Sunday.

Qöyawayma, whose name is Hopi for “Grey Fox Walking at Dawn,” studied mechanical engineering at Cal Poly. He graduated in 1961 and began his career developing guidance systems for military and commercial applications, including the X-5, the F-15, the 747, and even Air Force One. He then worked for Arizona’s utility industry, leading a team of scientists and engineers in solving challenges to the state’s power and water systems.

He co-founded the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, serving as the first chairman of an organization that has helped more than 12,000 students graduate in the critical STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines. In 1988 he received a White House appointment to become vice chairman of the Institute of American Indian Art, and he became a full-time artist and published researcher on native culture in the Western Hemisphere. He has been a Fullbright Scholar and a featured artist at the Smithsonian’s permanent Archives of American Art, and his “Corn Mother” sculpture is on permanent display at Cal Poly.

Boswell — a 1977 graduate with a bachelor’s in business administration — is chairman and CEO of J.G. Boswell Co., an agriculture and real estate development firm his family founded in 1925. The company owns and operates farms in California and Australia, producing, processing and marketing a variety of crops and developing innovative practices in plant biotechnology and livestock operations. The real estate arm of the company develops planned communities and business parks throughout the Western U.S.

As head of J.G. Boswell, he is also the president of the James G. Boswell Foundation, which supports agricultural education and has helped more than 1,200 graduates. He is a major supporter of Cal Poly’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences. Through the foundation, he has established an endowed chair in the Horticulture and Crop Sciences Department, invested in the Agribusiness Management Club, and contributed to the college’s Learn by Doing Fund for Agricultural Education. He has also served on the Cal Poly President’s Cabinet, sharing his real-world insight to help the university continue to educate resourceful leaders in California agriculture.

As a student at Cal Poly, Rosser led the university’s rodeo team to the forefront of intercollegiate rodeo competition, launching a winning tradition that would garner 41 national championships. After graduating in 1952, he purchased the Flying U Rodeo Co. and began producing rodeos and making his mark on the industry.

Rosser’s rodeo events are known for their colorful pageantry, innovative showmanship and energetic patriotism. He was instrumental in bringing high school rodeo to California and has been a longtime Cal Poly Rodeo booster and Cal Poly Alumni Association supporter. For his contributions to rodeo culture in the Western U.S., Rosser has been inducted into several rodeo halls of fame and Western museums.

About 4,000 students are eligible to graduate in Cal Poly’s spring commencement.

# # #

See also: http://www.calpolynews.calpoly.edu/news_releases/2013/May/doctorate.html

Talking about corn

On By Matthew Sakiestewa GilbertIn AIS at Illinois, Hopi artists, Hopi films1 Comment

Matt Sakiestewa Gilbert and Victor Masayesva, Jr., March 28, 2012, Photograph by Robert Warrior

This week Victor Masayesva, Jr., from Hotevilla spent time at the University of Illinois. He is in the process of making a hemispheric film on indigenous corn. On Wednesday I went with Masayesva and my colleagues in American Indian Studies Robert Warrior and John McKinn to look at a university field (see below) that we are using for the film. In the photo above, Masayesva is talking to me about where to place different varieties of corn, including Hopi and “modern” corn, which will be planted in the plot. Planting will begin soon. Masayesva’s visit also coincided with a workshop on campus titled “Corn and Indigenous Communities in the Americas.” I’ll write more about the film as the project unfolds.

Photograph by Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert

Hopi clowning and the life of Michael Kabotie

On By Matthew Sakiestewa GilbertIn Hopi artists, Hopi videos4 Comments

This semester I am teaching a course on Native religious traditions.  Last week I assigned Emory Sekaquaptewa’s article “One More Smile for a Hopi Clown.”

After reading this article, one of my students sought additional information on Hopi clowning and discovered the above video on Youtube.

She wrote a really interesting post about it on her class blog.

The video is a fascinating look into Hopi clowning and the life of Hopi artist Michael Kabotie. Ed Kabotie, Michael Kabotie’s son, is the one giving the presentation.

Dan Namingha: Seeking Center in Two Worlds

On By Matthew Sakiestewa GilbertIn Hopi art, Hopi artists, Hopi films1 Comment

Last night I came across this 26 minute video on Tewa-Hopi artist Dan Namingha from Polacca titled “Seeking Center in Two Worlds.” From what I can tell, the video was produced in August 1992 and it was shown on various PBS affiliated stations. Here is the video summary on the KNME Chanel 5 (Albuquerque, NM) website:

Life is a balance for painted and sculptor Dan Namingha. Balance between the high stakes art world and his American Indian origins; balance between his distinctive abstract painting and sculpting, and his expression of the ideas and concepts of his native religion; and balance between his Hopi and Tewa origins and the dominant Anglo culture. Only thirty-four years old, Namingha uses traditional themes and concepts in his unique modern vision to communicate an essence of something beyond himself, something deeply spiritual and universally direct.

If “Seeking Center in Two Worlds” is of interest to you,  then I would suggest seeing Allan Holzman’s film “Beautiful Resistance,” which examines the Indian boarding school experience through contemporary American Indian art, including works by Hopi artist Michael Kabotie. I have written about this film in a previous post. Holzman was also the director and co-executive producer of “Beyond the Mesas.”

HEEF Art Sale to Fund Hopi Students

On By Matthew Sakiestewa GilbertIn Announcements, HEEF, Hopi art, Hopi artists, Hopi educationLeave a comment

Join us as we host the “HEEF Art Sale – Supporting Hopi Students”, featuring outstanding pieces of native art including pottery, jewelry, sculptures, paintings, katsina dolls, prints, textiles and baskets.

In conjunction with the sale, the HEEF is conducting a raffle with numerous items available including a “3 Corn Maidens” Pendleton blanket, jewelry, prints, resort packages and more. Tickets are available for $2 per ticket of 3 tickets for $5. To purchase contact the HEEF Office at (928) 734-2275.

The HEEF is still accepting all forms of artwork and more information on the sale can be found by visiting www.hopieducationfund.org or by contacting the HEEF at 928-734-2275. All proceeds from the event benefit deserving Hopi college students across the U.S. in addition to funding other educational programs for the Hopi people.

The HEEF thanks the following Sponsors for their Support:
Premier Sponsor: Central Arizona Project · Peabody
Major Sponsor: Husk Partners · APS · Osborn Maledon P.A.
Supporter Sponsor: Walker & Armstrong, LLP · Hufford, Horstman, Mongini, Parnell, & Tucker

Hopi Education Endowment Fund
PO Box 605
Kykotsmovi, AZ 86039

Phone: (928) 734-2275
Fax: (928) 734-2273

Running Spirit by Hopi video producer Alexander D. Chapin

On By Matthew Sakiestewa GilbertIn Hopi artists, Hopi films, Hopi Runners2 Comments

I came across an interesting YouTube video on running by Hopi video producer Alexander D. Chapin. The video appeared on YouTube in November 2010. I do not know much about Chapin, except that he has produced a number of short videos on-line. A few years ago, Chapin discovered interview tapes of his grandfather James (Jimmy) S. Kewanwytewa and he used a section of the interview on running to make Running Spirit. Kewanwytewa was from Orayvi on Third Mesa. Some people consider him to be the most famous Hopi kachina carver of the twentieth century. In addition to carving, he spent several years working with zoologist Harold S. Colton, co-founder of the Museum of Northern Arizona, to identify a large collection of kachina dolls. Below is the YouTube commentary that goes with the video:

I recently (2009) obtained an audio recording of my Great Grandfather Jimmy Kewanwytewa. In this recording I chose one of the stories he told and composed music to it.

My Great Grandfather was Hopi Indian and was known for being a talented distance runner. So in this story he tells about a time when he was headed home from work and saw someone running ahead of him, so he thought he would go an catch up with that person on his way home.

But the entire way to the Oraibi village, as talented as a runner that my great grandfather was said to be, he could not catch up with that person. Afterwards he told his father what happened and his father laughed at him and told him the same thing happen to him one time, and that he was never going to catch that person because that person was a spirit.

I created this video for the song in a rush so I could share this song with everyone but hope to produce a better video in the future.

Watch & listen or just listen & enjoy my most accomplished musical composition to date.

Thank you.

Shot & Edited by Alexander D. Chapin
Alexander D. C. Productions

Hopi filmmaker and photographer at the University of Illinois

On By Matthew Sakiestewa GilbertIn Hopi artists, Hopi films, Hopi Runners, Native films2 Comments

Photograph by Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert

On September 9, 2010,  Victor Masayesva, Jr. from the village of Hotevilla screened a short film and gave a presentation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Masayesva’s visit was part of a university sponsored initiative titled “Sovereignty and Autonomy in the Western Hemisphere: National & Regional Struggles for Power, Identity and Space.” The American Indian Studies Program organized the event.

Masayesva is known throughout the world as an accomplished Hopi photographer and filmmaker. Some of his award winning films include Hopiit, Itam Hakim Hopiit, Ritual Clowns, Imagining Indians, and one of my favorites, Paatuwaqatsi: Water, Land & Life, a film on Hopi running, the sacredness of water, and Hopi relationship with the indigenous people of Mexico.

In addition to directing films, Masayesva has published a book titled Husk of Time: The Photographs of Victor Masayesva with the University of Arizona Press.

To learn more about Masayesva and his work, please visit the following website: http://www.nativenetworks.si.edu/eng/rose/masayesva_v.htm

Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert