If you're planning to visit Arizona's Indian Country - or even if you're just passing through on the Old West Highway - make your first stop at the San Carlos Apache Tribe's Cultural Center.
Located in a prominent stucco building at milepost 272 on Highway 70,
the center is easily accessible on the main reservation highway from
points both west and east, and the cultural center offers a place where
visitors can receive an introduction to Apache heritage.
It's a 30-minute drive from Globe, an hour from Safford, two hours from either Phoenix or Tucson, and the center offers a convenient place for travelers to stop and learn about the tribe. Apache beadworkers, sculptors, leather craftsmen and other artists whose products and names are well-known but who can be difficult to contact, the center's gift shop has brought to the reservation a much-needed artists' guild.
People
who seek handmade burden baskets, intricately-beaded moccasins, or
unique art will find these items at the Apache Cultural Center.
Arts and crafts are the first things you'll encounter there - that is,
besides Cultural Center Manager Herb Stevens. This talented Apache man
learned many traditional arts and crafts from his parents, grandparents
and spiritual leaders of his people. He has also pursued advanced arts
schooling, first at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and later
with undergraduate and masters' degrees in fine arts earned from
Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.
Mr. Stevens has studied sculpture, art history and design under masters in the fields, and he has experimented with most art media. Stevens speaks the Apache language and he complements the center's detailed exhibits to tell the story of this proud, nomadic people who were forced onto the San Carlos Apache reservation after a governmental Executive Order in 1874 was signed by President Ulysses S. Grant.
Displays inform visitors of how and when vast chunks of reservation acreage were seized by the government as settlers moved into southern Arizona in pursuit of valuable mineral resources and livestock ranching.
Other displays relate the horror of the Camp Grant Massacre: the brutal slaughter of 140 Aravaipa Apache men, women, and children in 1871 at an Apache community north of Tucson.
Upon the Cultural Center's walls hang photographs from as early as the 1880s and as recent as the present day. They show scenes of daily Apache life, as well as pictures of revered leaders. Black-and-white photos detail the 1920s-era construction of Coolidge Dam which impounds San Carlos Lake, and other group photos show the first elected Tribal Councils.
Displays don't simply dwell in the tribe's past; they also herald the accomplishments of prominent San Carlos Apaches of today, including Santa Fe sculptor Craig Dan Goseyun and television journalist Mary Kim Titla, a reporter and anchor for KPNX Channel 12 in Phoenix. Many of the photos are displayed at the center courtesy of the Arizona State Museum at Tucson's University of Arizona. Others originated from the extensive personal collections of generous donors.
Words and pictures at the San Carlos Apache Cultural Center relate a story familiar to tribal members from other Indian people of Arizona. At the same time, it is a singular perspective that visitors from non-Indian communities may not have been taught. Consider the wording of one display, which describes the San Carlos Apaches' transition to reservation life.
"As part of life on the reservation we became dependent on the handouts issued to us by the government of the United States. Often the rations failed to meet our basic needs, during the early reservation years food and supplies promised by the government were often sold off by dishonest Indian Agents, leaving us with shortages of food, cloth, or wood for cooking and warming our homes. In desperation our people left the reservation to hunt, gather plants and raid in traditional ways. These forays to relieve our poverty were commonly referred to as 'outbreaks' in the local press. We were branded criminals in the struggle to maintain our dignity."Thousands of people have paid a visit since the San Carlos Apaches Cultural Center opened in 1995. What they have discovered is a window into Apache heritage that offers a view that is quite unlike that shown at conventional museums. For one thing when you walk in the door you as likely to hear cassette tapes of drumming and traditional Apache songs as you are to hear the modern Country & Western songs by Arizona's own contemporary Apache Spirit band.
Visitors will also encounter an interpretation of history as told by nnee (the people, alternately n'dee) themselves, rather than one viewed through the filter of non-Apache historians and archaeologists. How is this different? One example of this unique view of history is a wall display that charts the migration of Athabaskan speaking people over the Siberian land bridge and across North America. "Many knowledgeable and respected elders believe the Apache have always been here - as far back as the very ancient times spoken of in their stories," posits the text on the wall at the San Carlos Apache Cultural Center.
Dioramas and displays in the Cultural Center retell the Apache story of creation. Bone awls, pottery and other artifacts show the ways in which the earliest residents of this land met their daily existence. "In the beginning Usen the creator sent the Ga'an to guide the people. He taught the people how to walk in the Holy Life Way (Enzu). The people were taught how to be kind to each other, especially to those who had less, to be respectful in hunting and warfare, and to live in harmony with each other and the land."
Today's Apaches still honor their spiritual traditions. Today the Ga'an (crown dancers or mountain spirits) are called upon to evoke blessings and to ward off illness and evil at ceremonies such as the sunrise dances for pubescent Apache girls. Ga'an dances are performed by men who invoke the mountain spirits. Four dancers representing the four directions participate in the ceremony. Their bodies are painted in black and white and with evocative lightning and mountain designs and animal motifs. They are accompanied by a fifth dancer - the unpredictable "clown" who is painted gray.
Artifacts that are displayed in the center include a bone awl, and pottery that dates from between 1150-1300 AD. More recent pieces include a 19th century cradleboard, war club, bow-and-arrow set and baskets sealed with pinyon pitch. Five life-sized models behind glass depict a typical Sunrise Dance scene.
Visitors quickly find this is a blend of museum, artists' guild and learning center. And this version of Apache heritage is told by those who made that history themselves, recall events firsthand or know of their legacy from the unique perspective of the Apache oral tradition.
The San Carlos Apache Tribe Cultural Center is located near milepost 272 on Highway 70. Adult admission is $3, seniors pay $1.50 and it costs $1 for high school and junior high students (under age 12 admitted free). Weekday hours are 9-5. School visits, tours (and even catered business meetings in the conference room) are available. For information about the center's schedule please call (520)475-2894 or write to Cultural Center Manager Herb Stevens, PO Box 760, Peridot, AZ, 85542.
Please note, rates and hours/dates are to be used as a guide for your convenience. Rates and hours/dates are subject to change. Please contact the location for specific information on rates or hours/dates of operation.