Arlenes World

Saturday, July 19th

Ancient civilizations’ cultures, arts and beliefs have always fascinated me beginning with the ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians.  If I had the time and money, I would love to go on an archaeological expedition.  But since I have to work like mostly everyone else I try to find places that will assuage my curiosity with ancient cultures.

It was while browsing over www.azcentral.com our local newspaper’s website, that I noticed a freebie; Sizzling Saturdays at the Heard Museum!  It so happens that Target is paying for everyones attendance to the World famous Native American museum on this July’s Saturdays!  There are different live entertainment and events for each weekend and fortunately for me this Saturday had hoop dancing!  So we awoke bright and early and headed downtown Phoenix to have breakfast at Matt’s Big Breakfast, a restaurant that I’ve read and heard a lot about.  After getting lost and having to ask directions from a cab driver who warned that by this time of day which was 9:15 AM there would be a line around the block waiting to get in.  But undaunted even though my boyfriend has to be eating breakfast no later than 10:00 AM or else he won’t eat until lunch time which is around 12:00 PM by his biological time table.  (He’s the one you see reflected in the photo of the red and black bird drawing).  Nevertheless we followed the directions the kindly cab driver gave and found the restaurant; a small red brick corner place and discovered…it was closed!  Oh, No!  It’s getting close to the 10:00 AM deadline.  So we quickly high tailed it to a local IHOP and, thankfully, were served breakfast in the nick of time.

The Heard Museum opened at 10:30 AM.  As you can see from the photos that we took it is a beautiful place to visit.  It was founded by Dwight & Maie Heard in 1929 and is recognized internationally.  It is not only a museum but also has a cafe hosted by Arcadia Farms as well as a shop where you can find any items such as books on Native American traditions, culture and cuisine as well as fiction, CDs of their relaxing and hypnotic music, ghost beads to ward off evil spirits, dream catchers and much more with a very helpful and friendly staff.  (No, I am not employed nor have any affiliation with the Heard Museum even though I did buy a string of ghost beads.  With my luck, I needed every necklace that they had.  LOL).

When we arrived in the lobby we were given little HM stickers to wear which we gladly did.  After being there for a short time, about 15 minutes, we overheard a tour guide with a group of people talking about the different artifacts.  We joined the crowd and listened as the guide, his grandmother was Cherokee, I believe, explained about that the Apaches, though long considered savages, were just protecting their territory from any outsider.  I do not do the guide justice because I can not explain how he did the life of those Native Americans.  I do remember him telling about how they believe that in the beginning there was a woman of clay who created the world.  Because of this belief they honor their mothers and women as the creatures of life.  When a young Indian girl reaches puberty she goes through a ceremony that last four days whereupon at the end she is considered a woman ready to be marry and to have children.  The girl is covered in clay where she is being molded into the woman she will be.  For these four days only her mother and god-mother are allowed to touch her.  The young woman drinks through a straw so not to ruin her lips that are being formed by the clay.  She can’t scratch her face or do anything to disturb her new formation or rebirth.  The father would invite all of his relatives and friends and neighbors to the ceremony and feed everyone.  At the end she is considered a woman and will be married off and have children.  This ceremony continues today, mostly in the summertime because the young girls are off from school.

At the end of his talk he told us that there would be live entertainment in the auditorium in a half an hour so we made our way there.  On our way we caught up with the guide and asked him about my boyfriend’s heritage, the Black Feet Indians.  The guide didn’t know much about them because they were from the high plains area.  But he suggested that we check out the various books in the gift shop and maybe we could find some information there.

We proceeded to the auditorium in time to get a seat for it soon became pack even spilling into the isles.  Because of a fire hazard those people were invited to sit on the floor which they gladly did.  Then an Native American family consisting of a father, mother, little 9 year old boy and little baby girl entered along with two other men, all dressed in colorful costumes with beads and feathers.  Unfortunately, the photos we took didn’t come out clear or else I would have them for you to see.  But even so, they wouldn’t have conveyed the hypnotic flute music, the powerful beating of the drum, the energy of the dancing or the precision of the young hoop dancer.  They told the story behind their beliefs, their clothes and the reason for the dances they performed.  The eagle feathers they wore came with responsibility and the privilege to wear them didn’t come easily.  One dance, the one the woman performed, started because a family was trying to cure their daughter of a sickness.  The spirits instructed the family on what they had to do.  A dance which cured the young girl.  Afterwards they were told to continued to perform the dance for all to see, not just for entertainment purposes but to cure the people of the world.

Her husband, before announcing his wife, told the audience:  In some cultures, women walk behind the men; some walk along the side of their men but in Navajo culture the women walk all over their men.  The women in the audience clapped in agreement while the men nervously laughed.

The whole performance was like this; a sharing of customs and beliefs, music and dancing; laughter and enjoying ourselves.

Lastly, the young boy, at nine, his father so proud of him.  At the age of five years old, the father told us, his son had seen a hoop dance and asked his father to teach him.  The father said that the last time he had done a hoop dance was when he was ten but he showed the boy all that he could.  With the help of friends the boy is a wonder with agility and perfect timing and energy.  With the beat of the drums and the singing of his father, the young man wove the five hoops into several different designs until finally making them into a symbol of the world.  The story of the first hoop dancers were told.  How the men used the hoops in their religious ceremonies and afterwards left the hoops on the ground.  The young boys would pick the hoops up and play with them.  Instead of being angry with the youths their elders asked them if they could dance with the hoops to song.  And that is how the hoop dance was born.  Now every February there is a hoop dance competition that all are invited to and I for one intend to attend.  To cheer the young men on and to enjoy a community of comradely and traditional beliefs.

There is something sad about the Heard Museum.  It is something that is not to be hidden.  When the United States took over the last protesting Indians they believed that these savages needed to be civilized.  The government started with the young ones, taking the children away from their parents and families and sending them to boarding schools.  They cut their long proud hair; dressed them in uniforms; made them march and forced them to forget the old ways of their tribes.  The children were given new, civilized names.  Some wouldn’t see their families again for five, six or more years.  It is a very disturbing section of the museum.  A portent reminder to all of us to respect others beliefs and heritage as long as it doesn’t promote evil to others.  Plus, we can all learn from our mistakes; even a nation.

There is a lot to see and experience at the Heard Museum.  All made a deep impression on me.  One though I really need to convey to all of you.  It is a sculpture, small perhaps, the subject not handsome yet beautiful.  A kneeling man, playing an instrument.  You’ll recognize it when you view my gallery of photos.  He has long hair with strong, weathered hands that he used to kill a drug dealer who harassed his family.  The artist did 10 years for the slaying.  Perhaps the judge thought he was righteous in doing what he did.  After all, he was protecting his loved ones.  While in prison, the artist found a stone that he could sculpt.  With the aid of a rock and a nail he produced this beautiful depiction of a man playing an accordion.  It is stories and scenes and sculptures and art and traditions and life such as this that the Heard Museum stands as a tribute to the Native American culture of our country.  There is a mural that was drawn by Navajo painter Tony Abeyta’.  It is an interpretive piece where you sit down and look at it and even though you think you’ve seen all that it has to offer; when you come back again you always notice something new and different.  I saw it as the world we live in being in confusion and chaos but in the middle there is peace and a whiteness that leads to heaven and God beyond.  My boyfriend on the other hand saw it as falling from grace into hell.  He, the pessimist, seeing the glass half empty; I the romantic, the optimist, seeing the glass half full.  What do you, the reader, see?

Needless to say, I loved my experience at the Heard Museum.  I absorbed it into my soul!  I long to go back again, hopefully soon.  But, who knows.  In Phoenix, there is so much to see and do and especially to experience.  It is only the beginning for me…and you, the reader.

See the photo gallery I’ve taken of the Heard Museum.

Next Saturday, July 26th has been designated as National Cowboy Day!  It’s also my boyfriend’s 50th birthday!  In honor of the event (not my boyfriend’s birthday even though he’d like you to think that it was) Goldfield Ghost Town will be free to the public with ceremonies starting at 10:00 AM!  We’ve never been to a real ghost town so it should be very interesting.  Hope to learn how to take video on my new digital camera.  Plus, if I’m lucky, lose my boyfriend in the abandon gold mine!  This Saturday might be my lucky day!  See you soon and in the meantime, Have a Wonderful Life!  Enjoy!

There are a lot of museums and attractions in the Phoenix area, some, at times, are even free.  So, whenever I get antsy to do something different on Saturdays, I either go online and check out the local newspaper’s website or hunt through the free newspapers that you find at supermarkets or restaurants.  Last week I decided that I wanted to see the Museum of Natural History located in the city of Mesa which is roughly 20 miles southeast of Phoenix.  It’s website boasted dinosaurs, three story waterfalls, flash floods among other things so we decided to head on out there.

Saturday, July 12th

Waking up early we first had breakfast at T. C. Eggington’s restaurant located in Mesa.  The menu is extensive and when I saw that they had vegetarian frittata we decided to order it.  The mean came with country potatoes which I prefer over hash browns and a toasted English muffin.  We ordered a carafe of coffee and enjoyed the pleasant country-type décor until our meal came.  The food didn’t take long to arrive and it was delicious and the servers were attentive to our needs.  Not one prone to sweets, at the urging of my boyfriend I sampled the apple and cinnamon jam that was on our table.  It tasted like apple pie filling and was very good.

After breakfast we got gas and asked for directions to the museum which we found with not too much trouble.  Arriving early we waited a short time outside in the shade while a line was forming.  There were grandparents with grandchildren, mothers and fathers with carriages and a troop of Boy Scouts.  The doors opened around 11:00 AM and after paying for our admittance we headed to the dinosaur area.  Three stories of winding stairways with exhibits on all levels it was fascinating.  There is a three story waterfall with dinosaurs and foliage.  At 20 minute intervals you will start to hear thunder and see lightning up above then suddenly with no warning the flood gates open and water comes rushing down into the pool below.  It is quite exciting and for we that live in the desert, the sight of any type of water is very inviting.  The flash flood is a reenactment of what happens to our area during monsoon season.  Where once there were dry streets, the rain comes down causing torrential waters to flood the area.  It can be very dangerous.

On the top floor was an art gallery of professional photos taken of different locations in Arizona.  Then there is a section that houses an old time steel prison.  It is unnerving to hear someone closed the squeaky doors of the cells.  Inside there are steel bunk beds, two on each side of the small enclosure.  The men’s section didn’t have toilets plus they had to sleep on the metal beds without mattresses or blankets because some prisoners use to set them on fire.  Harden criminals such as murderers would be put in with petty thieves.  You could see where some of the men scratched their names and how long they were incarcerated on the ceilings and walls.  The women section had one toilet per cell plus a sink.  They were allowed mattresses and blankets but you could see where they pulled the mattress away and drew a chessboard on the steel bed.  They, too, wrote their names and jail times on the ceilings and walls of their cells.  It was very depressing and I was glad to be able to run outside in the open courtyard where you can pan for gold.  Even though hot, the temperature was around 114 degrees, it was interesting to read exhibits telling about the 5 Cs that Arizona is famous for:  Cotton, Cattle, Citrus, Copper and Climate.

Inside you can go through a make-believe mine which houses the Peralta Stones which many believe are the directions to the Lost Dutchman’s Goldmine.  Groups from all over the World visit the museum to film these stones in hopes of interpreting them.  They take photos and even film the stones.  Some say they are fake.  One slab has a drawing of a witch wearing a pointed hat and holding a cross.  There are some words in Spanish.  Another tablet has a heart cut into it and another has a bunch of squiggly lines.  At least, that’s what they look like to me.  But feel free to try your hand and try to figure out where the lost mine is located.  One thing we know; it’s somewhere inside the mysterious Superstition Mountains.

There is a section on the history of the ancient Hohokam people who inhabited the Salt River area a long time ago.  They were farmers and traders and peaceful people.  I love Native American pottery so you’ll find an abundance of them among my photos.

The next and last exhibit that we saw was about all of the films that were filmed in Arizona.  We had been in Surprise, Arizona about a month ago and discovered that was where the Gauntlet was filmed with Clint Eastwood and Sandra Locke.  So we weren’t “surprised” oohhh, sorry for that pun but I just had to say it, that the Gauntlet was one of the movies in the museum’s exhibit.  One movie, U Turn, with Sean Penn and Jennifer Lopez was one we didn’t expect but it was fun reading all of the titles of movies, both old and new, that were and are still being filmed in our vast and beautiful State of Arizona.  I do love it here.  No matter where you travel to in the State it’s never the same.  There’s the Grand Canyon with its breathtaking views; Flagstaff, where it snows, Sedona’s red mountains with their vortexes, Phoenix with the desert.  One part of the State you can see an arid wasteland, dry as a bone.  Yet another there are lush forestry and snow; cool strolling lakes or caves with bats flying out of them.

Getting back to the Natural History Museum, forgive me for almost leaving out the exhibit that shows the various minerals and gemstones that can be found in Arizona.  I’ve taken a few for your amazement!

Please enjoy the photos that I’ve taken of the Arizona Museum of Natural History.  You can comment on the photos to if you like.  The woman with the reddish hair is Moi’, the author of this blog.  Be kind with your comments.