AURA

There’s something new in the Grand Canyon neighborhood that just about makes me throw up: the Hopi’s new casino. You can listen to Coronado if you want to about the casino coming to the Hopi reservation after many years of their opposing it. It vindicates his opinion and I find the whole thing very depressing. But at least they’re continuing with their crafts and traditions, hopefully. And Sine has included some links for me about all that.

CORONADO

Aura and many others admire American Indian culture not just for the handmade objects that are useful as well as unique, but also for the Indians’ dedication to their beliefs and way of living despite being surrounded by the alien culture that triumphed over them and whose existence is a constant temptation to the young. And the very real problem of maintaining tradition in the face of defeat has led tribes nationwide to accept casinos as isolated intrusions that produce what the surrounding culture demands to provide stuff like food that used to be free in the garden or in nature. I think Aura likes the Hopi because they’re like her: they reject the dominant culture. Little did she know that what made that rejection possible was income from the jobs Hopis took to mine coal and run the dominant culture’s electric power plant. What irony ! But it’s the closing of that plant that has led to an about face by the Hopi nation to now permit a casino on their reservation. Aura might have endorsed the plant’s closure had it been done to permit a better environment. But she can’t even have that, as the closure has been caused by competition from a cheaper fuel: natural gas. The dominant culture’s agent in this development, a for-profit utility, will be even more profitable as a result, something that wasn’t inspired by the Hopi and I don’t suppose will be all that helpful to them either...

The coming of the casino will hopefully allow them to maintain the culture Aura admires and that you may too when you visit what they’ve created to explain themselves to us. Check out the links Sine put in.

●Hopi Cultural Center - Intro

●Directions

●Artisans overview

●Ceremonial calendar

●10 day weather forecast