1920's Hualapai Storage Basket.
The Hualapai or Walapai (Hualapai: Hwalbáy) are a tribe of Native Americans who live in the mountains of northwestern Arizona, United States. Today they are enrolled in the Hualapai Indian Tribe of the Hualapai Indian Reservation.
The name, meaning "people of the tall trees", is derived from hwa:l, the Hualapai word for ponderosa pine and pai “people”. Their traditional territory is a 108-mile (174 km) stretch along the pine-clad southern side of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River with the tribal capital located at Peach Springs.
The Hualapai language is a Pai branch of the Yuman–Cochimí languages, also spoken by the closely related Havasupai, and more distantly to Yavapai people. It is still spoken by most people over 30 on the Reservation as well as many young people. The Peach Springs School District runs a successful bilingual program for all local students, both Hualapai and non-Hualapai, in addition to immersion camps.
The Hualapai Reservation, established in 1883, is located on one million acres of Hualapai ancestral lands, within the southern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the Grand Wash Cliffs escarpment. Hualapai, meaning “People of the tall-pines,” had ancestral homelands consisting of approximately five million acres. The modern northern boundary of the reservation is along the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River. Wikame is the Sacred Mountain of Creation for Hualapai people. It is along the
lower Colorado River and at an altitude of more than 5900 feet.
According to Hualapai oral tradition, Hualapai Bands were entrusted within the Hualapai Nation with care taking responsibilities for the natural environment and resources within the traditional and ancestral Hualapai homelands and territory. Neighboring American Indian Nations and Tribes are: Chemehuevi, Havasupai, Hopi, Navajo, Mohave, Paiute, Yavapai-Prescott, Yavapai-Apache, Colorado River Indian Tribes and Zuni. Relationships with other tribes continues in spite of late nineteenth and twentieth century actions of paternalism, attempted assimilation and dislocation, the Hualapai system of bands and social organization remains in effect, maintained through descent and kinship linkages. Traditional cultural practises applied through continuity of Hualapai language, knowledge, social roles and behaviors, supports a dynamic cultural identity manifested within Hualapai people and their spiritual connection to their land.
Seasonal migrations for hunting and gathering of sustenance resulted in acquiring a variety of foods that extended through different elevations and geographic locations. Spiritual and life skills were conveyed partially during these migration events with Hualapai teaching their children traditional
knowledge through hunting and gathering, song and oration, and environmental stewardship.
All of the Bands of the Hualapai Nation have used the natural and cultural resources of the Colorado River and Grand Canyon systems from the time of the Hualapai people’s origins. Hualapai traditional belief ties sacred significance to areas such as the Colorado River and associated canyons which are principal landmarks with intrinsic spiritual values for Hualapai people. Regionally this area embodies sacred esoteric cultural and traditional values for Hualapai. The Colorado River is revered as a life-giving source, known as “Ha’yiđađa,” the backbone or spine of the river. It is the belief that without the spine, Hualapai cannot survive as a people. The long expanse of the River through the canyon and the riparian eco-systems makes a life way connection that flows through the hearts of the Hualapai people. The Hualapai maintain this connection through ties of sacredness to the Colorado River. Hualapai believe that they were created from the sediment and clay of the River.
In 1874 life completely changed for Hualapai. The U.S. Army at the instructions of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) removed Hualapai “from their homes against their will and sent them south to bake in the desert of the Colorado River lowlands, a place the officer in charge called the “Sahara of the Colorado,” Hualapai were forced to march down on a long-walk, or Trail of Tears, to La Paz, near the town of present-day Ehrenberg and live within the confines of a “camp.” Many young women were assaulted by the military; older Hualapai died due to hunger and ill-health; many died due to exposure, malnutrition, home-sickness and disease. Some fled into the desert making their way
into Borrego Springs and California. Others managed to survive and after a year of incarceration, those who could went back to their homes only to find their lands occupied by ranchers.
www.wikipedia.com, www.hualapai-nsn.gov
CHICCHAN
Kin 105: Red Magnetic Serpent
I unify in order to survive
Attracting instinct
I seal the store of life force
With the magnetic tone of purpose
I am guided by my own power doubled.
Only when you learn to control your thought-waves will you experience that which is called "abiding in the real."*
*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2015-2016.
The Sacred Tzolk'in
Anahata Chakra (Silio Plasma)
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