Indigenous Voices of the Colorado Plateau

Overview

The Colorado Plateau's geographic landscape straddles the Four Corners Region of the United States, an area that includes Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. This diverse landscape, a mix of alpine mountains, conifer forests, high deserts, deep canyons, and sage-covered plateaus, is the ancestral home to the Hopi, Navajo, Havasupai, Hualapai, White Mountain Apache, and Kaibab Paiute.

Voice is not simply found in audible representation. Non-verbal communication is also a rich, powerful means of conveying the essence of a particular group of people. This exhibit, then, is simply the conduit for indigenous voice, offering the audience a glimpse of these ancestral Colorado Plateau communities. Through images representing their history, culture, architecture, art and everyday life as well as direct quotations from tribal members themselves, these indigenous tribes of the Colorado Plateau tell their stories.

Map of Colorado Plateau
Courtesy of Underhill Foundation and the Grand Canyon Trust

Using images, documents, and oral history quotes from the Colorado Plateau Digital Archives, the Cline Library invites visitors to this exhibit to listen closely to these indigenous voices. The unique cultural resonance of each tribe can be clearly heard.