Native Americans of the Southwest and the Environment

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PHOTO: SUSANNE PAGE
A rock shrine stands amidst remnants of a 900-year-old Hopi village on First Mesa in Walpi, Arizona.

Corrales, NM–In the 180-mile
stretch of land visible from my backyard is the center of the universe–in fact,
several such centers. Earth navels, they are called as well, by some of the Native Americans of the Southwest: places where
“the people” emerged into this one. Far to the west, near the
confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers, is another one, called sipapu by the Hopi. It’s the point from

  • Published on Mar 1, 1990
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