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Arizona/New Mexico

Ancestral Homelands: Hopi, Navajo and Chaco Canyon

Program No. 4541RJ

Immerse yourself in the culture and mystery of America’s Southwest as you explore ancient cliff dwellings, attend a Indigenous arts demonstration and visit world-renowned Chaco Canyon.

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7 days

6 nights

17 meals

6B 5L 6D

Check-in, Orientation, Welcome Dinner

Flagstaff, AZ

Walnut Canyon National Monument, Museum of Northern Arizona

Flagstaff, AZ

Hopi Cultural Center Demo, Walpi Village

Chinle, AZ

Canyon de Chelly Activity Choices, 4-Wheel Drive Canyon

Chinle, AZ

Hubbell Trading Post, Window Rock, Navajo Museum

Gallup, NM

Chaco Canyon, Pueblo Bonito, Casa Rinconada

Gallup, NM

Transfer to Flagstaff, Program Concludes

Flagstaff, AZ

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At a Glance

The Southwest is the keeper of America’s best-preserved and most compelling archaeological treasures. That heritage continues today in the modern Hopi and Navajo culture of northeastern Arizona. Hear personal insights as Native American representatives share cultural achievements, historic struggles and modern challenges. Then journey to uncover the mystery of Chaco Canyon, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with its Great Houses and Great Kivas, displaying prehistoric architectural masterpieces on a grand scale.

Activity Level

Keep the Pace

Walking up to 1.5 miles on varied terrain. Exploration of ruins requires agility. Elevations up to 7,000-plus feet.

Small Group

Love to learn and explore in a small-group setting? These adventures offer small, personal experiences with groups of 13 to 24 participants.

Best of all, you’ll…

Visit cliff dwellings at Walnut Canyon National Monument, and on the Hopi Reservation, experience a cultural demonstration and explore a Pueblo village that is one of the oldest continually inhabited American settlements.
On the Navajo Reservation, enjoy a 4x4 vehicle trip into the heart of Canyon de Chelly.
Journey to the center of the Ancestral Puebloan world — Chaco Canyon — to explore the Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl and the Great Kiva of Casa Rinconada.

Featured Expert

All trip experts

Stewart Lasseter

Stewart Lasseter completed studies in geo-science, natural history and Spanish at the University of Arizona. He then studied as the protégé of a Native American healer, learning from her practices of wholeness, kinesiology, mind-body medicine, and dyslexia correction. He has years of experience bringing groups in touch with the natural world and has completed post-graduate studies in health sciences at Prescott College.

Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.

Stewart Lasseter View biography

Bryan Bates View biography

Bryan Bates is an ex-officio member of the governing board for the International Society for Archaeoastronomy and Astronomy in Culture. Under a NASA grant, he created a course manual for archaeoastronomy and published research on a solar calendar at Wupatki and an equinox site near Stoneman Lake. He is involved in a research project on archaeoastronomy at Mesa Verde National Park and teaches archaeoastronomy, as well as biology, environmental science, natural history and chemistry.

Dorothy Ami View biography

Dorothy Ami is a well-respected Hopi potter. Her demonstrations detail the pottery making process — from gathering the clay to tempering, coiling a piece, making the paints from nature, painting with a yucca brush and firing.

Eric Kee View biography

Eric Kee was born and raised on the Navajo Reservation in Tuba, City, Ariz. In addition to sharing his Navajo culture, Eric enjoys spending his spare time building Native American flutes, working with silver and enjoys hiking, kayaking, camping with his family. He met his wife in Florence, Italy during his three years teaching English and working Italian camps for kids. He, along with his wife and three children, currently reside in Tuba City, Arizona.

Filmer Kewanyama View biography

Fil Kewanyama was born in the village of Shungopavi on Second Mesa on Hopi Land in northeastern Arizona. He is of the Qalwung'gwa (Sun Forehead) clan and grew up with all the ceremonies that are still a part of his life. Following his military service, Fil moved to Phoenix and then Prescott, Arizona where he started focusing on his art. Fil says he grew up learning to draw, paint and carve as it was all around him in the form of Hopi ceremonies and rituals.

Rocky Sullivan View biography

Rocky Sullivan, a Kansas native, has been living in the southwest working on ranches among other things for the better part of three decades. During the last few years, he has brought his poetry into the limelight, gaining respect and praise from peers and audiences. Rocky won in his division of the 2015 National Cowboy Poetry Rodeo in Abilene, Kansas, and again in 2017. He has been asked to perform at numerous venues since.

Suggested Reading List (7 books)

Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop

You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.

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Ancestral Homelands: Hopi, Navajo and Chaco Canyon

Program Number: 4541

Warriors: Navajo Code Talkers

by Kawano, Kenji

The American offensive in the Pacific during World War II [was] hampered by the Japanese ability to crack the most secret U.S. Codes. Navajo was virtually unknown outside the reservations, ... and [their] code proved uncrackable. Kenji Kawano's striking photographs capture the quiet dignity of the surviving veterans as they recall their actions --Los Angeles Times 128 pp

Native Roads : The Complete Motoring Guide to the Navajo and Hopi Nations

by Kosik, Frank

Using the mile markers of the US, Arizona, and Navajo highways and routes running through the Navajo and Hopi nations as her organizing principle, the author offers a travel guide to the sites found in the area. Natural, historical, and cultural points of interest are covered, along with some information on lodging and services. 280 pp

People of Chaco: A Canyon and Its Culture

by Frazier, Kendrick

Chaco Wash has cut a broad canyon through northwestern New Mexico. Its natural beauty is surpassed only by the many prehistoric ruins it contains, which were built by the Chacoan Anasazi, the ancestors of the modern Pueblo Indians. About 1000 years ago, the Chacoans constructed multistory residences, established an extensive road system, exercised cultural hegemony over a large region in the southwestern United States, and then suddenly left. Frazier skillfully recounts the fascinating story of Chaco Canyon. He describes its discovery and exploration, its role in the development of American archaeology, and the clues it contains about a unique cultural system. Gordon C. Tucker, Jr., Nickens and Assocs., Montrose, Col. 261pp

In the House of Rain

by Childs, Craig

In this landmark work on the Anasazi tribes of the Southwest, naturalist Craig Childs dives head on into the mysteries of this vanished people. The various tribes that made up the Anasazi people converged on Chaco Canyon (New Mexico) during the 11th century to create a civilization hailed as "the Las Vegas of its day," a flourishing cultural center that attracted pilgrims from far and wide, and a vital crossroads of the prehistoric world. By the 13th century, however, Chaco's vibrant community had disappeared without a trace. Was it drought? Pestilence? War? Forced migration, mass murder or suicide? Conflicting theories have abounded for years, capturing the North American imagination for eons.

The Fourth World of the Hopis: The Epic Story of the Hopi Indians As Preserved in Their Legends and Traditions

by Courlander, Harold

Folklorist Courlander traces Hopi legends from the tribe’s search through the wilderness for its home location to its settling on the Hopi Mesas and development thereafter. 239pp

In Search of Chaco

by Noble, David Grant

Startling discoveries and impassioned debates have emerged from the "Chaco Phenomenon" since the publication of New Light on Chaco Canyon twenty years ago. This completely updated edition features seventeen original essays, scores of photographs, maps, and site plans, and the perspectives of archaeologists, historians, and Native American thinkers. For more than a century archaeologists and others have pursued Chaco Canyon's many and elusive meanings. In Search of Chaco brings these explorations to a new generation of enthusiasts.

Diné: A History of the Navajos

by Iverson, Peter; Roessel, Monty

This comprehensive narrative traces the history of the Navajos from their origins to the beginning of the twenty-first century. Based on extensive archival research, traditional accounts, interviews, historic and contemporary photographs, and firsthand observation, it provides a detailed, up-to-date portrait of the Diné past and present that will be essential for scholars, students, and interested general readers, both Navajo and non-Navajo.

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Ancestral Homelands: Hopi, Navajo and Chaco Canyon

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At a Glance

Best of all, you’ll…

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