Native Americans make strides in U.S. tourism industry

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A growing interest in Native American culture has caused a major economic boom for Indian people in America's Four Corners region-where Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico meet. And if current trends continue, tourism will provide even more to the local economy in the near future.

In the early 1930s, when Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona and similar protected sites were first established, Native Americans received little economic benefit from tourism. A few worked at menial tasks, for menial wages, in non-Native hotels and businesses. More sold their hand-made crafts for a pittance of their real worth, often to retailers who earned far more on each sale than the original artisans.

But today, much of that has changed. Not only are Native Americans working for the park service and private tourism businesses at reasonable wages, they are running their own enterprises and selling their creative work as fine art.

On the Hopi Indian Reservation in Arizona, for example, over 70 per cent of the people earn at least a part of their income from the sale of arts and crafts. The Hopi Arts and Crafts Guild now has a membership of several hundred silversmiths, basketweavers, potters, textile workers and Kachina doll carvers.

A small hand-made clay pot, which would have brought its creator a few coins in the 1950s, today sells for at least $20. A Navaho wedding basket, which takes many hours to weave, would have brought two or three dollars to its maker. They now sell for well over $100.

"There's a lot more that goes into making our crafts than people realize," said Anna Silas, a Hopi tribal member working at Arizona's Second Mesa Hopi Cultural Center. "Our people must fully understand the traditions of their people before they can legitimately make Kachina dolls (or other Hopi artifacts.) They must be initiated into the culture and often, they must go through a long training period to learn the spiritual and traditional meaning of the items."

At Chinle, Arizona, on the Navaho Reservation, glass artist David Martinez runs his own studio and sales rooms, with most of his work selling to tourists. His stained glass creations range from small framed pictures, which sell for less than $100, to huge murals and picture windows, costing several thousand.

In addition to selling his own work, Martinez also handles glass art and other works by a variety of Navaho craftspeople. He also works with several area architects on original glasswork and sells his art at other retail outlets.

"The art work and commission sales don't pay all the bills," Martinez admits, "but I do framing and things like that, so I get by."

Carl Begay, another Arizona Navaho, isn't an artist but he also earns his income through tourism. A tour guide at Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Begay has lived in the park most of his 60 years and knows it intimately.

"I can talk to people about our traditions and culture, both in the past and today," he said.

"I can show them the yucca plant that we make our ceremonial shampoo from, and the juniper berries we use for belly aches. My family still owns farm land in Chinle, Wash., and I help a little, planting corn, squash and melons or looking after our sheep. But I make most of my cash from the tourists that I take around the park."

One of the park's many authorized Navaho guides, Begay takes his clients to visit the many prehistoric ruins in the canyons, but he'll also take them to see his private living quarters, a tiny house, without running water or electricity, on the plateau of a mesa.

Virginia Tso-Jim, who lives on the Navaho Reservation in Utah, also works for the U.S. Park Service, welcoming visitors to Hovenweep National Monument in Utah. She says more than half of the people who work at Hovenweep, and the nearby Mesa Verde National Park, are Native Americans.

On Colorado's Ute Reservation, near Mesa Verde, the tribal council has established its on park with local people helping visitors explore ancient Anasazi ruins. The affiliated Ute Mountain Pottery continues the traditions of the people's Pueblo ancestors. Tribally-owned motels and restaurants at the Havasupai and Hopi Reservations also provide management and hospitality industry opportunities for many of the local people.

At Grey Hills High School in Tuba City, Arizona on the Navaho Reservation, a hotel management and hospitality training program runs a 32-bed hostel, offering rooms and meals to visiting guests.

"We still have a long way to go," Tso-Jim said, "but there's certainly a growing trend toward our people benefiting truly from the tourism potential of our culture and heritage. We get a lot of white Americans and foreign visitors and we're learning from them about this industry. I'd like to see us have more Native American visitors, so we can share information and advice."