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Springs on the Colorado Plateau In mid-April, students from NAU met with Hopi advisors, media, and permaculture experts to learn about and re-plant a small peach orchard and other crops in the valley below Second Mesa. Despite the loss of one small tree (which we hope and expect was successfully ‘re-planted’ in someone else’s yard somewhere!)], the little three-foot trees leafed out like champions despite the wind and heat of early summer. Soon the squash and melons planted at their bases emerged from the earth, and corn poked its first leaves out in the adjacent field a few weeks later.
Ferrell Secakuku, village resident and head of the project, watered
the peach trees sparingly in the first weeks to help them establish in
the sandy soil; but even this scant attention was not necessary for
the hardy native seeds, and of course Ferrell knew it. When CSE
project coordinator David Seibert visited the site mid-summer, he
found neat rows of all the planted crops, in all the proportions
planted in April. However, by this time the plants were wilting
slightly from daily wind and heat that are always a part of Hopi
agriculture, and always a part of life for the most successful dry
farmers in the world. The last report from Ferrell indicated that
rains in the area began
At the spring just above the valley and orchard, village residents and NAU volunteers continue to meet to restore the spring’s health and vitality by removing invasive plants, and by placing infrastructure to collect some of the water in a cistern below for easier use by residents. The trail is now safer and more accessible to young and old, after some rerouting necessitated by shifting boulders. Project coordinator David Seibert of CSE has facilitated workshops and mini-lectures to visiting scholars and programs, the latest to 15 Environmental Science students from Antioch College in Ohio, in exchange for a day of work and sharing stories on site. Sipaulovi residents have indicated an interest in involving youth in cleaning up the area immediately below the spring, in order to discourage further dumping in the area, and to increase pride in the spring and its connection to village life. Two of the most significant developments surrounding the spring work have come from residents’ comments and reactions to our work. The nearest resident is thrilled that she will have good drinking water nearer to her house, but she mentioned that even more importantly the spring area will once again become a good place to walk with her daughter. This practice seems to have fallen out of favor in the face of increased pollution, and decreased reliance on the spring for all water needs. Two other women of Sipaulovi are quite pleased that the spring is receiving attention once again, and they too noted how walking with daughters in the area is an important part of their relationships with one another and to the land. Finally, there are positive indications even from Sipaulovi residents who never plan to actually go to the spring itself. What is important here, they say, is that the spring is healthy, alive, and in use—a vital bit of knowledge about the place a person lives, even if the individual never actually visits the site.
David Seibert,
CSE Program Coordinator |
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The summer and fall field season of
collaborations between CSE and Hopi continued with a number of
developments. CSE has been working with residents of the village of
Sipaulovi on Second Mesa as a catalyst to revive peach orchards and
historically associated crops such as beans, corn, squash, and
sunflowers that the village desires.
Admittedly, a few of the volunteers were skeptical of the plants’
chances for success, given the dry conditions, and the traditional
planting method of putting corn seeds 8-10 inches under ground without
extensive irrigation or rain. But this skepticism was soon pushed
away—along with the soil that had previously covered the dark green
leaves of emerging life. 
just
in time to salvage the crops, and that we can expect the hardy peach
trees—linked directly to those brought by the Spanish five hundred
years ago—to establish themselves strongly in their new, yet familiar
and very old, native habitat.