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Springs on the Colorado Plateau
In
Praise of Springs: Place Names & Their Cultural
and Ecological
Significance
 In
indigenous languages, the names of sacred springs, wetlands and
mountains resonate with culture-specific meanings and historical
significance. This is true of many place names, but especially true
for freshwater springs that exist in otherwise dry landscapes. Here we
find multiple layers of cultural values held in the names themselves:
references to the essential role of water for physical survival,
cleansing, and habitat for plants and animals, as well as its role in
ceremonies, stories, and origin histories. In addition, these names
have much to tell us about environmental history, sometimes recording
earlier conditions of spring-fed wildlife habitats, and how they may
have changed over time.
 Below
are a few examples of spring names in Hopi and in Navajo and the kinds
of vital information they contain – the Navajo alone name at least 132
springs. Although similar examples could be offered from Zuni, Jemez,
Apache, Paiute or Pai place names, the following information has been
taken from the tribally-sanctioned Hopi Dictionary, Hopìikwa
Lavàytutuveni: A Hopi-English Dictionary of the Third Mesa Dialect
(1998), compiled by the Hopi Dictionary Project, Tucson: The
University of Arizona Press; and Navajo Places: History, Legend,
Landscape (2000), Salt Lake: University of Utah Press.
Hopi Springs:
-
Sohopva [Cottonwood Spring]—sohop =
‘cottonwood’ (Populus fremontii), and va = water place marker,
indicating the historic presence of a groundwater-loving plant with
multiple uses that may or may not still exist at the site, allowing us
to compare prior and present conditions.
-
Paqaptsokvi—paqap = ‘upright
semi-aquatic reed’ (Phragmites australis or Arundo donax), tsok =
‘place of plants’, and vi, water place marker, again indicating
certain biological conditions favoring wetland plants that may or may
not exist today.
-
Masìipa [Shonto in Navajo]—masìi =
‘gray’ and pa, water place marker. This is known as a spring with
exceptional water quality, used for centuries. Gray may refer to the
color of clay suitable for pottery, for the place is surrounded by
Anasazi pot shards. Interestingly, the Navajo name for the spring
means ‘sunshine water’—a fascinating contrast to the Hopi ‘gray.’
Navajo Springs:
-
Todkonzh ‘dlii [Soda Spring or Sulphur
Spring] = ‘alkaline water coming out’. This place combines Anglo and
Navajo observations of the same mineral or geologically caused
phenomena, and the site is a traditional location for medicinal water
for the Navajo.
-
Tóyéé’ [Tuye Spring] = ‘hazardous
water’ and refers to a sinking bog around this bubbling mud spring.
The place is historically and ceremonially important to the Navajo as
a rendezvous point during resistance efforts, and as a landmark
designating the southeastern corner of the Treaty Reservation of 1868.
-
Although the USGS reports that there
are 102 springs on the Hopi reservation, it is unclear how many of
these are still viable or “alive,” as many of their traditional users
consider and want them to be. In fact, Hopi sources claim over 400
water sources of various kinds—a huge discrepancy in numbers that
Western science and surveying abilities have not recognized. It is for
this reason that traditional ecological knowledge about these places,
which is held largely within native languages, is critical to the
long-term survival of the springs themselves.
David Seibert
and Gary Nabhan, NAU/CSE Ethnoecology Lab
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