Carrie Cannon
Carrie Calisay Cannon is a member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma, and also of Oglala Lakota and German ancestry. She has a B.S. in Wildlife Biology and an M.S. in Resource Management. If you wish to connect with Carrie you will need a fast horse; by weekday she fills her days as a full-time Ethnobotanist with the Hualapai Indian Tribe of the Grand Canyon of Arizona, by weekend she is a lapidary and silversmith artist who enjoys chasing the beautiful as she creates Native southwestern turquoise jewelry.
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Nowhere in the world can you visit an urban ice age exhibit taking place in real time, except the La Brea Tar pits of Los Angeles. It's known for the massive ice age megafauna animals trapped within the unsuspecting tar. -
Ancestors of present-day horses originated in North America and spread around the world from there. But, according to the archaeological record, they were absent from the continent since the end of the Pleistocene some 10,000 years ago until Europeans re-introduced them. -
When you think of our Nation’s oldest settlements, stories of Plymouth Rock, Jamestown or Albany may come to mind. Yet America’s oldest towns are actually right here on the Colorado Plateau — Oraibi in Arizona and Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico. -
You’ve likely heard of the Venus fly trap, a subtropical botanical carnivore that traps flies in its leafy jaws! But the Grand Canyon has its very own insect entrapping plant, too. -
If you have ever had the fortune to witness an Apache Crown dance or watched the 1986 movie Crocodile Dundee, you may have heard an indescribable sound made by a curious device known as the bullroarer. The bullroarer has been used by cultures worldwide as a ritual musical instrument and for communicating over great distances. -
Most people think of a glacier as a large white mass of snow and ice. Yet some glaciers actually form beneath debris. These are known as rock glaciers. -
![Photograph of a Havasupai Indian woman, Yunosi, carrying a "Kathak" or basket on her back, ca.1900. She is wrapped in a brightly patterned blanket or cloth under which she wears a patterned dress. A strap around her forehead supports the large conical basket hanging on her back. She is standing in profile facing her right in front of a crude dwelling constructed from sticks and foliage. A gourd[?] and blankets are at her feet. A blanket with a zig-zag pattern hangs, bunched up, from the side of the structure.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/066c070/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3930x2190+0+214/resize/280x156!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fac%2Ffb%2F7e79765b4e26ab77c24cc621a116%2Fhavasupai-indian-woman-yunosi-carrying-a-kathak-or-basket-on-her-back-ca.1900_%28CHS-3354%29.jpg)
Backpackers are always searching for newer, more efficient ways to carry heavy loads. Yet tumplines, a textile placed over the forehead to carry a load on the back, have been an important tool for over a millennium. In fact, with correct posture, the use of the head to carry weight can actually be more efficient, functional, and safer than our contemporary techniques. -
The Grand Canyon may look like an austere desert landscape, but in fact, it’s home to the largest concentration of waterfalls within the state of Arizona. -
The magnificent white lily-like flowers of the many Yucca plant species only grace us in the spring when the stars align. Yucca blooms often occur in alternating years depending on rainfall, temperature, and climate. -
Color, distance, and light all shape the human perception of the world. But what do other kinds of animals see?
![Photograph of a Havasupai Indian woman, Yunosi, carrying a "Kathak" or basket on her back, ca.1900. She is wrapped in a brightly patterned blanket or cloth under which she wears a patterned dress. A strap around her forehead supports the large conical basket hanging on her back. She is standing in profile facing her right in front of a crude dwelling constructed from sticks and foliage. A gourd[?] and blankets are at her feet. A blanket with a zig-zag pattern hangs, bunched up, from the side of the structure.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/0d682ae/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3930x2190+0+214/resize/560x312!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fac%2Ffb%2F7e79765b4e26ab77c24cc621a116%2Fhavasupai-indian-woman-yunosi-carrying-a-kathak-or-basket-on-her-back-ca.1900_%28CHS-3354%29.jpg)
