Lyle Balenquah
Lyle Balenquah, Hopi, is a member of the Greasewood Clan from the Village of Paaqavi ("Reed Springs Place") on Third Mesa, located in northeastern Arizona. He currently works as an archaeologist, as well as a river and hiking guide across the Four Corners region. Through his work he advocates for the protection and preservation of ancestral landscapes, combining his professional training with personal experiences and insights about Hopi culture and history.
-
Four Mile Polychromes represent a Pueblo ceramic tradition with origins in the Mogollon Rim and mountains of eastern Arizona. This style was developed in the 13th century and is associated with the construction of large villages such as Pinedale, Show Low and Four Mile Pueblo, from which the ceramic is named. -
Recent genetic testing of Hopi corn is revealing insights about its evolution from varieties grown thousands of years ago, to the varieties grown by Hopi farmers today.
-
For a few centuries in the ancient southwest, T-doors were a unique architectural feature built at thousands of archaeological sites. Archaeologists named them T-doors because of their shape, which resembles a capital letter “T”, with a large, rectangular opening balanced on top of a smaller rectangle at the base.
-
Ancient foot trails radiate out from the Hopi mesas like the spokes of a wheel. One of these is known as the Palat’kwapi Trail, and it traverses through landscapes rich in Hopi history.
-
In the summer of 1963, a cache of five intact pottery jars and bowls was discovered in what is now Canyonlands National Park in Utah. The discovery is unique because the pottery consists entirely of a type known as Hopi Yellow-wares, which is only made on the Hopi Mesas in northeastern Arizona, 200 miles away.
-
Members of the Hopi and Zuni tribes are working alongside archaeologists within the Bears Ears National Monument to preserve masonry structures built by their ancestors hundreds of years ago. Uniquely, they are using methods and materials that reflect traditional perspectives about these places.
-
Archaeologists are using advances in technology to analyze fragments of turquoise found at the ancestral Hopi villages of Homol’ovi. Working with the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, they’re revealing the story of the origins of these beautiful blue-green stones.
