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Southwest Native Peoples: In Class and on Block Break
My first block class of senior year, Native Peoples of the Southwest, was an anthropology course. We explored the many Native American cultures of the southwest, past and present. We met each day and discussed Native peoples’ religion and culture, lifestyle and tradition, identity and sense of place. Each week, we watched films about the issues discussed during class. We contemplated questions regarding the Anglo-American representation of native peoples, their formation of identity and their close connection to landscape.
Within the first week we had defined the different perceptions of Native people, tied evolutionary theory to anthropology and learned about multiculturalism in the Southwest. Daily themes arose: What is identity? What constitutes history? What are the ramifications of constructed identities? Every day throughout the block we grappled with such questions, forming our own understanding of the historical and present-day issues of the Southwest. While the class focused on the Southwest, the themes and issues related to almost all CC classes: how do we understand, perceive and relate to different people around us?
In the last three days of class, I had given myself plenty of time to write my final essay. I’d planned a raft trip and packed everything to leave on a four-day adventure in the desert. Block Break! It wasn’t an official CC trip, just six friends, a raft, camping equipment and four days in the desert. We arrived late at the campground in Grand Junction, exhausted and irritable from the long drive, but happy to be on our way.
Rob on block breakThursday morning dawned bright, warm and clear as we packed our gear and ourselves in the raft, pushed off at Loma, Colorado, and embarked on our journey. We would soon be in Utah. Each night, we stopped at camps along the beach, then hiked among pools of water and through narrow slots in the side canyons, stopping occasionally to watch lizards lying in the sun. One night, we slept out under the sky, assigning names to random groups of stars in the Milky Way.
Hiking up the dry, sandy wash away from our raft along the Colorado River, I wonder what is around the next corner of the canyon. Just a little further. The slowly setting sun casts a soft orange glow on the towers and walls around us. Quiet surrounds us. We continue further up the canyon. I imagine how the Native people I had just learned about interact with such a place. I recall how their identity is often tied to sacred spaces. I discover a connection: I, too, can interact with such a place. For a Block Break, I can escape the rigors of class and the rush of Colorado Springs to rest, relax and rejuvenate in the natural world.