DC | Native Voices of the Grand Canyon

• Ryon Polequaptewa, voice

The multimedia production "Native Voices of the Grand Canyon" presents an afternoon of education and entertainment about the importance of the Grand Canyon to Indigenous cultures. Using music, dance, short films, and testimonies, the program presents Indigenous voices that address the protection of the Grand Canyon’s rim lands and the reallocation of the waters of the Colorado River.  

Films include Voices of the Grand Canyon (perspectives on ancestral connections to the Grand Canyon), Too Precious to Mine (struggles of the Havasupai Tribe against uranium mining on their land near the Colorado River), and Paatuwaqatsi: Water Is Life (importance of the Grand Canyon and Colorado River to the Hopi). 

Speaker and performer Ed Kabotie (Tewa/Hopi) emcees the event. Performances include Hopi singer Ryon Polequaptewa, seven-time world champion hoop dancer Derrick Davis (Hopi/Choctaw) and his family of musicians and storytellers, contemporary reggae/rock band Tha 'Yoties, and traditional songs by a special Supai delegation led by Carletta Tilousi, president of the Red Rock Foundation, and Supai elders.  

Films: 1pm-2pm, Rasmuson Theater (not livestreamed)

Performances: 2pm-4:30pm, Potomac Atrium (livestreamed; see above link)

About Smithsonian Music

https://music.si.edu/

About Ryon Polequaptewa, voice

https://invinciblemusic.com/ryon-polequaptewa