The Wupatki National Monument in Arizona, home to numerous Southwestern Indigenous groups and a rich repository of archaeological history, will soon be the subject of a significant preservation initiative.
The Getty Foundation, based in Los Angeles, has awarded a $1.3 million grant to the Center for Architectural Conservation at the University of Pennsylvania’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design, which will work with local Native communities to develop a new conservation and management plan for the red-rock highlands.
Some of the best-preserved records of ancient Native American civilization can be found at Wupatki National Monument and its sister sites, Walnut Canyon and Sunset Crater Volcano. The Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, Yavapai, Havasupai, and Hualapai ancestors settled in the area between the Painted Desert and the red-rock highlands as early as the 11th century, creating migration and trade routes. Throughout the monument, there are about 5,000 Indigenous archaeological sites.
Wupatki, which means “tall house” in Hopi, is a 900-year-old complex made of Moenkopi sandstone. It is located in the middle of the monument and has approximately 100 rooms. The home is regarded as a spiritual site by the local tribes, and it receives over 200,000 visitors each year.
According to the Getty Foundation, the project team will collaborate with a network of Indigenous-led groups to uncover problems with the current preservation approach and provide chances for heritage management, giving tribal members a voice in the monument’s future. The Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps, the Wupatki Cultural Resources Program, and the Vanishing Treasures Program, a National Parks project that promotes the utilization of traditional skills in heritage site maintenance, are among the organizations involved.
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