It is called the Museum of Northern Arizona, but perhaps a more encompassing name would be "the Museum of the Colorado Plateau." Then for good measure you could tack on "and Its Peoples."
This museum, north of downtown Flagstaff on Route Arizona 180, the highway to the Grand Canyon, has adopted as its province a swath of territory encircling the Four Corners region, as well as great spans of time and of human history.That takes in a good chunk of Utah, Colorado and New Mexico as well as northern Arizona.
The facility, says Michele Madril, director of marketing and public relations, "is dedicated to understanding and interpreting the Colorado Plateau," through anthropology, biology, geology and the fine arts. This approach is what gives the Museum of Northern Arizona its breadth.
"Most are science, history or art museums," she notes. "We are all of these things."
The primordial past of the Colorado Plateau can be investigated in displays summarizing eons of ancient seas and dinosaurs - the Precambrian, Paleozoic and Mesozoic ages. Kids can get close-up looks at adilophosaurus skeleton and the molars of mammoths and mastodons. Geology exhibits explain millennia of carving by the Colorado River and the creation of the Grand Canyon, as well as the rise of the volcanic San Francisco Mountains, the impressive peaks creating Flagstaff's northern skyline.
Still, a tour of the galleries and rooms underlines an emphasis on human history, and specifically that of the region's Indian tribes, ancient and modern.
One large well-organized hall is devoted to the Basketmaker and Puebloan peoples of antiquity, outlining via text and artifacts what we have learned about these early residents of the plateau (circa 100 B.C. to 1600 A.D.).
An adjoining area presents the story, and craftworks (weaving, pottery, jars from the miniature to the gigantic), of today's tribes, such as the Hopi, the Zuni, the Navajo and the Grand Canyon area Pai - the Havasupai, Hualapai, Yavapai. Whole display cases are filled with beautiful jewelry and everyday possessions: necklaces of turquoise, coral and shell; intricate silver work; belts and bow guards.
One of the most intriguing areas is devoted to an array of authentic kachina dolls (the museum prefers "katsina"), representations of the supernatural ancestral beings the Hopi call the Katsinam, who gave to the Hopi such ancient crops as corn, beans and squash. Eototo is the white-garbed kachina chief, Nata'aska the black ogre, Kooyemsi the mud-head clown.
Shorter-term exhibits also reflect the artistry of American Indians.
"Into the Storm," a just-concluded display of intriguing, somewhat impressionistic paintings and prints by Shonto Begay, included colorful large-scale landscapes and images taken from contemporary Navajo life - crowded pool rooms, littered roadsides, a gathering of men and boys around the back end of a pickup truck.
"Quilting from the Hopi Mesas: Stitched Traditions from an Ancient Community" presents an array of bright, motley blankets featuring blocks of symbols and portraits. The exhibit continues through September. Another fabric-oriented topic, beginning Jan. 23 and continuing through May 3, is "Weave for Us a Garment of Brightness: Historic Textiles of the Colorado Plateau," tapping the museum's collections.
The Museum of Northern Arizona was founded 70 years ago, in 1928, by Dr. Harold S. Colton and his wife Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton, transplants to Flagstaff from Philadelphia.
"They became concerned that a lot of (American Indian) artifacts being found were being carted up and sent back East," Madril says.
The first museum was established in downtown Flagstaff. The Coltons donated the land and funds to build the present facility in 1935. It sits amid tall ponderosa pines on the edge of the Rio de Flag Canyon, a basaltic crevice that hosts an adjoining half-mile nature trail. In 1995 the museum was expanded by 8,000 square feet, adding a fine arts gallery, multipurpose rooms and a reception room.
Besides exhibits, the museum presents a variety of symposiums and lectures throughout the year. One gallery is transformed into a marketplace on summer weekends, featuring works by Hopi, Navajo, Pai and Zuni artists. It also organizes a schedule of educational hikes, tours and treks.
The Museum of Northern Arizona is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Adult admission is $5. For more information about program and tour schedules, call 520-774-5211.