February 27, 2013 - Road Trip

Today’s journey started in Parker at the Colorado River Indian Tribes Museum.

With the exception of the town of Parker, much of the area from north of Parker to north of Ehrenburg on both sides of the Colorado River is part of the Colorado River Indian Reservation.  It was established in 1865 by the Federal Government for “Indians of the Colorado River and its tributaries”.  At that time, it consisted of two tribes: The Mohave, whose ties date back to prehistoric times, and the Chemehuevi, who resided here before it was made a reservation.  People of the Hopi and Navajo Tribes were relocated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1945 from their home reservations in northeastern Arizona.

Each of the tribes have very different language, culture, and traditions and are noted for different skills.  The Mohave are noted for their skill of blending colorful beads and doing intricate designed work as well as beautiful pottery; The Navajo are known for their beautifully designed rugs and silver smithing; The Chemehuevi for their baskets; and the Hopi for their pottery, overlay jewelry and carved kachina dolls.

And the CRIT museum had them all. Beautiful work! but alas no pictures – not allowed – :-(((.

The museum is free and if you are in this area, it is worth a trip to see all the examples of the Colorado River Indian Tribes.

Another thing I found interesting was their tribal seal:

“The tribal seal of the Colorado River Indian Tribes was designed and officially accepted in 1966 as a result of a contest open to all members. This design, by John Scott, was selected because it represented all aspects of the Tribes.

The sunburst design around the edges depicts the sun's rays, with 52 points for 52 weeks of sunshine. Riverside Mountain appears on the horizon, and the Colorado River flows across the seal. A crosshatch design is included to represent the checkerboard of farmed parcels in the reservation, and a shaft of wheat crossed with a branch of cotton represent the prime agricultural resources.

The four feathers at the top of the seal represent the four Tribes - the Mohave, Chemehuevi, Hopi and Navajo. “

Here is a link for more info on the reservation:

http://parkerareatourism.com/community/history/reservation.htm

From there we traveled south on CR-1 with a stop at Poston to see if there were any changes. 

Last year at this time, we found the Japanese Internment Camp (or what was left of it).  Here is a link to that blog:

http://thehitzels.blogspot.com/2012/02/february-25-2012-poston-and-earp.html

What I many not have told you is that after I did that blog, I was contacted by the Poston Community Alliance for permission to use some of my pictures – I was deeply honored.

Here is a link to that site:

http://postoninpictures.blogspot.com/p/today.html

This is the main site to the reconstruction of Poston and to make a museum there:

http://postonupdates.blogspot.com/

What a great site to explore and learn more about our history.

In October, the elementary school here was granted “National Historic Landmark” by the National Park Service.  Here is that information:

http://postonupdates.blogspot.com/2012/10/national-historic-landmark.html

So one of the only changes we found was this:

 

It is one of the barracks that has been relocated to the Site.    Some day, I would love to tour this whole site with a guide.

We continued on our journey of CR-1, past these burned fields.

 

These are hay bales on fire – not sure if it was on purpose or that the fire got out of hand:

 

We completed our loop by going thru Quartzsite – what a difference from a month ago.

Today:

A month ago:

We checked out the Hi-Jolly area where we expect to be next week.

It was a nice road trip and good to get out again.

Enjoy today.

February 25, 2012 Poston and Earp

After doing my research the other night on the Poston camps, we set out to find the ruins of Camp Poston Number 1.   And we found it:

 

 

 

 

We could not get into the fenced area and once we saw the main road blocked by dirt piles, we figured we better not trespass out of respect for the project underway to restore many of the building as well as the stories and memories of this time.  Here is the link with more information:   http://postonupdates.blogspot.com/

From there we made a scenic drive back to Earp over the Colorado River:

If you look at the above pictures, one side of the river is farmland and the other is desert – amazing!

And we stopped in Earp, California to do a cache by these ruins (could not find out anything about them – sorry):

Did you know Earp, California was named in honor of Wyatt Earp?  In 1906 Wyatt Earp and his third wife, Josie came to Vidal (close to Earp) and filed more than 100 mining claims in the area.  Earp (formerly known as Drennan) was the site of some of those claims and in 1930 when the post office was established, the settlement was renamed Earp in Wyatt Earp’s honor.  Very interesting!

This evening we enjoyed a great steak dinner at the club house – yum!

 

Enjoy today.

February 22, 2012 – Poston and Blythe Intaglios

ROAD TRIP DAY  - :-)

For a few years, finding the Poston camp has been on my bucket list so today we were off to try to find it.  I stopped by the Visitor Center and they told me that there is only a monument, no buildings left.  However, my research on the internet shows that there is buildings there – we just need to find them.

Poston is located on the Colorado River Indian Tribe Reservation.    A little history on the CRITR:  In 1775, when Father Garces of Spain journeyed the Colorado River area, he found native people (Mohave and Chemehuevi) living along the river in communities where they had done for thousands of years.  The King of Spain recognized the sovereignty of the sole occupants of the territory and treated them as such.  When Mexico seceded from Spain, they continued to recognize this sovereignty.  In 1848, Mexico signed the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and admonished the United States to do the same recognition of the Colorado River Native Peoples.  Today the reservation also includes the Hopi and Navajo tribes and their primary industry is agriculture (although in recent years they are now branching out to other industries).

Once we turned onto Mohave Road, we went thru the farming areas:

After about 12 miles we arrived at the monument:

Now, you ask, what is all this about. Well, in 1942, right after Pearl Harbor, over 120,000 persons of Japanese Ancestry living throughout the western states were evacuated and interned in fifteen centers (in other words, detention centers.)  In this area, Poston, there were three camps which held over 17,000 people.  A few years ago I read an article about this camp and there are a number of books about it so I just felt compelled to find it.

Here is a great link:  http://www.javadc.org/poston.htm   and if you want to know more just Google “Poston Camp”.

This Memorial Monument stands 30 feet high and 7 feet wide with a hexagonal base in the form of a Japanese stone lantern.  It is dedicated to the people who were incarcerated at this site from May 5, 1942 to November 28, 1945; to the solders from the camps who were killed in action and to the Colorado River Indian Tribes on whose land the Monument stands.

It is a pretty sobering memorial about our past.

We did not find the buildings so tonight we did more research and hope to head out again to find them.

From there we headed to Ehrenberg, then Blythe where we had lunch in one of the local diners – :-)).  And then back up California SR95, where we did a side trip to the Blythe Intaglios:

 

 

    

Very interesting, aren’t they.

Pictures from around that area:

The road to the Intaglios:

What a contrast – desert – farming:

What a great day!

Enjoy today.