Workshops and Lectures

February 22nd, 2025 | 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.

We are excited to offer the unique experience of handcrafting a flute with Native American artist, Aaron White. Using local materials, Aaron will guide you through the process of shaping, sanding, decorating, sealing, and song-making your very own flute. All materials will be provided, and attendees will leave with the flutes they make.

Aaron White is a flute musician and guitar player and is part Northern Diné from the Blacksheep Clan and Northern Ute tribe Whiteriver Band. His band, Burning Sky, was nominated for the 2003 Grammy of Best Native American Album and Won Group of The Year at the Native American Music Awards in 2004.

$50 for DVPP Members

$60 for non-DVPP Members

March 29th, 2025 | 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Join August Wood and Joshua Yazzie for a hands-on basket-weaving experience! In this workshop, you'll learn all about the art of basket weaving using traditional techniques.

They’ll start with a demonstration, showcasing the materials they use and sharing the history behind the craft. Then, get ready to roll up your sleeves and weave your very own patterns. With materials like yarn and rope, you'll learn how to weave a beautiful piece.

Whether you're a complete beginner or looking to expand your crafting skills, this workshop offers a fun and interactive way to connect with a timeless tradition while making something you can be proud of!

$55 for DVPP Members

$65 for non-DVPP Members

April 12th, 2025 | 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Join the Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve for a hands-on flintknapping workshop! ASU graduate students, John Murray and Nic Hansen, will guide you through the art of shaping stone tools using traditional techniques.

All materials will be provided, and you will be able to leave with whatever creation you make!

$30 for DVPP Members

$40 for non-DVPP Members

February 21st, 2025 | 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.

The Old Leupp Boarding School (OLBS) historical archaeological site is a significant place that is important to the Diné (Navajo). The U.S. Federal Government established a federal Indian boarding school to educate Navajo children from 1909 to 1942. After the start of World War II in 1943, the U.S. War Department reutilized the OLBS as a Japanese Isolation Center. This former United States federal Indian boarding school and Citizens Isolation Center deeply impacts the community histories of both the Diné and Nikkei (Japanese Americans). Davina Ruth Two Bears will briefly speak about the community-accountable archaeological project that is currently underway that centers the history and archaeology of the Old Leupp site.

Davina Ruth Two Bears is Diné (Navajo) originally from the community of Birdsprings on the Navajo reservation in northern Arizona. In 2019 Davina received her PhD from Indiana University-Bloomington in anthropology with an emphasis in archaeology, and a PhD minor in Native American Indigenous Studies. She is currently a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at Arizona State University in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. Davina’s current community-based research of the Old Leupp Boarding School, an early 20th century federal Indian boarding school, focuses on its reuse as a Japanese Isolation Center in 1943 during World War II.

March 14th, 2025 | 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.

This lecture will examine whether ancient technologies, such as stone tools and fire-making methods, can be considered cultural heritage. It will explore the criteria that define these technologies as cultural heritage and how we can measure them. The discussion will highlight how these technologies—both tangible artifacts and intangible knowledge—reflect human adaptation, innovation, and resilience across generations.

By integrating archaeological data, experiments, machine learning, and collaboration with descendant communities, the lecture will showcase how preserving ancient knowledge can offer valuable insights into past societies' strategies for adapting to environmental challenges. These lessons are especially relevant in addressing modern issues like climate change.

Aylar Abdolahzadeh is an anthropological archaeologist specializing in the prehistoric and historical significance of ancient technologies, including stone tools and pyrotechnology, in human adaptation, resilience, and environmental sustainability. She earned her PhD in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2022 and is currently a postdoctoral research scholar at the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University. Her research examines the use of fire-making technology in human living spaces and land management, exploring the variation in pyrotechnology from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene across diverse climatic and geographic contexts worldwide.

March 28th, 2025 | 10 a.m. - 11 a.m.

Join us for an engaging talk by PhD Candidate for the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Jayde Hirniak, on the role of volcanic ash (tephra) in advancing archaeological and paleontological research through tephrochronology. She will highlight recent breakthroughs in detecting cryptotephra—non-visible ash layers that can be traced over thousands of kilometers—and their impact on understanding human evolution. Key discoveries, including the identification of the 74 ka Youngest Toba Tuff in South Africa and Ethiopia, enable high-resolution correlations across regions previously thought unconnected. This upcoming lecture will demonstrate how these innovations are reshaping our ability to address major questions about early human behavior across vast geographic areas