David Edwards, MA

Having spent the previous decade living and working in the Washington D.C. area, first pursuing my long-desired Masters Degree (Anthropology) from George Washington University (2001), and subsequently being employed by the Smithsonian's (then) new National Museum of the American Indian and subsequently teaching Quechua and Cultural Anthropology- related courses at the University of Maryland (Salisbury Campus), all the while serving as the Bolivia and Peru Country Specialist for the Washington D.C. offices of Amnesty International, I decided that it was time for me leave academics and to return to the field to conduct in-depth studies with the last vestiges of the traditional Hopi.

Previous to moving back to the Desert Southwest (I'd spent a number of years exploring Southern Utah during the 1980s), I'd had a dream that involved Hopis, and I was very anxious to try to contact them and explore whether my dream held any meaning for them.

Shortly following my and my family's arrival to Cortez, I had occasion to visit Hopiland with intentions to discuss with them whether or not they might have any interest in repatriating burial objects (including human remains) that I was very much aware of at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History where I had spent a considerable amount of time at while I was working on several inaugural exhibits at the (then) new National Museum of the American Indian.

During that visit, I ended up being referred to one of the traditional leaders of the Shungopavi village, Donald Dawahongnewa.

While I have sworn to not reveal anything about what I learned about my dream, I can assert that it catalyzed a friendship between me and Dawahongnewa that has lasted these past 17 years. During that time, I have become close to Dawahongnewa's brothers, as well as his wife and daughter.

Donald and I have explored many puebloan archeological areas, including Mesa Verde, Hovenweap as well as secret petroglyph areas, because one of his many roles among the traditional Hopi is to document these types of sites. In addition, I have been asked, and have fulfilled a request from Dawahongnewa to grow "Mother" corn for use during winter solstice ceremonies during a bad time of plagues that destroyed the Hopis' corn crops.

Dawahongnewa is a very important figure in Hopi language preservation, having invented the Hopi alphabet that was used in the publication of the "Hopi Dictionary" in the 1990s. Given the fact that previous to my meeting Dawahongnewa in '07, my anthopological/archeological work has been in the context of my being an Andeanist, and that I speak both Quechua and Aymara, both indigenous languages of the Andean Region, Donald and I have had many interesting conversations about our respective languages.

Starting in 2017, up until the present day, I have been working on an archeological site I discovered on my 15 acre horse ranch in Lewis. I have kept Dawahongnewa updated on all the developments of this archeological site, including bringing him up to the Site in 2019. During that visit to the Site, Dawahongnewa gave me a great deal of insight into the origins of the Site, and the many artifacts I have unearthed there.

In September of 2021, it was my great honor to host Michael Cremo, author of: "Forbidden Archeology," to come out to the four corners region and visit my archeological site. We were fortunate to have had some of Michael's comments regarding the SIte videotaped. You can review his comments here:

https://rumble.com/v2x6z3u-june-30-2023.html

Because of our close friendship, Dawahongnewa has taught me a great deal about his culture. However, being a traditional leader, almost all of the teachings are for me alone, and I am sworn to maintain strict secrecy on most of what he teaches me.

References:

Donald W. Dawahongnewa

P.O. Box #131

2nd Mesa, Arizona 86043

Cell: 928 313 3595

email: harukpi@yahoo.com

Michael Cremo

9702 Venice Blvd Apt 5

Los Angeles, CA 90034

Cell: 310 254 6922

I taught Cultural Anthropological, General Anthropological, and Quechua Language Courses at the University of Maryland, Salisbury Campus, in Salisbury Maryland.

In 1978-79 I wrote a Bolivian Quechua Language Training Manual, and I used that as my curriculum/text for teaching undergraduate students the basics of Quechua Morphology and Phonology. Some of my students were awarded rather large graduate school fellowships of +$75,000.

I have been able to find one of my Quechua Students. I will provide her contact information here:

Nicole Hladky

nhladky4479@gmail.com

4606 Brentwood lane

Ellicot City, MD 21042

phone: 410 259 6546

I researched content, found objects, developed loans, participated in the design of several "permanent" (lasting 14 years) inaugural exhibits. I do have a page describing my work w/photographs on my website:

www.treetribes.com/smithsonian

or

www.treetribes.com

"smithsonian page".

The topics I research and secured one of a kind objects for:

1. Indian Language Bibles

2. Ancient American Gold Objects

3. Pre-Colombian figures representing the concept of: 1491

4.Indian Boarding Schools

5.Anti-Indian Religious Practice Laws

6. Antique Guns, including guns belonging to historical Indian Leaders.

7. American/Indian Nations' one of a kind original treaties.

Reference:

Lynn Kawaratani

Designer

Our Peoples Gallery-National Museum of the American Indian

Email:

emisoo@yahoo.com

This is the time of my life that began the trajectory that eventually led to my returning to my graduate studies at George Washington University.

It began when I entered an "in country" Aymara Language Training Program" located in La Paz, Bolivia, in September of 1976. After two months of grammar instruction, I spent a year living in Aymara villages along the eastern coastline of Lake Titicaca in the Bolivian Altiplano.

I rapidly became fluent and became a real anomaly in the region since even the Jesuit Priest in the region had been unable to achieve even a modest command of the Aymara language. I got that inside information 25 years later speaking with the great Xavier Albo, the sociolinguist from Colombia University who devoted his life to learning both Quechua and Aymara.

After about a year of focusing on the Aymara language, I was sent to the Cochabamba region where I spent another few months being taught Quechua grammar from a Bolivian instructor from the Summer Institute of Linguistics.

Following that, I traveled broadly throughout the Quechua-speaking countrysides of Tarabucco, Betanzos, Sucre and Potosi. After achieving a strong mastery of Quechua, I was asked to teach four missionaries everything I could so as to seed the Quechua Mission, the first of its kind for the Church.

Upon returning to the U.S., I was hired by the Church's: Mission Training Center to write a detailed and lengthy "Bolivian Quechua" language training manual. Much to my chagrin, the Church never used the manual, and closed down the "Quechua Mission" I'd worked so hard on the previous few years. I still possess the grammar itself and I am about to use it as a springboard to writing and publishing an updated version of the text.

I was subsequently hired to by the Church's "emerging languages" department to translate sections of the Book of Mormon. Following that project, I left off my Andean Studies related work and had a 20 year career in Public Mental Health until 1998 when I was accepted in a Masters in Anthropology program at George Washington University.