Huhugam Heritage Center hosts Winter Storytelling event

February 3, 2017

Thomas R. Throssell

Gila River Indian News

Bundled in jackets, sweaters, and scarves, hundreds of Community members and guests huddled around crackling mesquite wood fires clutching steaming cups of hot cocoa for the chance to hear local storytellers tell tales and legends of the Akimel O’otham and Pee Posh at Huhugam Heritage Center’s Ho’ok A:ga Winter Storytelling on the evening of Jan. 27.

HHC’s Winter Storytelling made its debut last year, making a big splash within the Gila River Indian Community with over 300 guests attending the evening event.

Luis Barragan, HHC Museum Aide, said the idea behind the storytelling night was for it to be a special evening of O’otham and Pee Posh legends and tales geared towards families where Community members can come together to have a good time.

“We have hot chocolate, S’mores for the kids and coffee for the adults,” said Barragan. “We serve a meal so people don’t have to worry about dinner and we really want it to be a nice evening for families to get together and hear the stories, the legends, [and] hear the language. That’s what it is all about,” he said.

This year’s Winter Storytelling was no different, with hundreds of guests braving the cold and breezy weather to hear a variety of legends told by four storytellers.

Billy Allen began the night of storytelling with a welcoming and introduced the evening’s speakers: Kelly Washington, a Xalchidom Pee Posh from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, and Akimel O’otham Joyce Hughes and Barnaby Lewis.

Barragan said of this year’s speakers that he was happy to have Washington be part of the event and include Pee Posh stories and culture to the evening.

“We are really glad that he is [here] because last year when we had the first event, it was all O’otham stories, [and] we wanted to make [the event] more inclusive of the whole Community.”

Kelly Washington was the first speaker, telling his story at the front of the ball court in both English and Pee Posh languages. He told a variety of stories including the creation of mankind, how the snake was given fangs, and how cremation came to be used by the Pee Posh peoples.

Joyce Hughes, of District 6, told the story of Ban ch Nui, or Coyote’s trip to the Land Above.

Hughes told her stories in the O’otham language while standing before a cloth screen that depicted the events of her tale.

In Hughes’s story, Coyote gets a ride from buzzard up to the land above located in the clouds.

Bundled in jackets, sweaters, and scarves, hundreds of Community members and guests huddled around crackling mesquite wood fires clutching steaming cups of hot cocoa for the chance to hear local storytellers tell tales and legends of the Akimel O’otham and Pee Posh at Huhugam Heritage Center’s Ho’ok A:ga Winter Storytelling on the evening of Jan. 27.

HHC’s Winter Storytelling made its debut last year, making a big splash within the Gila River Indian Community with over 300 guests attending the evening event.

Luis Barragan, HHC Museum Aide, said the idea behind the storytelling night was for it to be a special evening of O’otham and Pee Posh legends and tales geared towards families where Community members can come together to have a good time.

“We have hot chocolate, S’mores for the kids and coffee for the adults,” said Barragan. “We serve a meal so people don’t have to worry about dinner and we really want it to be a nice evening for families to get together and hear the stories, the legends, [and] hear the language. That’s what it is all about,” he said.

This year’s Winter Storytelling was no different, with hundreds of guests braving the cold and breezy weather to hear a variety of legends told by four storytellers.

Billy Allen began the night of storytelling with a welcoming and introduced the evening’s speakers: Kelly Washington, a Xalchidom Pee Posh from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, and Akimel O’otham Joyce Hughes and Barnaby Lewis.

Barragan said of this year’s speakers that he was happy to have Washington be part of the event and include Pee Posh stories and culture to the evening.

“We are really glad that he is [here] because last year when we had the first event, it was all O’otham stories, [and] we wanted to make [the event] more inclusive of the whole Community.”

Kelly Washington was the first speaker, telling his story at the front of the ball court in both English and Pee Posh languages. He told a variety of stories including the creation of mankind, how the snake was given fangs, and how cremation came to be used by the Pee Posh peoples.

Joyce Hughes, of District 6, told the story of Ban ch Nui, or Coyote’s trip to the Land Above.

Hughes told her stories in the O’otham language while standing before a cloth screen that depicted the events of her tale.

In Hughes’s story, Coyote gets a ride from buzzard up to the land above located in the clouds.