Crafting a cultural revival

By: Lisa Nicita

Elders within the Gila River Indian Community are seeing fears of a lost culture fade as the success of a reservation resort reinvigorates interest in traditional Native American art.

Younger residents, once uninterested in learning cultural centerpieces such as language, stories and crafts, are realizing that becoming a reservation artisan could be a profitable career path.A conscious effort of corporate and cultural integration among the Pima and Maricopa tribes and the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa has played a major role in showing community artisans that there is big interest in their culture.

From the turquoise and coral jewelry that beckons behind showcase glass in the gift shop to throws rolled in each of the 500 guest rooms, the work of community artisans is on display at the resort.

Children's artwork hangs on a wall near the resort's coffee shop. A community member, who doubles as a burly security guard for the resort, designed the menus placed in front of hundreds of diners at the gourmet Kai restaurant. Corporate conventions also can request, for a fee, custom-designed lanyards for all of their convention members, beaded by the community's children to benefit the Boys & Girls Club.

"The resort has allowed us to spark interest again," said Ginger Sunbird Martin, the resort's cultural theme manager.

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