KNAU NewsRoom

America's Best Idea: Sunset Crater nearly destroyed by Hollwyood

Flagstaff, AZ (2009-10-02) Today KNAU concludes our series, "America's Best Idea," at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. The crater northeast of Flagstaff was born in a series of eruptions nearly a thousand years ago. It was set aside in 1930 to protect its "geologic formations" that were of great "scientific interest". But the volcano is also a holy place to tribes all around the Southwest, a place that very nearly was destroyed by Hollywood film directors. Rose Houk has our story.

America's Best Idea: Hubbell Trading Post Evolves to Support Navajo Culture

Flagstaff, AZ (2009-10-01) For decades trading posts were the centers of Navajo communities. They served as grocery stores, banks, and bustling social hubs. Now many of their historic functions have been replaced by modern supermarkets and Wal Mart. But places like Hubbell Trading Post the longest continuously operating post on the reservation are still vital to the preservation of Navajo culture. Rose Houk has the latest story in our week-long series "America's Best Idea."

America's best Idea: Excavating Keet Seel at Navajo National Monument

Flagstaff, AZ (2009-09-30) Perhaps the most famous cliff dwellings in Arizona Keet Seel, Betatakin, and Inscription House are protected in Navajo National Monument. During the Great Depression, a government program put a crew to work excavating Keet Seel. Little was known about that expedition until recently, when a diary was discovered detailing the story of three generations of archaeologists and local Navajos who worked at the monument. Rose Houk has the fourth installment in KNAU's series "America's Best Idea."

America's Best Idea: Walnut Canyon a Window into an Ancient Hopi Past

Flagstaff, AZ (2009-09-29) Centuries ago, Walnut Canyon National Monument east of Flagstaff echoed with the sounds of a thriving pueblo community. Deep below the canyon's rim, ancient cliff dwellings still stand protected under deep sandstone overhangs. For Hopi people, the canyon provides a window into their past. And their ancestors' desertion of the canyon nearly a millennium ago still offers lessons for Hopi people today. Rose Houk has the next installment in KNAU's series, "America's Best Idea."

America's Best Idea: Some Navajo still struggle with eviction from Wupatki National Monument

Flagstaff, AZ (2009-09-28) The second installment of "America's Best Idea." Wupatki was established to protect dozens of ancient dwellings, built by the ancestors of the Hopi and other pueblo tribes. More recently, though, Navajos lived at Wupatki. Over the past decades Navajo people have known the area by two names: the earlier word translates roughly as "the place where Anasazi things are." The second name means "within the fence," which came into use after the land was declared a national monument in 1924.

America's Best Idea: Navajos Persevere in Canyon de Chelly

Chinle, AZ (2009-09-25) Canyon de Chelly National Monument on the Navajo Nation is unique among National Park Service units: it's comprised entirely of Navajo tribal trust land, and it's the only "living" national park. Several Navajo people still live deep in the canyon, and they have no intention of leaving. Rose Houk has the first story in our series on national monuments in northern Arizona, "America's Best Idea."