Back in the late 1990s, we had the opportunity to participate in the Pascua Yaqui Connection, a cooperative project between the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona, Pima Community College, and the University of Arizona. The project's duration was several years and was funded by a U. S. Department of Commerce TOP grant award.
At that time the Yaqui's did not have their own website and our role was to work with tribal representatives to develop the Pascua Yaqui Connection website. We populated this website with content about the people, ceremonial life, publications & resources, and audio/video.
Dr. Joseph Wilder, director of the University of Arizona Southwest Studies Center provided us with two truly outstanding artifacts. One was a collection of photographs of Old Pascua from the late 1930s and the second was video shot circa 1941 at Old Pascua Village. It was narrated by anthropologist Edward H. Spicer and shot by Tad Nichols. Much of the video captured the sacred Yaqui Easter procession and not made publically accessible. Other sections were digitized with permission of the Tribe, and can be viewed from links on the A/V page.
Another part of the project involved digitizing a short work by Muriel Thayer Painter called A Yaqui Easter. The Tribal reps to the project suggested it would make a good reference work for non-Yaquis. The UA Press continues to publish the work and makes the digital version available through its website.
