Snake Legend, Grand Canyon NP, Arizona - Photos Then and Now on Waymarking.com

Built in 1932, the Desert View Watchtower is one of the landmarks of Grand Canyon National Park. The tower’s design is deeply inspired by Native American history. Its exterior resembles an Anasazi watch tower and the interior is decorated with paintings illustrating Hopi legends.

1932	2006

Center piece is a mural called "Snake Legend", painted by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie. A plaque outside the tower shows Kabotie in 1932, finishing his work. We took a picture of this truly impressive mural on New Years Eve 2006.

for those interested in Hopi mythology, here is what sacred-texts.com writes about the snake legend:
"The legends of many Hopi Clans seem to indicate that the people came from the southwest and that the ocean referred to is the Gulf of California. First Mesa legends frequently refer to an ocean; in the Snake Legend, the youth descends to this ocean through the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon is "Muski," the place of the dead. It is thought of as a long passageway, through which a painful progress must be made by the "spirit," like the entrance through which the people came up from the underworld; in other words, a part of Sipapu, which was covered by the ocean."

Year photo was taken: 1932

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