Oral History of the Yavapai
SIGRID KHERA (1934-1984) was born in Vienna, Austria. She received her Ph.D. in anthropology in 1958 from the University of Vienna and always dreamed of working with American Indians in the Southwest. After coming to the United States she got a position as Assistant Professor in the Anthropology Dept. at Arizona State University in Tempe.Newly arrived at ASU, a letter dropped into her hands that a Yavapai elder wanted his tribe s history written as they themselves knew it. In March 1974 Sigrid Khera started working with Mike Harrison (1886-1983) and John Williams (1904-1983), two Yavapai elders from the Fort McDowell reservation in Arizona. When Sigrid Khera died in 1984, the Indians requested that her remains be buried at their cemetery. We are unaware of any other anthropologist who has been so honored.Dr. Khera left behind a completed manuscript, Oral History of the Yavapai, fully documented in more than 200 audio recordings of her interviews with Mike and John. These materials are being donated to Arizona State University Library Archives. CAROLINA CASTILLO BUTLER took an activist s path. While giving her time to house, husband and raising their four children, she was a leader in a ten-year battle, helping the Yavapai Tribe at Fort McDowell save their land. The government wanted to relocate the tribe for a dam. She was a successful leader in two county-wide elections: first, working for a "Yes" vote for the construction of useful bridges over the Salt and Agua Fria Rivers; secondly, working to defeat the $3 billion Rio Salado Project and a new property tax for it. She was a water activist, testifying numerous times to reform water policy.Her activities, along with others, are included in books such as:The Yavapai of Fort McDowell; Empires in the Sun; How to Create a Water Crisis; A Life of its Own: The Politics and Power of Water; Verde Valley Lore; Indians & Eagles.Carolina is a Mexican-American born in Arizona, and very proud that her ancestors came to Arizona from Mexico in 1864. Carolina and Walker, her husband of 46 years, live in Scottsdale, Arizona.