Coming Home

From master Hopi woodcarver Mavasta Honyouti, the story of his grandfather’s experience at a residential boarding school and how he returned home to pass their traditions down to future generations. When Mavasta Honyouti was a boy he would go with his grandfather to their cornfield, watching him nurture every plant.

During breaks, his grandfather would take out a piece of paako root and use his pocketknife to whittle away. He made beautiful carvings that Mavasta would later learn to do himself.

But Mavasta would often wonder: what was his kwa’a like when he was a boy? And one day, he heard the story. Mavasta’s grandfather, like many Native American children across the country in the late 19th and early 20th century, was forced to leave his Hopi reservation as a child and go to a residential boarding school far away.