The cliff itself is ancient.
The old dwelling built into the side of it is old and no one has lived there for several hundred years.
The music echoing off of its walls and out into the atmosphere makes it seem very much alive — and Montezuma Castle is still alive.
While the Sinagua, as the archaeologists call the indigenous people who lived there from A.D. 500 to 1425 are gone, their old home near what is today Camp Verde remains.
High up above Beaver Creek, it’s easy to see why this spot was selected so many years ago.
Ed Kabotie said the spot has a family connection for him. Kabotie is a Hopi musician who came out to the site, currently administered by the National Park Service, to perform music in the Hopi and Tewa languages as well as English.
It all felt right at home and natural on Saturday, Aug. 28, as a sizable crowd gathered around the trail that circles through the park to listen.
Kabotie said that his father’s ancestors used to live there. The Hopi are believed to descend from the Sinagua people. While Kabotie said he follows the matrilineal line when it comes to being
related to the Badger Clan, his other relatives on his father’s side used to live here.
“It’s really an honor to be able to play here,” Kabotie said.
While Kabotie plays music of his own on the flute and guitar, he wasn’t always performing Hopi music.
“I started off as a drummer,” Kabotie said. “I had that rock ’n’ roll dream.”
Kabotie said that his attention turned away from music after a while.
“Other things came up,” Kabotie said. “I was focusing on things like family.”
Eventually, the music pulled him back in.
“Honestly, it was like I was homesick,” Kabotie said, adding that he had been missing the music in his own language. “I’ve come full circle in a way.”
Kabotie is also an artist in residence at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff.
To read the full story, see the Wednesday, Sept. 2, edition of The Camp Verde Journal.
