Tree Planting Time

Spring for several tribes of Indians will be tree-planting time this year. The Institute of American Indian Services and Research at Brigham Young University recently received a grant for the purchase of 2,000 fruit trees for Hopi, Navajo, Havasupai, and Pueblo Indians residing in Arizona and New Mexico. According to Dale Tingey, director of the institute, these tribes were at one time horticulturalists and had expressed the desire to be involved in fruit growing once again. Approximately 700 trees were trucked to the Havasupai Tribe nestled deep in an arm of the Grand Canyon. To reach the tribe, the trees had to be carried by mule to the bottom of the canyon. Seen here are Dr. Frank Williams (right), assistant professor of horticulture at BYU, with Robert Whatahomogie, a member of the tribe (left), and full-time missionary Elder Bruce W. Baxter of American Fork, Utah.