March 21, 2022

Stolen From Whom?
Twin Rocks Trading Post, Arizona
2022

At first I thought this graffiti message was a simple lament about land being taken from indigenous Americans by European immigrants. But then I learned (from Wikipedia) that the land Twin Arrows occupies currently is owned by the Hopi people. So if it’s actually stolen land who did the Hopi steal it from? The Navajo perhaps? The Apache they were often fighting with? Or perhaps the Anasazi who occupied the area prior to the Hopi? If it were the latter case, then it would actually be inherited from rather than stolen from as the Hopi (and, Zuni, and Navajo) are thought to be the descendants of the Anasazi. More likely, perhaps, is the author of the graffiti didn’t actually know the current ownership status of the land.