3 Takeaways:

• A new exhibition titled Good Morning, Class … A History of the Salt River Day School officially opens to the public
• The Day School building reopens as the Kavaḍ/Kushov Cultural Center in 2026
• The 38th anniversary of the Huhugam Ki: Museum featured demonstrations and yummy food: mesquite pod milling, mesquite pancakes and freshly made tortillas!

The Huhugam Ki: Museum celebrated its 38th anniversary on Nov. 8 with the opening of the new exhibition Good Morning, Class … A History of the Salt River Day School.

Created under the direction of Elisa Pongyesvia, exhibit lead and museum archivist assistant, with the help of museum staff and support clerks, the exhibition is a look back in time and examines the future the former Bureau of Indian Affairs Day School that was located near the intersection of Longmore and McDowell roads within the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.

Construction of the Day School, which was the third school built in the Community, was completed in 1935. At this location, in 1996, the Salt River Elementary School opened for the first day of school ever and stayed open until 2007.

Next year, the Day School building will reopen with a new purpose as the Kavaḍ/Kushov Cultural Center. An open house is scheduled for Jan. 24. The SRPMIC Cultural Resources Department will be housed there, as well as O’odham and Piipaash language classrooms, ceremonial and gathering spaces, indoor and outdoor kitchens, and more.

It is clear by the way that Pongyesvia talks about the project that the exhibition was a labor of love for her.

“On a personal level, I love photos. I am an archivist. So, getting to pick and choose which photos I wanted to highlight to celebrate the students was really important to me,” said Pongyesvia.

“I didn’t attend the Day School, but I have loved ones and friends who did and seeing them in their childhood years really was just like, ‘Oh, how cute!’”

Pongyesvia feels fulfilled by seeing so many of the children in the photos on display all grown up and contributing to the Community in their own way. She said she is excited for the connections and sense of community in classrooms of the original Day School to be reborn within the walls of the new cultural center.

The celebration of the museum’s 38th anniversary also included a live demonstration of mesquite pod hammer milling. Community members could bring up to 4 gallons of dried, clean mesquite pods to be ground into flour.

Staff from the Huhugam Ki: Museum and the Cultural Resources Department cracked the eggs and mixed the mesquite flour and other ingredients for a delicious mesquite pancake breakfast. Freshly made tortillas were sold at the komal behind the museum.

Arts and crafts vendors lined up along the museum’s driveway; meanwhile, the gift shop offered discounts.

Before the new exhibition was unveiled to the public, Hu Huhugam Ki: Museum Manager Gary Owens said that the new cultural center “becomes once again a place of learning and can be used by the Community to practice and teach one another about the importance of the way of life.”