Jake Page
Arizona

High on the yellow sandstone mesas of northeastern Arizona, the Hopi Indians still perform ceremonies that began hundreds of years ago: the dances of the kachinas in the village plazas. Here, up to 50 spirits arrive in kilts and pine boughs, fox tails, and clattering turtle shells and tinkling sleigh bells, dark eyes glittering from brightly painted, beaked faces. They dance all day under the vaulted cobalt sky, the world becoming a cathedral, and clouds materialize and drift across the cornfields, and, like as not, it rains. No wonder architectural historian Vincent Scully called these dances the most profound art form in North America.

Jake Page is author of The American Southwest.