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 Dr. Kay Sutherland, Director of the Rain House, is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at St. Edward's University in Austin,
Texas. She has been documenting and interpreting the rock art in the El Paso region for 27 years. Her publications include: The Rock Paintings of Hueco Tanks State Historical Park, Spirits from the South, "Mesoamerican Ceremony in Jornada Mogollon Rock Art",
"Quetzalcoatl, Jornada Mogollon Rock Art and Religious Syncretism", and "Jornada Mogollon Rock Art, the Quetzalcoatl Legend, and the Hopi Water Serpent Ceremony."
Through her study of rock art, Dr. Sutherland has built a case for iconographic and cosmological syncretism between Mesoamerica and the Southwest. She finds in her study of pre-pueblo masks the
origins of the puebloan kachina ceremonies. Dr. Sutherland lectures and writes in Spanish and speaks Spanish fluently. She has been leading field trips and conducting tours to Mayan
ruins in Belize and Southwestern rock art sites for four years.
Description of The Rain House
The Rain House is a coalition-building organization whose goal is to bring together scientific
and indigenous understanding of sacred rock art in order to preserve and protect these sacred places. The Rain House provides a safe place for exchange of information, between
scientists who wish to explore non-traditional information and indigenous knowledge . The primary activities of the Rain House include round table discussions, workshops for
professionals and amateurs, and publications.
Indigenous knowledge went underground because of the hundreds of years of mistreatment
and abuse. This knowledge was lost to all but a few natives, many of whom are seeking to regain understanding of their ancestors. The Rain House supports the renewal and
regeneration of spiritual indigenous knowledge.
As Bill Fields, Board member said, "We all have the same goal of a better understanding of
the old and how to try and mix the old into the cultures of today. American Indians are different- and they are the same. The thought pattern is the same. But the MOST
IMPORTANT thing is that all American Indians have a sense of what is sacred and what should be protected for the future. The job of The Rain House is to bring people together and
to utilize the old to explain what is new".
The philosophy of The Rain House.
All humans are created equal and due respect. All things have a soul, a spirit. We have an
obligation to preserve sacred places and sacred knowledge, with a special interest in Hueco Tanks because it was the meeting place for nations . We recognize the sacredness of rock
art, as a memory code of ancient peoples and a way for indigenous peoples throughout the Americas to connect to past, sacred knowledge. We need to preserve and guard knowledge
[concocimiento] simply because it gives us a reason to live.
Speaking Topic:
Native American Spirituality and Sacred Places
Sacred places, such as rock art sites, are repositories of sacred knowledge, enduring from the past and to the present. It has not been easy to either understand or preserve sacred
rock art sites and the knowledge they hold. Rock art is a communication system that binds us and all the Americas to the spiritual world and to the earth. Sutherland, founder of The Rain
House, a non-profit educational organization, is committed to preserving and making accessible to the public and other Native Americans the sacred knowledge at rock art sites
through bringing together indigeneous knowledge from Mexico and the U.S. The goal is to revitalize and invigorate native oral tradition, especially as it is relevant to rock art sites in the
Southwest. Anyone interested in the Hopi Prophecy, the Mesoamerican connection, and Native American oral tradition and spirituality will find the lecture beneficial.
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