The University of Arizona Press

Juanita Tiger Kavena applied for a teaching position on the Hopi Reservation in 1948 and, in her words, "began an adventure that will last the rest of my life." Born into a Creek family, she was raised and educated in Oklahoma in Bureau of Indian Affairs and public schools, and at East Central State College. Later, as a home economist on the Hopi Reservation, she came into wide contact with the Hopi people and became interested in their native foods. She married a Hopi man, Wilmer Kavena, and has been adopted into the Hopi tribe.