Coming up next on this special edition of Arizona Horizon, we'll hear about a frontline documentary on the impacts of climate change in Alaska.

Also tonight, a new film about reimagining incarceration with a focus on art therapy and an award winning filmmaker talks about her documentary on Castle, Hot Springs.

Those stories, and more.

Next on this special edition of Arizona Horizon.

Arizona Horizon is made possible by contributions from the Friends of Arizona PBS.

Members of your public television station.

Good evening, and welcome to this special edition of Arizona Horizon.

I'm Ted Simons.

Tonight we take a look at some documentaries created and produced by Arizonans with a vision for storytelling.

We begin with a new PBS frontline film that looks at the issues Alaskan Natives are facing due to climate change.

The film is titled Alaska's Vanishing Native Villages, and we sat down with the producer, writer and director of the film, Patty Tyler, as well as co-producer Lauren Mucklow.

Thank you so much for joining us, both of you.

Patty, we'll start with you.

The focus obviously, is of folks living up there and what the climate is doing to them.

What is the climate doing to them?

Well, it's been happening for a long time.

And with between the rising sea levels and the warming of the Earth.

So the sign of the permafrost, is creating, for a perfect storm, if you will, because, that literally with the, also warming temperatures, the ice that forms along the coast is not coming.

You know, it's not forming every year.

And that is the breaker for the waves that come in.

And so when the waves come in, it's eating away the coastline.

And then as the permafrost lies, it destabilizes the ground for all of the infrastructure, houses, buildings, any kind of roads they have.

So it's wreaking havoc on the villages.

And how do you tell this story?

In order for us who with one to ask about what it was like to be up there.

But for those of us who weren't there, how do you tell the story to to get it across?

Just how much of an impact this is making?

Well, I mean, that wasn't very difficult.

I mean, the, the the truth is, is that there were quite a number of storms that we could have reference to be able to help tell the story.

And a lot of archival material that documents all the damage those storms have done.

And also, there were a lot of people, I think, who feel very frustrated that there isn't enough progress being made.

There aren't enough opportunities to get funding and support and technical expertise to be able to help these villages combat the damages of climate change.

I was going to ask about that.

What are some of the bureaucratic challenges?

Bureaucratic challenges are many.

I mean, one of the biggest challenges has been that so much of the funding that is available, so much of the support that is available, is siloed across so many different federal programs across the federal government.

And so you've got to understand how to sort of navigate that system.

And as well, a lot of it is grant driven and competitive grants.

So you're applying for grants that there may be one sort of small element that wasn't included in the grant application.

And suddenly you're disqualified and you can apply again for another year or two.

Wow.

And you mentioned navigating the process, Patty, how did you navigate the area up there?

It is so remote.

Some of these areas look they look really remote.

Yeah.

What you go through, what was it like?

Well I like to give this example.

If we could have taken a direct flight from Anchorage to evac, the flight would have been two hours.

But there are no direct flights.

So you have to fly into Bethel and then Bethel into Tubac.

It took us two days.

So imagine, you know, getting stuck in Bethel and I mean stuck in a bad way.

But the weather prevented us from flying into Tubac.

So and we were also told that, because we traveled in the winter to be prepared to be stranded there because of a blizzard or something, if there's no visibility, the planes won't fly, the pilots won't go up.

So we had to take all of our own food, our water, our sleeping bags, you know, all of our winter gear that we wore and pretty be, you know, pretty much be self contained.

And, we're watching some of the footage.

Yes, yes.

There are no cars.

So getting around on snow machines in the wintertime, that was a challenge.

And, and just, you know, even though we had heat in our unit, waking up in the morning and seeing your breath, you know, as you climb out of your sleeping bag, I mean, it was it was pretty challenging, but it was beautiful and the people were wonderful.

And you can't go to these villages because they have no restaurants.

You know, many of them.

They don't have hotels.

So you have to, talk with the tribal government or the city government to see if they have room in their apartment to rent.

And, and then you're, you're at their mercy because they're the ones providing transportation as well.

Yeah.

And when you talk to the folks up there, when government officials, residents, villagers, whatever, I mean, what are they thinking?

Are they thinking relocation?

Are they thinking our home is gone?

You know, they're starting to have those conversations now.

And you know, what I found so amazing is that even talking to the teenagers, even talking to the young people, they were able to talk about what they have seen in their, you know, young lifetimes, the changes that they have seen.

And relocation is very much top of mind because I think there's a lot of recognition that some of these places, I mean, I think long ago a lot of these villages were built on the ocean because it was that wood or on rivers which would allow you to be able to access fish and, you know, the subsistence foods that you're that culturally these, these, communities depend upon, but that also puts them in a very vulnerable position now.

Yeah, yeah.

And I imagine this kind of rings true a little bit for you, doesn't it, with their Hopi background and everything.

Yes.

And and the fact that for the people in Hooper Bay, at least the people from they were originally from the village of by mute, they were forced to move to Hooper Bay because the government built a school.

You know.

We've had you on about.

We've we've we've talked about boarding schools, government run boarding schools for native people.

And now they're being forced to leave Hooper Bay because of climate change.

And so what is that going to look like in ten and 20 years?

And as Lawrence said, the students were amazing teenagers, and they're talking about how they prefer to go out and subsistence harvest from the ocean, as opposed to going into the grocery store because those foods are foreign to them.

And they told me, you know, in the film, we talk about the kids tell us that, that food is junk and they don't like junk.

Yeah.

You know, they have a subsistence way of life, a diet that's tied to their culture, and that's what they want to hold on to and keep.

All right.

Alaska's vanishing native villages again.

This is a documentary for, frontline.

Congratulations to you both.

It sounds like it was quite the effort.

And you got quite the result.

It's really fascinating stuff.

And great work and good to good to have you here sharing your stories.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Ted, I. The Colorado River has carved over 600 miles of canyons in southern Utah and northern Arizona.

As sublime as these chasms are to travelers, they pose a seemingly insurmountable problem.

Just how do you get to the other side?

A highway marker on U.S.

89 commemorates a successful effort that, for nearly 60 years, did just that.

Lee's ferry Mormon pioneer John D Lee came here in 1871.

He established a ferry service across the Colorado River at the only natural point for 600 miles.

Lee, seen here seated on his coffin, was executed in 1877 for his role in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, when 120 emigrants heading to California were murdered in Utah.

The ferry operated for 52 more years, transporting thousands of hikers, horses, wagons, and even small automobiles across the river.

Only the railroad.

And finally, in 1929, the Navaho Bridge made Lee's Ferry obsolete.

Today, the original Navajo Bridge is reserved for pedestrians, while the new Navajo Bridge, built beside it in 1995, caters to cars and trucks.

While the ferry itself is long gone, the name remains.

Lee's ferry is now the terminus for thousands of awestruck sightseers.

Rafting on the mighty Colorado River.

Blank canvas is a new documentary about reimagining corrections, with a focus on bringing art therapy inside Arizona state prisons to help incarcerated people heal from the trauma that led them to destructive behaviors.

We learn more about this program from Ryan Thornwell.

He's a director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry.

We also spoke to Brandon Lee.

He's founder and executive producer of Blank Canvas.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks for the time on the platform.

You bet.

I'm gonna start with you, Brandon, because this is this is prison wide.

I would imagine here, to a certain degree.

Educate me here the idea of reimagining corrections.

What does that mean?

Yeah.

You know, it really means this idea of reconceptualize.

What it means to do corrections in what a prison setting should look like.

So Governor Hobbs appointed me as director to really take the corrections system in a new direction to transform what we do here in our prison system.

And so in order to do that, we set a course to reimagine, to give our staff, our partners, those who interact with us, really the opportunity to bring us new ideas, try new things in order with the intended goal to get new, different and better outcomes.

Where they're best practices involved from other attempts and other programs around the country.

So we know programing is really the way to improve people's behavior and to improve outcomes, especially out in the community.

But a lot of what we're trying here in Arizona is adapting things to the Arizona system.

The Arizona system is different than many other states.

So we take what we know and we figure out how we adapt it here.

And one example of that is the art of our civil partnership here in Arizona.

And that's where Brandon Lee comes in.

Good to see you again.

Good to see you.

Yeah.

Talk about this idea of art therapy and how important it is for those who are incarcerated.

You know, I always say what is the common thread here is to make our communities safer?

Right.

I think we can all agree in that.

And so understanding the body and why people make the decisions they do that lead them to become incarcerate.

And more often than not, it all begins with with trauma and childhood trauma and understanding that when you experience childhood trauma, your brain at that time is rewired.

If that goes unhealed, you begin to make some terrible life choices as an adult, sometimes even destructive.

So if you understand that the majority of people who are incarcerated are there because of the trauma that they experience, whether it's childhood trauma, childhood attachment, trauma, or environmental trauma, then it's our responsibility while they're incarcerated and in the state's care to rehabilitate them.

Art and music therapy is proven as a proven modality, and the way that we do it is to rewire and create new neural pathways, create new thought patterns.

If we can do that, then when they are released back into our community, our communities are safer.

They can sustain a job.

It makes our economy even stronger, and it stops generational trauma.

Many of these folks have families on the outside.

They've got children.

So while they're incarcerated, it is our obligation and our responsibility to rehabilitate them so that when they are released, they don't hurt anyone else.

Those are the corrections industry.

You personally, when you hear that, when you first heard that, what did you think?

You know, surprisingly, I thought, I want that inside the prison because that's really the mentality we have to have inside of our prison system.

We we have individuals incarcerated for a set period of time.

And so I view it as a responsibility, an obligation of ours in public service, to use that period of time to do exactly what Brandon mentioned, to give opportunities to provide interventions, to rewire and help individuals while they're with us, so that when they release into our communities, they're more stable and they're safer.

Was there much pushback among those in the corrections industry?

No.

Surprisingly, people understand it.

People get it.

You know, there's certainly some reservations with the idea of bringing art and music therapy into a very high security prison setting.

But as we fast forward to a year later, you know, our staff love it.

The staff working in those environments see the benefit from it.

The staff actually enjoy engaging in those situations because it's really an opportunity for them to do corrections differently.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Brandon, the documentary deals with the the Lumley unit at Perryville prison.

It's a high risk population.

Yeah.

Talk to us about that unit talked with about some of the folks that we're seeing right here.

So we work with the highest risk populations.

That was one of the promises that director and I thought now maybe goes, if we're going to do this, I want you to work with our highest risk populations.

Right here.

This is an art, a music therapy session.

The beautiful thing is, is that we do trauma informed yoga breathwork, sound healing sessions, and then it transforms into an art and music therapy session.

Studio in the afternoons.

I don't want to get lost on this either, because the officers, the correctional officers who are out there on the yards monitoring these folks and trying to also help this population, they to get a chance to participate in these programs.

And it's not just for those who are incarcerated.

The most beautiful thing that I have seen is correctional officers inside of the studio doing yoga, breath work and sound boards with those who are incarcerated, and music sessions because it builds connection.

And when they build those stronger connections, they're seen as humans.

We change their behaviors.

Our environment plays a huge role in how we think, how we feel, how we behave.

We know that.

So if we begin to change the environment in which we do on these prison yards, brick and mortar, we begin to see these change behaviors.

We have brought down ticket violations on these yards.

We brought mental health watches down by more than 70% at the Lumley unit.

It's making an impact.

And I will say that Director Shaw now is a thought leader in this space.

In this sense that he understands if you want it, if you want a different outcome, we have to be willing to do something different in order to achieve that.

He has been a huge champion of it.

While others may say that's a little risky, you know, it's a little risky.

He goes for it because he cares about the one thing that I mentioned at the very beginning of this.

Making our communities safer.

And we've got about 30s left around.

When you hear him say that.

Does it ring true?

I mean, are you seeing that?

Are you getting those reactions from these people?

Absolutely.

It rings true.

And we see it across the male population, in the female population, and we see it across the staff working in both of those environments.

They are healthier units.

There are better outcomes.

And we're going to see the investment pay off in the community.

Well, gentlemen, continued success to you as well.

Congratulations.

And thank you so much for joining and sharing.

We appreciate it.

Thanks for your time.

You bet.

Now.

Along an isolated stretch of State Route 80 deep in southeast Arizona, is a monument to one of the most important events in Arizona history.

Off the highway is Skeleton Canyon, where the Apache warrior Geronimo Nike, son of coaches and their followers, surrendered to General Nelson Miles.

It was early September 1886 with the surrender, armed conflict between the Apaches and European immigrants ended.

Geronimo, his followers, and the entire Shirakawa tribe, even the Apache scouts the army had hired to track him down were deported east to Florida.

Geronimo lived until 1909.

Gaining notoriety at public appearances and in Teddy Roosevelt's inaugural parade.

Yet he and his people were never allowed to return to their beloved Arizona homeland.

Only in 1986 did the governor and state officially welcome back the Shirakawa tribe to Arizona.

After 100 years of exile.

A new documentary titled Castle Hot Springs Oasis of Time, showcases the iconic Castle Hot Springs resort and its impact on Arizona history.

The documentary was made by Kristin Atwell Ford.

Good to have you back on the show.

Nice to see you for having me.

Yeah, this is another documentary from you about Arizona and us.

For those who are new or haven't been to Castle Hot Springs, talk about the resort.

It's magical.

It is truly an oasis out in the Bradshaw Mountains that is brought to life by the water that runs out of the ground, and that water is now used to grow food.

And it has signature lawns and it's it's just a it's a garden spot out in the desert.

Yeah.

Where where is it?

Sid Bradshaw mountains.

How do you get there?

You go out like you're going to Wickenburg and you turn off past Lake Pleasant, and then it's seven miles a dirt road, which I really enjoy driving.

Or you can take a helicopter these days.

It used to be when the resort first opened in the late 1800s, you would get there by stagecoach.

Now you can take a helicopter.

My goodness.

And some of these photos are absolutely fantastic.

It is amazing.

And there you go.

It's the water.

It's that.

Talk about the warm.

How does it get that temperature and and the healing benefits have been advertised for this place.

Well, back in the day, it was originally founded as a place to take a rest cure to to soak in the hot mineral water around the turn of the century.

Frank and his brother, Nathan Murphy, who was the territorial governor at the time, saw the potential to bring tourists from the East Coast and from, you know, points yonder out into what was the Arizona frontier.

Yes.

Frank Murphy was moving, or out of the the vulture Mine in Wickenburg and bringing tourists in on the train in the other direction.

And then there was a 25 mile stagecoach ride out to the springs.

It turned into a destination resort around 1905.

And then it really had its first golden years in the 19 teens and 20s, when war erupted in Europe, the people would usually go overseas, put their Pullman cars on trains and came west.

And some pretty high rollers wound up there, didn't they?

Well, the Rockefellers I mean, the Nelson Rockefeller was still on the docket to be there in the 1970s.

Wow.

The Pugh family, there are so many families that would come for generations and spend their winters at Castle Hot Springs.

And in World War two.

I know that there's a lot of recuperation there, including one very famous person, one.

Very famous person.

So the resort during the war was leased to the Army Air Force.

It was one entity back then and a young, I don't know his rank, but a young soldier, John F Kennedy, came to recuperate after his boat accident in the Pacific.

And he stayed for about three months.

And, is part of the legendary guest ledger.

Yes, of Castle Hot Springs.

Now, am I wrong here?

Do I remember a fire out there at one point I seem to recall.

True.

So that was the end of the original era was in 1976.

There was a pre-season fire and it took out the palm House, which is the largest guest lodging on the property at the time.

Yes.

Matthew Talley was the owner and she gifted the property at that point to ASU Foundation and issue ran it for about six years as a retreat center.

In fact, the 1980 Groundwater Act was decided.

Oh, boy.

In a sequestered group out at Castle Hot.

Springs, maybe we would get them back there again for the 2026 one, because it's not going very well.

Right?

Well, we all need to work together.

Yes, yes we do.

Putting if you at Peter Coyote was initially the best.

That's that's a big get.

Yeah.

I've been very fortunate to work with Peter Coyote on several of my films, with my team at Quantum Leap Productions.

He's just the voice of the West, and he's he's a dream to work with.

How was it for you to get all this stuff together to compile this information?

Was it difficult?

Was it did it come out of corners?

You never expected it.

It was a dream come true because first of all, Mike and Cindy watched when they bought the property and, refurbished it.

They cared deeply about Arizona and the history of the property in the state.

And so we went around and were able to forge a relationship with Charlotte Hall Museum in Prescott, Arizona, on a state library, Arizona Historical Society.

ASU people were sending us, personal scrapbooks of their grandparents when they were cleaning out closets.

It's it's a lot of people and elements.

And vintage clips from Cecil D de Mille.

You got it.

He filmed he filmed, film called The Squaw Man out there during the depression.

Holy smokes.

And, Barry Goldwater, obviously.

Barry Goldwater, we were gifted fabulous footage, colors, 16 millimeter footage that he shot in the 50s, which was another heyday after the war when people started traveling in cars.

So what is the state of the resort now?

If you can imagine the most amazing nature experience coupled with luxury beyond your wildest dreams, that is the state of the resort.

And it's it really, truly is, a miracle that it's open to the public after being dormant for almost 50 years.

Yeah, yeah, I heard it, and I'm not sure.

I can't remember if I've been up there or not.

It feels like I was up there and it wasn't in the best of shape.

So maybe that's not true, but it's like a Garden of Eden.

I've heard that so many times.

It truly is.

And the development of the resort really mirrors the development in the state of bringing people west, having them invest, in fact, Fowler McCormick, who was J.D.

Rockefeller's grandson, went in to look at a parcel in Scottsdale in the early 40s that became McCormick ranch.

There you have things like McCormick Stillman Railroad Park, because that family donated that piece of land.

Maybe got a new film coming up here.

Where can we watch this real quickly?

Amazon Prime Video and, canopy, canopy and Apple TV.

And you can see it at the resort with a glass of wine.

Oh my goodness, that sounds fantastic.

Kristin Atwell for it again, congratulations on this documentary.

Must have been fun.

Time of my life.

All right.

Thanks for joining.

Thanks, Ted.

And that is it for now I'm Ted Simons.

Thank you so much for joining us on this special edition of Arizona Horizon.

You have a great evening.

With you.

You.