The Hopi Arts Apprenticeship is a comprehensive cultural arts educational program taught by master craftsman, Ernie Northurp Jr., on the Hopi Reservation.
This program invites students from all backgrounds to learn traditional Native American silversmithing, Native American flute making, and painting through hands-on experiential learning and elder guidance on Hopiland.
Leaving this apprenticeship, students will be versed in modern, contemporary and traditional native jewelry techniques, including overlay, inlay, Tufa stone, stone cutting, and more.
Full Scholarships are offered to Natives interested in joining this program. Please apply for this scholarship.
Apprenticeship Scholarship Grant
Mission: Put tools in the hands of the natives to tell their stories
This is scholarship supports a 6-to-12-week training with Ernie, on the Hopi Reservation. Materials, hands-on instruction and board are fully included with this scholarship grant. Additionally, upon completion of this program with honors, graduates are given the tools to set up their own professional workshop and various opportunities to sell their work in selected tradeshows and events.
This scholarship is given to Native artisans who are dedicated to their craft and show passion for being the cultural bearers of these stories and traditions.
An artistic and cultural journey with Ernie Northrup
Meet Your Teacher
As a storyteller, Uncle Ernie serves as a living repository of ancestral wisdom.
Ernie's artistic journey began on the Hopi reservation, learning from his grandfather and community elders in his daily life.
For over four decades, Uncle Ernie has mastered traditional and modern silversmithing techniques that has brought him success around the world. In his art and storytelling, Ernie weaves together knowledge from his reservation upbringing and boarding school experiences. His petroglyph-inspired images are carved into tufa stone to create molds for molten silver and precious stones. He enhances pieces with local spiny coral and turquoise, creating jewelry that connects to the land's spiritual significance. His art illustrates different spirits and deities important to Hopi Nation.
Beyond metalwork, he crafts traditional Native American flutes and performs music carrying Hopi vibrations across generations. His kachina doll carving represents his most spiritually significant work—sacred figures embodying Hopi memories and cosmovision, learned from his grandfather during a near-death spiritual experience in his youth.
His philosophy transcends technical instruction—students develop relationships with living Hopi stories and craftsmanship's spiritual significance.
This builds cultural pride, provides pathways to economic sovereignty, and ensures cosmovision transmission across generations.
Ernie lives on the Hopi reservation where his home operating trading post and workshop serves as a cultural sanctuary for artists to share their work with pride, and for the public community to connect with Hopi heritage. It is a place of active cultural resistance, fighting Indigenous identity loss while creating economic sovereignty opportunities for native artists.
His educational impact creates a multiplier effect: each student becomes a wisdom carrier, perpetuating technical skills, cultural knowledge, and spiritual understanding for future generations.
Check out our on-going art & craft auction fundraiser.
Make a donation to the Hopi Arts Apprentice Program.
Purple spiney coral collar
silver Tufa Stone Model -Hopi Wisdom Piece - lightning
Adversity and hardship continue to remain on the Hopi reservation. The traditional artistry that holds these cultural memories are at risk of being lost with each passing generation. Becoming an artist and craftsmen gives economic opportunity and cultural empowerment to Natives living on the reservations. When you support this program, you are making a direct contribution to native communities and the arts.
Your support matters
"Take the breath of the new dawn and make it apart of you. it will give you strength. " - Hopi Nation
Visiting the petroglyphs on Hopi-land, one is transported to ancestral histories of humankind. Here, we are reminded how art actively holds the essence and keys for story telling beyond language and time.
The rich culture of Hopi still strongly holds the memories of their ancestors. It is alive in their ceremonial practices, their songs, and in their art forms.
Spanning many mediums from painting, carving and silver smithing jewelry, the stories told of Star People, peace, and planting, are embedded in the art and the hearts of the people who create it.
