Ballard composed a series of six orchestral works under the title, Fantasy Aborigine, throughout his career. Ballard combines the fantasia, a freely developed tone poem, stimulated by ideas borrowed from Indian culture. Each work focuses on mythology from a different tribe or cultural area. The impetus for Fantasy Aborigine No. 1 (Sipapu), was from the the Pueblo, or Rio Grande region in New Mexico. Fantasy Aborigine No. 2 (Tsiyako), was named after a mythological creature from the people of the Pacific Northwest. The Hopi culture of the Southwest informed Fantasy Aborigine No. 3 (Kokopelli). The work was commissioned by the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra, dedicated to the conductor, Thomas Kirshbaum and premiered April 5th, 1977. Ballard discussed the significance of the title in a radio interview before the premiere of the work.

…Kokopelli. Whom I envisioned as the God of music of Native America…as Orpheus was the God of music in the old world. Kokopelli, this little humpbacked flute player that appears in pictographs all the way from the tip of Tierra del Fuego through the coastal mountain ranges in California and in Mexico. So, I felt it important to say something about this particular aspect of the culture

The work begins with an aggressive rhythmic motive. Later, the flutes signal more lyrical material and fragments of the themes are distributed around the ensemble. The rhythmic drive ebbs and flows and the work concludes with an energetic dance. As in Devil’s Promenade, the orchestration contains several unique percussion instruments a hide-bundle drum, Yaqui Indian gourd-water-drum, Tewa Sea Shell rattles, Hopi Rasp-stick resonator, Hopi gourd rattles, and a cricket clicker.