Madi

My previous post about petroglyphs showed some of the fascinating carved symbols and art work of the US South West Ancestral Puebloans. So, are you ready for some info on their cliff dwellings?  

Way back when, perhaps thirty thousand years ago, groups of people from what is now Asia began their long trek over an ancient iced land bridge to what we now call Alaska.

Did some arrive by sea, well, that theory also exists, but this tale is about those currently traced to the land path.

Since their first footsteps crossed the land bridge, up to about 16,000 years ago, throughout the ebb and flow of Ice Ages the land and people evolved accordingly. During this time, Archeologists estimate about 50 million of these migrant people were to become the first humans to inhabit the land throughout North and South America.
During that time, about 10 million of these people spread across what is now the USA. 
These ancient people, whose descendants carry on today, developed into numerous tribes with shared and different languages, often sharing skills, beliefs, cultures and trade routes across these vast lands.

Today the land of the US Southwest remains mostly desert with hundreds of land modifying dams, lakes and imported water to sustain the millions of people who live there.
But what also exists in the high deserts and mountains are multi-colored cliffs dropping thousands of feet, mile wide and slot canyons, rivers that have carved through the earth for eons aided by ice, wind, lava and water.  No description of this vast landscape would be sufficient without mentioning the awe inspiring sunrises, sunsets, star shines and moonglows which only add to the spectacularly colored and silhouetted horizon vistas of mesas, valleys and mountain tops.  Many mysteries of the Ancestral Puebloan have been explored and studied, but just as surely there are many that remain hidden by the earth or secured by their descendants.

By about 2000 BCE these ancestral people had already developed their nomadic hunting and gathering cultures and had begun staking their ground with pit house villages that evolved into the numerous multi-storied cliff dwellings and mega ancient cities of the Americas, North and South.   Commonly held theories suggest they built their cliff side homes oriented to survive the harsh seasonal weather changes and for security from enemies and animals. And for about 600 years, more time than Europeans have existed in the Americas, these people did indeed survive and flourish.  But, around the 1200's these ancestral people began to seemingly vanish from the region and nobody is quite sure why or where they went.  Water is life and precious in the desert and it is thought that prolonged cyclical droughts finally forced these people to move closer to consistent year round water.  While descendants of these people still inhabit these lands, there is no denying that the mass of ancient populations left their ancestral villages for other places and for reasons as yet unknown.

Take a look at the photos and zoom in if you can to see the different sizes of their structures including living spaces, food and waste storage as well as numerous spiritual and ceremonial (kivas) areas.  I am drawn to their Kivas not just because of the spiritual connection of the people to their beliefs and nature, but also due to their interesting designs as round structures that could be small for just a few or large enough to gather a couple hundred people or so.

I am thoroughly in awe of their grit in dealing with the hardship of their daily lives of climbing up and down these very steep cliffs with rock hand and foot holds or perhaps strategically placed ladders, loaded down carrying food, wood, and other necessities of life. Imagine one wrong step could cost a life or cause severe injury. Definitely their enemies would have a hard time attacking them.
Spending time in the presence of their memories, I could imagine children playing, listening to the elders tell their stories, gathering together during nights and days to teach and learn survival skills and shape tools of hunting, farming, the mysteries of the sky above and the land around, the art of pottery and basket weaving, developing writing and communicating methods.

I remain amazed at their tremendous skills of cliff climbing, building multi-storied structures out of earth and stone with exquisitely planned engineering.  However, their expert techniques were also used for seemingly simpler things like pottery and baskets and tools of life, and the incredible art and stories they would adorn upon their buildings, structures, their animals, themselves and their world around them.  All of this accomplished with such remarkable methods that we are still enamored of the endurance into the present day.  Their pottery really reminds me of a trip we took to Pindaya town in Myanmar many years ago and watching a young lady making beautiful pottery in just a matter of minutes with handfuls of clay and water.  I still have that pot.

Closing my eyes I can see and almost feel my muscles burn from the hard work of those who climbed up to the mesa tops for hunting or water gathering from ponds and those cultivating the crops, preparing the daily food, hand making all their necessities of life.  And still today, many of the descendants of these people thrive in many parts of the world including from Asia down into South America, certainly throughout Myanmar, continuing to live by their own building and life skills seemingly without the need for corner markets and currency.  Though I am quite content and dependent upon the conveniences of modern life, I remain inspired by such people who live by their own hands. 
By the way, it's no mere coincidence that native people of the Americas still have such similar features as Asians.

Visiting the numerous sites and museums, I come away with so many thoughts and a bit of heavy heart.  My eyes tear up a bit when looking at the displayed mannequin figure of a seemingly peaceful Ancestral Puebloan woman with her waterproofed basket collecting water as it seeped through sandstone. How would she know that her way of life would ultimately face not only the ravages of nature but the tremendous oppression set upon her people by the early European settlers and missionaries.  Her way of life forever changed by these outsiders who would enslave her people and force them to abandon their centuries old cultures and beliefs.

Of the places we visited, I would definitely choose a Canyon de Chelly type arrangement.  Water appears to be more consistently available, sun and shade is ever present, and many of the excavated dwellings we saw are nearer to the bottom of the cliff so no death defying climbing is necessary for these aging knees of mine.  And, well, within the canyons it is a very beautiful place.

During our visit around these SW parks we mostly hiked along well worn paths, scrambling over stones and slick rock, yet I found it difficult at times...and we were sure to do much of our hiking in the coolness of the early mornings before the heat of the day set in. If you are visiting and hiking through the canyons and open lands, especially in the hotter months, be well aware of your personal limits and don't fool yourself. And remember that water is life so carry more than enough, if not for you possibly for somebody who did not properly prepare.  Park staff is there to assist, to guide, to offer information and to rescue when necessary, as it too often becomes.  Let's not make their jobs unnecessarily difficult.  The US is certainly having numerous challenges right now, but I am so grateful for the National and State Parks systems and can't tell you how much I appreciate these Park staff for all they do. I am very supportive of their work and happy those employed at National Parks are once again on the job and getting paid.

And let's all do our part to help protect them, the animals, nature and the artifacts by not being a Touron (https://www.facebook.com/groups/183268598737928/).

More Park adventure posts on the way.