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| Red Tail Hawk Soars over Canyon De Chelly |
Sunday, June 8, 2013
Our time in the Southwest has flown by. Tonight we are spending the night in Albequerque, New Mexico and headed east tomorrow. There is so much to see, but we can't see it all this trip and now we must make our way across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia to the East Coast. We will be on the fast track now with just a few visits along the way.
Russ and I traveled this same route in 1970 on the way to Fort Belvoir in Virginia when he was commissioned in the Army. I'll have more on this part of the journey in the next blog, but before I get ahead of myself, I want to post some photos of the amazing cliff dwellers of the Southwest. The Native Americans, Puebloans and Navajos, evolved from living in pit houses, pueblos constructed out of sandstone on top of the cliffs, to building sophisticated cities in the cliffs.
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| Mesa Verde Canyons |
The Navajo layer of sandstone provided a porous layer for snow melt and ground water to percolate through. Over thousands of years, when the water reached a denser shale, it pushed outward instead of downward. The outward erosion created great covered ledges with chunks of sandstone rubble along the slope and falling to the canyon floor.
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| Canyon De Chelly - Example of Alcoves and Eroded Cliffs |
When water, wind, sun, and snow proved to be difficult for the ancient Puebloans they sought better shelter. Already having honed their masonry skills on top of the cliffs, discovering and utilizing the large sandstone ledges provided them perfectly protected places they needed to build their cities. Thousands of cliffs in various canyons became home for these people. As long as there was water seeping through the sandstone into their cities and watering their crops above, the population thrived. Their dwellings were not easily accessible to their enemies either.
Photos from Balcony House, Mesa Verde
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| The exit out is a tight crawl space, easily defended. |
Photos from Cliff House, Mesa Verde
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| Round buildings were Kivas - family and ceremonial rooms |
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| Building around the Boulders and Cliffs |
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Grinding Stones for Corn
Native American corn, maize, was originally wild, acidic, and hard. However, it was the mainstay of the Puebloan peoples diet and still is today. Young girls at puberty as a right of passage had to demonstrate their ability to grind this corn so that it could be used for food. Unfortunately the sandstone created sand grit in all of their ground foods contributing to grinding down their teeth at an early age. Most were toothless by their late twenties which also corresponded to their death age. The Native Americans were married usually around 12 years of age. Women gave birth to many (15-16) children with a 50% mortality rate. A twenty-eight year old woman was most likely a grandmother, toothless, and on her deathbed.
Puebloans and Navajos were matrilineal. When a couple married, the husband moved to the wife's clan home. Clans were not permitted to marry within their own clan. Marriages were monogamous. Women made decisions about planting, building, and when it was time to move on.
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| Stairs and Ladders, Narrow Openings |
Photos from Long House, Mesa Verde
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| Diorama of Long House How It May Have Looked When Inhabited |
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| Water still seeping at he ground level |
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| Etched seepways and water collection basins remain |
When crops were good, cities were built, there was time for other endeavors such as pottery, petroglyphs, weaving.
Eventually though, drought conditions forced them to migrate to new locations leaving the remnants of their well constructed cities, art, and artifacts behind. Many migrated from Mesa Verde to Canyon De Chelly and other areas of Arizona and New Mexico.
Canyon De Chelly - Magnficient! Bold, Brave, Home of the Resilient Migrants and Navajos.
Canyon De Chelly (shay) does not have a resident river. It resembles the Grand Canyon, but the seasonality of the flash floods and then no water makes it a shallower "cozier" canyon. The relatively broad floor of the canyon provided a good place to plant crops. The cliff alcoves provide places once again to build cities and to defend themselves from aggressive tribal enemies, Mexicans, and American soldiers. The Canyon is part of the Navajo Nation and there are many Navajos who live here and work the land.
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| Cliff and Alcove Dwellings Above the Canyon Floor |
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| Canyon Floor for Crops and Seasonal Homes Today |
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| Navajo Fortress. When enemies rode their horses into the canyon they were ambused from above |
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| Spider Rock |
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| Cities built closer to the Canyon Floor. |
As we left Arizona and headed into New Mexico, we stopped at the center for the Navajo Nation, Window Rock. Window Rock is considered to be very spiritual for the Navajo Nation. There is a spring in the window that provides water for special ceremonies. At the base of the rock a nice park has been built commemorating Window Rock and the brave Navajos that fought in America's wars.
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| Window Rock in the Backround of Memorial Park |
Not far from Window Rock Park, we spent an hour or so in the Navajo Museum and learned more about how the Native Americans were stripped of their lands and fought hard physically and politically to regain them. This was a sad part of American History, but the Navajos survived and are careful guardians of their heritage and culture.
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| Navajo Chief Manuelito is Remembered for Regaining Navajo Lands for His People |
That's it for now.
We are on the move now as we blitz through the southwest and middle of America.
All is well with the Worrall Travel R's
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