Past and Present of The Indians of The Southwest

By Julio Punch

Mesa Verde National Park

If you’re traveling around the Southwest and are interested in Indians, a visit to Mesa Verde is more or less compulsory. Just like all National Parks in the US you have to pay an entrance fee. In this case you pay six dollars per person. There’s a company called Aramark that operates in the park. They organize tours of either a half or a whole day. If you choose for an all-day-tour a lunch is also included. Although I chose for a tour of a whole day, you will actually need several days if you plan to see all the ruins in the park.

The starting point of the tour is a complex that is very close to the Fair View Visitor’s Center. This visitor’s center gives credit to its name as the view of the park you can see from there is absolutely fantastic. The visitor’s center has a museum that tries to show how the evolution from nomadic hunters and gatherers to the builders of breathtaking monuments took place.

When we arrived at Fair View Lodge (the starting point for the tour), we were told that the tour would start at 9.30 AM instead of 9.00 AM as they had informed us. This may have been deliberate as it’s about a half-hour drive from the entrance of the park to Fair View Lodge. The guide and his audience move through the park by bus and by foot. Before we began, the guide explained the program of the day to us and that certain parts would require quite a bit from the physical capacities of the participants. If people wanted to renege from the tour at that point, then they could get a full refund at the counter. When everyone stayed put, the guide congratulated us with our choice. In the first place there were no children on the tour (the school year had already begun) and in the second place certain parts of the park were only open to the public since a couple of days. They had been closed because of the risk of forest fires that had been a major threat in the US the months before my journey.

The tour was well organized because the different stops of the tour were chosen in a chronological order. Once we were on our way the silver and steel bus soon took on the guise of a time machine. We were lucky with a very enthusiastic and informative guide. Later on we learnt that Aramark had chosen him as “guide of the year”.

The park has an interesting genesis. In 1890 it was first suggested to make a National Park of the area. The area that now makes up the park at that time belonged to the Ute Indians. Even today a large part of the park is surrounded by the reservation of the Ute. There’s even a small corner of the park that overlaps with the reservation of the Ute. The Ute knew about the ruins but wouldn’t come near them, because they thought that the spirits of the builders were still present there. Even today most Ute would rather not visit the ruins. There’s a mountain called Sleeping Mountain that is sacred to the Ute. The mountain got its name because it resembles a sleeping man with his arms crossed. However, the whites had appropriated this mountain and the land it was on.

At that time there were two rich and influential ladies in the East who used their riches and influence for situations like these. They were called Virginia McLurg and Lucy Peabody. Due to their influence the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, issued a law that made it illegal to take away objects at archeological sites. Even today one of the slogans at Mesa Verde is: “take only photographs and leave only footprints”. Around this time the whites began to realize that a unique piece of history was to be found at Mesa Verde. The aforementioned ladies also brought this case to the attention of the President.

A few months later the whites and the Ute were sitting together at a conference table. The whites said something like: “sorry about that sacred mountain of yours. If we return the land with the mountain to you, is it okay if we have Mesa Verde?” It is said that this was the first conference between Indians and whites where both parties left the conference table with big grins on their faces. For the first time in history a National Park was established in the US that didn’t have preservation of nature as its goal but preservation of man-made structures.

The first stop of the tour was at a dug-up and roofed-in pithouse that provided a good view of this ancient Anasazi dwelling. The people who built this structure were called Basketmakers. This group, which settled in Mesa Verde around 550, got their name from the wonderful baskets that they made. Around this time they said goodbye to their nomadic lifestyle and exchanged hunting for farming as their primary source for obtaining food. The choice for Mesa Verde as a living space is evident, because of its very fertile soil. The ground plan of a pithouse resembles the number 8. There’s a living room and a (smaller) storage room. Pithouses were built partly underground. Four poles were set up in a square and these supported a roof that was mainly made of wood and mud. The smoke hole was also used as entrance and exit. A sipapu, a hole in the floor that had to remind people of their emergence from an underworld, was also present.

Around 750 the occupants began to build large clusters of dwellings that were fully above ground. The pithouses were used as kivas. They had been the dwellings of the ancestors and were thus linked to the religion.

Outside the pithouse the guide explained something about the different plants that the Anasazi used. He told us that he could easily dedicate a tour of a full day to this subject alone. The nuts of the pinyon could be eaten as food after they were cooked and were used as a laxative when raw. They could also be used to make glue and have anti-bacterial properties. The berries of the juniper were used to flavor different foods. The bark was used as diapers for babies and to make fire with. Wood from both trees was used to build houses, in addition to use as firewood.

The most versatile plant used by the Anasazi was the yucca cactus. The leaves were used to weave mats, baskets, ropes and sandals. Using turkey feathers and squirrel skins they made capes from them for the winter. Needles were made from the tops of the leaves. The flowers were eaten in spring. From the roots they made a shampoo that is still used by many Navaho today. They claim that due to using this shampoo they never go gray or bald.

After a reasonably long drive through a section of the park it was time for the first ruin. It was called Fire Temple. Archeologists have studied this site and they have never found any evidence of either living spaces or ritual use. It seems that people just came here to ‘party’ in front of enormous fires that were built. I have to add here that the only drug used at Mesa Verde was tobacco and then only ceremonially. No evidence has ever been found that shows that maize beer or jimsonweed was consumed here, contrary to elsewhere in the Southwest.

The first cliff dwelling we visited was Spruce Tree House. Two young men who were trying to track down a lost cow, discovered Spruce Tree House in 1888. They reached the ruin by climbing down a spruce tree, although many people claim today that it was a different type of tree. The tree itself has been chopped down ages ago. This ruin is freely accessible. An iron chain tells you where the forbidden territory begins. To reach the ruins you have to follow a path for 15 minutes that descends into the canyon. It is possible to see the stream that would have brought much joy to the inhabitants in their time.

The moment the ruins arose before me my head began to spin, although I had already seen several Anasazi ruins. The complex has been preserved so well because it is situated in a rock crevice and has therefore not suffered much from the elements. Since the inception of the park a few buildings have been reconstructed, but an amazingly high percentage of the dwellings in Mesa Verde is still intact.

Spruce Tree House has 114 rooms and 8 kivas. Some of these rooms were used for storage. About a 100 people lived there. Two kivas have been reconstructed. Ruins like these are viewed as holy places by many Native American tribes in the Southwest. The Hopi made an agreement with the Park Personnel that allows them to use these kivas several times a year. This usually takes place at night. The rangers only admit Hopi to the area and no one else. What takes place in the kivas is only known to the Hopi.

The dwellings have two kinds of entrances: square and t-shaped. It has been suggested that one type of entrance was for private quarters and the other type for rooms that were accessible to all. If you see these entrances you may think: these Anasazi must have been rather small. This assumption is correct. The Anasazi were considerably smaller than we are, although this also applies to European people of that time.

Rubbish was disposed of by throwing it on a sort of rubbish heap in front of the complex. Archeologists have obtained much information by studying these remnants. Corpses have also been found in these rubbish heaps. This doesn’t mean that the Anasazi treated their dead disrespectfully. In their worldview it was considered normal for an object that is no longer in harmony with life to return to Mother Earth. Only a few skeletons have been found in rubbish heaps and no skeletons have been found elsewhere. What the Anasazi did with their dead is thus a huge mystery.

The fields that the Anasazi farmed were situated on top of the mesa. Through notches in the stone of the mesa they would climb up and down daily. To us this would seem rather risky, but to them it was probably the most normal thing in the world. To reach the top it was necessary to know a certain code like “one on the right, two on the left”, etc. In this way the pueblo was less accessible to outsiders with bad intentions.

The life expectancy for women was in their late 20’s and for men in their early 30’s. The infant mortality was about 50 percent, an extremely high percentage by our standards.

If you have ever seen a photograph of Mesa Verde, nine out of ten times it will have been a photo of Cliff Palace, the biggest ruin at Mesa Verde. It is only possible to view these ruins up close in a group under the supervision of a park ranger. You have to buy a ticket for that particular tour, though not if you are with a tour of Aramark. The tours around Cliff Palace take place four times a day. The rangers are usually very enthusiastic, friendly and knowledgeable about the Anasazi and the flora and fauna in the parks.

You have a wonderful view of the canyon on the platform from which the tour begins. The ruins are also very attractive camera-wise from this point and many, myself included, jumped at the opportunity.

There are 150 rooms and 9 kivas in the complex. The complex also has a watchtower and that indicates that like the famous civilizations of the Maya and the Toltec the inhabitants studied the stars in the night sky. The watchtower could also have been used to keep an eye out for approaching enemies, but, as far as archeological research can tell, the Anasazi were not a violent people.

Recently people have come up with the proposition that only around 100 people lived in Cliff Palace permanently and that people gathered there from time to time for rituals and festivities. From 1250 onward the Anasazi began to leave Mesa Verde in small groups and by 1300 this territory was all but deserted. Because the Anasazi didn’t leave us any written documents, we will probably never know the exact reason for this exodus. From the study of tree rings we know that a persistent draught harassed the Southwest at that time. The population grew explosively, which could have led to depletion of both the soil and the game in the area. Another reason could have been conflicts with aggressive newcomers that we now know as the Apache and Navaho. There are hundreds of Anasazi ruins in the Southwest that remain unexcavated, so some of our questions about them might be answered in the future. Others, however, will probably remain unanswered forever.

The same thing can be said of their relationship to the contemporary pueblo tribes. We are left with the mystery of the many languages. In New Mexico alone there are three different language families that are spoken by the Pueblo tribes and at least two languages have vanished. How is this possible if all these tribes share a common ancestor in the not so distant past? The Indians themselves view this in a different light and sometimes think the scientists’ approach is a bit far-fetched. An Indian woman once said to our guide: “They are our ancestors and that’s that”.

Visit the website of Mesa Verde National Park.

Navaho Codetalkers Exhibit

From Albuquerque we headed for the Grand Canyon with on our way the reservation of the Navaho Indians. Before we reached that reservation we also rode quite a distance on the reservation of the Ute. During my journey of two years earlier I thought that the Pine Ridge Reservation of the Lakota (also known as Sioux) in South Dakota was the bottom line as far as poverty was concerned. But when I looked at the housing on this reservation I didn’t see all that much difference. And this also applied to, among others, the reservation of the Acoma. You might not see that many car wrecks and some buildings are built in the more substantial and attractive pueblo-style. But apart from that, there’s not much difference.

Navaho Country is also an experience by itself. The reservation is five times as big as he Netherlands, but only some 300.000 people live there. Many parts are literally no man’s land. No oncoming traffic, no houses, no people and no animals either. Just the dry, tough landscape and it’s scrubby undergrowth.

It may have been my imagination, but I thought the Navaho were very friendly to outsiders. When I went to buy food in a modest supermarket I heard people around me talking in their tribal language. There was a flyer pinned to the wall for the next Miss Navaho election. A long list of demands was listed for the participants. Among others, it said that the participants must never have been pregnant and must speak both English and Navaho fluently.

On my beloved Internet I had read that there was an exhibition on the reservation of the Navaho about the Codetalkers. That sounded interesting. The only other information that I could find was that the exposition was to be found next to the Burger King in the city of Kayenta. I thought it was worth the try. The Burger King was announced many miles beforehand on the road. After I found the Burger King, finding the exposition was my next assignment. I saw no other buildings nearby, so I asked someone. An Indian man in a pick-up truck told me that the exposition was in the Burger King itself. The owner of the Burger King is the son of a codetalker and made some space available in his restaurant for the exposition.

In -windows that do not take up too much space you can admire objects that were used by the Codetalkers or were connected to them like the unique uniform they wore, gas masks, field bottles, hand grenades, some objects from Japan and a certificate of appreciation from no one less than Ronald Reagan, former movie star and President of the United States.

When I was standing in front of the showcases an old Navaho lady with a milkshake in her hand approached me. She pointed at one of the photographs and said: “do you see the boy in that picture? We went to the same school”. She told me she was 73 and that both the children and the grandchildren of the Codetalker she pointed out to me had served in the Navy. Time and time again it shows how proud the Indians are of their war veterans. I experienced this two years earlier during my journey through the plains and during this journey also. When we rode on the reservation of the Navaho there suddenly appeared a giant board next to the road with the text “we honor our war veterans” on it. In Taos Pueblo an old man walked around with a baseball cap on his head with the words “World War Two Veteran” on it. Even among the peaceful Hopi there was a man who had served in the Air Force and let this be known to all by hanging a flag with “Airborne” on it on his dwelling in the pueblo.

The American Army used several codes during the Second World War. In 1941 a certain Philip Johnson, a soldier who was raised on the Navaho reservation, proposed the idea to use the Navaho language as a code. The use of Native American languages as codes by the US Military had taken place before, but most of these languages had by that time been studied by German students and were therefore no longer usable for this purpose. This was not the case with the language of the Navaho and moreover, it takes several years to learn this language. The military leaders decided to give it a try. The commanders were satisfied and so the first draft of Codetalkers was recruited. I think it is safe to say that the Second World War, and particularly the war against the Japanese in the Pacific, could have ended very differently without this secret weapon. All the other codes that were used by the Americans in World War Two were cracked by the Japanese.

The Asian origins of the Navaho sometimes led to problems. From a distance the Codetalkers looked like Japanese in US Army uniforms and in a few instances some Codetalkers barely escaped death. This problem was solved by creating a unique uniform for the codetalkers. Only in 1968 was the use of this code made public. A film has been made about this subject that should be for rent by now. It is called “Windtalkers”.

Monument Valley Tribal Park

After the exposition about the Codetalkers we drove on to Monument Valley Tribal Park. When I left Kayenta I saw a living area that was so neatly arranged that I immediately suspected that the government placed it there. A neatly arranged collection of little houses that could in no way be discerned from each other. But as soon as they disappeared from sight the landscape was again dotted with disorganized collections of trailer homes, pick-up trucks and hogans. The pick-up truck is a favorite means of transportation for the native population, for reasons I have yet to discover.

The traditional dwelling of the Navaho, the hogan, is a hut with a ground plan that is either six-cornered or eight-cornered. You still see them quite regularly on the reservation, often in combination with trailer homes or regular houses. Although the hogan is nowadays constructed of more modern materials than in the past, its traditional form is still clearly distinguishable.

The Navaho have an aversion to anything to do with death. In the past it was common to burn a hogan and build a new one if a person had passed away in it. Even today some Navaho that live in modern houses place a dying person outside the house where the individual can draw out his or her last breath.

After driving for some time the hogans, pick-up trucks and trailer homes slowly vanished and we were back in no man’s land. Red rocks, bushes no taller that one foot and thickets of short, dry grass are conjured in a seemingly endless array of combinations by Mother Nature. But that was only a foretaste of the natural beauty we would see when we entered Monument Valley Tribal Park.

 The entrance fee is five dollars per person. You probably have the best view of this natural wonder from the visitor’s center. Three fantastically formed mesas of red rock make even the most arrogant person feel humble. The number of cowboy movies that has been filmed here is uncountable. The visitor’s center has a restaurant with mostly Indian staff. From the visitor’s center you can make trips into the valley with Indian guides.

About a five-minutes-drive from the visitor’s center there was a terrain with wooden structures on both sides of the road that looked like market-stalls. Some were deserted and on others Indian arts and crafts were offered for sale. It all looked so unstable that I had the feeling that if I gave but one little push everything would collapse. You see similar collections of stands quite regularly elsewhere on the reservation, sometimes with beautiful panoramas behind them.

The Navaho are known to value humor and laughter. We experienced that when we passed a series of stands on the reservation in the car and saw a board alongside the road with on it in big letters: turn back, nice Indians behind you. It is a custom among the Navaho that when a baby laughs for the first time (this usually happens when the baby is a few months old) the parents organize a party for all their friends and family. The individual that made the baby laugh always gets a nice present.

Archeologists have found around 100 Anasazi ruins in Monument Valley Tribal Park. All are from before 1300. Their life here mustn’t have been easy with so little rainfall. The Navaho, who are actually comparative newcomers, have herded their sheep here for several hundred years now. Exactly how long The Navaho have lived in the Southwest is not known. The Navaho themselves believe, just like the pueblo Indians, in an emergence from an underworld. The scientists have a different interpretation. They believe the Navaho are related to tribes in Canada who also speak Athapascan languages. They migrated southwards with their cousins the Apache.

I would have liked to spend more time in Monument Valley, but I didn’t have that much time. We had a long road ahead of us to the World Champion of natural beauty: the Grand Canyon.

Visit the website of Monument Valley Tribal Park.

Click on the leaves to read the other parts of my travel log:

Part one: The Pueblo Indian Cultural Center, the Indian Market of Santa Fe, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and Taos Pueblo.

Part two: Bandelier National Monument, Indian Arts Research Center, Aztec Ruins National Monument and Acoma Pueblo. 

Part three: Mesa Verde National Park, Navajo Code Talkers Exhibit and Monument Valley Tribal Park.

Part four: Grand Canyon National Park, Wupatki National Monument, the reservation of the Hopi Indians and the Museum of Northern Arizona.

Text and photographs, copyright, Julio Punch, 2003