Info about Chaco Canyon and other sites in NM
Buried in snow and cold in NH - so starting to plan for spring trip to NM and CO. This time would like to visit Chaco Canyon and surrounding sites. Looking for suggestions regarding places to see/vi...
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Many of the Ancestral Puebloan ruins are indeed on current-day Navajo lands. But that's not to say that they are in any way Navajo.
You see, the Navajo (and Apache) are Athabaskans who arrived in the Southwest from the Northwest areas in the late 1300s, maybe early 1400s. That was after Chaco, Mesa Verde and others were abandoned no later than around 1300.
Where the Ancestral Puebloans went is a tough guess. Simplifying, though, it's widely thought that the modern day Hopis, the Zunis as well as the several pueblo communities along the broad upper Rio Grande are desended from the Ancestral Pueblans. Other groups may have made it as far as northern areas of what is now Mexico.
FYI, it was fashionable for some time to refer to the Ancestral Pueblans as the Anasazi. Not super politically correct. Anasazi is a Navajo term that means either "ancient ones" or "ancient enemies." Good way to ruffle some non-Navajo feathers, eh?
For some interesting reading, try Craig Childs: House of Rain.
:)
Lynn
You see, the Navajo (and Apache) are Athabaskans who arrived in the Southwest from the Northwest areas in the late 1300s, maybe early 1400s. That was after Chaco, Mesa Verde and others were abandoned no later than around 1300.
Where the Ancestral Puebloans went is a tough guess. Simplifying, though, it's widely thought that the modern day Hopis, the Zunis as well as the several pueblo communities along the broad upper Rio Grande are desended from the Ancestral Pueblans. Other groups may have made it as far as northern areas of what is now Mexico.
FYI, it was fashionable for some time to refer to the Ancestral Pueblans as the Anasazi. Not super politically correct. Anasazi is a Navajo term that means either "ancient ones" or "ancient enemies." Good way to ruffle some non-Navajo feathers, eh?
For some interesting reading, try Craig Childs: House of Rain.
:)
Lynn
