The Pueblo Indians as the Descendants of the Anasazi - Essay Example

?There has long been much mystery surrounding the ancestors of today’s Pueblo Indians. We do not even know what they called themselves. The Navajo called them Anasazi meaning ‘ancient ones’ or ‘ancient enemies’ The term Anasazi passed into popular usage though the term Ancient Puebloans is preferred today. All of the former settlements of the Chaco Canyon Anasazi were named by others. The Spanish came up with the term ‘Chaco’ possible derived from the Acoma term W’aasrba Shak’a. A military reconnaissance in 1849 led by Lt. James Simpson, a topographical engineer working for the U.S. Geological Survey, encountered and described several of the ruins of Chaco. Following Simpson’s expedition the inscrutable ruins excited curiosity about their origin and the destiny of their creators. To this day, the reasons for the abandonment of Chaco Canyon remain within the realm of guesswork despite great advances in archeological techniques and on-going scholarly debate (Neusius 378). The Chaco Canyon represents a magnificent culture, which included large, planned towns, a complex irrigation-system, contour farming, trade with Mexico, roadways reaching many miles and solar observations. Yet the builders of this advanced culture, chose to seal up their buildings, uproot their entire community and abandon their amazing building it to the elements, never to return. Indeed, the Ancient Puebloan sites were carefully planned and laid out to align with celestial events such as lunar and solar cycles (Mystery of Chaco Canyon gpb.org) Serious efforts to solve this puzzle and to understand the Anasazi culture began with the excavations of 1896, when an Colorado rancher and amateur archeologist with an obsession with the enchanting and mysterious ruins named Richard Wetherill moved to Chaco Canyon. By the turn of the 20th Century the main contours of a theory to account for the disappearance of the Chaco Anasazi had been established. An encyclopedia published within a decade of the first serious excavations began; “(the natives) left their homes on account of drought and the consequent failure of crops, through superstition, the depredations of enemies, etc….village after village being successively built, occupied and abandoned before the final settlement was made” (Encyclopedia Americana, 1905). In recent times population growth and societal change have been added to the list. Let us look now in detail at the various explanations that have been offered. Most likely, the environment simply could not support the natives any longer and migration was chosen as the best option for survival. Migration was not an alien concept for the Anasazi and their neighbors and has always been an option for stressed groups living under harsh conditions (Neusius 370). The transition from a nomadic to a sedentary lifestyle was never complete with the Ancestral Pueblo. The Chaco Canyon villages perhaps represented more of a semi-nomadic lifestyle rather than a fully sedentary one. With the exception of Chaco Canyon, most Anasazi sites were occupied for only 35 to 40 years before the depletion of local resources due to overuse, or drought-induced famine, forced a move. Archeology has revealed that many small villages were built, occupied, abandoned, rebuilt or destroyed by fire constantly. Agriculture, in fact, may not have been a permanent pattern (Fagan p.101). The pressures on a stressed people to move were many. Archeological evidence shows that the migration of the Ancient Puebloans out of Chaco Canyon did not occur suddenly but rather involved a lengthy process beginning in the mid-12th century and not completed until 1300. This migration was not a sudden flight but occurred in stages, as the Chaco Canyon Anasazi slowly migrated and moved in various directions. Population pressures could have resulted in other problems as well. The population at Chaco had doubled during the Classic Bonito phase from the earlier Pueblo II period (920-1020), bringing the population up to as much as 6,000 people living in 400 settlements (Lister 197). A large population would bring with it certain problems. Large refuse pits have been discovered near Pueblo Bonito. Waste disposal and accompanying threats of disease could have affected the viability of the settlement (Mysteries of the Ancient Americas 254). Studies of Chaco Canyon have shown that large-scale deforestation occurred due to the growing need for fuel and the large-scale construction needs of the Chaco builders of the Classic Phase. Eyewitness accounts and archeological evidence indicate that pines at one time grew much more plentifully along the Chaco (Lister 162-3). An estimated 75-100,000 trees, mostly pine, were cut during the 11th century (Lister 162). The Ponderosa Pine and Douglas Firs used at Pueblo Bonita in their roof construction needed to be dragged and wrestled a distance of 20 miles from Chuska Mountain or 60 miles from the San Juan Mountains(Roberts 2005). If it is recalled that the Ancestral Pueblo had no pack animals nor slave labor force, this would have made getting firewood, their only source of fuel, an almost insurmountable problem. Ironically, the very success of Chaco could provide part of the solution to the puzzle. To build and maintain a complex irrigation system a large labor force was required. It is unclear whether the success in food production attracted people and caused large population growth or that the growing population led to improved irrigation to meet its needs. In either case, however, the population involved must have stretched the thin resource of the arid country to the breaking point. A strong motive for migration involves climatic difficulties or change. The Southwest is an arid and semiarid environment. Any climate change could seriously affect the availability and location of arable land. In 1928-9, Dr. A.F. Douglas employed the new science of dendrochronology to reveal historical climate patterns in the region. During the Classic Period, wet and dry periods lengthened as opposed to the earlier, less extreme trends (“Chaco Culture” National Park Services 2008). Also, a measurement of the thickness of pollen layers which accumulate at the bottom of bogs and ponds indicate a short growing season due to colder weather (Johnson 2008 ) Food in such an environment presents a constant challenge. The American Southwest is a high-risk venture for any cultivation effort. Survival requires diversification. Desert animals adapt by eating a non-specific diet. Maize, introduced from Mexico, cannot be relied upon solely as a food source. Maize in Chaco Canyon was at the northern limit of its growth and is intolerant of a short growing season, crop diseases and strong winds (Fagan p. 101). It lacks protein and must be combined with other foods such as beans and squash to provide a well-rounded diet (Fagan p.101). The introduction of beans brought the necessary protein into the Anasazi diet but beans require much water for cooking. They must be soaked over night and then boiled for hours. Soil depletion also may have forbade a permanently sedentary culture. The removal of ground cover increased erosion and the creation of arroyos. Too much irrigation trapped alkali in the soil, rendering its salt content too high for a productive crop. Did warfare goad the Chacoans into leaving the Canyon? Clear evidence of violence amongst communities has been uncovered (Cordell 1997 378, cited in Neusius 391). Other clues related to architectural styles and settlement patterns have been suggested. For example, the tendency to form aggregations of people into more defensible positions (Neusius 391) The lower windows and doors of Pueblo Bonita are bricked up. Some have suggested that this was done as a defensive measure. A competing view, though, sees this as a means to more effectively support the weight of the additional floors that were built on top of the lower levels. It is true that there are few doors on the ground level. The Anasazi instead used ladders to reach the first roof and that the ladders were pulled up in case of attack (World Book Encyclopedia 1990). Recently, attention has focused on manmade factors besides warfare that may have played a role in the abandonment of Chaco Canyon and an effort to get into the mind of the Ancient Puebloans and understand the dynamics of their decision making process has been made. The traditional Great Drought hypothesis has been seen as an over emphasis on a single cause, ignoring the Ancient Puebloans as actors in their own drama (New York Times, April,8 2008). Now scholars are attacking the problem of who made decisions and why. The debate over the nature of Chacoan leadership and society continues to rage. Did Chacoan society feature a lax, seasonal leadership or a more rigid, hierarchical social structure? Some point to the great houses and the evidence of few people living in larger quarters with greater luxuries than others as evidence of a complex, hierarchical society (Escue 2005). Recent archeology has looked for hints of possible social or ideological disharmony in Chaco culture. Dr. William Lipe of Washington State University points out that in order for hundreds of communities to pick up and move something more than environmental influences must have been going on (New York Times 2008). In addition to threats to physical survival, resultant social discontent may have played a role. Priests may have been blamed for failing to propitiate the gods and limited resources could have caused infighting among the Chaco Anasazi families. Tree ring width reveals that there was a serious drought during the 900’s, probably not much less severe than that of the 1200’s. Furthermore, the waters of the San Juan River continued to flow. Why did the Ancient Puebloans endure the drought of the 900’s but not the 1200’s? Moreover, tree-ring evidence shows that very wet conditions returned from 1300-1340. (New York Times 2008) Why did they not come back? Such a return would have made sense, especially since their infrastructure was there to be re-utilized. We know that the Anasazi have not disappeared completely. The Pueblo Indians of today are the descendants of the Anasazi. We know that they abandoned their villages and migrated to Hopi in the west, Zuni in the South, North along the San Juan River and East. The pueblos they settled in still exist today (Escue, 2005). They are the revered ancestors of today’s Pueblo Indians. Without written records, however, the dynamics of the decision to abandon their home and considerably complex way of life will probably never be known. REFERENCES “Chaco Culture.” Chaco Canyon Place Names. August, 2004 www.wnpa.org/...Chaco_place_names.p “Cliff Dwellers”. World Book Encyclopedia, 1990. Editors. Escue, Lynne D. “Chaco Culture.” First People. 2005 www.firstpeople.us/.../Chaco Culture Fagan, Brian. The First North Americans: An Archeological Journey. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2011. Lister, Robert H., and Florence C. Chaco Canyon: Archaeology and Archeologists. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1981. “Mystery of Chaco Canyon”. Mystery of Chaco Canyon. 2012 www.gpb.org/chaco Mysteries of the Ancient Americas. Pleasantville, New York, Reader’s Digest Association, 1986, pgs 244-259. Neusius, Sarah, and Gross, Timothy. Seeking Our Past: An Introduction to North American Archeology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. “Pueblo Indians.” Encyclopedia Americana. 1904-5. “Stephen Lekson Has a Theory and he’s sticking with it.” Roberts, David. National Geographic Adventure Magazine. March 2005 www.nationalgeographic.com “Vanished: A Pueblo Mystery”. Johnson, George. New York Times, April, 8, 2008. Read More