As my sabbatical winds down and I start to wrap up my road journeys,
I am taking a final spin through the Southwest. Since it is late November and
early December, winter pops up its snowy head and changes plans. I wanted to
first stop at Sky City at the Pueblo of Acoma, but it was closed due to some snow.
So I went to Santa Fe instead (when in doubt, go to the City Different). In
Santa Fe, I visited several interesting museums and something essential for any
day trip to a museum, a good restaurant.
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| St. Francis Basilica in Santa Fe on a winter afternoon. (Photo by Hunner) |
At the International Folk Art Museum on Museum Hill, I spent
time going through a perennial favorite, the Girard Wing. Alexander Girard, a
fashion designer in the post-World War II period, donated tens of thousands of
folk art items that he and his wife collected over the years to the Museum of
New Mexico. Dolls from the Underground Railroad, entire festival scenes with miniature
figures from Italy, Mexico, Peru, and other countries, religious icons, carved
figures from Africa, Asia, the Americas, all these folk art items testify to
the ingenuity and wealth of culture that people around the world manifest in
their lives.
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Above, toy trains at the International Folk Art Museum. Below, street scene from the Girard Collection.
(Photos by Hunner) |
After a nice lunch of albondigas soup and a tuna melt at the
Museum Hill café, I then stepped into the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. I
enjoyed the exhibit on the path breaking Native American fashion designer,
Lloyd Kiva New, whose clothes and women’s hand bags from the 1950s and 60s brought
indigenous sensitivities to the mainstream. Another exhibit on Native American
superheros and cultural symbols also testified to the new ways that the museum
is interpreting native peoples and their lives.
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| Apache dancer sculpture outside the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture on Museum Hill. (Photo by Hunner) |
The next day, I attended the “Fractured Faiths” exhibit at the
New Mexico History Museum. Several years ago, I served as the interim director
of that museum and worked on the early stages of the exhibit. It is an
ambitious account of the effect of the Spanish Inquisition on Jews living first
in Spain and then in other countries of Europe and the Americas. Some Spanish
colonists who migrated to New Mexico were Crypto-Jews who wanted to get as far
away from the Inquisition as possible while still living under Spanish rule.
New Mexico fit that bill. Curator Josef Diaz collected an amazing set of
artifacts from the U.S., Mexico, and Spain to illustrate the diaspora of Jews
from Spain after 1492.
West of Santa Fe, a volcano erupted in north central New
Mexico. Granted that happened 1,000,000 years ago. At around 30,000 feet above
sea level, this gigantic volcano blew its top and scattered debris across five
states. As a result, it wound up a mountain range only 12,000 feet high. This mega-volcano
was many times more powerful than Mount St. Helens and layered the landscape
with hundreds of feet of hot ash and rock that fused together to form tuff. Its
remnants now comprise the Jemez Mountain Range. In the Jemez Mountains, three
units of the National Park Service exist—the Valles Caldera National Historical
Park, Bandelier National Monument, and one of the Manhattan Projects National Historical
Parks at Los Alamos.
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| Cavates (cave dwellings) at Bandelier. (Photo by Hunner) |
Bandelier is one of my all-time favorites parks in the NPS. It
has abundant flora and fauna, its steep canyon walls provide a dramatic landscape,
and the rich heritage evidenced by the reconstructed ruins of a multi-storied
pueblo, cliff dwellings, and a long string of houses built at the base of a
steep canyon wall vividly evoke a civilization distinctly different than ours.
Bandelier opens a portal to Puebloan culture, past and present.
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| Pueblo ruin of Tyuoni at Bandelier. (Photo by Hunner) |
At the Visitors’ center, an exhibit quotes many Native
Americans and their relationship with Bandelier. Here is one from the Affiliated
Pueblo Committee: “Spiritually, our ancestors still live here at Bandelier. You
see reminders of their presence here—their homes, their kivas, and their
petroglyphs. As you walk in their footsteps, value the earth beneath you and
show everything the same respect we do when we re-visit this sacred place.”
Walking in their footsteps is amazing. The main loop trail
of a mile passes through the pueblo ruin of Tyuonyi, by the cavates (caves where they lived and
worshipped), and along the half mile Long House where two and three story
houses were built against the base of the walls of Frijoles Canyon. The soft
tuff rock is ideal for shaping blocks with stone tools as well as absorbent of
precious water in their fields and heat in the cool summer nights and cold
winter days. When I was there in early December with the temperature around
freezing, I warmed myself next to the light colored south facing cliff walls.
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| Long House with the ruins of multiple rooms built against the cliff (Photo by Hunner) |
The Ancestral Puebloan people who lived here in the 13
th
to 15
th centuries immigrated from the Four Corners after the
collapse of Chaco Canyon and its outlier settlements. They farmed the Three
Sisters of corn, beans, and squash in waffle or grid fields. They hunted deer,
elk, bear, turkey and other animals. They made pottery, wove clothes from
cotton and yucca fibers, and carved petroglyphs on the canyon walls. We have a
wealth of information about the people of Bandelier since archeologists have
worked here for over a century and a quarter.
On the same day, I went to Los Alamos and one of the newest
additions to the NPS—the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. Ranger
Kirk Singer enthusiastically welcomed me to the small office in the center of
town and shared the future plans to walk in the footsteps of our 20th
century ancestors to changed history by unleashing the power of the atom.
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| Ranger Kirk Singer at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. (Photo by Hunner) |
I next left Santa Fe, and I revisited Chaco Canyon, one of
my other all-favorite parks. In my experience, Chaco is the hardest park to get
to in the lower Forty-eight states. Its twenty some miles of dirt roads,
including the last four of bone jarring ruts and mud is well worth the effort. For
350 years-- from 800 to 1150 C.E.—a complicated civilization there built massive
multistoried structures and a far flung road system, made exquisite pottery,
and developed a precise knowledge of the solstices, equinoxes, and lunar stand
stills. Just one example of the
incredible engineering and architectural expertise of the Chacoans—Pueblo Bonito
was the largest built structure in the United States until the 1920s.
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| Pueblo Bonito at Chaco Canyon (Photo by Hunner) |
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| Ranger Jackson Lincoln giving a tour at Pueblo Bonito. (Photo by Hunner) |
Their kivas
had foot drums that people danced on to aid in the ceremonies. Like at Bandelier,
Native Americans view Chaco as a place where their ancestors still live. For all
of us, it communicates a universe and world view and is like a foot drum that amplifies
the Ancestral Puebloan peoples’ times. I wrote about
Chaco in an earlier blog
if you want more information.
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| Grand kiva at Pueblo Bonito. Notice rectangular foot drums on floor of kiva. (Photo by Hunner) |
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| Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde. (Photo by Hunner) |
Finally this week, I drove to Mesa Verde National Park. This
also preserves the buildings and cultural remains of Ancestral Puebloan people in
the Southwest. Set amidst steep canyons in southwestern Colorado and tucked in
caves along the cliffs, Native Americans lived here in the 13
th
century. Connected to the Chacoans, the inhabitants of Mesa Verde continued a vibrant
culture and understanding of the world around them. It fascinates with a silent
tribute that speaks volumes.
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| Square Tower at Mesa Verde. (Photo by Hunner) |
As I mentioned in a past posting, I am now struggling with
how to turn this trip and these blogs into a book about the history of the United
States from those places where history actually happened. If you know of any
publishers or agents who might be interested, please let me know.
In the meantime, I am giving two lectures in the coming weeks about my travels. On Monday, Dec. 12th, I will offer
Celebrating the National Parks: A Centennial Birthday Journey for the
Southwest Seminars series in Santa Fe. Thanks Connie and Alan for including me in this series. Then on Thursday, Dec. 15th in Las Cruces, I will give a lecture about my road trip for the
Academy of Learning in Retirement. This will be the last in a series of four lectures beginning on Dec. 6th with Dr. Pete Kopp talking about the parks before the creation of the NPS, Dr. Dwight Pitcaithley on Dec. 8 going into the parks in the twentieth century, Dr. Carol Campbell presenting on the ecology of the parks on Dec. 13th, and me on the 15th. Come hear these illustrated presentations about our National Parks as we finish our celebration of the NPS.
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| Kin Kletso at Chaco Canyon (Photo by Hunner) |
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