"The Anasazi appear as a distinct group in the Four Corners region a few hundred years before Christ. They are distinguished from the nomadic, hunter-gatherers around them (such as the Fremont Indians to the north) by their use of permanent storage and living structures (pit houses, for instance) and the domestication of plants -- in other words, farming."
"In the first phase of Anasazi civilization -- the Basketmaker period -- the Anasazi were partly nomadic, hunter-gatherers, and partly agricultural. They have all the 'hunting' tools of the nomadic tribes around them but also metates (grinding stones), digging sticks, storage cairns, etc. for processing corn."
"The Anasazi of the BasketMaker or Basketmaker-II culture built two types of structures: slab-lined cairns used for storage or burial, often found in the dry caves and alcoves, and shallow round pit structures, with cribbed walls made of wooden post, perhaps making a round or hexagonal looking hogan-like structure."
"The Basketmaker-III Anasazi (500 - 750 AD.) are distinguished from their Basketmaker-II ancestors by pottery making, more elaborate buildings and structures, the bow and arrow, and the growing of beans in addition to corn. The Basketmaker-III's deepened the shallow Basketmaker-II buildings to make true pit-houses -- multi-room structures (still small, mostly single family) , a central firepit, storage pits beneath the floor, benches around the perimeter, etc."
"The Anasazi Pueblo I period begins about 750 AD and stretched to around 950 AD. This period is marked by large, connected pueblo architecture in addition to pit houses. The pueblo structures are stone, wood, and adobe. Kivas begin to appear. Village life had begun, and the Anasazi moved out of the lower Basketmaker elevations and climates to higher, wetter lands."
"McPherson writes (p. 15): 'The heart and soul of the Navajo beliefs starts with the four sacred mountains. As the Din'e emerged from the four worlds below this one, they entered into a place devoid of form. First Man had brought soil from the mountains of the fourth world, and so he fashioned from it four replicas of those left below, mixed sacred matter in each, planted them in the cardinal directions, and breathed into them, to make them live and grow large.'"
"McPherson writes (p. 25): 'Rock formations are also places of power in which spirits reside, and the formations in Valley of the Gods are some of the most distinctive. These imposing monoliths are Navajo warriors frozen in stone, who can be appealed to for protection. They are guardians whose power and strength aid young men going to war. By placing ntl'iz at the base of one of these pinnacles, one pleases the spirit inside, who will then provide supernatural help. People are cautioned not to climb on these rocks for fear of offending the holy being and because one does not know to which clan or tribe these frozen warrior belong.'"
"Anasazi artifacts are important to the Indians living today and are considered to hold power. McPherson writes (p. 107): 'Arrowheads, which are often found around dwellings, figure heavily in ceremonial lore. When a point is found, the person inhales the air around it four times and asks for protection from the spirit accompanying it . . .The Din'e also use the points for protection to shield them from supernatural harm, believing they come from the flint armor of Big Monster, which was shattered by the Twin's lightning bolts.'"
"'The Anasazi also left behind gourd and leather rattles that the Din'e use in ceremonies. One type, in particular, is decorated with distinct star patterns -- the Pleiades, the North Star, and the Big Dipper -- and is used in the Enemyway ceremony. Other rattles made by the Anasazi and used by the Din'e have deer hooves, strings, and special ornaments tied to them. Some of these are located in the Mesa Verde museum and have the same designs found on Navajo rattles, suggesting to some that these people were related or had close interaction with the cliff dwellers.' ( McPherson, p. 108)"
"'In a recent interview, Earl Shumway, an inveterate pothunter, tells of digging in an Anasazi grave and stepping on a rattlesnake that bit him. He dreamed of 'three long knives leaping out of the ground and stabbing him in the heart,' which he associated with the body in the grave. He had uncovered an albino medicine man who had a 'little pouch of arrowheads and pouches of different smoke, herbs, and pipes.' Later, a dirt wall collapsed on Shumway and buried the site. He returned the next day only to break his ankle, and then a third time on crutches only to be driven away by 'a nest of giant red ants [that] exploded upon him, stinging him from head to foot.' The supernatural powers of the dead man and his pouch were too much.' (McPherson, p 109)"
"'The Din'e believe that at most sites the Anasazi took water from the sacred mountains; mixed it with pollen, clay, and other materials; then put it in a jar on the east side of the pueblo, where it can be found today. Described by contemporary Navajos as pottery painted with frogs, tadpoles, plants, or a design that has 'openings', it still has the power to bring moisture to the site or the region. The gods do not allow these bowls to be found unless the person is a medicine man who understands their importance and holiness.' (McPherson, p. 107)"
"'Yet perhaps the most dramatic connection between Anasazi sites and pottery and Navajo medicine is linked to a specific type of bowl called a to'asaaa' or water bowl. Beliefs concerning this artifact in both Pueblo and Navajo mythology concern the time of creation and clan migration. According to the Hopi, the gods gave each clan a small water jar to take on its wanderings through the desert. As the people settled in different areas, they buried their jars, from which water kept flowing. The holy man carrying this jar had to go without both salt and sleep for four days before he could remove the pottery and travel to the next site. Should the ceramic crack or break, a new jar was fired and replenished with ritually prepared sea water.' (McPherson, p. 106)"
"'Ceramic or rock pipes, popularly known among historic puebloan groups as cloud-blowers, are also taken from the [Anasazi] sites for ceremonial purposes. Described as being stemless or L-shaped with a bowl that has a hole in its bottom, the pipe is used when putting a Mountain Earth bundle together. It is smoked and the fumes breathed on the package after the contents have been wrapped, so that the burning tobacco will summon clouds, bring rain, and increase fertility associated with the bundle. (McPherson, P. 105)"
"'Spirits at sites are another phenomenon suggested by some non-Navajos. Alfred Kidder, an early Southwestern archaeologist, was eating lunch with a friend in a remote cave on Mesa Verde when: 'Suddenly from an unlocatable direction, though quite near at hand, a voice, loud and harsh began haranguing us in an absolutely unknown tongue. It kept up for nearly half a minute . . .The voice seemed very angry about something, and carried such an air of righteous indignation that my first instinct was to apologize for whatever it was that was displeasing him' Kidder and his friend went to the mouth of the cave, but saw nothing. For similar reasons, Navajos refused to live around the ruins of Chaco -- because 'there were too many dead people there.'' (McPherson, p. 110)"
"From the back cover of McPherson (a quote from Sandoval): 'You look at me and you see only an ugly old man, but within I am filled with beauty. I sit as on a mountaintop and I look into the future. I see my people living together. In time to come, my people will have forgotten their early way of life unless they learn it from white men's books. So you must write down all that I will tell you; and you must have it made into a book that coming generations may know the truth.'"
"'Since rain plays such an important role in Navajo life, a complex knowledge surrounds it. Clouds are classified as either female (light, puffy cirrus or cumulus clouds) or male (dark, heavy cumulonimbus clouds that cover much of the sky). Rain is also male or female. Male rain arrives in a downpour that scours the ground and runs in rivulets over the land and into the canyons. It is torrential rain, accompanied by jagged lightning, rumbling thunder, and destructive power. Where the lightning strikes is sacred and a sign of mighty supernatural power. Objects struck by male lightning are avoided unless a medicine man ritually protects himself from this power of the holy beings . . . Dead snakes come back to life when there is thunder and lightning, the latter often being compared to this reptile. Female rain, on the other hand, is accompanied by heat lightning and is a gentle, soaking shower that nurtures crops and lingers over the earth.' (McPherson, p. 43)"
"The San Juan is a powerful river described as an older man with hair of white foam, as a snake wriggling through the desert, as a flash of lightning, and as a black club of protection to keep invaders from Navajo lands. Within it is a holy being who married a female, the Colorado River, and, where these two spirits joined in nuptial bliss, they created water children of the cloud and rain people. Before Lake Powell covered their bed, the male San Juan actually mounted his mate, giving rise to a place for moisture-producing ceremonies.' (McPherson, p. 49)"
"In the beginning there was only Tokpella, Endless Space. Nothing stirred because there were no winds, no shadows fell because there was no light, and all was still. Only Tawa, the Sun Spirit, existed, along with some lesser gods. Tawa contemplated on the universe of space without objects or life, and he regretted that it was so barren. He gathered the elements of Endless Space and put some of his own substance into them, and in this way he created the First World. There were no people then, merely insect-like creatures who lived in a dark cave deep in the earth. For a long while Tawa watched them. He was deeply disappointed. He thought, 'What I have created is imperfect.' These creatures do not understand the meaning of Life.' So Tawa called his messenger, Gogyeng Sowuhti, Spider Grandmother, and told her to go down and prepare the living creatures for a change.' (The beginning of the Hopi story of the creation, Courlander, p. 17)"
"Players often call out the count of a new throw, including someone else's, or call out the number they'd like to see just before making a throw. Andrew and Walter always took note of what throws would be required for a kill, even if the victim were, say, 13 spaces away and the kill would require a 10 and then, on the extra turn, a 3. In the going-around version, they would calculate what they needed to win several turns in advance, as if laying out their strategy. They always had their minds on what they wanted.' (From Dennis Tedlock's introduction to Culin, p. 23)"
"'Jenkins began by railing against the very term 'Anasazi' -- a Navajo word meaning 'ancestral enemies.' 'The Hopi strongly object to 'Anasazi,' he told me. 'We say Hisatsinom -- which means 'people of long ago,' or 'ancestral Hopi,' or just 'Old Ones.' 'In like fashion, the Hopi rejected the names of Inscription House, Keet Seel, and Betatakin -- the last two being Navajo for 'broken pottery' and 'ledge house,' respectively. The Hopi names are Tokonavi ('place of the black rock'), Talastima ('place of the corn tassel'), and Kawestima (an archaic word of uncertain meaning). The name 'Navajo National Monument' was particularly offensive to the Hopi, for the Navajo are Athapaskans, who came from the distant north long after the ancient villages were built.' (From Roberts, p. 101)"
"Without question, the Anasazi were the finest prehistoric climbers ever to inhabit the United States. The Navajo, arriving on the Colorado Plateau more than a century after the abandonment, were so dazzled by the vertical skills of their predecessors that they attributed their technique to magic. The cliff dwellings, said Navajo sages, had been built by Anasazi who could fly, or who had special sticky feet, or who used shiny stones to slide up and down rock walls; the lizards of today, scuttling up and down cliffs, are the descendants of the Anasazi, punished thus for having displeased the Holy Beings.' (Roberts, p. 75)"
"The Anasazi were most likely matrilineal in that ancestry was traced through the mother's lineage. It is also most likely that the wife owned the home as property and that important decisions affecting the family were made by consulting her family, rather than her husband's. This meant that a young boy, for example, would have been taught and influenced by her brothers and male relatives, and he would have been inducted into the kiva society of the mother's side rather than the father's."
"The kiva was probably the center of Anasazi ceremonial life. Each kiva was owned by a 'society' and a village might have several societies that were different, but important, in gaining supernatural aid for the village. The kivas and their societies were dedicated to obtaining and continuing good fortune for the village."
"Anasazi infants were strapped to a cradle board for much of the first year of their life. Up until the Pueblo-I era the Anasazi used soft cradle boards of woven reed and yucca twine across a wooden hoop that was padded with bark and fur. But later, hard cradle boards were used that flattened the skulls of the infants -- later Anasazi had flattened skulls because of this. This difference in skull shape confused archaeologists for years causing many to consider the early Anasazi an entirely different race than the later Anasazi."
"The early Anasazi (Basketmaker era and before) domesticated the dog. Later they domesticated the turkey and used its feathers, along with rabbit fur, to make winter clothing. The Anasazi did not eat dog meat but they did use the turkeys for food."
"Anasazi arrowheads become smaller in the later periods. Some experts suspect that later Anasazi collected the discarded, broken points (or perhaps even the larger flakes) and reworked them into smaller points. We know that they put earlier Anasazi arrowheads in their medicine bags along with herbs and potions, just as Indian medicine men do today."
"When Glen Canyon dam became a certainty, it also became certain that hundreds of unexplored Anasazi sites would be lost beneath the waters . Teams of Southwestern archaeologists, in a heroic effort, fanned out to do what could be done in eight summers to excavate, catalog, and study these sites. Sadly, in most cases all that could be done was a summary survey and a marking on the map of Anasazi sites and burial places, with more careful study reserved for a few of the more important sites. This desperate effort has been compared to the effort to catalog ancient Egyptian sites before they were covered the lake behind Aswan dam in Egypt and has been described as 'one of the most heroic campaigns in American archaeology'."
"About six miles up Moqui Canyon of Lake Powell (you can see the canyon from where Thunder-from-the-Mountain stood on the Water Pocket Fold) is a huge sand dune that stretches from the rim of the canyon to the water's edge -- really the only way to the canyon rim. This is a favorite spot for boaters since one can climb the dune (very slowly) and then tumble and run down again into the water. Just across the canyon can be seen Anasazi ruins -- defaced, but still a tantalizing reminder of the Ancient Ones. Little do boaters know that this slide is only one of four (formally the only ways in and out of the canyon) and that there are over 100 Anasazi sites along the 26 miles of the canyon. Several sites were drowned by Lake Powell in the lower end of the canyon. Moqui canyon was one of the most heavily populated tributaries of the Colorado in ancient times. (See Roberts, chapter 2)."
"Now we enter controversy! There is evidence of cannibalism at several large Anasazi sites (those often called 'Chaco outliers' that seem connected culturally with Chaco Canyon between 900 and 1200 AD."
"There is a huge system of interlocking roadways, totaling 400 miles in length, that radiates from Chaco Canyon. Some of these roads extend as far as southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado. The roads are usually 30 feet wide and stretch in dead-straight lines. The puzzle: Why have roadways if you have no carts, horses, etc. Some say the roadways were for laborers (200,000 of them) carrying roof beams to build the Great Houses. Some say they are for pilgrimages to Chaco. Others think that Anasazi armies marched up and down the highways keeping an empire together. Some even think that Chaco was an ancient 'Las Vegas' with a huge, profitable gambling business and 'marks' (patrons) coming from miles and miles around to play games such as Tasholiiwe for huge stakes. No way! you say? Well actually this latter reason is the one that many Indian legends give."
"The Hopi people's name for themselves is 'Hopit-Shinumu', which means 'little people of peace', but some have argued that 'peace' should really be translated as 'civilized' or 'well-behaved'."
"Surprisingly, there is very little evidence that the Anasazi used 'ropes' to climb into and out of their cliff dwellings. What 'rope' that has been found is too flimsy and seems more likely to have been used in nets and snares. Some have theorized that the Anasazi may have used poles as ladders to augment the rock-carved toe and hand holds. Roberts notes (p.140) that 'no twentieth-century visitor has ever found an Anasazi rope tied in place in the fashion that a modern climber might use to reach a difficult site.'"
"Pottery provides one of the key pieces of evidence in placing the age of an Anasazi site. In the Basket maker periods, for instance, the only pottery produced was Anasazi 'gray ware' which is rough, gray to brown pottery, without surface markings, and no 'slip' -- 'slip' is a thin wash of fine clay that is applied over the vessels to hide the grains of sand and rock used as temper."
