The peoples of the Mesa Verde region and their descendants have found meaning and guidance in the stars for thousands of years. Storytelling is a big part of the descendants’ lives still today. The stars, moon, and sun are key elements of those stories, and their movement through the sky determine when certain stories are told throughout the year.
Read MoreThere are as many names for the stars, planets, and constellations as there are languages and cultures on Earth.
Read MoreOur Moon has a consistent and predictable cycle that repeats every month in the same way that it has for billions of years! But this cycle is more than the 29.5-day pattern of lunar phases. In this episode, we’ll hear about the ways humans have tracked the monthly lunar cycle, as well as the lunar standstill, and the significance that eclipses have for descendants of the Mesa Verde region today.
Read MoreSome of the most well known celestial alignments within ancestral sites correspond with the annual movement of the sun along the horizon throughout the year - especially on the Solstices and Equinoxes. And one of the most famous is the Sun Dagger at Chaco Canyon.
Read MoreMesa Verde National Park serves to protect the history of the Ancestral Pueblo people and others who lived in the region. So what do dark skies have to do with that? The short answer: everything.
Read MoreIn this final episode of season four, we're going to talk about the myth that first drew European descendant people to these desert canyons just a few centuries ago - where did the people of Mesa Verde go? Why did they move on? And, why is this myth that they vanished from their ancestral homelands so damaging to descendant communities today?
Read MoreThe rock art in the Southwest is as iconic to the region as the cliff dwellings themselves. From animal shapes to handprints to intricate spirals, these petroglyphs and pictographs adorn the landscape, leaving messages from hundreds and thousands of years in the past. What do these symbols mean?
Read MoreWhy did the Ancestral Pueblo People build these world renowned alcove villages?
Read MoreThe stunning alcove villages - such as Cliff Palace - are what originally captured the attention of the first European descendant folks to move through the canyons of Mesa Verde. However, these were not the largest communities in the Mesa Verde region… not by a long shot.
Read MoreIn this episode, we're talking about how the Ancestral Pueblo people came to be in the Southwest, and how Indigenous and European ways of learning and knowing about the past can complement each other.
Read MoreFancy sandals and specialization.
Read MoreThe spiritual connection to land, sky, and culture.
Read MoreThe trade of color and a modern-day pochteca.
Read MoreTrade for a silent prayer.
Read MoreA trade of recipes, techniques, and ideas.
Read MoreWhat do three pieces of 1000-year-old pottery from the desert of Chaco Canyon have in common with the rainforests of Mexico?
Read MoreFor thousands of years, the Mesa Verde region has been part of a hemispheric trading network where people were connected all the way down into Central and South America, over into the southeastern United States, and as far west as California.
Read MoreSometimes we don’t know how to visit a place.
Read MoreIn this episode, we hear about efforts to re-interpret the historic dioramas that have been on display in the park museum for nearly a century.
Read MoreIndigenous people across the continent have always observed more than two genders.
Read MoreMesa Verde Voices is a production of the Mesa Verde Association and Mesa Verde National Park.
