While the mission of the National Park Service is to preserve and protect our nation’s natural and cultural resources for future generations, this doesn’t mean that the methods of preservation are stagnant. Over the past decade, park staff at Mesa Verde National Park have taken steps to tell a more accurate, truthful, and equitable story of the people who once lived on this landscape.
Read MoreWinter are a crucial time of year for both the landscape and humans of Mesa Verde. While this is generally a time for rest, reflection, and community, the people living at Mesa Verde would not have been sitting idly by waiting for spring.
Read MoreAs the autumn winds bring cooler weather and vibrant colors to the Mesa Verde landscape, this seasonal transition also brings a time of harvest, celebration of the growing season, and preparation for the long winter months ahead.
Read MoreThe Ancestral Pueblo people would have been busy preparing for the upcoming growing season, but not all people with sacred connections to Mesa Verde were farmers.
Read MoreThe Ancestral Pueblo people would have been busy preparing for the upcoming growing season, but not all people with sacred connections to Mesa Verde were farmers.
Read MoreThe 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 MoreMesa Verde Voices is a production of the Mesa Verde Association and Mesa Verde National Park.
