World of Chaco (15:13)
Think about the following questions as you watch the video
- What sorts of buildings were constructed at Chaco Canyon and who built them?
- What are kivas and what are outliers?
- How many people lived in the Chaco Canyon region? Why did this number change?
- Why is it wrong to think of Chaco as a center?
- What sort of trade and long-distance connections did the people at Chaco Canyon have?
: I'm Jerad Koepp. I'm Wukchumni—a tribe in Central California, and I'm the Washington
: State teacher of the year. Today, I'm standing here in New Mexico, in front of the greatest
: of the Chaco Canyon great houses. It, and dozens more like it, were built by Indigenous
: Americans who lived here over a thousand years ago. Today we call this huge complex of buildings
: behind me Pueblo Bonito. The people who built them are called the Ancestral Pueblo and they
: left behind no written records. Yet their descendants have maintained oral history traditions
: for centuries. Over a thousand years ago, from about 850 to 1150 CE, Ancestral Puebloans
: built this great house, and others like it, in hundreds of locations across the Southwest.
: They connected these communities with miles of perfectly straight roads in every direction
: across this region. Other communities imitated the art, architecture, and culture of Chaco
: Canyon. For three centuries, the people in and around Pueblo Bonito lived at the center
: of a vast, interconnected region. You might look at this place and assume these are ruins,
: but for Pueblo people, this is a living part of their history. Chaco Canyon wasn't built
: by some different, ancient society, it's a home built long ago by their ancestors, their
: family. Pueblo people today remain stewards of this place, its history, and its future.
: I've traveled to Chaco Canyon with Brian Vallo, a historian, artist, and former governor of
: Acoma Pueblo. He has spent decades advocating for the preservation of Ancestral Puebloan
: sites like Chaco Canyon.
: KOEPP: Where are we today? VALLO: So we are, we are in Chaco Canyon, um, the Acoma name
: for Chaco Canyon is W'aasrba Shak'a. And we are at the site called Chetro Ketl. And
: this is where my clan group—I'm of the Sun Clan at Acoma Pueblo—and this is where our
: clan settled when we made the migration from Mesa Verde. Here at Chetro Ketl, you have
: a series of dwellings. When they were built, they were three, four stories high. And not
: all of this site has been excavated. The main village of Chetro Ketl has been excavated
: and this is where you see one of the very large ceremonial chambers or what some folks
: would call Kivas. The clan groups who settled here at Chetro Ketl lived very much the
: way that they did in Mesa Verde. Now, there weren't structures here, of course, they had
: to build them. But, you know, this explains why we have many outlier sites and many small
: sites in this area. And there was a process, it wasn't just someone saying, oh, we're going
: to build our house here, but it was a process of following the Sun and determining the positioning
: of the main structures where ceremonial chambers—whether they were clan houses or society houses, medicine
: society houses—would be built. And so it took some time. And as we can see in the architecture,
: there's such great detail. When you think about the detail in both the exterior walls
: and just the details on the interior spaces, the window systems and door systems, you see
: this process of careful thought and critical thought about place and space,
: that these weren't just places to live, but that these would become sacred places once
: they left. ANSCHUETZ: Yeah, I'd encourage people to look at Chaco and to think about
: how the people could set up so-called downtown Chaco and then they could project lines out
: of from those houses that cut through maces to establish outliers, like Kin Bineola or
: Pueblo Pintado. They're on a line. That takes us surveying equipment. We can use satellites
: in our handheld devices and get down within sub centimeter. These folks lack the satellites,
: they lack transects, but they figured out how to go across three-dimensional terrain
: and maintain relationships and they did so because those relationships were important
: and the community members understand why those relationships are important.
: KOEPP: How many people is estimated to have lived here? Because we've also heard that,
: um, because the ceremonial cycles, like the population at places like this, may not have
: always been consistent throughout the year. VALLO: Yeah, there are different, um, stories
: about the numbers of people that occupied. At its peak it's estimated that there were
: probably close to 30-40,000 people who lived in the Chaco region. Pueblo Bonito alone,
: you had maybe four or five thousand people living within that village. Chetro Ketl—probably
: another three to four thousand people. KOEPP: How do we know what each structure was used
: for? How would we know what was like a family residence versus a ceremonial site? VALLO:
: These were not nuclear family homes. These were extended family homes, so you had large
: numbers of people living in one structure. And if one family group was in a three-story
: unit, the main floor of the first floor would serve as storage. The main living areas would
: be on the second and third floor, usually the third floor being the cooking areas. Now,
: you can distinguish in these ancestral settlement ceremonial chambers, or again what are called
: Kivas, because they're round. They are round structures. Some of them are very large and
: these would be communal, ceremonial gathering spaces while you have others that are much
: smaller, um, that would belong to a particular clan group or perhaps a society within the
: the group of clans who occupy these sites.
: ANSCHUETZ: I think it's really useful and interesting to contrast what we archaeologists
: talk about Chaco and then what I hear in my conversations with descendant community members.
: So, as an archaeologist, we take a Chacocentric point. Chaco sits in the middle of this vast
: San Juan desert basin. And there's this civilization there and we go it's a center, it's the center
: of the Pueblo world at this period of time. Pueblo folks go, they'll
: say to me, "Oh, you archaeologists, sometimes you guys lack such common sense." And they
: say, "Chaco existed because we existed here.
: Chaco depended on us. And we depended on Chaco."
: Chaco is, in some senses then, for the Pueblo of Acoma or the Pueblo of Laguna, for example,
: the center is Acoma, the center is Laguna, and Chaco is an edge. Well, the takeaway is
: there's tremendous genius—the engineering of Chaco. That the civilizations in the Pueblos,
: this is all the different Pueblos—the 19 Pueblos of New Mexico and Hopi and Ysleta
: del Sur down in El Paso, Texas. That this is the inheritance.
: A lot of this stuff that's at Chaco was being developed before it was Chaco! It didn't come
: out of nowhere. Chaco is a relatively short-lived phenomenon, it's only a couple hundred years.
: There are things at Acoma that are contemporary.
: It's not lost. It's not dead. It's very much alive. And it's alive in the sense from the
: community traditions and understandings of the world, their ancestors are still there,
: all the Pueblos maintain a relationship with Chaco because all their ancestors are of Chaco
: and of other places on the migration. Chaco was just one of the stops along the way. So
: oftentimes we hear that the Indigenous communities are the stewards of the land, they have moral
: obligations to the land. But they're also the trustees of their cultural inheritance.
: In the case of Acoma: Acoma will say, "We are of Chaco." They don't say we're from Chaco.
: I would say of my German ancestry, "My, my history is from Germany." But from and of
: are such little words, but their meaning is so important. Of—when Acoma says they are
: of Chaco, that is carrying a,
: the implication of a moral obligation.
: KOEPP: Did the people here trade with other
: vast areas into Mesoamerica and to each of the edges of North America. They not only
: traded, but they also were on pilgrimage—constant pilgrimage.
: And so, some cultural leaders, religious leaders may have left Chaco for periods of time to
: go check on the oceans, to check on the sea creatures, and they would return with shells
: and coral and other raw materials that they incorporated into the ceremonial life. Further
: south, there was also trade, but there were also pilgrimages made further south for specific
: reasons, to gather items that were significant to the practice of the ceremonial cycle. Later
: on, as they were becoming exposed to some of the civilizations in South America, there
: was a series of trade that occurred. Uh, trade for copper bells, um, some precious stones,
: and cacao, uh, which, which they discovered in many of the house blocks at Chaco.
: KOEPP: What sort of influence did Chaco have on surrounding communities? VALLO: So there
: was a great level of knowledge that had evolved here at Chaco, and this knowledge was being
: shared with others, um, by cultural leaders. But we were also extracting information from
: other civilizations. Uh, there was kind of this, um, sharing of knowledge but also sharing
: of process in terms of monitoring the seasons, monitoring the solar and lunar cycles. But
: also, you know, sharing stories, sharing histories of that time and the stories associated with
: migration and settlement. So even today when you visit, our let's call them contemporary
: Pueblos, our descendant communities like where I'm
: from at Acoma, you see the influence of Chaco architecture in terms of the use of space
: and
: settlement of and design of buildings. The materials that are used in the construction
: of these places are also very similar if not exactly the same in our present-day communities.
: Hunting and agricultural practices, the creation of material culture, whether it be pottery
: or clothing, hunting practices—all of these were carried by the people on their migration
: and are still part of our cultures today.
: The Chacoan world was vast and complex. It created lasting connections throughout this
: place home sat at the heart of an extensive cultural zone and linked long-distance trade
: networks between North America and Mesoamerica. Chacoan society inspired others and helped
: connect people through ideas. Networks of culture, trade, and mutual dependence helped
: ideas move among different societies. Today, you've heard from Pueblo historians about
: the deep and lasting connections they feel to this place and their ancestors who lived
: here. But you've also heard that this place and its history are contested. Historians,
: tribes, and archaeologists debate its past. But for the many Pueblo communities of the
: present, it's more than a place, more than an archaeological site. Chaco Canyon represents
: lasting connections to personal histories of those who came before. In world history,
: you're learning that these are the kinds of connections that bind human communities together,
: as shared histories help us to make sense of the past and prepare for the future.
: State teacher of the year. Today, I'm standing here in New Mexico, in front of the greatest
: of the Chaco Canyon great houses. It, and dozens more like it, were built by Indigenous
: Americans who lived here over a thousand years ago. Today we call this huge complex of buildings
: behind me Pueblo Bonito. The people who built them are called the Ancestral Pueblo and they
: left behind no written records. Yet their descendants have maintained oral history traditions
: for centuries. Over a thousand years ago, from about 850 to 1150 CE, Ancestral Puebloans
: built this great house, and others like it, in hundreds of locations across the Southwest.
: They connected these communities with miles of perfectly straight roads in every direction
: across this region. Other communities imitated the art, architecture, and culture of Chaco
: Canyon. For three centuries, the people in and around Pueblo Bonito lived at the center
: of a vast, interconnected region. You might look at this place and assume these are ruins,
: but for Pueblo people, this is a living part of their history. Chaco Canyon wasn't built
: by some different, ancient society, it's a home built long ago by their ancestors, their
: family. Pueblo people today remain stewards of this place, its history, and its future.
: I've traveled to Chaco Canyon with Brian Vallo, a historian, artist, and former governor of
: Acoma Pueblo. He has spent decades advocating for the preservation of Ancestral Puebloan
: sites like Chaco Canyon.
: KOEPP: Where are we today? VALLO: So we are, we are in Chaco Canyon, um, the Acoma name
: for Chaco Canyon is W'aasrba Shak'a. And we are at the site called Chetro Ketl. And
: this is where my clan group—I'm of the Sun Clan at Acoma Pueblo—and this is where our
: clan settled when we made the migration from Mesa Verde. Here at Chetro Ketl, you have
: a series of dwellings. When they were built, they were three, four stories high. And not
: all of this site has been excavated. The main village of Chetro Ketl has been excavated
: and this is where you see one of the very large ceremonial chambers or what some folks
: would call Kivas. The clan groups who settled here at Chetro Ketl lived very much the
: way that they did in Mesa Verde. Now, there weren't structures here, of course, they had
: to build them. But, you know, this explains why we have many outlier sites and many small
: sites in this area. And there was a process, it wasn't just someone saying, oh, we're going
: to build our house here, but it was a process of following the Sun and determining the positioning
: of the main structures where ceremonial chambers—whether they were clan houses or society houses, medicine
: society houses—would be built. And so it took some time. And as we can see in the architecture,
: there's such great detail. When you think about the detail in both the exterior walls
: and just the details on the interior spaces, the window systems and door systems, you see
: this process of careful thought and critical thought about place and space,
: that these weren't just places to live, but that these would become sacred places once
: they left. ANSCHUETZ: Yeah, I'd encourage people to look at Chaco and to think about
: how the people could set up so-called downtown Chaco and then they could project lines out
: of from those houses that cut through maces to establish outliers, like Kin Bineola or
: Pueblo Pintado. They're on a line. That takes us surveying equipment. We can use satellites
: in our handheld devices and get down within sub centimeter. These folks lack the satellites,
: they lack transects, but they figured out how to go across three-dimensional terrain
: and maintain relationships and they did so because those relationships were important
: and the community members understand why those relationships are important.
: KOEPP: How many people is estimated to have lived here? Because we've also heard that,
: um, because the ceremonial cycles, like the population at places like this, may not have
: always been consistent throughout the year. VALLO: Yeah, there are different, um, stories
: about the numbers of people that occupied. At its peak it's estimated that there were
: probably close to 30-40,000 people who lived in the Chaco region. Pueblo Bonito alone,
: you had maybe four or five thousand people living within that village. Chetro Ketl—probably
: another three to four thousand people. KOEPP: How do we know what each structure was used
: for? How would we know what was like a family residence versus a ceremonial site? VALLO:
: These were not nuclear family homes. These were extended family homes, so you had large
: numbers of people living in one structure. And if one family group was in a three-story
: unit, the main floor of the first floor would serve as storage. The main living areas would
: be on the second and third floor, usually the third floor being the cooking areas. Now,
: you can distinguish in these ancestral settlement ceremonial chambers, or again what are called
: Kivas, because they're round. They are round structures. Some of them are very large and
: these would be communal, ceremonial gathering spaces while you have others that are much
: smaller, um, that would belong to a particular clan group or perhaps a society within the
: the group of clans who occupy these sites.
: ANSCHUETZ: I think it's really useful and interesting to contrast what we archaeologists
: talk about Chaco and then what I hear in my conversations with descendant community members.
: So, as an archaeologist, we take a Chacocentric point. Chaco sits in the middle of this vast
: San Juan desert basin. And there's this civilization there and we go it's a center, it's the center
: of the Pueblo world at this period of time. Pueblo folks go, they'll
: say to me, "Oh, you archaeologists, sometimes you guys lack such common sense." And they
: say, "Chaco existed because we existed here.
: Chaco depended on us. And we depended on Chaco."
: Chaco is, in some senses then, for the Pueblo of Acoma or the Pueblo of Laguna, for example,
: the center is Acoma, the center is Laguna, and Chaco is an edge. Well, the takeaway is
: there's tremendous genius—the engineering of Chaco. That the civilizations in the Pueblos,
: this is all the different Pueblos—the 19 Pueblos of New Mexico and Hopi and Ysleta
: del Sur down in El Paso, Texas. That this is the inheritance.
: A lot of this stuff that's at Chaco was being developed before it was Chaco! It didn't come
: out of nowhere. Chaco is a relatively short-lived phenomenon, it's only a couple hundred years.
: There are things at Acoma that are contemporary.
: It's not lost. It's not dead. It's very much alive. And it's alive in the sense from the
: community traditions and understandings of the world, their ancestors are still there,
: all the Pueblos maintain a relationship with Chaco because all their ancestors are of Chaco
: and of other places on the migration. Chaco was just one of the stops along the way. So
: oftentimes we hear that the Indigenous communities are the stewards of the land, they have moral
: obligations to the land. But they're also the trustees of their cultural inheritance.
: In the case of Acoma: Acoma will say, "We are of Chaco." They don't say we're from Chaco.
: I would say of my German ancestry, "My, my history is from Germany." But from and of
: are such little words, but their meaning is so important. Of—when Acoma says they are
: of Chaco, that is carrying a,
: the implication of a moral obligation.
: KOEPP: Did the people here trade with other
: vast areas into Mesoamerica and to each of the edges of North America. They not only
: traded, but they also were on pilgrimage—constant pilgrimage.
: And so, some cultural leaders, religious leaders may have left Chaco for periods of time to
: go check on the oceans, to check on the sea creatures, and they would return with shells
: and coral and other raw materials that they incorporated into the ceremonial life. Further
: south, there was also trade, but there were also pilgrimages made further south for specific
: reasons, to gather items that were significant to the practice of the ceremonial cycle. Later
: on, as they were becoming exposed to some of the civilizations in South America, there
: was a series of trade that occurred. Uh, trade for copper bells, um, some precious stones,
: and cacao, uh, which, which they discovered in many of the house blocks at Chaco.
: KOEPP: What sort of influence did Chaco have on surrounding communities? VALLO: So there
: was a great level of knowledge that had evolved here at Chaco, and this knowledge was being
: shared with others, um, by cultural leaders. But we were also extracting information from
: other civilizations. Uh, there was kind of this, um, sharing of knowledge but also sharing
: of process in terms of monitoring the seasons, monitoring the solar and lunar cycles. But
: also, you know, sharing stories, sharing histories of that time and the stories associated with
: migration and settlement. So even today when you visit, our let's call them contemporary
: Pueblos, our descendant communities like where I'm
: from at Acoma, you see the influence of Chaco architecture in terms of the use of space
: and
: settlement of and design of buildings. The materials that are used in the construction
: of these places are also very similar if not exactly the same in our present-day communities.
: Hunting and agricultural practices, the creation of material culture, whether it be pottery
: or clothing, hunting practices—all of these were carried by the people on their migration
: and are still part of our cultures today.
: The Chacoan world was vast and complex. It created lasting connections throughout this
: place home sat at the heart of an extensive cultural zone and linked long-distance trade
: networks between North America and Mesoamerica. Chacoan society inspired others and helped
: connect people through ideas. Networks of culture, trade, and mutual dependence helped
: ideas move among different societies. Today, you've heard from Pueblo historians about
: the deep and lasting connections they feel to this place and their ancestors who lived
: here. But you've also heard that this place and its history are contested. Historians,
: tribes, and archaeologists debate its past. But for the many Pueblo communities of the
: present, it's more than a place, more than an archaeological site. Chaco Canyon represents
: lasting connections to personal histories of those who came before. In world history,
: you're learning that these are the kinds of connections that bind human communities together,
: as shared histories help us to make sense of the past and prepare for the future.