Way Back When

Every year about four and a half million people come from all over the world to visit the one and only Grand Canyon National Park.  Within that time the canyon is their main focus but folks often overlook the fact that Grand Canyon National Park is more than just a gigantic hole in the ground but a place that also protects cultural history.  Today visitors spend an average of one day at Grand Canyon but imagine a time where people did not just come to visit but instead called this place their home.

Human history at Grand Canyon National Park spans back roughly about 12,000 years ago with artifacts such as a Clovis Projectile Point being discovered within park boundaries.  During this time nomadic hunters would have passed through following their food across the North American plate; large mammals such as mammoths, mastodons, and even eight foot sloths were the animals of choice at the time! 

Fast forward through time around 2,000 to 9,000 years ago and one comes across a completely different period of time known as the Archaic Culture.  This group of people left behind something that still puzzles archaeologists today... Split Twig Figurines.  Split Twig Figurines (as seen on the right) are truly symbolic of this culture and there is still much to be learned about these figurines and the people who once constructed them.  It is believed that these figurines were not children's toys as some have thought and although they look like horses, llamas, or camels they do not believe they represent these animals, as these animals would not have been present in this area at that time.  Instead they are believed to be something associated with hunting rituals and perhaps represent deer.  When they find these Split Twig Figurines they are often found in the back part of caves, buried under rocks, typically with some sort of animal skull placed on top (commonly a Mountain Goat Skull - which are no longer present at Grand Canyon.)  The thing that makes scientists strongly believe they were used in the practice of hunting is that when found they often have a something resembling a spear going through the middle of the figurine, so although it is hard to say what they were really used for evidence gathered so far has archaeologists believing that this may be what their main purpose was. 

Fast forward through time again to about 800 years ago and we find people living and settling down here at what is now Grand Canyon National Park.  Not only were these early peoples surviving here they were thriving here!  Although most people who come to visit Grand Canyon National Park do not come to see the Tusayan Ruins it is one of the better examples of the often overlooked human history here at Grand Canyon.  What is now the Tusayan Ruins would have once been the homes of the Ancestral Puebloan people about 850 years ago. 

Who are the Ancestral Puebloan people you ask; what a great question!  When one visits the four coroner regions of the United States today there are remains from folks who lived here long ago.  Today we know this folks as the Ancestral Puebloan people.  Not many folks have heard this term before but many are familiar with the term Anasazi or at least saw it in a history book once in their life.  The Ancestral Puebloan and Anasazi are one in the same people, just two different names.  Anasazi is actually a Navajo term when translated by some means "ancient enemy."  Many of the descendants to the Ancestral Puebloans do not appreciate their ancestors known as 'enemies' thus why the term Anasazi is slowly being faded out.

The history of these people and their culture can be interpreted with the combination of stories passed on orally from their descendants and with archaeological research.  Scientists can now peel back the layers of time and reveal the stories of the past and start to understand the lives of the people who came before.  With a combination of these methods one is now able to paint a picture of what this place once would have been like... which is exactly what someone has done as depicted in the painting up above.

In around 1185 this is what this area was believed to look like.  Although these may be people of the past we can still relate to them in many ways.  They too needed three key ingredients to help with their life here at Grand Canyon, the same very three that we still need today...

Food

Water

Shelter

Before one comes and visits the southwest you might have the impression that it is desert everywhere, with nothing but sand in sight, but that is not true of this place.  In fact Grand Canyon National Park is mostly forested which leads you to wonder what in the world would they have ever eaten here to thrive?

Surrounding the Tusayan area is a variety of plants, shrubs, and trees, with some of the more easily identifiable plants being the Utah Juniper and Pinion Pine Tree.  Although the Juniper trees produce berries they are not ones that you would want to quickly eat, in fact doing so may make you wish you hadn't.  The berries may not be the best to consume but believed to have made a great seasoning for cooking food.  The Pinion Pine Tree on the other hand provides a great source of food.  About every three to eight years Pinion Pine Trees will get a large 'crop' of pine nuts (these are the same types of pine nuts you may be familiar with used to make such delicious foods as pesto!)  The nuts are very rich in carbohydrates and protein; the only real big drawback is the fact that you cannot harvest them year round or even every year, so although they are delicious and a great source of food, they are not the most reliable.  These early people could have made use of other area plants as well such as Banana Yucca (which gets large delicious fruit on it), a variety of cactus and the fruit that grows on it, and Agave.

If they could not just rely on gathering of food it makes you wonder what other methods they may have used; perhaps hunting.  Now when people visit Grand Canyon today they are greeted by pesky elk all over the darn place but don't be fooled these animals are not native to this area and are in fact considered more of a pest than anything else, so these early folks would not have fed off of elk but instead smaller big game like deer and perhaps bighorn sheep.  There is even archaeological evidence to suggest that they were eating fairly small game like rabbits, lizards, and even mice.

Well if it wasn't gathering, and it wasn't hunting you'd suppose that they did the very same thing their descendants are still doing today... growing crops.  As the Hopi people still do today they would have grown the crops in a very particular way; something known as the 'three sisters' practice.  The three sisters consisted of growing corn, beans, and squash the three staple crops for the Hopi people and their Ancestral Puebloan ancestors.  They would have started by planting the corn first, which grows nice and tall stalks, second the corn would be planted allowing the corn to spiral around the tall corn stalks and then last squash would be planted to create a water reservoir for all three of these plant types.  

When one looks at the southwest today they do not see the lush farm land of the Midwest but instead a barren desert, so it is hard to believe thrived from agriculture.  These plants are well suited to area and have adapted to grow lush around here and were able to provide food for these early people.  Thriving off the land would have been incredibly tough to do especially farming in conditions like these.  It makes one wonder where they got everything they needed to be so successful, especially their water.

The climate here at Grand Canyon hasn't changed much in the past 900 years; in fact they think the climate was almost identical 850 years ago when these early folks were living here to today.  You really can't think of the desert without thinking about water - or the lack thereof.  One cannot really understand what water conservation back then was like as water is still equally important and scarce today.

Then where the heck did they get their water from?!?  Perhaps a well...

Even today if we were going to consider digging a well we are unable to dig deep enough to get water.  The closest we have come to such is in the town of Tusayan (a small town just on the outskirts of the south entrance of the park) where finally one mile below the surface they were able to 'strike' water (that's deeper than most caves I have worked in.) 

It makes one think if they didn't dig a well then where did the water come from?!?  Perhaps the snow...

They do believe that these early folks used snow to a small degree.  On average Grand Canyon National Park receives about 5 to 6 feet of snow every year onthe South Rim.  About one foot of snow will melt down to approximately one inch of water.  Enough to possibly put in pots, melt down, and store for later... but certainly not enough to survive.

Well, if not from the snow, perhaps the obvious; the Colorado River...

Imagine with me it is a typical warm day at Grand Canyon National Park and our only source of water for the entire area is at the bottom of the Canyon.  We would all gather our canteens and hike about two miles down the road to an area known as Lipan Point (a must see view point along the South Rim.)  Once we arrive we prepare for the hike ahead as we will traverse about 9 miles down what is known as the Tanner Trail (used for over 1,000 years), and not a simple 9 miles but a pretty strenuous hike straight to the bottom.  Once we've finally reached the river's bottom we fill our water canteens and quickly prepare for the hike back up... 9 brutal miles back UP!  How much water do you think we would have left after our adventure?  Probably nothing!  The same goes with the Ancestral Puebloan people, you can imagine that they too would not have made that long trek just to get small amount of water.

Then where in the world could the water have possibly come from... but from the skies of course!

Grand Canyon National Park on average receives 15 - 16 inches of rain, yearly.  A majority of this rain falls between July, August, and September - monsoon season.  During those three months rain consistently pours. 

The Ancestral Puebloan were truly water conservationists of their time, but at the same token they had no other choice as this was the practice needed to sustain themselves.  On average it is believed that these early people used about 1 to 1.5 gallons of water per day/per person.  Compare that to today where on average in the United States people are using 100 – 150 gallons of water per day/PER PERSON… that includes taking showers, washing your car, and so on.  So the flush of one toilet in today’s society is more water than one person back then would have used in an entire day, hard to imagine right?!?

Water today at Grand Canyon is still very scarce and a coveted resource.  It is also still of some difficulty to bring water to the people of Grand Canyon National Park.  ALL of the water for the ENTIRE Park is supplied from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  There on the North Rim lies a place called Roaring Spring where there is a pipe in place to capture the water and direct it to where it is needed.  From Roaring Spring the pipe runs down along the Canyon to a well-known area called Phantom Ranch, a developed area which lies alongside the river.  From Phantom Ranch the pipe crosses the Canyon and starts piping upward along the South Rim until it reaches the Village, it is there at the Village that much of it gets dispersed but what does not travels an extra 25 miles east to where I am located at in the Desert View area.  So if you are to travel to Grand Canyon National Park and get a drink of water, flush a toilet, or wash your hands then now you know where your water comes from.  That pipe is the lifeline of this place, imagine what would happen if it were to break.

So, the idea of water being not only of course critical for survival but also a rare and valuable resource had not changed.  Today we do what we can best to accommodate people with water but back during the time the Ancestral Puebloan people were here there was much more to it.

If one looks southward in the park you are bound to see the beautiful San Francisco Peaks, the tallest mountain range in Arizona, the tallest peak being Mount Humphrey.  Mount Humphrey sits about 12,000 – 13,000 feet in elevation, making them snow covered almost year round. 

The Hopi , like mentioned before one of the descendants of the Ancestral Puebloan, hold these peaks sacred.  When you live in an arid environment like this out here you have a whole new appreciation for water.  The monsoons that come yearly typically come from the southward direction, the same direction in which the peaks lie.  So to the Hopi people these are were the waters originate as within these mountains are were there spirits reside, also known as Katsinas.  It is the Katsinas that were believed to bring people their water and could be one reason the people who once lived here constructed their homes to face southward towards the San Francisco Peaks.  Water was limited and thus held a greater meaning to these people and why it was perhaps considered a spiritual connection.

All that is known about these people is through research and oral history so there is still much to learn, in fact many of these ideas are educated guesses as no one knows for sure where they got their water from but there is more concrete evidence invested in the things they actually left behind, like their homes.  They like us needed some type of shelter… a place to call home.

It is hard to imagine what the Tusayan Pueblos would have looked like when it was a bustling location but their home, like ours today met their basic needs.  The pueblos would not have been that large in size for warmth reasons.  Also the average man back then was usually no taller than 5’4” and women 5’1” so they pueblo was built to be about 6 feet tall (only build what you need.)  This particular home consisted of 4 living quarters, 2 side storage wings, and a Kiva (which later burned down and another was built.)  Within each living quarter a family would have resided.  Back then families consisted of 4 to 5 people which leads archaeologists to believe that this particular home was inhabited by 16 – 20 people at one time. 

The construction of this particular pueblo was different than many others you see as you can notice from the pictures there are no doors in which to enter.  But if you look again at the picture posted above of the painting of what this place was believed to look like you can see there are doors, they are just placed on top of the homes.  It was believed that their doors were on the roof for a variety of reasons: 1) that it kept pests out of their home, 2) to avoid outside elements, 3) created a way for smoke from their fire rings in the rooms to escape easily, and 4) because the rock they were working with was the Kaibab Limestone it was harder to manipulate and build a door like structure or windows on the side of their homes.  But who is to say for certain…

Their homes would have essentially been like a small, smoky cave thus most of their time was spent outside of the house and in an area known as the plaza.  Within the plaza are where young children would play, and where the day to day operations of the community would take place.  Starting at a very young age you quickly took on roles within the society.  Ranging anywhere from 5 to 10 years of age is where you would begin your ‘job.’  Men tended to the crops, hunted game, and also were the weavers.  Women were taking care of the home and family, also grinding food, and making the beautiful pottery we associate with these people today. 

From 11 to 13 years of age the people of this society were getting married and starting their families, and anyone from the ages of 14-32 you were considered an elder of this tribe.  Life expectancy back then was much shorter than today averaging anywhere from 30 – 40 years old.  There are many reasons believed to be associated with their short life span but when it comes down to it… poor dental hygiene was probably the main cause.

First of all these folks did not have the modern day conveniences we have today.  If one were to break a leg or get some sort of infection they had come to realize the medical uses of plants but if it were severe enough they didn’t have the doctors or technology we have today.  Also many did not live past the age of 3-4 as there was a high infant mortality rate.  But it was their diets that probably played the largest role in their short life spans.  Remember I mentioned they were eating corn, beans, and squash as their primary food sources.  Well, the corn they were eating was different from the corn you and I are familiar with today.  It would have been short stalks that you could not have eaten corn right off of the cob.  In fact the corn they were eating would make them ill if they were to eat it directly so they had other ways in which the used it, primarily being grinding it into almost a corn meal or flour.  As they grounded the corn they did so with rock instruments.  Those grinding tools would also grind on each other, allowing for a high concentration of corn meal to be mixed with rock particles, and of course they were consuming that rock material mixed in the cornmeal.   First of all rock is not good for your digestive system and probably created intestinal issues but also eating that would constantly wear down on your teeth.  When they find the remains of these early people their teeth are usually almost all worn down and in some cases many have the teeth have been completely worn down.  Corn is also very high in sugar and could allow tooth decay as well… so I guess you’ll think twice when someone tells you how important it is to brush your teeth, or better yet, don’t eat any rocks!

So you think living here would have been hard to do?  If the conditions seem so harsh why do you think they would have chosen this place to live anyways?  Maybe there was much more to it than just survival…

A key part to this culture and still to many pueblo cultures today is the Kiva structure.  The Kiva is a ceremonial structure that was typically round or rectangular in shape.  The original Kiva at Tusayan was part of the home structure but evidence suggests the original structure burned down and they rebuilt the Kiva structure that you can see while visiting the area today.  The Kiva is where ceremonial practices would have taken place which included activities such as rituals, dances, and festivals; only men were allowed to enter.  It was believed that as one entered into the Kiva from above the smoke from the fire pit below cleansed the spirit of the person entering or leaving.

Within the Kiva there is a pretty evident fire ring which when one looks at does not look out of place at all but after glancing at the fire ring longer one is able to see a rock north of the fire ring that looks out of place.  This ‘misplaced’ rock is not misplaced at all but intentionally positioned where it is as it symbolizes something great.  This small white/peach colored rock to the Hopi people is known as the sipapu.  The sipapu represents something greater than self, a place of creation, known as the sipapuni.  To the Hopi people it is the place in which they believe their people came to be where they are through the many dimensions of being.  The true sipapuni is located along the Colorado people, where the Hopi people believe they came from.  The sipapu, the small white rock, is said to represent this idea.

To the Ancestral Puebloan People this area could have been so much more than a home, something deeper than just survival, but also a place of spiritual connection.  Things haven’t changed that much here at Grand Canyon National Park, although we may not be trying to live here, we too still visit Grand Canyon to make connections with this place.

Through the use of archaeological research and oral history folks are now able to start interpreting the stories of this place.  You can let your new scientific knowledge mingle with your imaginations and picture what this place once would have been like…  A family like ours making their home here, adapting to their surroundings not only surviving but thieving at the Grand Canyon.  
   

Grand Canyon has only surveyed 6% of the park and has already found thousands of locations scattered throughout the park, this is just one of many stories to be told.  Archaeologists are still unearthing a variety of artifacts that allows to better understand our past, but each and everyone one of you play a role in the future of these stories.  Not only are visits to Grand Canyon National Park worth your time but passing on stories of places like these ensures that agencies, like the National Park Service, can protect places like these so that future generations will be able to come and visit and also discover the stories of this place!