From 600 until the 1100s, the
By Rachelle Kreisman
The Ancient Pueblo cliff city gets
ready for its lOOtb birtbday finale.
P
ark rangers are bringing
history to light. On
December 9, they plan to
illuminate, or light up, an ancient
cliff city in southwestem Colorado.
A century ago, the US. govem-
ment set aside Mesa Verde (MAY-
The Four Corners
Four
Cprners f flriz. N.M.
WR NEWS Edition 4
r M#a Verde
To celebrate the centennial
(100th anniversary) throughout the
year, park officials have organized
various festivities. Events include
suh VER-day) as a national park. Native American dances, music,
The park protects the ancient and tours of sites never before
Native American city known for its open to the public. There are also
multistoried cliff dwellings built craft demonstrations, such as pot-
into canyon walls on a large tery making and basket weaving.
piateau. (A plateau is an area of For the December finaie (fih-
high, flat land.)
NAH-lee), or big ending, park
rangers will light up two of the
biggest cliff dwellingsCliff
Mesa Verde National
Palace and Spruce Tree House.
Park is located near
an area called the
The rangers will use about 100
Four Comers. It is the lanterns. "Visitors [will] see what
only point where four it may have looked like 800 years
U.S. statesColorado, ago," Mesa Verde park ranger Dan
Utah, Arizona, and Puskar told H^R News.
New Mexico-meet
The area has been
home to Native
Native American Roots
The centennial celebration honors
Americans for more
the Ancient Pueblo (PWEH-bloh)
than 1,000 years.
people, formerly known as the
Ancient Pueblo lived primarily on
Anasazi (ah-nuh-SAH-zee). The
word Pueblo means "town" in
Spanish. The Ancient Pueblo, who
constructed Mesa Verde's cliff
dwellings, are the ancestors of
today's Pueblo people of the
US. Southwest.
The Ancient Pueblo were an
agricultural people who resided,
or lived, in the area more than
1,000 years ago. They mainly
farmed com, beans, and squash.
thing special," Puskar says about
vides us the chance to look forward
David Nighteagle plays a wooden flute
during the 100th anniversary celebration
of Mesa Verde.
the mesa top. (A mesa is a plateau
with steep sides.) They later moved
down to the sides of the cliffs and
built homes there. After 1300, they
migrated, or traveled, south to
New Mexico and Arizona.
Why did the Ancient Pueblo
abandon the region? "We don't
know the exact reason," says
Puskar. Some possibilities are
climate change, drought, or
overuse of the area's soil and
other resources.
Preserving the Past
In the late 1800s, explorers
found the ancient dwellings and
removed pottery, baskets, and
other artifacts from the site. An
artifact is any object made or used
by people in the past.
On June 29, 1906, Congress
passed a bill to establish Mesa
Michelle Ware performs a women's
traditional buckskin and doth dance in the
Long House cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde.
Verde National Park. The bill,
signed by President Theodore
A Cliffside View
Roosevelt, protects the cultural
treasures at this historic Native Of Mesa Verde
American site. It is a federal crime Mesa Verde is Spanish
to remove or destroy any historic for "green table." Spanish
object or monument on land explorers named the region
owned by the U.S. govemment. for its high, tree-covered
plateaus.
"It's not often that you come
across a hundred years of some- Mesa Verde National Park
protects more than 600 cliff
the park. "It was worthwhile to cel-
dwellings built by the Ancient
Pueblo. The two largest
ebrate the past that comes from the dwellings contain about
Pueblo people as well as our 160 rooms each.
nation's past. [The centennial] pro-
By building their dwellings out
of stone, the Ancient Pueblo
to the next 100 years and make could construct homes on
sure this place stays preserved and
top of one another. By 1100,
enjoyed by the public."
their structures were as
large as some modern-day
THINK COmCALLV Why did the Andent apartment buildings.
Pueblo of the Southwest rely on farming
rather than hunting?
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