Chaco Canyon, New Mexico (page 3 of 3)

After the Anasazi

By 1130, construction and major occupation of Chaco Canyon had ceased. It is probable that the canyon was quite degraded after sustaining so many generations of humans. The depletion of the canyon's once extensive woodlands likely accelerated erosion, eventually destroying the already overtaxed agricultural fields. Other natural resources were also probably depleted and sociopolitical tensions may have been high. These factors are believed to have led to the dissolution of Chaco Canyon as a center of the Anasazi world.

The exact nature of the occupation of the canyon in the next two centuries is debated, as there are fewer archaeological remains for this period. However, it seems clear that the region was not wholly abandoned, but that other sites to the north along the San Juan River became the main focus of the Anasazi culture. Although new construction ceased, Chaco Canyon structures may have been modified for use by subsequent generations of the original Chaco Anasazi or immigrants from Anasazi settlements in Mesa Verde, Colorado.

By 1300, most of the Anasazi in the entire Four Corners region had left, moving south, east and west to locales on the Hopi mesas and along the Rio Puerco, Rio Grande and Little Colorado River. The modern Puebloan peoples of the Colorado Plateau, such as the Zuni and Acoma, consider themselves to be descendants of the Anasazi.

During the sixteenth century, Athapaskan-speaking peoples, today known as the Navajo, moved into the San Juan Basin and learned agricultural techniques from Puebloans still in the area. Soon Spaniards moved into the area, and for several centuries conflict between the newcomers and the native peoples was intense. The Spaniards stripped the area of natural resources to send to southern settlements, tried to suppress native religions by conversion to Catholicism, and even organized a slave trade. European diseases decimated populations of Navajos and Puebloans in the region, but eventually survivors of both tribes coalesced into a Navajo culture with a Puebloan influence. Navajo communities settled in some of the more remote areas of the San Juan Basin, where they lived in familial groups in pueblitos and stone hogans. However, disease and warfare continued up until the 19th century, keeping populations in the Basin relatively low.

Hispanic and Anglo ranchers began encroaching the region in increasing numbers, and competition for water and grazing lands began to intensify. Federal stock-reduction programs applying only to Navajo ranchers were implemented and, over time, the native peoples were displaced from much of their former homelands. When excavation and preservation of the ruins began in 1898, local Navajos were hired for the work crews; even today this work remains an important part of the local Navajo economy.

In 1907, Chaco Canyon was designated a National Monument, but it was not until 1946 that tensions over grazing land and the potential for damage to the ruins prompted the construction of a perimeter fence and elimination of grazing within the park. Navajos were hired to build the fence, but had to move their homes outside of the park's boundaries. Agriculture and pastoralism have remained important mainstays of the Navajo economy, resulting in a pattern of rural settlements scattered throughout the San Juan Basin. Developments such as wagons and coal, followed in time by vehicles and bottled gas, allowed expansion of settlements onto the treeless grasslands surrounding the Basin.

In 1980, Chaco Canyon's designation was changed from national monument to Chaco Canyon National Historical Park, and in 1987, the park was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Chaco Canyon is much more than the abandoned remains of a complex civilization; it is a wondrous glimpse into the past, a cultural legacy, and a testimony to human achievement and tenacity in even the most forbidding of environments. 

Follow these links back to:
The Chaco Phenomenon
After the Anasazi

--Researched and written by Shannon Kelly

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Gabriel, K. 1991. Roads to center place: A cultural atlas to Chaco Canyon and the Anasazi. Johnson Books, Boulder, CO.

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