Chaco Canyon

Chaco Canyon hosts the densest collection of pueblos in the American southwest, and the most significant pre-columbian ruins north of Mexico. I wish I had time to write about the significance of this site (especially the the astroarchaeology stuff - that's my favorite), since I have spent the past two days learning about it from two of the leading archaeologists from the region and two Pueblo scholars (Tessie and Joe, pictured below) - but, seriously, we are scheduled to the minute! I am stealing minutes now after breakfast. The last picture here is of the "Two Marjies." Margie Connolly is the director of the NEH program - truly lovely person. Today we go out in the field for dig #2, so more dirt, dirt, dirt~

Monument Valley

Digging in Very Old Dirt

This is Ellen from New Hampshire and she is holding up our "find of the day" - a core chip stone. We were archaeology buddies on our
2 x 2 plot of the Basketmaker III pithouse site yesterday.

We dug for two hours in heat near 100 degrees and found shards of pottery, charcoal, chip stones and lots of sandstone. Actually "sandstone" becomes a curse when you are "out on the field" because it is really cool looking and allows you to believe you have found some pottery, but you haven't. So when the lead archaeologist, Steve, says "sandstone," you feel absolutely crushed.

The site is about a ten-minute drive from the campus, and these people here are very, very excited about their excavation. We actually couldn't believe how fast the time flew; I guess it's like being a kid, getting lost digging in the dirt. I think that is how these adults must feel every day.

Anyway, after you find your pieces, you take them over to sift them in this area:

After digging, we went to the lab to learn how to clean, sort, classify and infer. Like I said, they are covering all the bases. Today was really fun, but honestly, I


don't think I have what it takes (patience and focus) to succeed in this field!

This is the view of the Mesa Verde Mountains with a wheat field in front - this is taken during my nightly walking route, just about ten minutes from the hogan ranch (pictured below).

Almost every minute is scheduled here in the desert...not much time to travel to the main lodge to get an internet connection.

This past week, we have analyzed Pueblo artifacts dating back over a thousand years to recognize time periods, we have started fires (see video) while sitting in a reproduction of a Pueblo pithouse, we have made rope, we have thrown spears, and we have listened to a lecture from the leading archaelogist from the region - a guy with a thirty year resume. Today we will spend a few hours digging at an actual site ("working in the


field" is what we like to say), which is just a few minutes from campus. It's a "Basketmaker III Site" - and this actually means something to me now. Then we will go to a laboratory to learn how to analyze the data.

When you're a teacher, you usually hope and pray that the educational value of your inservice sessions or classes will be quality...I am so relieved to say that they have been extremely thoughtful in the design of this seminar, so that learning builds upon learning. Experiential learning at its best.

And just a short word about the food: the "camp chef" is originally from Ballard and he is fantastic. I can hardly wait to see what he has created for each meal. It may be eggs and hashbrowns smothered with a chile verde sauce or barbecued ham or jambalaya...all accompanied by a huge salad bar every lunch and dinner. Hard to even consider it camp food.

This weekend, a group of us will visit Durango - which, supposedly, has good shopping, food, hot springs - and a good two-stepping cowboy bar. Will keep you posted.

Signing off from Hogan Town~

Unassuming Wonderfulness

There is a little stand at the entrance to the Mesa Verde Cliff Palace dwelling that suggests a donation of fifty cents to borrow a little guidebook to help you navigate the ancient Pueblo world of the 1200's. I guess you could do it that way, or you could take someone with you who is a direct descendent of these ancients, who will stand in front of the dwelling and imagine with you what their lives might have been like. We took Tessie Naranjo with us today (pictured left), and with unassuming wonderfulness, we became participants with her in this world that reminded me of the days of digging dirt hole forts in Candy's back yard (only a little more advanced).

The Pueblo communities of today are the only modern communities that are directly descended from ancient societies - the ancients have often been referred to as the Anasazi, but now are simply called "Ancient Pueblos." Crow Canyon Institute focuses on three areas: research of this region, education (their camps are only a part of that), and the integration of local tribes (Pueblo, Utes, Navajo, Zuni, etc...) as advisors in everything. This is where they differ from other centers, from what I understand. Every single person involved in this program is gifted with extreme graciousness - especially Margie Connolly, who is the director of the institute, as well as a respected archaeologist. They are all thrilled to be doing what they are doing, and they are as respectful as possible to the people whose ancestors they are studying (and excavating)...they are inviting them in as the spiritual and living experts on their subject. So respectful, so appropriate, and - from what I now understand - so rare.

And, there's more: after touring sites from 600 AD to the palace dwelling above all day, we were invited to the home of a famous archaeologist, who is Margie's next door neighbor in Mancas (not far from Cortez). Florence Lister and her husband spent their lives in the field; he (now deceased) specialized in Southwestern archaeology as a professor of anthropology at Colorado University, and she specialized in pre-Colonial Spanish pottery. Florence is 91 and her home is a museum of Mexican pottery (mostly from the Puebla, Mexico region (near Oaxaca), southwestern artifacts, and just overall really, really cool stuff. We sat in her backyard for a picnic, with a view of the Mesas. I am way too tired to tell you about the food we are eating right now, but that will definitely be a blog post on its own. Florence is also purely gracious and the kind of witty that only a 91 year old who has lived an amazing life can be. She told us stories of how the cliff dwellings were discovered...by relatives of the family who own the property next door to her (they lost a cow and went looking for it when they stumbled upon the site). I am including a picture of her in her younger days because I forgot my camera at home and am finding all of my pictures on the internet until my camera arrives.) She and her husband, both, are accomplished in their field and have written many books.

A day with so many highlights...I will write about a few I am thinking about right now. One is that Tessie had shared with us that her mother is buried in her kitchen (in her modern Pueblo house in her community), because her mother wanted to be a part of everything in her daughter's life after she died. About a half an hour after explaining this, our National Parks group tour guide, a charming Bostonian, told us that many remains had been found in kitchens, but they didn't really know why...(!)

One last highlight for tonight: after her talk, Florence walked a few of us around her house and told stories about some of her "things." Every piece had a story: flint pieces from the Nile, grave markers from Mexican cemeteries, and a pine church pew that she had made into a coffee table.
Yes, I am a pretty lucky person~

I'm at Archaeology Camp!

I am holed up in a hogan dwelling, hiding from a fierce lightning storm with someone who just told me five stories about almost being hit by lightning. The lightning is passing right overhead and we yelp and jump each time the thunder roars through and shakes our little structure..."we" is Ashley (nickname: Lightning Rod), an English teacher who told her lightning stories with a cute North Carolina accent, Jan, an art teacher who could tell them with an even cuter Tennessee accent, and me.

I am at the equivalent of adult summer camp, at a National Endowment for the Humanities summer institute in Cortez, Colorado (near the four corners in the SW)-

This is the point at which Karen, one of the program staff, dressed in serious rain gear, knocked frantically on our hogan door and told us to "take cover in the main building - downstairs." A tornado had been spotted close by, and winds were expected up to 65 mph.

So - in case you read over my first paragraph, thinking that perhaps I was exaggerating - I wasn't. Yep, that is what we did on our second night at archaeology camp - we ran up a path through lightning and thunder and took refuge in the basement of the lodge, playing card games until the all-call was made for our return to safety. Ironic..."Zero" precipitaion to date this year read the weather report the other day, but it has rained each of the three days I've been here. A rainy summer for this Seattleite, anywhere she takes herself...

Now I am back in the hogan (pronounced "ho-gone"), which is similar to a yurt, where deer, jack rabbits, owls and prairie dogs (and perhaps a mountain lion) will greet me when I wake up tomorrow (or when I have to walk from the hogan to the bathroom in a few hours), as we board the bus to see Mesa Verde on our first field trip. Some "people in high authority" have ruined the word "awesome" for me, but this program, "Bridging Cultures: Diversity and Unity in the Pueblo World" is just pretty awesome. Twenty five teachers are here from all over the US (I'm the only one from the NW) as well as 25 high school students who are attending their own camp. You'll have to wait to hear what else these NEH wizards have planned for us. Oh, and there are two other "Margies" here. Three of us. That has never happened to me before~

The Times They Are A-Changin'...

This morning I put three mangoes on T and T's home altar, then identified myself to the house god and the money god, repeating after Thanh: "I am Marjie. I go home today. Give me lucky, happy and money." We did the prayer gesture three times, then put the lit incense in the sand.

I should have prayed for lucky before going to get rice cakes on my last morning, because she wasn't there. I usually only get cakes on the weekends so I can take my time enjoying them. I went to T's house a little distraught, so after the incense lighting, Thanh said we would at least go to her house to say goodbye. But...she wasn't home. Maybe it's for the best. Maybe I would have choked on those cakes while crying over them.

I got banh cuon from the vendor who never acknowledges me instead, then had two last amazing spring rolls. Because everyone knew it was my last day, many mutual wishes for lucky and happy were exchanged. Tomorrow is the half year Tet day, so Thanh made sure I tried both of the traditional treats present in the market: sticky rice and mung bean wrapped in bamboo leaves (good) and rice soaked in wine (not so good).

I stopped by Nam's house to see if Minh could rustle him up - we'll see if he comes by later. I also sat with Nam's mother for a while - she is sitting up now, but still quite gaunt and twisted from her stroke. She gave me a very gracious farewell.

Last night T and T came over and swung in the hammocks with me for a while. After Thuy went home to cook "salad and cow" for her new husband ('s family?), Thanh and I went to get a double shot of pomelo/pineapple juice and also took a trip to the neighborhood temple. There we lit three sticks of incense to Phuoc Ba- one for the world, one for our families and one for us. We wished the world, etc, "lucky, strong, and busy."

On the way home...I still cannot believe this... right across from wonton soup man we saw a BRAND NEW SUSHI RESTAURANT. It's indoor, bright, polished and cheery - completely unlike all of the other plastic stool restaurants on the street. I eat wonton soup all the time and never saw this going in. Sushi on our street. Wow. I wish I still had a camera so that Katherine would believe me, but it was swiped the other night at the restaurant (don't want to talk about it).

The new road that went in behind our house connects our street with the city in a major way. New sidewalks went in a few months ago, and now buildings are going up all along the new road where the Crispy Vietnamese Ravioli stand is. Thanh says that things will continue to change very quickly on our road. This frightens me.

The T's and I have plans to go to dinner tomorrow night, after we turn in my motorbike and get our hair washed at the Bum Bum (and after I get a last massage and swim and work out at the nicest gym I will ever belong to). I told Thanh I wanted Nguyen Canh Chan Sushi on my last night- nothing raw though! I'm not quite sure why that appeals to me, since it represents the change I dread, but it does.

And after that, we will all go to the airport. T's told me last night that their father wants to come, too. I am very honored - he is really cool. He always says "Maggie! America good!" every time he sees me.

America - it will be nice to see you again~