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~