Ancestral Puebloans (Anasazi)

A long, long time ago, the world was quiet and sunny. Imagine living way up high on big, flat rocks called mesas, where the sun could warm your face. We built our homes right into the sides of tall cliffs, like cozy little nests for a bird. Our houses were made of stone and mud, keeping us safe and warm. Down below, in our gardens, we grew yummy corn and sweet beans to eat. We loved to make things with our hands. We would take soft clay from the earth and make beautiful round pots, painting them with pretty shapes. It was a happy life, filled with sunshine, stories, and family, more than two thousand years ago.

Hello. I am the Ancestral Puebloans. That is the name people call us now. We were the first people to build big villages in these sunny cliffs. Around the year 1100, we built amazing homes that were like tall apartment buildings made of stone, with many rooms for all our families. We even had special round rooms built into the ground called kivas. Inside our kivas, we would gather together to tell stories, sing songs, and feel close to our family and the earth. We loved to make our world beautiful. We painted wonderful pictures on the rocks of animals and sunshine, and we decorated our pottery with zig-zags and swirls. We were builders, farmers, and artists, and we loved our home in the cliffs.

After many, many years, around the year 1300, the earth grew a little drier, and it was time for us to find a new home. We packed our things and went on a long walk to new places with more water. But we did not disappear. Our story never ended. Today, you can still visit our amazing stone homes tucked in the cliffs and see the pictures we painted on the rocks. And our families, the Pueblo peoples, are still here. They live nearby and carry our songs, our stories, and our traditions in their hearts. They still love the earth and their families very much, and my story lives on with them.