June 25 – 27,   Cortez, Co – Mesa Verde Area

We arrived at the LaMesa RV Park ready for a change in scenery.  This is really Indian Territory and you can see it all around you.  

We started at the Anasazi Heritage Center.  It’s a educational museum about Indian History in this area.  You can look through microscopes to examine seeds and other wild things that were eaten when this area was first occupied, by the Ute, Pueblo and Navajo tribes.  A nice place and run by the National Parks.    We left there and went to the trail of the ancients to the Lowery Pueblo.  It was gravel roads and when we finally arrived, it didn’t impress us,  there wasn’t much left of the structure.

 Another arch we passed on the highway

 Entrance to the Heritage Center

Statue outside

 

 Pottery from different tribes
 

These pieces were found in Mesa Verde cliff dwellings

 



Pitt house remains at the museum

 This is the remains of the  Lowery Pueblo & Kiva

This is called a Kiva.  It is a spiritually respected

ceremonial circle.  All of the homes face

one of these.

 

After stopping back at home for supper, we went downtown to the Cortez Cultural Center.  It is a center that features local Indian Artists and they have Indian Dances and Storytelling nightly. 

Tonight it was the Lopez family from Towaoc, Colorado.  They performed some Eagle dances and other traditional styles of Ute Mountain Ute Pow Wows.  Dad plays the drums and sings and the younger daughter and friends from the Reservation did the dancing. 

 

Cortez Cultural Building & Ceremonial Ring

 

Daughter does the Eagle dance.  This is a

real Eagle feather in her hair and the

honor of this is earned.

In this dancers hand is an Eagle tail.

Both girls have Otter tails hanging from their braids

which is another honor.

This boy wears Porcupine feathers with two Eagle

feathers  in the middle for his headdress.  This

represents the Eagle taking the porcupine.

He is doing the grass dance

Day 2

We went to Mesa Verde National Park.  It was a very hot 100 degrees today and we could certainly feel it.  It was eye awakening when we saw the homes of the Indians that first lived here.   What a rough life and they had to climb up mountains to get into their home. 

Here are a few of the homes. 

 Display outside Mesa Verde Visitor Station

Bronze sculpture of Indian climbing up the foot holes

 carved into the stone to get up the mountain to his home

 The road to the top of the mountain where the

dwellings are begins in this valley

The Balcony House

This was built as a two story --

You can see the second story in the balcony

 

The square house

The Indians usuall build things in a circle,

but this is the unusual Square house

 

 

The Cliff House

 

Ton went on the ranger-guided tour , which lasted 1 hour and climbed up 3 different ladders to see the Cliff House up close.  Not an easy trail.   He needed to buy a ticket at the visitor’s center to reserve a spot and take the tour.  I sat on a comfortable bench and visited with others who were also waiting on family that went on the trip.  I saw the homes from a distance and was glad Ton was doing the hiking. 

 Here are 2 of the ladders he climbed up on the side of the mountain

 Close-up of the Cliff House

Ton on locationWe were gone from 9 to 4 so it was a long day. Tonight we are just relaxing. 

Day 3 was a relaxing day. 

In the evening, we went back to the Cortez Cultural Center to see some more Indian Dancing.  This time it was the Navajo Indians. 

The Naatsiild Dancers are a Navajo dance group from Shiprock, New Mexico.  Naatsiilid means rainbow and become apparent when they reveal their colorful and authentic regalia.

At the beat of a single drum, the dancers perform traditional Navajo dances such as the Basket, Ribbon and social dances. This is the very root of the Navajo culture and most visitors don't see it anywhere except at a Navajo reserveation. 

Here are some of the dancers

 Ribbon Dance

 Basket Dance

 Sheldon Manuelito - drummer and singer

 

Sunset over our campground

Another beautiful day