camp: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 3:43PM PST (-0800 GMT)
to visit the Anazai Center goto: button

Jim Jones: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 3:47PM PST (-0800 GMT)
We are all anxious to know about the fire. We hope you are alright.

archer/sunset: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 3:48PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Are the recent fires encroaching the Mesa Verde ruins?

archer/sunset: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 3:49PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Fires seem common to this area. My partner said ten years ago she couldn't visit the site due to a nearby fire.

Brian Bartlett/Ridgeview Elementary: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 3:51PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Hello. I teach 4th grade in southern Ca. What, if any, contact did the Anasazi have with the southern Ca. indians such as the Serrano?

Ken Decroo-Truman Middle School: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 3:51PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Hello! I am excited to be in touch the center... What is the current theory about the mysterious disappearance of the Anazai?...What is thought to have happened to them?

camp: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 3:51PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Suzan - we are very happy to have made contact with the Center by phone and are waiting for your arrival. We have a group of teachers here today involved in a California Department of Education technology literacy grant program - all taking new instruction in Internet use for their classroom.

: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 3:52PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Hey Ken, we're back!

Diane Bruns: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 3:54PM PST (-0800 GMT)
I've heard that you're beginning to get a handle on your battle with the fire. What kind of weather are you experiencing today? Temps? Cloud cover? Are there any thunderstorms forecast in the foreseeable future?

: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 3:55PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Hello, My name is Cheryl Leslie and I teach 5th grade at Sunset Elementary in Oak View. I am currently reading a book called Thunder Head and it is about the discovery of an Anasazi city called Quivira. Is there really such a city? Are you familiar with the book and do you know if the information in the book is accurate?

Suzan Craig: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 3:58PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Hello everyone, I look forward to answering your questions.

camp: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:00PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Everyone is asking about the fire in your area - how is it today?

: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:00PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Has the fires efected any of the ancient sites?

David, Rosedell: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:00PM PST (-0800 GMT)
I'm David Lindsay from Rosedell

Diane Bruns: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:01PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Hello Suzan! We're all teachers attending a four-day training institute in Santa Barbara. I've heard that you're beginning to get a handle on your battle with the fire. What kind of weather are you experiencing today? Temps? Cloud cover? Are there any thunderstorms forecast in the foreseeable future?

Ken Decroo-Truman Middle School: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:01PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Hello! I am excited to be in touch the center... What is the current theory about the mysterious disappearance of the Anazai?...What is thought to have happened to them?

Cheryl/Sunset: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:01PM PST (-0800 GMT)
: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 3:55PM PST (-0800 GMT) Hello, My name is Cheryl Leslie and I teach 5th grade at Sunset Elementary in Oak View. I am currently reading a book called Thunder Head and it is about the discovery of an Anasazi city called Quivira. Is there really such a city? Are you familiar with the book and do you know if the information in the book is accurate?

camp: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:01PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Suzan - remember to use the "scroll back" box next to the "chat" button - enter a fairly large number (50) to scroll back to questions which were asked earlier

David, Rosedell: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:01PM PST (-0800 GMT)
I had heard something on ...PBS..I think about the Anasasi practicing cannibalism...what can you tell us about this?

archer/sunset: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:02PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Do you have any weird facts about the Anazasi that we may not be privy to...something you may find interesting...

Cheryl/Sunset: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:03PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Cheryl again. Is there a place where brochures or any type of free information is available on the Anasazi?

Suzan Craig: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:03PM PST (-0800 GMT)
The fire is still burning today. I has burned over one mesa of the park, Weatherhill Mesa. As of yet we do not know the condition of the Cliff dwellings however more surface sites have been revealed. More in the next message

Diane Bruns: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:04PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Suzan, can you recommend some good 3rd grade reading level books or stories about the Anasazi? We're using a new social studies text, and they highlight them as a community of the past.

camp: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:07PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Can you tell us about some of your K-12 education programs.

Diane Bruns/Grandview School, Lake Arrowhead, CA : . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:08PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Suzan, re: more surface sites. I imagine they've taken aerial photos of the region. Are these surface sites new?

Brian Bartlett/Ridgeview Elementary: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:10PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Hello. I teach 4th grade in southern Ca. What, if any, contact did the Anasazi have with the southern Ca. indians such as the Serrano?

Suzan Craig: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:10PM PST (-0800 GMT)
The fire has been contained by a natural canyon that is very rocky and has acted like a fire break. Also, today we are having more wide spread thunderstorms that could be either benifitting the fighting effort or making it worse. If more wind than rain is hitting the burn area, it could make it worse. And visa-versa. Fire played an important role in the ecosystem in ancient times. Ancestral Puebloan people used fire to clear fields, enhance grassy meadows, and possibly more. So in a sense they practiced controlled burning. Also, there is historical accounts of Native American camp fires escaping their boundaries and going out of control. The effects on the ecosystem were the creation of a mosaic pattern on the landscape with small areas of farms, meadows, forest clumps etc. This mosaic actually helped prevent disasterously large fires. The fires that have occured in the last decade in the SW US have been and will be much worse than the historic and prehistoric counterparts because people have supressed all natural fires for a hundred years allowing for and unnatural build up of fuels.

Diane Bruns: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:11PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Suzan, can you recommend some good 3rd grade reading level books or stories about the Anasazi? We're using a new social studies text, and they highlight them as a community of the past.

Suzan Craig: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:15PM PST (-0800 GMT)
We have a free teacher's packet of information including a basic world view, web sites for more information, how to take a field trip to this center, and additional teacher's resources. Some of our resources can be utilized by teachers around the country: 1) Our artifact loan kits are shipped for free, 2) People in the Past is really a neat CD rom program that has won National level awards. I have caught interns and staff sneaking off to play it as a break activity in the Gallery.

Chris Fisher: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:16PM PST (-0800 GMT)
What's going on?

archer/sunset: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:16PM PST (-0800 GMT)
How do we get these resources?

camp: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:16PM PST (-0800 GMT)
We were on a walk yesterday studying ethno-botany - we learned that the chumash burned out the underbrush to make for better materials for basket making. Is that also true in the Colorado area?

David, Rosedell: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:18PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Thank you for your time Suzan. I would have liked to have been able to discuss more issues concerning the Anasazi. Well, gotta go. ;^>

archer/sunset: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:18PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Were the Anasazi weavers, potters, or both?

Cheryl/Sunset: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:22PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Suzan, thank you for all your time. Our time is up here and we need to move on, but we will read your responses on Thursday when we go on line again. Take care.

Suzan Craig: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:25PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Contrary to what was once thought, the Anasazi did not vanish. Environmental changes in the Four Corners area, increased population densities, and perhaps new conflicts within or between groups led the Anasazi to move south. The Anasazi, now often referred to as the Ancestral Puebloans, are the ancestors of the modern Pueblo peoples of NM and AZ (the Zuni, Hopi, Taos, Acoma, Santa Clara...). The migrations were slow, over hundreds of years, not all at once. Modern Pueblo people prefer that we not refer to sites as abandoned ruins since they believe spirits still reside in them. The prefer sites be called ancestral dwellings. We here at the AHC and other modern archaeologists maintain an active dialogue with modern Puebloan peoples, incorporating their oral histories into interpretations of the past.

Suzan Craig: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:26PM PST (-0800 GMT)
The Ancestral Puebloans were both weavers and potters. They also used numerous other technologies. They were agriculturalists, stone and bone workers, mixed-media artisans...

: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:29PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Has there been much oral history gathered from decendents of original tribal peoples which you have on record or which are accessable for study?

Suzan Craig: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:31PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Yes, Quivira is an actual site, I believe in NM. I'm unaware of the Thunder Head book. My favorite elementary book is The Boy Who Made Dragonfly: A Zuni Myth Retold by Tony Hillerman. 4th and 5th grade can read it on their own but I read it to all ages. A fun follow-up activity is to make dragonflies out of corn husks. There are other stories about modern Pueblo children that reveal perspectives pertinent to ancient times. The Day of the Ogre Katchinas, and Little Boy with Three Names: Stories of Taos Pueblo are both good. These and other books are available for purchase or for loan from our library.

camp: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:31PM PST (-0800 GMT)
We have seen the timeline for Chumash groups in California continue to go back to older times with the discovery of new sites and materials. Is the timeline for the Ancestral Puebloans being pushed back into older times as new sites are discovered?

Suzan Craig: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:33PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Regarding connections to southern CA Indians, the Anansazi maintained a wide trade network. It's hard to say if they had direct contact with coastal peoples rather than intermediary traders. Some trade items from the coast include shell ornaments.

camp: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:35PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Suzan - thank you very much for your time and we really look forward to next weeks chat. We will archive both todays and next weeks chat and will send them to you on cd-rom. Next weeks chat will be in the same location on the web. Please send over any additional answers you have today - our teachers will be back online this evening to review the results of todays chat.

Suzan Craig: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:38PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Regarding the fire, you may visit www.ponyfire.com. This will give you current, up-to-date information about the fire that is currently burning at Mesa Verde. You may also visit button Many new ruins have been exposed, just as with the fires of 1996. Protecting modern (including the historic museum) as well as ancient structues is a priority. Fire fighters have put "fire blankets" around certain cliff dwellings.

Suzan Craig: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:47PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Regarding cannibalism, this is a very complex subject with a long history of ethnocentricity in anthropological theory. Many people quote that Hopi means "people of peace" and therefore make the assumption that Pueblo people never had warfare. In fact, all Pueblo groups have a complex social history that involves times of peace and warfare. Modern pueblo groups maintain war societies, just as our nation maintains the National Guard. There is archaeological evidence that is highly debated that reveals cannibalistic practices that occurred over a brief period of time (20 years around the mid-1100s) in a limited region on the periphery of the Chaco cultural area. It is not evident whether this was external aggression or internal policing but it does resemble the historical treatment of witches within Pueblo societies by members of their own cultural group. It is important not to exaggerate this to conclude that all Ancestral Puebloans were cannibals, or to say that there was a widespread political structure maintained or enforced by cannibalism. These incidents may have simply been the result of a marginal, excessively agressive, group or two.

Suzan Craig: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 4:59PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Oral histories for Puebloan peoples go back hundreds of years. Historical accounts tend to merge with myths and legends. Harold Courlander's The Fourth World of the Hopis is considered the classic work. See also: Dorothy K. Washburn's Living in Balance: the Universe of the Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, and Apache; Joe S. Sando's Pueblo Proviles and Pueblo Nations (historical texts compiled through oral history) Mark Bahti's Pueblo Stories and Storytellers Many new history books incorporate historical documentation and oral histories. For example: Peter Nabakov's Native American Testimony See also Erodes and Ortiz's American Indian Myths and Legends for a general anthology of N. American tales.

Suzan Craig: . . . . Tue, Aug 8, 5:07PM PST (-0800 GMT)
For resources from the AHC, please visit our web site, button Resources for teachers: button See also: button and specifically, button Two refernces for how to teach archaeology are available from our library: Susan Bender and George Smith, Teaching Archaeology; and K. Smardz and Shelley Smith, The Archaeology Education Handbook. Thank you very much for your interest. I would be happy to talk with any of you via the telephone or e-mail in the future (970-882-4811, suzan_craig@co.blm.gov).