Anasazi Heritage Center
Encyclopedia
Dolores, Colorado
The town of Dolores is a Statutory Town in Montezuma County, Colorado, United States. The population was 936 at the 2010 census. It is one of three incorporated municipalities in the county....
, is an archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
of Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
pueblo
Pueblo
Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
and hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
cultures. Two 12th-century archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
sites, the Escalante and Dominguez Pueblos, at the center were once home to Ancient Pueblo Peoples
Ancient Pueblo Peoples
Ancient Pueblo People or Ancestral Pueblo peoples were an ancient Native American culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the United States, comprising southern Utah, northern Arizona, northwest New Mexico, and southern Colorado...
. The museum's permanent and special exhibits display some of its the 3 million artifacts and information it owns of native pueblo and other regional native people. The center offers a research library
Research library
A research library is a library which contains an in-depth collection of material on one or several subjects . A research library will generally include primary sources as well as secondary sources...
, educational resources and museum shop. Wheelchair-accessible
Accessibility
Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the "ability to access" and benefit from some system or entity...
facilities include a picnic area and nature trail.
Ancient Pueblo People
While other native peoples were hunters and gatherersHunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
, pueblo people resided in permanent communities called pueblos and grew their own crops. The Ancient Pueblo people may have lived in the Four Corners area as early as 1500 BC
Anno Domini
and Before Christ are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars....
. As many as 20,000 people may have lived and farmed in the Montezuma County, Colorado
Montezuma County, Colorado
Montezuma County is the southwesternmost of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado of the United States. The county population was 23,830 at U.S. Census 2000...
area. Each person required about one acre of land for up to 40 harvested bushels of corn per year. Other sources of food were obtained through gathering wild plants, like berries and piñon nuts, growth of beans and squash and hunting. The area was affected by periods of drought, including one in the late 1200s. That and other factors resulted in the permanent move by 1300 AD
Anno Domini
and Before Christ are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars....
of area pueblo people south to present-day New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
and Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
. Anasazi, a term commonly attributed to ancient pueblo people, has been used since its publication in the 1930s. The Navajo
Navajo language
Navajo or Navaho is an Athabaskan language spoken in the southwestern United States. It is geographically and linguistically one of the Southern Athabaskan languages .Navajo has more speakers than any other Native American language north of the...
word does not represent specific tribes but means enemy or outsider. The term is disliked by the modern Pueblo people who hold their ancient ancestors sacred and celebrated through spiritual rituals and journeys.
Escalante and Dominguez Pueblos
The Escalante and Dominguez Pueblos, located next to the Heritage Center, were homes of Ancient Pueblo people three times. Escalante Pueblo was constructed approximately 1120 to 1130 AD and made of groupings of stone walled family and communal rooms, including kivaKiva
A kiva is a room used by modern Puebloans for religious rituals, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, kivas are square-walled and underground, and are used for spiritual ceremonies....
s. The architecture is like that of the Chaco Canyon
Chaco Culture National Historical Park
Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park hosting the densest and most exceptional concentration of pueblos in the American Southwest. The park is located in northwestern New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington, in a remote canyon cut by the Chaco Wash...
in present-day New Mexico. The pueblo was also occupied about 1150 AD and again 1200 AD.
Near the Escalante Pueblo is the Dominguez Pueblo, an example of independent family homes outside the main pueblo. Discovered at the site were items that shed light on how the people may have lived, including "6,900 turquoise, jet and shell beads; a shell and turquoise frog pendant and mosaics, two fine ceramic vessels, six bone scrapers, a woven mat and many other items."
The Pueblos are named for the Spanish Franciscan friars, Francisco Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, who recorded the ancient archaeological sites during the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition
Dominguez-Escalante Expedition
The Dominguez-Escalante Expedition was conducted in 1776 to find an overland route from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Spanish missions in California...
in 1776.
Museum and visitor center
The Bureau of Land ManagementBureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior which administers America's public lands, totaling approximately , or one-eighth of the landmass of the country. The BLM also manages of subsurface mineral estate underlying federal, state and private...
owns and manages the museum and facilities. The Heritage Center, in operation since 1988, is also the visitor center for the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is located in the southwestern region of the U.S. state of Colorado, and is managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior...
. The Canyonlands Natural History Association owns and manages the Anasazi Heritage Center museum shop.
Related archaeological and heritage sites
See also
Other neighboring Ancient Pueblo sites in Colorado- Canyons of the Ancients National MonumentCanyons of the Ancients National MonumentCanyons of the Ancients National Monument is located in the southwestern region of the U.S. state of Colorado, and is managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior...
- Crow Canyon Archaeological CenterCrow Canyon Archaeological CenterCrow Canyon Archaeological Center is an archeological center of training programs for students and teachers, located in Southwestern Colorado, USA...
- Hovenweep National MonumentHovenweep National MonumentHovenweep National Monument is located on land in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah, located between Cortez, Colorado and Blanding, Utah on the Cajon Mesa of the Great Sage Plain...
- Mesa Verde National ParkMesa Verde National ParkMesa Verde National Park is a U.S. National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado, United States. It was created in 1906 to protect some of the best-preserved cliff dwellings in the world...
Other cultures in the Four Corners region
- Trail of the AncientsTrail of the AncientsThe Trail of the Ancients is an National Scenic Byway located in the states of Colorado and Utah. The route highlights the archaeological and cultural history of southwestern Native American peoples, and traverses the widely diverse geological landscape of the Four Corners region...
- List of ancient dwellings of Pueblo peoples
Early American cultures
- List of prehistoric sites in Colorado
- Ancient Pueblo PeoplesAncient Pueblo PeoplesAncient Pueblo People or Ancestral Pueblo peoples were an ancient Native American culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the United States, comprising southern Utah, northern Arizona, northwest New Mexico, and southern Colorado...
- Oasisamerica culturesOasisamericaOasisamerica was a broad cultural area in pre-Columbian southwestern North America. It extended from modern-day Utah down to southern Chihuahua, and from the coast on the Gulf of California eastward to the Río Bravo river valley...
- Paleo-Indians
External links
- Anasazi Heritage Center - official site
- Canyonlands Natural History Association, a non-profit organization established to assist the scientific and educational efforts of the National Park ServiceNational Park ServiceThe National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...