Southwest Indians of Early America (1973)

[Music] oh [Music] [Laughter] the southwestern United States is an arid land to many people it may appear hostile and forbidding but many hundreds of years ago people did choose this land as their home and over the centuries their descendants have learned to live in harmony with their environment the Hy Indians of Northern Arizona still plant their crops in the hot sandy soil in much the same way their ancestors the anastasi did [Music] in Southern Arizona there is a great desert which is even more forbidding this was the land of the hokam the ancient desert dwellers they depended on desert plants for food just as their descendants in the desert do today [Music] this bush provides mosquit beans still used by many puma and Papo Indians descendants of the ancient hokam people the giant Saro Cactus supplies them a Delicious Fruit which they gather in early summer we know very little about the early hokam who lived here a thousand years ago for their Adobe Villages of mud and grass have all but disappeared we do know that once large villages centered around a great Canal system using their Stone and wooden tools the ancient hokam people dug over 150 M of canals they brought water to the parched Land from the few rivers in the area this irrigation turned the desert into highly productive [Music] land corn and squash were just two of the food plants cultivated by the hokam in Northern Arizona and New Mexico the Anasazi were also prospering a thousand years ago the ancient dwelling and remains of the Anasazi are much better preserved than those of the hokam since they were built with Stone near their buildings Rock paintings pictographs remind us of their early history the earliest Anasazi were Wanderers living off of what the land would provide in plants and game animals eventually they learned to grow their own [Music] food this diarama illustrates a later development of Anasazi culture when small settlements appeared around their fields these first dwellings partly underground and covered with poles and mud were called pit houses in the cold winter months some of the Anasazi lived in high dry caves which can be seen in northern Arizona in these caves and rock shelters they built ston lined pits remnants of centuries old crops tell us these were used for food storage centuries later as the Anasazi population increased the people began living together in larger and larger settlements these long one-storied buildings made of adobe were the beginning of the true pevo culture during the next 3 or 4 hundred years the Anasazi culture flourished pblos of stone soon replaced those of mud some were built on the high mops some were built on the canyon floors many were built in huge caves entered only by hand and toe holdes cut into the Sandstone Cliffs why do they build in such inaccessible places some believe it was for protection from raiding Indians who had come into Anasazi country others believe it was to conserve farming land for a much larger population we can only guess we do know that about 800 100 years ago the Anasazi culture reached its height with the production of many Fine Arts and [Music] Crafts let's see how the people who created these artifacts lived 800 years ago PUO Bonito is one of the largest and best preserved Anasazi buildings this weblo was in places four or five stories high and contained nearly 800 rooms when we look down on Pueblo Bonito and see its size we can understand how at one time 1,200 people lived here [Music] [Music] oh in order to survive in this harsh environment everyone in the village worked young boys helped their fathers and Neighbors in the fields by building dams which kept rainwater of Summer thunderstorms from flooding the [Music] [Music] crops and by carrying Wood home for the family [Music] [Music] fire young girls were taught responsibility at an early age they helped their mothers by grinding corn caring for smaller brothers and sisters and by going down to the spring to get [Music] water pottery making was an important duty of the women of queblo Bonito for well-made jars stored precious water during the dry season [Music] the most important structures of PUO Bonito were the Kias in these large underground Chambers elaborate religious ceremonies were performed to their gods to assure the Anasazi People of rain and plentiful crops ceremonial dances today are similar to those was performed centuries ago [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] d [Music] [Music] [Music] today PUO Bonito stands empty about 700 years ago the people of Pueblo Bonito began abandoning their homes a great drought had plagued the Anasazi for many years and like their neighbors in other large villages they began looking for more favorable places to farm and live We believe the present day Hy Indians to be the descendants of the Anasazi who once occupied this great ancient city [Music] [Laughter] about 600 years ago a new group of Indians were entering the Southwest like the early Anasazi this group lived off the land did not grow crops but hunted game and gathered wild plants for food these people had left their homes far to the North in present day Canada and migrated Southward as they roam this new country they must have wondered about the abandoned [Music] homes it was these newcomers who coined the name Anasazi which in their language means the ancient ones their descendants are now known as the Navajo and Apache [Music] Indians the Navajo still occupy much of the early Anasazi country and their wandering is limited to grazing large herds of sheep the Pima and Papo Indians today occupy much of the land of their hokam ancestors [Music] many of their ancient canals have been put to use again and again the desert turns [Music] green the present day hopy Indians still raise corn on these dry lands and much of their culture remains like that of their ancestors the Anasazi who lived here at thousand years ago [Music]