Stories in the Stones: Unearthing Ancestral Pueblo Voices
By Danita Dodson
Mesa Verde National Park and Pueblo Indian History
National Endowments for Humanities at Crow Canyon Archaeology Center, 2016
Overview
In this lesson, students will explore the history and architecture of Ancestral Pueblo Indians in the Mesa Verde region through an interactive reading of poetry by a contemporary Pueblo poet, Simon Ortiz. During classroom discussion, students will review and extend the concepts presented. An independent extension essay will enable students to work with selected concepts to create meaningful interpretations of Pueblo poetry in relationship to the memories of ancestors, descriptions of Puebloan landscape, and archaeological discoveries.
According to Estevan Rael-Galvez, “A piece of land is like a book, leaving something behind for us to read” (NEH Contested Homelands Workshop, 21 June 2010). The Ancestral Pueblo people of Mesa Verde left behind what anthropologists term material culture. To Benjamin Weatherill, the ruins of the cliff dwellers were “symbols of the past.” Though these stone buildings can only signify conceivable stories, they encourage us to carefully imagine and consider our human connection. As Hurst and Till assert, both anthropologists and modern Pueblo people believe that the landscape is a “rich repository of historical and cultural information . . . to speak to us across time” (76, 83). Thus, the ancient cliff dwellers, their stone ruins, and their landscapes communicate in a quiet but living language that can be studied for meaning as one might study symbols in a poem. The abandoned dwellings stand as stories; they simultaneously exist as levels on structures and as layered narratives that connect to our own chronicles. Reuben Ellis in Stories and Stones says, “Like a good story, the construction of stone walls too is a matter of field and line, relation and connection—courses of blocks, linear and temporal in their authorship, form, and reception, one stone following another horizontally, one course going up on top of another, just as a writer builds to create layers of meaning” (3).
By reading the poetry of a present-day Pueblo writer, students can uncover “symbols of the past” that lie hidden like old stones in the lines. In Roots and Branches, Dorothea M. Susag says that “the significance and consequences of the past circle into the present, and the voices of the ancestors speak through for [Native American] poets today” (38). Simon Ortiz, a renowned poet from Acoma Pueblo, affirms the continuity between contemporary Pueblo Indians and their ancestors as he emphasizes the integrity of the oral tradition and the profound kinship to place and heritage necessary for any healthy human experience. Ortiz writes about the strong influence of his father, a skilled stoneworker like many other older Pueblo men who worked with sandstone and mud mortar to build homes and pueblos: “It takes time, persistence, patience, and the belief that the walls that come to stand will do so for a long, long time, perhaps even forever. I like to think that by helping to mix mud and carry stone for my father and other elders I managed to bring that influence into to my consciousness as a writer” (“The Language We Know” 31). In the poem “A Story of How a Wall Stands,” the voice of the ancestor is represented by the persona of the father, who tells a story to remind and inspire his son to carry on the traditions by contributing to the work of his ancestors; the voice of the elder encourages youth to appreciate connection to ancient structures and folkways. “This Occurs to Me” presents the voice of one who has absorbed the memory articulated by the father, the elder, the ancestor. Ortiz’s poetry, in some ways, may be said to incorporate what Darling and Lewis term “songscapes” (149), or landscapes remembered through song. By studying such poetry, students may consider themselves as participants in “song archaeology” as they retrace steps delineated in a song journey to find the ancient sites the poem mentions.
Students will begin the lesson by viewing a slide show of Mesa Verde cliff dwelling images. Then they will read and analyze a truncated passage from Catherine M. Cameron’s “Leaving Mesa Verde,” which emphasizes the legacy that cliff dwellers left behind for their descendants. They will also evaluate primary source images related to the concept in this informational text, using graphic organizers to demonstrate their understanding of the reading. Ultimately, after orientation to the lesson concepts, students will analyze poetic texts that are responses to the landscape and can be considered as songscapes because the themes of ancestors and memory resonate in the lines. These Pueblo writings from American literature offer students an opportunity to see the historical view of the landscape through the eyes of the contemporary human presence within it. Using textual evidence to draw conclusions as they explore both literal and figurative meanings, students will present arguments in an independent writing extension.
Key Concepts
Native Americans, Ancestral Puebloans, Acoma Pueblo; Simon Ortiz; ancestors and memory; sacred landscapes; songscapes and oral tradition; archaeology; material culture; architecture, masonry; importance of elders
Subject: English language arts
Grade Levels: 9–12
Guiding Questions
How does the poetry of modern-day Pueblo writers like Simon Ortiz reveal the voices of the ancestral Pueblo Indians of the Mesa Verde region? How are stones and landscape structures represented in the “songscape” memories of Simon Ortiz’s poems?
Length of Time
Classroom in-class reading and discussion: 60 minutes (each day for three class periods)
Online research: 1–2 hours (during the in-class writing workshop days)
Independent extension writing assignment: 2–6 hours
Common Core Standards
RL.11-12.1, RL.11-12.2, RL.11-12.4, W.11-12.9
Learning Objectives: Students will
examine pictures in a slide show of Mesa Verde cliff dwellings.
analyze relationships between humans and their environment.
make comparisons between their own lives and those of the people who have lived in the Mesa Verde region.
explore the use of stones in architecture of the cliff dwellers in the Mesa Verde region.
understand how historical and geographical information of the Mesa Verde region relate to the production of Ortiz’s poems.
explain how elements of Pueblo culture are revealed in the poems.
relate the culture and the poems to the larger context of literature that they have studied in the course.
describe how the concept of ancestral memory figures into the poems.
contemplate how the ideas and themes of ancestral memory are applicable to the area of the U.S. where they reside (East Tennessee, Appalachia).
Materials
Digital video, Prezi, or PowerPoint to show the landscape and architecture of Mesa Verde
Computer, projector and smartboard to show PowerPoint and digital video
Graphic Organizer 1: “Leaving Mesa Verde”
Graphic Organizer 2: Analyzing the Photograph
Extensions and Additional Resources handout
Internet access for each student
Cultural objects from the region
Maps of the Southwest
Pueblo music
Stories and Stone: Writing the Ancestral Pueblo Homeland. Ed. Reuben Ellis. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1997.
Selection from class textbook: Ortiz, Simon. “A Story of How a Wall Stands.” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. 9th ed. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Robert Zweig. New York: Longman, 2012. 1188. Silko, Leslie Marmon. “Where Mountain Lion Lay Down with Deer.” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. 9th ed. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Robert Zweig. New York: Longman, 2012. 1201-02.
Ortiz, Simon. “This Occurs to Me.” Woven Stone. Tucson: U of Arizona P, 1992. Print. 265.
Cameron, Catherine M. “Leaving Mesa Verde.” The Mesa Verde World: Explorations in Ancestral Pueblo Archaeology. Ed. David Grant Noble. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press, 2006. 74-83.
Darling, J. Andrew, and Barnaby V. Lewis. “Songscapes and Calendar Sticks.” Living the Ancient Southwest. Ed. David Grant Noble. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press, 2014. 149-57.
Poster board or sketch paper, pens and colored pencils
Laptops to produce essays
Cultural artifacts from East Tennessee and the Southern Appalachians
Procedure
1. As a hook or set, introduce students to the concept of ancestors by showing them a short digital movie of images of Mesa Verde, set to Pueblo music. Students can contrast the images with the dictionary definition of ancestors and their own experiences and imagination. After students reflect briefly in writing what these images suggest to them, lead them to a large group sharing of what ideas come to mind.
2. Give students a passage from Catherine M. Cameron’s essay “Leaving Mesa Verde” and ask them to read it silently. Explain that they will be analyzing this segment and that discussion will pave the way for the themes that appear in selected poems to be read later in class. Distribute a copy of Graphic Organizer #1, which contains the selection from Cameron’s article. Students select “Key Words” from the article and use those words in a summary sentence to demonstrate understanding of what the author is conveying. Then lead a whole-class discussion, deliberating upon vocabulary that students found confusing or difficult. The discussion questions below may be used to further explore ideas. (This exercise is based upon the Gilder Lehrman model of examining a text.)
3. Distribute (or display) a primary source image and Graphic Organizer 2 to each student. Have students write responses to the questions on the handout, emphasizing that all of the arguments must be backed up with textual evidence taken directly from the Cameron passage.
4. Engage students in a discussion about how literature can promote understanding about place, landscape, and culture. Then show them short PowerPoint presentation with biographical information about Simon Ortiz (or students will read a short biography), focusing particularly upon the fact that he was influenced heavily by the oral tradition of his Acoma Pueblo culture. Lead a discussion about his life, connecting with the questions below.
5. Before leading students to a discourse about the cultural symbols used by the Ancestral Pueblo Indians to articulate their heritage, and before reading and discussing “A Story of How a Wall Stands,” have them discuss (or possibly draw) symbols they associate with their cultural or familial heritage. Ask the following: What do these symbols say about you, the traditions you live, and the people in your culture?
6. Discuss Mesa Verde and the Ancient Puebloans, displaying in a PowerPoint information from the overview about how the stone ruins of the cliff dwellers may be considered “symbols of the past.” Engage students in a dialogue about the images, artifacts, archaeology, and history.
7. Assign “A Story of How a Wall Stands” as an in-class reading, pointing students to page 1188 in their literature textbook. (This can be assigned as an overnight homework reading prior to today’s class.) Discuss initial responses to the poem, and ask students how this might be considered a poem about memory and ancestors. Review prior learning about diction, imagery and structure, leading students to consider how figurative language adds to the poem’s impact. Instruct students to look as they read for connections with the architecture and archaeology of Mesa Verde.
8. Distribute copies of “This Occurs to Me,” “Culture and the Universe,” and “Canyon de Chelly.” In small groups, have students read selected poems by Ortiz and identify figurative language. They will identify the subject of each of these memories of the ancestors poems. Students will read, then write a summary, and report back to their group members.
9. Wrap up by having students discuss or reflect on final reflection questions (see “Reflection and Assessment”).
10. At the end of the first class, give students a copy of a biography of another Pueblo poet, Leslie Marmon Silko and a packet of her poems. In the following class, students will share in a round-table discussion their insights about and interpretations of the selected poems in connection with the prior day’s lesson about Ortiz. Lead students to articulating how their understanding has been enriched by the information about Mesa Verde. They will use this discussion to help them write an essay.
11. Assign the analytical essay in which students look at how Ortiz or Silko explore inherited memories of Pueblo ancestral culture in one of the assigned poems. After a discussion about how Ortiz and Silko employ literary elements to make a statement about heritage, have students write a critical-analysis essay about the poem, adhering to the writing process and using textual evidence.
12. Have a day of sharing. Ask students to set up a cultural heritage display of artifacts that define their community in Southern Appalachia or that they consider to represent their heritage. This might include bluegrass and country music, family quilts, certain foods, images of folkways such as farming. Possibly invite local artisans to exhibit their work and to talk to students about their choices of cultural symbolism in articulating ancestral memory.
Discussion Topics and Questions
1. How did the people of the Mesa Verde region build stone structures?
2. What was the purpose of a cliff dwelling?
3. How is stone a metaphor?
4. What is the connection between building, memory, and storytelling?
5. How does Ortiz show this connection?
6. What material evidence of your culture might archaeologists find a thousand years from now?
7. How would they interpret your culture from that evidence?
8. Where do Pueblo peoples live today?
9. Why should we learn about the history of the Mesa Verde region?
10. Who are your ancestors? What did they leave behind for you?
11. Where can you find the real presence of ancestors in your culture, landscape, or family?
12. What is the importance of elders?
13. What is the importance of memory?
14. What will you leave behind? What would you convey in stone?
15. What trails are you blazing? What paths are you walking that others have done before you?
16. What are you already building and creating in your life?
Reflection and Assessment
Have students respond to the following questions either by writing their responses in a well-developed essay:
1. How is Ortiz vocal about his Acoma heritage, and how does he implicate that this can be traced by to the Ancestral Puebloans who constructed Cliff Palace and the rest of Mesa Verde?
2. What does the dialogue that frames the poem discuss about the history, culture, and tradition of the poet’s Pueblo culture?
3. What words in the poem are associated with the 400-year-old wall?
4. What does the interior speaker (the father, elder, ancestor) reveal to the outside speaker and to the audience (us)?
5. In “A Story of How a Wall Stands,” how is the voice of the ancestor represented by the persona of the father? How does he tell a story to remind his son about carrying on the traditions by contributing to the work of his ancestors? How does the voice of the elder encourage youth to appreciate connection to ancient structures and folkways?
6. What does the poem tell us about how we “construct” our own stories, which—if we take care—also contain the building blocks of ancestral memories?
7. How does the story of the old stone wall hasten back even further in time to Mesa Verde and the ancestors of the Pueblo peoples?
Extensions
Students will work independently on composing an essay that explores the following topic related to the history of the peoples of the Mesa Verde region as it is revealed in the poetry. Students may also come up with their own topics.
Pueblo Indians today: Students will use the internet to research the Acoma or the Laguna Pueblo peoples living in the Southwest today. How does their history in the Mesa Verde region continue to influence their modern cultures and poetic expressions?
Students will view images of Mesa Verde and then, using the key words and concepts from the selected text from the article and the Graphic Organizer 2, spend some time creatively free-writing about the words that come to mind when they view the images of the landscape and the stones.
This writing activity will prepare students for the close reading and analysis of “A Story of How a Wall Stands” and “This Occurs to Me.” These texts are poems about the ancestral memory, written by Simon Ortiz, an acclaimed poet from the Acoma Pueblo. The application of Catherine Cameron’s passage in today’s lesson will aid understanding of this poem and its focus upon the connection between the past and the present within the landscape.
Additional Resources
Crow Canyon Archaeological Center and Website (www.crowcanyon.org)
This website includes videos, photo galleries, online and classroom lessons, information about current archaeological research, information about education programs, and links to additional resources.
Anasazi Heritage Center Museum
Located in Dolores, Colorado (near the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center), this museum offers interactive exhibits and information about the history of the Mesa Verde region.
Mesa Verde National Park
This national park near the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center) has more than 5,000 archaeological sites, which includes 600 cliff dwellings once inhabited by Pueblo people.
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center Website (www.indianpueblo.org)
This website has copious information about Pueblo Indian culture, including a map of pueblos in New Mexico and links to individual pueblo websites.
Time Team America Television Show (PBS)
In 2012, the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center collaborated with Time Team America on a field school. Their website (go to home page, link to “Experience Archaeology”) describes how archaeologists applied the scientific method to answer questions about “The Lost Pueblo Village.” A number of videos and links explore how archaeology is used to learn about Pueblo history
Graphic Organizer 1
Selection from Catherine M. Cameron’s “Leaving Mesa Verde”
“And so the people moved, but they did not forget, nor did they lose contact with their old homes. Today, the descendants of the Mesa Verdeans live in New Mexico and Arizona. Pueblo people have histories that recount their movement through the world to reach their current locations, and many can point to archaeological sites that their people once occupied. Even those sites left behind long ago in the Mesa Verde region remain part of their world, As Rina Swentzwell of Santa Clara Pueblo has written, ‘The place never forgets us. Even more, the structures that we build also have breath. They are alive and participate in their own cycles of life and death and of those who live within them. The memory of “those gone before us” is, then, visually and psychically there to empower our present thoughts and lives.’ The cliff dwellings and ancient settlements of the Mesa Verde region may appear empty and uninhabited, but they have not been abandoned by the Pueblo people. They are an ongoing part of Pueblo lives, and the rest of us owe much to Pueblo people for sharing these wonderful places with us.”
Key Words:
Summary:
In Your Own Words:
Graphic Organizer 2: Analyzing the Photo
Photo # ______
Give the photo a title:
What is the significance of the central figure(s) or object(s)?
What action is taking place in the photo?
What mood or tone is created by the poster and what in the picture is creating that tone or mood?
What message does the photo give to the viewer?
Which key words from Cameron’s “Leaving Mesa Verde” passage would you use to describe the photo? Why? Answer in three or four complete sentences.