Living the Hoop Dream
NORTHERN NEW MEXICO HAS never looked more beautiful. Storm clouds enhance the deep, rolling shadows of its iconic mountain landscape. It is late spring, but as I watch a group of kids perform a hoop…
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Category: Native American Culture
Why We Love NM: We Are Made of Stories, Prayers, and Songs
COOL BREEZES DRIFTED INTO THE BEDROOM this morning, where the drapes swayed slightly—a hint of impending rain hung in the air. The scents of lilac blooms and cedar and juniper trees drifted inside…
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Why We Love NM: Here, Native People Tell Their Own Stories
N EW MEXICO’S INDIGENOUS-LED INSTITUTIONS, such as the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, in Santa Fe, extend their expertise nationally, forging lasting partnerships with major museums from coast to…
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Why We Love NM: Our Turquoise Shimmers with Meaning
P ORTER SWENTZELL, TRIBAL SECRETARY FOR SANTA CLARA PUEBLO and executive director of Kha’p’o Community School, admits that he isn’t an expert in turquoise. Some of Swentzell’s earliest memories are of…
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Wrapped Up in Native Culture
WITH EVERY STITCH AND EVERY PATTERN, Jennifer Berg (Diné) weaves a little piece of Navajo culture into her work. “I want to tell the stories of my people,” she says. “I make wearable artwork that is a…
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Family Gathering
THE FIRST THING YOU FEEL is the ground tremble with the rhythmic thumping of the drums. It is the symbolic heartbeat of the earth, echoing the hearts beating in our own chests. The drums are at the…
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A Brief Timeline of Native History
850: First great houses built at Pueblo Bonito and Una Vida in Chaco Canyon. 1050: Chaco culture reaches its height. 1068–1072: First Chacoan structures built at what is now called Salmon Ruins. 1105:…
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Ancient Enigmas
IN THE 17TH CENTURY, the Four Corners region turned cruel. Chaco’s Ancestral Puebloan people had fled three centuries earlier, their elaborate social structure abandoned as the culture’s various…
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Cultural Vocabulary Lesson
Navajo people use the name Diné to describe themselves. The Bureau of Land Management area with Navajo defensive sites is called the Dinétah by archaeologists. In the Diné language, Dinétah refers…
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Explore Archaeology
THE CHACOAN PAST enthralls visitors to Chaco Culture National Historical Park, southwest of Nageezi; Aztec Ruins National Monument, in Aztec; and Salmon Ruins Museum, in Bloomfield, which also tells…
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