The Anasazi

The people who lived in Mesa Verde are sometimes referred to as the "Anasazi," a Navajo Indian word meaning "ancient ones" or "ancient foreigners." In recognition that the people who once lived here are not only the ancestors of some of the Navajo, but also ancestral to most tribes living in the southwest, we now refer to the ancient people of Mesa Verde as the Ancestral Puebloan people. There are 24 tribes that affirm an ancestral affiliation with Mesa Verde National Park. Tribes affiliated with the park include all of the pueblos of New Mexico, the Hopi tribe in Arizona, as well as the Ute and Navajo peoples.

The Ancestral Puebloan people moved up onto the mesa somewhere around AD 500. Although they used the cliff alcoves consistently throughout the time they were in the area, they did not build the cliff dwellings as such until around AD 1200. The dwellings represent a massive construction project, yet the people lived in them only about 75 to 100 years. By AD 1300 they had migrated on to other areas to the south. As you walk through Cliff Palace, keep in mind that this structure continues to hold many secrets which archeologists will never be able to unravel. Although we have many theories about why they left their homes, we really don't know the exact reason why they moved.

This tower like structure behind the kiva to the south is one of the tallest sections of Cliff Palace. It would have appeared more as an apartment house complex to the modern eye in the 1200s with other walls surrounding the ones you now see. It is thought that this "tower" was designated for special use.

Corn was a staple in the diet of the Ancestral Puebloan people of the Mesa Verde region.