This is a highlight of our trip last year, June 22, 2008
A step back in time was on the agenda for this day. In fact a 10,000 year step back. Bandelier National Monument is the most powerful place we have been to yet. After leaving Espanola and driving through some of the most beautiful and rugged country, steep cliffs that plummeted 500-1000 feet (this is my year to face my fears), we drove down those cliffs and arrived in Frijoles Canyon. We stepped onto holy ground, the ground of the Ancestral Pueblo People, where they lived, played and prayed. Hunted and gathered the roots and berries and planted their corn and squash.
There were the Tyuonyi (chew-OHN-yee) who lived in a kiva. A stone built circular commune, in fact the stones were made from the volcanic ash when the volcano, Jemez (HAY-mess) blew its top over a million years ago. The center of the kiva was where games were played, women ground their corn and made their flatbread, men sat around the fire and bragged of their hunting and fishing skills. I swear I could feel and see and hear all of this happening! A kiva is usually two stories high with 400 rooms and houses 100 people. There are usually three kivas surrounding the “plaza” with one common entrance to it. There are ruins of a kiva still in its’ very large circular form and the rooms are still outlined. These people appear to have been extremely small.
Then there were the Tewa (TAY-wah), who lived in the cliff dwellings on the northside of the canyon. The Kere (CARE-ace) lived on the southside of the canyon on the mesa. The museum has the most amazing collection of pottery, made by the women, as well as weavings, also made by the women, dating back to 1250 A.D. The men fashioned flints, arrowheads and axe heads also in the museum.
The canyon and mesa was formed when the volcano, Jemez erupted over a million years ago. It is located 14 miles to the north and was violent enough to cover about 400 square miles with volcanic ash up to 1000 feet deep. This is what the Ancestral Pueblo People used to build their kivas with. Also, a by-product from the volcano was the obsidian used for knives and arrowheads and basalt to fashion their axes.
Squash and corn began as Indian food, but it plays a major role in New Mexico cuisine. Calabacitas is one of my favorite recipes that I learned to love while traveling in that region and I now make this frequently. I have to thank Huntley Dent who authored “The Feast of Santa Fe” cookbook for this awesome dish.
