Pulling Down the Sun

This book chronicles some of the living pueblos in New Mexico and Arizona with emphasis on Zuni, Taos and Hopi and visits the greatest of the massive ruins of their predecessors at Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde. This book explores the ancient cultures of this region and their relationship to the living pueblos. Most people are woefully ignorant about the indigenous people who occupied this land before the European invasions. Most are equally ignorant about their descendants who are with us today. These journals offer a glimpse into the indigenous past that, for uncounted millennia, was our heritage. While all of us share an indigenous tribal heritage, for most it is lost in the haze of prehistory. However, there are avenues, ports of entry, to learn about our tribal heritage. It is possible to visit the indigenous people who have managed, by various quirks of fate and sheer determination, to bring their culture and traditions into the twenty-first century. There are presently twenty living pueblos located in the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona. Of the twenty, Taos, Hopi and Zuni are outstanding examples of those who have retained their traditions in special ways. Taos and Hopi still have multistory adobe buildings that preserve the ancient architecture as a remnant, a revenant, of prehistoric times. Another avenue into this heritage is to visit the monuments of the past and see the great ruins of the cultures that preceded ours, especially those at Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde. There are countless ruins left by the ancestors of the pueblo peoples. They are scattered throughout the deserts and canyons, they stand as incredible reminders of the civilizations of the past. The buildings and the roadways they created are architectural and engineering marvels. This book details the traditional cultures and their ceremonies and shows the evolution from the ancient times up to the modern day.