Today we moved toward Mesa Verde National Park and spent a large portion of the day learning about ancient Native American cultures. The first major destination was The Mesa Verde National Park created in 1906 to preserve the works of man whereas all the other parks were made to preserve the natural beauty. A long time ago the Native Americans made these cliff dwellings. During the winter they were facing the sun therefore it was warmer in the cliff dwellings. In the summer, it would have been cooler in the cliff dwellings.

They also got more rain and so maybe they came up here so they could grow more food. Also, the individuals living  were protein deficient here. People wandered why they didnt move down to the valley to catch fish. There was a story that indicated they didnt eat fish because two people were washed away in their tribe so they no longer ate fish because they were spirits. Truly there is no right answer regarding the reason as to why they lived in the cliffs specifically.  The theories above are all speculation.

During our time in the park, we hiked two trails. The first was known as the Petroglyph and Spruce Canyon path. The Petroglyph trail was phenomenal. You had to hike through small crevices, through caves,  underneath and beside rocks and over bridges. We wish that we could have gone further but unfortunately we had a time constraint while on the path.

We also drove towards the Sun Temple and stopped there. This may have been used for worshipping purposes. It was constructed in a circular formation.

The Navajo reservation stretches 17 million miles. The Spanish came out here for gold, for glory and for God. However, they had some clashes due to this idea of owning land and livestock. To the Native Americans, you didn't really own anything because it belonged to mother earth. Therefore, stealing horses was not a big deal but for the Spaniards and thus was considered stealing.

In 1864, they were forcibly moved to go on "The long walk." A treaty was signed in 1868 and they were given some of their land back. They went to form their own government. They fall under federal law if there is a crime but they are essentially their own government. They have a government known as the Navajo Council and there are three branches of government such as ours. Due to the fact they don't believe in gambling, they are very poor. They have not taken any government handouts. However, they are proud of this fact. The medium income is around 20,000. 42 percent live under the poverty line. Truly they have only been living in our economy for 60 years. It could take a couple hundred more years before they actually catch up. The major sources of income are mining (the largest portion) and tourism. The Navajo are quite proud of their language and it is still spoken on the reservation.

An interesting piece of information we learned about the history of the American Indians was the Navajo code-talkers. These 29 men were the first to enlist in the United States Marines. They felt their people were under attack just as much as anyone else. When they enlisted in the war they decided to make a code out of the Native American language. This code was never broken because the Japanese had never heard of their language. In fact, many people believe that without this language,  we would have never won the war.

Phillip Johnston was the individual who gave the recommendation from Los Angelos to use the Navajo Language during the war. This was an ironic story because 75 years prior the government was stealing children off the reservation to force them into assimilation.  They were not allowed to speak their language or follow their customs. Interestingly, now all of a sudden the government wanted them to use their language. It was a fascinating day full of completely new information.