ipernity: Native American

12-montezuma's_castle-r_adj

30 May 1962

85

11-montezuma's_castle-r_adj

30 May 1962

2

1

120

6-12-fampic72_ig

01 Aug 1966

98

6-10-fampic70_ig

01 Aug 1966

90

6-09-fampic69_ig

01 Aug 1966

1

96

6-08-fampic68_ig

01 Aug 1966

100

6-11-fampic71_ig

01 Aug 1966

102

6-07-fampic67_ig_adj

01 Aug 1966

101

6-13-fampic73_ig_adj

01 Aug 1966

1

96

12-@ruin_ig

01 Mar 1974

74

11-@ruin_ig_adj

01 Mar 1974

83

White House

01 Oct 1975

1

170

Anasazi ruin in Canyon de Chelly, on the Navajo Reservation.

White House

01 Oct 1975

2

236

No, not _that_ White House! This is a Paleo-pueblo ruin in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, in the eponymous national monument in the middle of the Navajo Reservation. It's built in an alcove under an overhanging cliff of de Chelly sandstone. According to tree-ring and C-14 data, construction began in the 1070s CE and the site was abandoned around 1300 CE (http://shouldbedigging.com/white-house-ruin-canyon-de-chelly/). The reasons for abandonment are unclear, but it's widely thought to be protracted drought as many Paleo-pueblo ruins were abandoned around this time. The Navajo are themselves latecomers to the area, one of several Athabascan groups arriving out of the north after the ruins were abandoned. The Paleo-pueblo peoples were traditionally called the Anasazi, from a Navajo phrase for "old ones," but that term is now out of favor because there's no love lost between the modern Pueblo tribes, thought to be the descendants of the Paleo-pueblos, and the Navajo. Btw, "de Chelly" is pronounced "de shay." It's an Anglo mispronunciation of a Spanish attempt to transliterate "tséyí", "canyon" in Navajo.