U.S. National Parks: America's History (Part 1)

Abo Ruins in New Mexico

Before the expansion west, the land to become known as the United States of America was home to many native people . . . tribal villages and pueblos were scattered throughout the American West and South West.  Fortunately for us today, many of them remain to help tell the stories of the indigenous people predating the white man's discovery and westward movement of the 18th & 19th centuries.  I believe the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) has done a good job of bringing to light much of the "dark history" of how the United States came to be at the expense of America's first native inhabitants.

During my journey across America, I was able to visit what are the remains of several native people's culture, particularly in New Mexico, Utah and Colorado.  My photos don't do justice to all there is to learn and experience, and yet, it is my hope they may inspire others to explore this region and its history.

Museum @ Canyon of the Ancients (CO)

On one of my days moving to my friend Debbie's in west-central New Mexico, I stumbled upon the Canyon of the Ancients National Monument.  Not an "official" NPS site, but rather part of the vast Bureau of Land Management (BLM) holdings administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior (the same government agency responsible for the NPS).  While this region holds the history of over 12,000 years of human existence, my limited time passing through only allowed for a short (90 minute) visit to the museum.  The exhibits and short film are excellently done and definitely worth a stop if passing through the area.

Ironically Hovenweep National Monument, where I had camped the night before just over the Utah border, is part of the vast 176,000 acres with more than 8,300 documented archaeological sites.  Earlier that morning I did a short walk from the visitor center to the overlook but those images pale in comparison to some of the others I would see later in my travels that day, including these three . . . Aztec Ruins (NM), Mesa Verde (CO) and Pecos (UT).

Later in our history, when the westward push across the land infringed upon the tribes already living in the region, the post Civil War Army was utilized to manage and control how the land would be taken over for settlement largely thanks to the Homestead Act of 1862.  Several treaties with the Indians were broken, time and again.  Atrocities to villages, often inhabited by women, children and the elderly was sadly how our country was expanded and settled.  During my trip, I visited the location of two particularly heinous actions against the Native Americans . . . Washita Battlefield National Historic Site in Oklahoma and Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site in Colorado.  Both left me saddened for the loss of innocent lives at those locations.  The story of Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle spans both of these sites.  He was a man of peace, attempting to maintain co-existence with the U.S. Government.  While he (and his family) survived the attack at Sand Creek in 1864, he was slaughtered four years later when his small village was ambushed by the Army and the men of Col. George A Custer's 7th Cavalry at Washita.

Washita Battlefield NHS (OK)

Sand Creek Massacre NHS (CO)