It was over three thousand years ago when you arrived. 

One of the four original American Southwest tribes to settle the Colorado Plateau, your Anasazi culture slowly developed; from seasonal migration to cultivating crops, from basket-weaving to pottery-making, from building pit-houses to constructing massive settlements in the cliffs. 

The landscape was harsh, but between 900 and 1130CE good harvests let your people flourish, increasing your numbers ten-fold. Your culture became more and more sophisticated; you built elaborate, five-storey palaces aligned with the stars. 

Your ambitious plans consumed more and more resources. When the local area was de- forested you had timber carried in by hand from mountains many miles away. And still your society grew, ruled by an elite who loved turquoise and ate well even when the rains didn’t come, even when the water table fell and the crops began to fail. 

Eventually you lost faith. Legend says you felt your ancestors must have abused their power, causing changes never meant to occur. You suffered with the land. Your people fought each other, sometimes eating their enemies. 

You decided to abandon everything you had created and move to better lands. You left quietly, heading south, merging into the new cultures, leaving behind the memory of a failed way of life. 

Ancestral Pueblo Culture

Alex Harvie