The Manitou Cliff Dwellings are a privately owned tourist attraction consisting of
Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings and interpretive exhibits located just west of Colorado Springs, Colorado, on U.S. Highway 24 in Manitou Springs.
The attraction was built using stonework taken from a prehistoric Pueblo site An associated private museum features commercially developed displays about Ancestral Puebloan peoples including exhibits of archaeological artifacts, tools, pottery, and weapons from Indigenous sites and/or replicated by the company that operates the site.
The project was directed primarily by Harold Ashenhurst and Virginia McClurg, founder of the Colorado Cliff Dwelling Association. Virginia McClurg focused her life on advocacy for women and fighting for human welfare and stability, especially within Indigenous cultures. This is why she was inspired to take on this project of preserving historical Indigenous historical art. After failed labors of trying to come up with an agreement for the future of Mesa Verde Park and how it would have been organized as well as trying to get Congress to pass the Antiquities Act, McClurg established the Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association, which led to the beginning of the dwellings endeavor.
Controversy
McClurg's creation of Manitou was highly controversial even at the time of its opening, in part because it was being promoted as authentic, and since they were built as a form of entertainment to promote tourism. Edgar Lee Hewett, a famous early Southwest anthropologist, is widely cited at Manitou and in the attraction's materials as having approved of its construction, but in reality, Hewett was reluctant to legitimize the site and had little regard for the reconstructions.
Kanien'kehá:ka and Monica Snowbird, visitors to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings Museum who are a part of the Pikes Peak Indigenous Women's Alliance, were left with many negative emotions after visiting the site because they believed it did nothing but add towards the already negative common stereotypes of Indigenous people, calling out offensive terms used within the museum tour.
See also
- Cave of the Winds (Colorado)
- Garden of the Gods
- Seven Falls