Navajo National Monument is a national monument located within the northwest portion of the Navajo Nation territory in northern Arizona, which was established to preserve three well-preserved cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloan people: Keet Seel (Broken Pottery) (), Betatakin (Ledge House) (), and Inscription House (). The monument is high on the Shonto plateau, overlooking the Tsegi Canyon system, west of Kayenta, Arizona. It features a visitor center with a museum, three short self-guided trails, two small primitive campgrounds that are free to the public, and a picnic area.

The Sandal Trail is an accessible self-guided roundtrip trail that ends at an overlook of the Betatakin ruins across the deep Betatakin Canyon. The overlook is the only point in the monument where visitors can view the cliff dwelling other than on the guided tours. Rangers guide visitors on free (3-5 hour long) tours of the Betatakin cliff dwellings and on roundtrip back-country hikes to the Keet Seel. The Inscription House site, further west, has been closed to public access for many years.

The National Monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.

thumb|left|300px|Betatakin in huge alcove, from overlook

Keet Seel

thumb|Map of Navajo National Monument

Keet Seel or Kiet Siel (), which stands for "broken pottery scattered around" in Navajo, is a well preserved cliff dwelling of the ancient Ancestral Pueblo people located in a branch of the Tsegi Canyon in the Kayenta region. The site was first occupied at around 1250, during a time in which a large number of people were believed to be aggregating in sites such as this in this part of the American Southwest. There was a construction boom at Keet Seel between 1272 and 1275, with construction then slowly tapering off and halting completely at 1286. Once construction halted in 1286, there was no evidence of structures being built until its subsequent abandonment some 20 years later. It is believed that, at its peak, up to 150 people inhabited this site at one time. Due to the extremely dry climate and natural overhanging cliff the site's dwellings and artifacts are well preserved. Keet Seel is considered by many archaeological experts to be one of the best preserved larger ruins in the American Southwest.

Betatakin

Betatakin means "House Built on a Ledge" in Navajo. In Hopi, the name of the place is Talastima, or "Place of the Corn Tassel". Betatakin is smaller than nearby Keet Seel, with about 120 rooms at the time of abandonment. However, like Keet Seel, Betatakin was constructed of sandstone, mud mortar, and wood. Today only about 80 rooms remain, due to rock falls inside the alcove. Betatakin only has one kiva,

The first excavations occurred in 1909 under Byron Cummings of the University of Utah, and continued into the 1950s and 1960s under archaeologists such as Jeffery Dean.

The Wetherill Brothers made a living from giving guided tours of sites in and around the Tsegi Canyon and Utah. Later in their careers, the Wetherill brothers were largely involved in efforts for the preservation and protection of the sites that made up Navajo National Monument. The artifacts which the Wetherills had removed from the Ancestral Pueblo sites were sold or shipped to far-flung locations so that today little is known of the artifacts' whereabouts.

Subsistence

thumb|Approach ladders, Keet Seel ruins, 2012

The Ancestral Pueblo people of this area were a sedentary group that largely based their subsistence on agriculture. Their primary crop at the sites within Navajo National Monument was maize, with beans and cucurbits also being incorporated into their diet. While the people of the Tsegi Canyon system relied heavily on agriculture for their food, they also hunted wild game that was indigenous to the area.

It is thought that these Ancestral Pueblo people lived in these cave dwellings to optimize the amount of sustainable land to produce crops. By living in these caves, and not on the mesas or the canyon floors, they were able to use this land towards agricultural production to ensure their success in this high elevation, desert environment. The ruins that make up Navajo National Monument were a large number of rooms used for storage, suggesting that at some point their crop production was successful enough to dedicate a significant amount of their living area towards storage purposes.

Dwellings/Architecture

thumb|Cliff Dwelling of Keet Seel, Navajo Reservation, Kayenta, Navajo County, AZ (1933)

The structures contained within this cave site were constructed mainly of sandstone blocks plastered together with mud and mortar. In marked contrast to earlier constructions and villages on top of the mesas, the cliff dwelling of Navajo National Monument reflected a region-wide trend towards the aggregation of growing regional populations into close, highly defensible quarters during the mid to late 13th century.

While much of the construction in this site remains similar to common ancestral Pueblo architectural forms, including such features as Kivas, a circular tower (at Keet Seel), and pit-houses, the limited space that this site presented created a much more densely populated living area. At its peak, Keet Seel had more than 150 rooms and 6 kivas, while Betatakin had about 120 rooms and only one kiva. In particular, the Snake Clan inhabited the Navajo National Monument ruins, along with the Horn Clan. The Horn Clan forced the Snake Clan out, due to the children of the Snake Clan biting other children and causing death.

In 1912, he reduced the monument to three specific tracts of land: a tract surrounding Betata Kin, a tract surrounding Keet Seel, and a tract surrounding Inscription House.

Climate

Navajo National Monument has a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen: BSk) with cold winters and hot summers.

See also

  • List of national monuments of the United States
  • Canyon de Chelly National Monument
  • Mesa Verde National Park
  • Oasisamerica cultures

References

  1. Doyel, David E. & Dean, Jeffrey S. "Environmental Change and Human Adaptation in the Ancient American Southwest". The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City. 1996
  2. Ferguson W.M. & Rohn A.H. "Anasazi Ruins of the Southwest in Color". The University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. 1999
  3. Noble, David Grant. "Houses Beneath the Rock: The Anasazi of Canyon de Chelly and Navajo National Monument". Ancient City Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico. 1986
  4. Plog, Stephen. "Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest". Thames & Hudson Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10110. 1997
  5. Rothman, Hal. "Navajo National Monument: A Place and Its People". Southwest Cultural Resources Center. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Professional Papers No. 40, 1991
  • NPS: official Navajo National Monument website
  • NPS: History + culture of Navajo National Monument
  • Inscription House Ruin, Nitsie Canyon Arizona, includes a color photo of the ruins.
  • Betatakin Photo Gallery
  • American Southwest, a National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary
  • Vintage Photos of Betatakin from 1935 by Ned Scott