Fun Santa Clara History Fact

The ancestral Pueblo people residing in the Mesa Verde region and surrounding areas became agricultural societies, likely during the Basketmaker II period (about 500 BC to AD 500) as domesticated corn found its way north from what is now Arizona.  Farming became the main source of food, but Pueblo cultures see farming and their crops as much more.  Historical and contemporary accounts from Pueblo people regard farming and the crops, especially corn, as the essence of their culture, structure for their families, and infiltrating every part of their lives.  A member of the Hopi tribe, Donald Dawahongnewa, once told a group of students at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center , “When we look at our crops… we don’t look at them as numbers, we look at them as our children.  That’s how we look at our plants; we treat them like that.  And so when you go to your field you sing a song and your children will hear you singing, they will say, ‘Our daddy is coming here.’