Navajo National Monument, Arizona (1951)

Cover: Betatakin Ruin
United States Department of the Interior, Oscar L. Chapman, Secretary National Park Service, Arthur E. Demaray, Director
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR March 3, 1849
Perched high in their matchless settings, the three great cliff dwellings of Navajo National Monument are the most striking remains of ancient occupancy of the canyon country of northeastern Arizona.
From about A. D. 300 until about A. D. 1300 there lived in the San Juan River drainage near the “Four Corners” of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona, Indians we now call the Anasazi (a Navajo word which means “The Ancient Ones”). Before A. D. 300 the Anasazi probably existed as small bands who wandered over the colorful plateau country hunting and trapping and gathering nuts and seeds; it is possible that they also did a little haphazard farming.
About A. D. 300 farming became more important in their economy. With a better and more dependable food supply population increased, people began to be more sedentary, crafts improved, and more permanent homes were built. By A. D. 1100 large villages of several hundred people each had been developed, as well as many smaller communities.
As time passed, three cultural centers—really prehistoric tribes—had differentiated from each other: the Chaco Canyon group, in northwestern New Mexico; the Mesa Verde, in southwestern Colorado; and the Kayenta, in northeastern Arizona.
The three cliff dwellings of Navajo National Monument represent this third group. In these villages the culture of the Kayenta Anasazi reached its peak and then deteriorated swiftly. A combination of circumstances, chief of which probably were soil erosion caused by poor agricultural practices and disease brought about by lack of sanitation, resulted in a rapid loss of population. The remaining Anasazi abandoned the Kayenta region shortly after A. D. 1300.
Betatakin, meaning “Hillside House,” is the most accessible ruin in the monument. It is a well-preserved “apartment house,” 700 years old. As determined by the tree-ring dating method, this ruin was occupied between the years A. D. 1242 and approximately A. D. 1300.