Indians of the Mesa Verde

by Don Watson

Autumn has brought the rewards for their prayers and labors. There is no uncertainty about it. Nature has smiled, the fields have prospered and nothing can rob them of a bountiful harvest. The cooling weather is turning the fields yellow and a period of strenuous activity will soon begin. Every grain of corn, every bean, every squash must be carried down to the cave and stored safely away.

The fields are never left unattended. Ravens, crows and jays try to get at the corn in the daytime and deer get into the fields at night unless they are guarded. All through the night bright fires burn in the fields as the men and boys take turns protecting the crops. As they walk about the fields they gloat over the success of their farming efforts. The corn is higher than their heads and heavy ears bend toward the ground. The bean vines are full of fat pods and the fields are dotted with great yellowing squashes. It will be a wonderful harvest; the fields are full of song and laughter as the proud farmers rejoice over their success.

Even before the main harvest starts, the products begin to trickle down to the cave. There is an abundance of help for even the children and women join in. Each plant is given individual attention and when an ear of corn, a bean pod or a squash ripens too soon, it is picked and carried home.

As the first light frosts of October begin to bring color to the mesas the harvest is on. Everyone helps and from dawn until dusk the trails are full of happy carriers as the fields pour their products into Cliff Palace. Many of the fields are far off across the mesa tops and in a day’s time each person can make only a few trips.

A single, fat slippery squash is all that can be carried at one time and it takes only a few large ears of corn to fill a basket. Dozens of trips are required in harvesting even a small field. Early in the morning the carriers trot down the trails but as the day wears on the pace becomes slower.

Some of the corn is husked in the fields and only the ears are carried home but much of it is snapped off the stalks and taken home to be husked later. Sometimes the stalks are cut and the entire plant is carried down to the cave for the stalks, leaves, tassels and shucks are used in many ways. Beans usually are threshed in the fields. The dry pods are piled on a plot of hard, smooth ground and the women beat them with long sticks until the beans are freed. Then the whole mass of beaten pods is poured from baskets held high above their heads and the breeze blows the chaff away, leaving only the clean beans. Sometimes the beans are picked and carried down to the cave for threshing but that is more difficult for in the cave there is no breeze to blow away the chaff.

As the harvest progresses, Cliff Palace becomes a parade of color. Everything must be spread out on the roofs and in the courts to dry and soon the people can scarcely move about. The corn is brilliantly tinted; red, black, blue, yellow, white and speckled, and the city becomes a flaming riot of colors. Corn is everywhere. It is piled high on the roof tops, it is spread out in every court and long strings of brilliant ears hang from the ends of roof poles. Piles of rich brown beans and waxy yellow and green squashes add to the color and the confusion. The terraced houses of Cliff Palace are now solid banks of color and still the harvest continues.

Like busy brown ants the women and girls move about the throbbing city. From morning until night they are busy shucking corn, threshing beans, braiding strings of corn, turning the corn and beans each day so they dry properly, and finally storing them away in the bins. The storage of supplies is always a responsibility of the women. While the things were growing in the fields they belonged to the men but now that they have been harvested and brought down to the city, they have become the women’s property. The women of each household, which is a group of families, store their foodstuffs in common and apportion them out to the various families as they are needed.

Some of the corn is shelled and stored in baskets but most of it is stored on the cob. The different colors are sorted out and the bright ears are stacked like cordwood. The beans must be stored in baskets and jars but the squashes can be piled anywhere. Many of the squashes are peeled and cut into long strips. After the strips have dried they are rolled up in bundles and stored away. In the winter, soaking will restore the flavor of the fresh squash.

High up in the back of the cave is a long, narrow crevice containing a dozen large storage rooms and throughout the town there are many more. They have been chinked carefully against rats and mice and each one is lined with dry corn leaves and tassels to protect the grain from dampness. One after another these rooms are filled and the doors are sealed.