Indians of the Mesa Verde

by Don Watson

During the late fall and early winter the ceremonial season is in full swing and there is much festivity in Cliff Palace. It is a time for visiting and feasting and there is a trace of the carnival spirit in the air. The ceremonies are not entirely solemn, long-faced affairs; some have light, entertaining parts and there may even be clowns who convulse the onlookers with their antics. The underlying motive of a ceremony is serious and earnest but this does not prevent its being thoroughly enjoyable to the participants as well as the audience.

Visitors are drawn to the ceremonies from far and wide. Their strongest desire may be to see an important ceremony but even more often the strongest motive is the desire to join in the festivities that accompany it. There is always a gay crowd, much talking and visiting and an abundance of good food. When the Crier Chief announces the date for a ceremony, the news spreads rapidly and the men of other villages come flocking in. It is a grand excuse for a visit to the big city to feast, gossip, trade, and incidentally, to witness a ceremony.

Although the women play only a small part in the religious work, they are always busy during the ceremonies for they must feed the participants and the visitors. The ceremony may last for as many as nine days and large quantities of food must be prepared. The women and girls are busy over the cooking fires day after day.

The basic food article is corn in some form; it is the backbone of every meal. Corn is by far the most abundant foodstuff and through the generations the women have devised many ways of cooking it to prevent its becoming monotonous. The corn is ground by the younger women on the metates, smooth flat stones that are slanted into small bins. Under the lower end of each metate is a clean adobe basin that gathers the meal. The woman kneels at the upper end of the metate, places the corn on it, and grinds it with a smaller, flat stone, the mano, which she holds in her hands. Sliding the mano back and forth across the metate she grinds the corn until a fine meal results. This is slow back-breaking work but the women are forced to do it day after day. When a great deal of meal must be produced for a ceremonial feast, several of the women grind together. Often the young men sing for the grinders and a fast snappy tune not only cheers the women but causes the grinding stones to move much faster.

After the corn meal is prepared it can be cooked in a number of ways. The simple batter may be baked in small cakes on a hot stone. Juniper ashes may be added to make the cakes blue. The dough may be rolled in corn husks and baked in the ashes or large cakes may be baked in hot pits. If fine and coarse corn meal are mixed, rolled into little balls and boiled in a pot of stew, tasty dumplings result.

A real delicacy results when the corn bread is sweetened with saliva. In making this sweet bread a portion of the corn meal is chewed by the women until the saliva changes the starch to sugar. When this chewed meal is mixed with the rest of the meal and baked in corn husks, a sweet bread results. If the chewed batter is rolled up in fresh corn leaves and boiled, the resulting dumpling-like balls are the sweetest food known to the people. The chewed foods are real delicacies and are made especially for honored guests.

In addition to the corn dishes, there is a great variety of other foods. Meat of all kinds is roasted, boiled or stewed. Broths, soups and stews are common. Boiled beans and baked squash are always part of a feast and any of these articles may be cooked in combination. In addition there are wild plant dishes; boiled greens, boiled or baked roots, stewed fruits, roasted seeds or ground pinon nuts.

Fall is the time when there is the greatest abundance and variety of foods and the feasts that accompany the ceremonies are sumptuous affairs. The finest dishes are passed down into the kivas to the priests. Guests eat in the open courts around the cooking fires and drowsily belch their gratitude for the food and hospitality.

In the evening the people gather around the many small fires that send dancing shadows across the roof of the great cave. From some of the kivas comes the chanting of the priests; from others come the more uncertain voices of the boys as they learn the endless songs. Some of the groups around the fires are also singing but most of them are quietly talking, gambling and sleeping.

The canyon is lighted by the bright rays of a golden harvest moon and the cliffs echo the voices of the singers, not only from Cliff Palace but from all the other cliff dwellings up and down the canyons. The great green mesa is filled with happy, thankful people and troubles seem far away. The gods are pleased with the efforts of the industrious Indians.