No one knows exactly when the first people arrived in the Canyon de Chelly area. But a tree-ring date of A.D. 306 from the West Alcove at Mummy Cave and the accumulation of sweepings and ashes at this site suggest that people were living in Canyon del Muerto at about the beginning of the Christian era.
These early people were primarily farmers rather than nomadic hunters, although they still depended to some extent on game animals for food. They established their homes in the shelter of the many caves and alcoves in the canyon walls, and farmed the mesa tops and canyon bottoms. Dogs were their only domestic animal, and corn was their major crop and main source of food. Squashes (pumpkins) were grown in some quantity, and beans were introduced at an early time. Pinyon nuts and acorns, sunflower seeds, yucca and cactus fruit, and small seeds of other wild plants were gathered for food.
This burial at Sliding Rock Ruin shows pottery, baskets, corn, and the remains of a blanket used in the day-to-day life of the Anasazi.
Ring-baskets of split yucca leaves have been in common use from about A.D. 1100 to the present.
This coiled basket was used for carrying burdens.
Indian women fastened rabbit fur to lengths of twine by twisting them to form a rope of fur such as this one. A number of these would then be entwined to form a blanket or a robe.