All language subtitles for PBS.Native.America..Part.1.From.Caves.to.Cosmos.1080p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

♪

NARRATOR:
It is another world

thriving with a hundred million
people,

connected by elaborate roads,
bridges,

and social networks

spanning continents...

(puffs)

with some of the world's
largest cities

aligned to the heavens.

♪

It is the birthplace

of some of the greatest
civilizations on earth.

(conch horn trumpets)

This is the Americas,
more than 500 years ago.

Native Americans create
America's first democracy

that later inspires the
United States Constitution...

(man chanting)

...shape Mississippi swampland

into the largest pyramids
on the planet.

Carve Andean mountain slopes

into fields that feed millions.

They domesticate plants that
provide 60% of the food consumed

in the world today.

Native Americans
invent a way of life

intimately connected to earth,
sky, water,

and all living things.

JIM ENOTE:
Being in the Grand Canyon
to me is

like a womb.

CHRISTOPHER DAVIS:
What this art represents

is very sophisticated thinking.

♪

LEIGH KUWANWISIWMA:
These ancient people were keen
observers of everything.

♪

NARRATOR:
At the intersection of modern
scholarship and Native knowledge

is a new vision of America,

and the people who built it.

♪

This is "Native America."

♪

NARRATOR:
In a remote canyon
in New Mexico,

more than a thousand years ago,
Native Americans build

one of the largest cities
in North America, Chaco.

♪

Today, all that remains
are crumbling stone structures,

long abandoned
and largely forgotten.

♪

But some Native Americans

maintain a strong connection
to Chaco.

KUWANWISIWMA:
We make pilgrimages to Chaco

because it's a way of connecting
back to our ancestral places.

NARRATOR:
Leigh Kuwanwisiwma
is a Hopi keeper of knowledge.

(speaking Hopi)

The Hopi are one
of the Pueblo communities,

the most ancient peoples
living in the Southwest.

Leigh is taking tribal members

to a sacred cave shrine
above the ruins of Chaco.

It's a once-in-a-lifetime
pilgrimage

for many of these elders.

(Leigh speaking Hopi)

The Hopi have never shared
this private ceremony

outside their community.

They offer cornmeal
and eagle feathers in gratitude.

KUWANWISIWMA:
Today is a very important day
for all of us to be here

among our own ancestral people.

RONALD WADSWORTH:
Chaco is a very significant
place.

A lot of people

with high spiritual power
and knowledge settled there.

It was a place where a lot
of great teachings happened.

NARRATOR:
Through the eyes of the Hopi
and other Native peoples,

this city is still alive.

♪

These ruins are ancient
skyscrapers,

filled with hundreds of rooms...

♪

Their walls carefully aligned
to the sun and stars.

(birds chirping)

They transform
the surrounding desert

into gardens and fields of corn.

(thunder rumbles)

The Hopi believe Chaco was a
place where thousands of people

came to learn about
earth's natural forces.

They share secret knowledge,
prayers and practices

about how to influence
the elements--

wind, clouds, and rain.

Here, a thousand years ago,

in the desert
of the American Southwest

was a thriving center of science
and spirituality.

♪

Chaco was a place
where clans came together

to share their knowledge,

to share the wisdom of being
caretakers of the earth.

♪

NARRATOR:
Now, an archaeological discovery
is showing the extent

of Chaco's influence,

and just how far people
would travel to come here.

Archaeologist Patti Crown
led the investigation.

PATRICIA CROWN:
This is room 28, a small room,
but one that has been critical

in our understanding of Chaco.

NARRATOR:
First excavated in 1896,

Room 28 contained
dozens of cylindrical pots.

CROWN:
They really seemed to be
drinking vessels,

I just wasn't sure

what they might have been
drinking in them.

NARRATOR:
Patti took a closer look
using forensic technology,

and what she found
was a complete surprise...

Chocolate.

Chocolate comes from
the cacao bean,

and cacao only grows on trees in
the tropics of Central America,

more than 500 miles away.

Here, chocolate was considered
food for the gods,

used in ceremonies where
it was poured between vessels,

shaped like those
found in Chaco.

CROWN:
The cylinder jars
are actually created in sets,

and so one might be
placed on the ground

and the other used
to pour from a height,

creating this cascading
waterfall of chocolate

with bubbles at the bottom.

(chocolate splashing)

NARRATOR:
Chocolate and its sacred
drinking ritual

must have travelled
from Central America to Chaco.

And chocolate is just one
of many sacred objects

discovered here.

Carved shells from the Pacific
Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.

Precious metals and minerals,

like turquoise
from far-off mountains.

Colorful tropical birds
from Central American jungles

over a thousand miles away.

(birds calling)

All objects
of ritual significance

brought from great distances.

CROWN:
It made Chaco

part of this very, very deep
and distant belief system.

♪

NARRATOR:
Remains of an ancient city.

Hopi traditions about a center
of great knowledge.

Sacred artifacts connecting
Chaco to distant cultures.

♪

A new picture is emerging
of this remote ruin.

♪

In a world of cities teeming
with people,

immersed in the science and
spirituality of earth and sky...

Chaco is a metropolis
of ideas and beliefs

that span two continents.

(puffs)

♪

Where did these ideas come from?

(waves lapping)

The story begins far from Chaco.

Archaeologists Anna Roosevelt
and Chris Davis

are searching
for the earliest evidence

of people in the Americas

in the Amazon rainforest
of western Brazil.

Their destination is a cave
on this mountaintop

rising out of the jungle.

This is the
Caverna da Pedra Pintada,

Portuguese for the
"Cave of the Painted Rock."

DAVIS:
That's amazing.

There's art going from the base

all the way up to the ceiling.

NARRATOR:
The cave is covered
with paintings

inspired by animals and the sky.

In this case
there's a round object

in the middle of the depiction
of the turtle.

DAVIS:
Yeah, a lot of them
are very abstract.

ROOSEVELT:
The local people,

speculated that these
were suns or moons--

And that might match
with the turtle,

because also turtle myths

were related
to the sun as well

as a creation spirit.

NARRATOR:
This cave in the Amazon
is rewriting the history

of when and how
people settled the Americas,

and who those people are.

♪

For decades, textbooks presented
only one view--

around 11,000 B.C.,
during the Ice Age,

big game hunters
cross a frozen land bridge

from Asia into Alaska,
a region known as Beringia.

After the ice melts,
they migrate down

into the virgin territory
of North and South America,

(animals growling)

hunting mammoths, giant sloths,
and caribou,

with finely fashioned
stone spear points.

(birds squawking)

The standard view is that people
reached the Amazon

about a thousand years ago.

But what Anna excavated
in the Cave of the Painted Rock

changes everything.

ROOSEVELT:
The remains we found and dated
in the cave

show that people were living
deep in the Amazon forest

at 13,000 years ago.

This is some of the earliest art
in the world

and it's definitely, so far, the
earliest art in the hemisphere.

♪

NARRATOR:
Thousands of years
before the Romans or Greeks,

8,000 years
before the Egyptians,

at least 13,000 years ago,
people arrive in the Amazon.

♪

And their stone tools
and paintings reveal

these first Americans
are not only mammoth hunters,

they are foragers,
fishermen, artists,

and perhaps scientists.

(birds chirping)

Chris is a specialist
in archaeoastronomy,

the study of how ancient peoples
looked at the sky.

(birds chirping)

DAVIS:
Something is going on here

that they were observing,
and probably tracking,

and tallying with this grid.

Because this is
an open-air site,

maybe they were counting
something in the sky,

and this big grid represents
something of a calendar.

NARRATOR:
To Chris and Anna,

these images are calculated
observations

of the sky and nature.

DAVIS:
What this art represents
is very sophisticated thinking.

ROOSEVELT:
This art links people
with their environment

through its animals, its plants,

and the heavenly bodies
of the sky.

NARRATOR:
These paintings are the earliest
art ever found in the Americas.

They suggest that people
13,000 years ago

had already developed ideas
and beliefs about the world

that centered on the sky,
caves, and nature.

But what exactly are these First
American artists trying to say?

Part of the answer
may lie a continent away

in an ancient ceremony performed
by the Hopi back at Chaco.

(indistinct chatter)

KUWANWISIWMA:
The reason we do
these pilgrimages

is to continue our connection
to places like Yupkoöyvi,

which is the Hopi name
for Chaco.

♪

NARRATOR:
Built in northwest New Mexico
between 900 and 1150,

Chaco grows to cover an area
roughly the size

of modern San Francisco.

♪

At its core
are 12 Great Houses.

♪

Five stories high,
and up to 800 rooms,

these are the biggest buildings
in what will be

the United States
until the 1800s.

♪

Throughout the city
they also construct

cave-like gathering places.

They were once covered,

but their roofs have collapsed
with time.

They are called kivas.

Back home in Arizona,
the Hopi still use them today.

The kivas are
very special settings

where both men and women
conduct different ceremonies.

So, a kiva that is
a thousand years old

is a very special setting
for us.

NARRATOR:
Prayers and rituals inside
center on rainmaking, healing,

and hunting,

all to ensure
the continuation of life.

♪

(chatter in Hopi)

Today, the Hopi are conducting
a smoking ceremony.

(chatter in Hopi)

It has been passed down
for thousands of years.

(speaking Hopi)

(lighter clicks)

(puffing)

WADSWORTH:
Smoking is a form of prayer.

We meditate.

We silently pray as we smoke.

We pray for rain.

We pray for long life,
good health, abundance.

KUWANWISIWMA:
The prayers are
to the environment.

You take time to contemplate
the power around us--

(wings fluttering)

the bird world,
the reptilian world,

the animal world,
the insect world.

They are part of who we are
as Hopi people.

♪

NARRATOR:
For the Hopi
and other Pueblo peoples,

corn is their lifeblood.

And cornmeal is a sacred
offering to Mother Earth.

As the smoke carries prayers
to the winds,

Leigh sprinkles the meal
for birds and insects

to spread to all four corners
of the earth.

(bird wings flapping)

It is a ritual that connects
the Hopi to their origin story.

(chanting in Native language)

WOMAN (speaking Hopi):

(chanting in Native language)

(chanting in Native language)

WOMAN (speaking Hopi):

♪

NARRATOR:
Many Native American peoples
share a belief

that they emerged
from the earth.

Hopi and Pueblo tradition
say that place of emergence

is beneath America's
best-known natural wonder--

the Grand Canyon.

Five million people visit
each year.

They come to connect
with its natural beauty.

But Pueblo people have
an even deeper connection.

This is their birthplace.

ENOTE:
When we come to a place
of water, we take the water,

we put it on our head,
and we splash that water,

we lift it
and throw it into the air

in the direction of Zuni,
to encourage rain, four times,

and then we drink the water.

NARRATOR:
Jim Enote is an elder
of the Ashiwi,

a Pueblo group
in what is now New Mexico,

known as the Zuni.

Jim is mapping ancient images
of the Zuni's origins,

carved in stone
by his ancestors.

FRANCESCA BOB:
Just one hefty push.

There we go.

Thank you, Jim.

NARRATOR:
He is joined by river guide
Francesca Bob,

who is part Zuni,

and Zuni story keeper
Octavius Seowtewa.

There's some panels up here
on both sides.

♪

(indistinct chatter)

NARRATOR:
Maps show this place
separate from the Grand Canyon,

and call it Glen Canyon.

The Zuni just have one name
for the whole area.

SEOWTEWA:
We call it Kuhmin A'lakkwenne.

In Zuni that means
the place of emergence,

the place where
the Zuni people came from.

(birds squawking)

BOB:
We're coming up to shore.

(speaking Native language)

SEOWTEWA:
A lot of people call it
rock art,

but for us it's history.

Wow.

SEOWTEWA:
It's a memory
of our people being here.

It's not just a story,
but actually an experience...

Right. Yeah.

It's like a diary.

NARRATOR:
The petroglyph,
more than a thousand years old,

depicts a row
of descending bighorn sheep.

It is an ancient lesson:

to find water,
follow the animals.

SEOWTEWA:
You follow their tracks,
you will eventually

find a way down
to the river.

♪

NARRATOR:
The Zuni want to both preserve
and share these sacred symbols.

So Jim began hiring
native painters

to turn Zuni history
into illustrated maps.

We looked at these
kinds of petroglyphs

and other kinds of images
on ceramics.

Things that were woven
in tapestries.

We thought about
the songs and prayers we have,

and we decided that we can
make our own kinds of maps.

NARRATOR:
Their maps are unlike
any others.

Not limited by lines
or topography,

they depict cultural landscapes
and living memories.

ENOTE:
The Zuni maps
represent the world

without defined boundaries.

Many people are familiar
with geometric maps

with streets and roads.

And then when they see Zuni
hand-painted maps,

they realize
there is a different way

of looking at the world.

NARRATOR:
This different way
of looking at the world

is shared across Native America.

It is a reverence for place--

Sacred caves, underground
sanctuaries, grand canyons,

real physical connections
to earth.

It's why many call it
Mother Earth.

♪

ENOTE:
Being in the Grand Canyon to me
is like a womb.

♪

This is the place we came from.

So the river is like
an umbilical cord.

It's all part of the Mother,

and Mother is the place
where we begin.

It's our ultimate
reference point.

♪

NARRATOR:
Pueblo tradition requires them
to honor Mother

by taking care of her.

WOMAN (speaking Hopi):

♪

(knocking sound)

WOMAN (speaking Hopi):

♪

WOMAN (speaking Hopi):

♪

NARRATOR:
In their origin story,

after they emerge
from the earth,

the Pueblo are given
a sacred quest--

find the Center Place.

KUWANWISIWMA:
So, some clans went clockwise

and some clans
went counterclockwise.

And as the clans migrated,
they placed an insignia

of where they were at that
particular time and place,

which is a spiral.

It's about the people moving
from one place to another,

living in some place,
testing it,

moving on and on

until they finally find
the right place.

♪

NARRATOR:
Finding the right place--
the Center Place--

lies at the heart
of Pueblo belief.

It is more than
a physical location.

It is about living in balance
with the natural world.

This search for the center place
is built right into the kivas.

Every kiva is aligned
to the four compass directions:

north, south, east, and west.

That's true north,
and this one is true south.

So the sun rises here
in the east,

and then sets to the west there.

NARRATOR:
There are two more
sacred directions: up and down.

(fire crackling)

Climbing a ladder out of a kiva

is symbolic of emerging
into this world.

The Hopi believe
the six directions

give kivas great power.

♪

The sacred power
of six directions

is shared by many peoples
across Native America.

One of its purest expressions
was recently discovered

in a man-made cave
near Mexico City.

Here, almost 2,000 years ago,

is the largest city
in the Americas,

Teotihuacan, population 125,000.

The name of its builders
is lost to history,

but it would take more
than 1,500 years

for a U.S. city, New York,
to surpass its population.

Its biggest pyramid is one
of the largest in the world,

after Egypt's Great Pyramids
of Giza.

Yet archaeologist Sergio Gomez
is more interested

in what lies underground,

a previously unknown
man-made cave.

(Sergio speaking Spanish)

SERGIO GOMEZ (translated):
In almost every
Mesoamerican culture,

caves have a deep significance
in cosmological thought.

That is why this discovery
is so important.

NARRATOR:
In 2003, a monsoon rainstorm
created a sinkhole

near a pyramid known as the
Temple of the Feathered Serpent.

(Sergio speaking Spanish)

(translated):
The entrance to the tunnel
is located under the white tent,

at a depth of 14 meters.

NARRATOR:
Sergio was the first
to rappel down the sinkhole.

(machine whirring)

It led to a tunnel,
carved 2,000 years ago.

Inside, he found artifacts

brought here
from vast distances,

just like at Chaco.

(speaking Spanish)

(speaking Spanish)

(translated):
This is one of the thousands
of pieces, of artifacts

that we have discovered
in the interior of the tunnel.

It's a representation
of the principal deity

of both the underworld
and the celestial region.

NARRATOR:
Sergio believes
many of the offerings

symbolize heaven and earth,

and are carefully positioned
in the tunnel.

(speaking Spanish)

(translated):
We believe that the placement
of each object

throughout the tunnel
had a particular meaning.

They were not just placed there
randomly.

NARRATOR:
The tunnel ends
in a human-made cave.

Its floor is sculpted
to represent the underworld.

Its ceiling is covered
in artificial starlight,

mimicking the cosmos.

♪

(Sergio speaking Spanish)

GOMEZ (translated):
The entire tunnel
was originally covered in a dust

of shiny metallic mineral.

They covered the walls
and ceiling of the tunnel

so it's as if you were seeing
the sky and the stars twinkling.

NARRATOR:
In this cosmic sanctuary
of stars,

Sergio finds two stone figures,

statues that depict
the first man and woman

in the city's origin story.

Sergio laser scans the tunnel.

It descends 50 feet underground,

extends for 340 feet,

and ends directly beneath

the Pyramid of the
Feathered Serpent.

Here, the Teotihuacanos
place the founding couple,

within 16 inches of the exact
center of the pyramid.

(Sergio speaking Spanish)

(translated):
We are positioned exactly under
the intersection

of the north-south axis
and east-west axis.

And above us is the peak,
the central point

of the Temple
of the Feathered Serpent.

Right in this spot.

They believed there was
a conduit that connected

this region from the underworld
to the celestial region.

♪

NARRATOR:
The builders went
to extreme lengths

using precise math
and masterful engineering

to align their sanctuary
of stars to the six directions.

Just like the kiva builders
at Chaco,

the early Mesoamericans share
a belief that the six directions

represent finding balance
in the universe.

It is a quest to find the center

between the world below
and the one above,

between caves and the cosmos.

(Sergio speaking Spanish)

GOMEZ (translated):
In the southwestern
United States,

including Central America
and South America,

there are a series of ideas
that form a general concept

of the cosmos.

I've heard and read of the ideas
the Hopi have about the cosmos

and how the universe
was created.

These ideas are shared

throughout many indigenous
communities,

including indigenous communities
in Mexico today.

NARRATOR:
Teotihuacan is part
of something bigger

going on across the Americas.

The Maya, Aztec, and Inca,
all build monumental cities

aligned to compass directions

and with an eye to the worlds
above and below.

♪

And at Chaco,
the builders extend the science

of six directions

to apply not only to place,

but also to time.

WADSWORTH:
Alignment was very important
to these people at Chaco.

It helped them to determine
the times of year,

the cycles of their crops,

when they plant certain seeds.

And it also determines
the months, the moons

when the certain ceremonies
happen.

♪

NARRATOR:
At the very center of Chaco,
builders create a sacred space

to unify time and place--
Pueblo Bonito.

(echoing chants)

It is the largest
of the city's 12 great houses,

with over 800 rooms
and 30 ceremonial kivas.

We can talk about this
as a building,

we can talk about it
as a storage unit

and a ceremonial center.

And we can also talk about it
as a clock.

NARRATOR:
Park Ranger GB Cornucopia

came to Chaco to study the stars
30 years ago and never left.

♪

To GB, Pueblo Bonito and the sky
are intricately linked.

The great house is aligned
to the six directions.

One wall runs east-west.

And another north-south.

Each day, as the sun
gets higher in the sky,

its shadow creeps closer
to the north wall.

Here we can see the shadow
is almost gone.

And in just a few moments
it will disappear.

♪

There...

This is solar noon,

when the sun is at
it's highest point in the sky.

NARRATOR:
Pueblo Bonito is a clock that
tracks the sun during the day.

It's also a calendar
that tracks it during the year.

Every day, the sun sets in a
different place on the horizon.

The solar year
starts on the winter solstice,

when it sets in the south.

On the summer solstice,
it sets in the north.

The two days halfway in between
them are called equinoxes.

And today, on the fall equinox,

the sun lines up
with the east-west wall.

CORNUCOPIA:
We're between the two extremes

when it's really hot
in the summer, summer solstice,

and when it's really cold
in the winter, winter solstice.

We're at that midway point.

♪

The north wall tracks the day.

The west wall tracks the year.

Built to the six directions,

Pueblo Bonito unites
place and time.

♪

CORNUCOPIA:
People tell time by their
relationship with the sky.

Now most of us
have forgotten that,

because we have devices
that represent time,

we've got watches and calendars
and clocks.

But if you've got
good markers on your horizon,

you can predict the seasons,

so that you can prepare
for ceremonies, agriculture,

all manner of things.

NARRATOR:
The people of Chaco look to the
sky to guide their agriculture

and their ceremonies.

Their city is the physical
embodiment of their worldview.

It is a way of living that is
both a scientific understanding

of the cycles of the earth,
sun, and stars,

and a spiritual quest
to find their place within it.

♪

WOMAN (speaking Hopi):

WOMAN (speaking Hopi):

♪

♪

NARRATOR:
Sky watching,
the six directions,

and a search for people's place
in the world.

These ideas are found
throughout the Americas.

They are part of
a foundational belief system

shared between distant
and diverse cultures.

Where does this common belief
come from?

The Chumash may have an answer.

Their ancestors
were the first coastal settlers

of what is now
Southern California.

My ancestors were far better
paddlers, far better navigators,

far better fishermen, far better
craftsmen than I will ever be.

(singing in Chumash)

NARRATOR:
Today, these Chumash men
are taking to the water

in a flat-bottomed canoe,
like that of their ancestors.

(singing continues)

REGINALD PAGALING:
Water is life.

It's such a great teacher
of respect.

It's a great teacher of power.

It's a great teacher of...

calmness.

NARRATOR:
Long ago, water taught
the Chumash a lesson

they still practice--

(crickets chirping)

the best time to paddle
is at night.

SALAZAR:
That's when the ocean
is the calmest.

(water lapping)

It's so dark that you can barely
see the paddler in front of you.

You feel your paddle
hit the water and come out.

It's powerful.

NARRATOR:
Far at sea,
in the dark of night,

the Chumash look to the stars
to guide them.

Just as their ancestors did.

PAGALING:
At a very early stage
we saw the Milky Way

as a way to chart our way
across the islands.

♪

My ancestors were masters

at building canoes that could
travel great distances.

NARRATOR:
Their mastery of the stars
and seafaring

enabled the very first Americans
to move quickly down the coast

and across the continents.

Can the way America is settled
explain why Native Americans

share so many core beliefs?

♪

New DNA evidence suggests
that all Native Americans

are descended from one people.

They live together
for 25,000 years,

stuck behind a wall of ice
in an area called Beringia.

Perhaps here,
over thousands of years,

people observe cycles
of the earth, sun, and stars,

and plant the seeds
for a worldview

that will be shared
across the Americas.

♪

Can these ideas really have been
developed so far back in time?

If so, they may be expressed
in the earliest art found here.

It dates back 13,000 years

to the very beginnings
of Native America.

Anna Roosevelt and Chris Davis
re-examine the rock paintings

in Brazil's Amazon rainforest.

ROOSEVELT:
It's been assumed

that hunting and gathering
people were primitive

and wouldn't be into art
very much.

But everywhere you go in this
rocky area, you find a painting.

NARRATOR:
Chris believes the paintings
may relate to the sky.

DAVIS:
All of the rock art
is facing the west.

So maybe there was something
important in the west,

maybe sunsets.

NARRATOR:
The cliff wall extends
a half mile.

It is covered in paintings
of animals, grids, and circles

all the way
to its far south end.

DAVIS:
This is the southernmost image

of the painting sequence.

And there's two concentric
circles--

one above,
and another one below.

NARRATOR:
Chris thinks these circles
could depict

stages of the sun setting.

And their location here
to the far south

even suggests a specific day:

the day when the sun is at
its farthest southern point,

winter solstice--
the shortest day of the year.

DAVIS:
And as it angles downward,

it starts to rest on a pedestal.

NARRATOR:
Chris suspects that pedestal

represents a rocky outcrop
on the horizon.

He has come here on the winter
solstice to see if the sun

will line up with the platform.

If there's a match,
we should see it today.

(birds chirping)

♪

NARRATOR:
The winter solstice sun sets
behind the rocky platform,

just as depicted
on the southern cliff face.

What's more, art on the
northern end of the cliff

marks the summer solstice.

DAVIS:
At the northern end

we have a match
with the summer solstice.

In between,
there are images of animals,

perhaps constellations,
and other important resources.

They are recognizing
connections, associations,

that when the sun is at this
particular point in the sky,

these animals are most active,

or these changes occur
in the environment.

NARRATOR:
8,000 years before England's
celebrated Stonehenge,

Native Americans
paint a cliff face

to transform a mountain

into a three-dimensional
solar calendar.

It is the earliest evidence
of tracking astronomical events

in the Americas.

DAVIS:
They created a calendar
that you can walk through,

a pictographic almanac that
encapsulates this landscape.

NARRATOR:
The calendar expresses
an intimate knowledge

of their new world.

Caves and mountains
provide shelter,

plants and animals teach them
lessons of survival,

and the sky helps them find
their place in the world.

These same foundational ideas,
shared across two continents,

are already established

at the very beginning
of Native America.

DAVIS:
They were not just living
off of the land,

they were actually
trying to figure out

how to better place themselves
in the landscape.

♪

NARRATOR:
The Pueblo people
seek the same thing:

to find their place
in the world.

They discover it
in America's Southwest.

WADSWORTH:
The migration stopped here
in this American Southwest.

We came here to the center,
and this is where

we all conduct our ceremonies,

and to bless the world like
Maasaw instructed us to do.

NARRATOR:
The Hopi fulfill
the covenant they made

when they entered this world:
they find the center place.

♪

Along the way,
they create Chaco,

balanced between the underworld
and the heavens,

six directions aligned
to the cosmos.

Chaco becomes a beacon,

drawing people from thousands
of miles away.

Visitors bring hallowed objects
like turquoise stones,

tropical bird feathers,

sea shells,

and chocolate.

Both cacao and scarlet macaws
are tropical species

that were brought from a great
distance into Pueblo Bonito.

♪

There's no question that there
was this very large area

of shared beliefs
in ritual activities.

(chanting, drumming)

(scraping)

(chanting, drumming continue)

NARRATOR:
Chaco was a place
where people came together

from vast distances.

KUWANWISIWMA:
Chaco was a culmination of many
years of learning and knowledge,

and perfecting their ceremonies.

NARRATOR:
People share knowledge
and beliefs

based on thousands of years
of observing their world.

Ceremonies to influence
the very forces of nature.

They are still practiced today.

In the ancient kiva at Chaco,
the Hopi elders

conduct their smoking ceremony
to make rain.

(puffing)

KUWANWISIWMA:
You offer your own
private prayer,

and you speak to the spirits
of our ancestors.

(wings fluttering)

You offer these prayers in hopes
they in turn bless us with rain.

The smoke comes out
from the pipe,

emerge to that cloud,

make a big cloud,

and then rain comes from that.

The Hopi prayers for rain
are answered.

(rainfall pattering)

♪

Just like Hopi tradition says,

Chaco was a special place
to study the forces of nature.

It grows out of a deep
connection with the earth,

planted in time immemorial,

developed over
tens of thousands of years,

and shared across two continents

by the pioneering people
who create this world.

They are Native Americans.

Their teachings remain
as relevant today as ever.

♪

WADSWORTH:
We were taught to live
in balance with nature.

Each individual has tremendous
power to change his world.

We are a microcosm
of the universe itself,

so how we behave,
how we take care of ourselves,

reflects in the earth.

ENOTE:
The world lives with us.

We live with it.

But we have to maintain it.

We have to take care of it in
order for it to provide for us.

(birds chirping)

SALAZAR:
To me it's essential
to my survival

that I am part of the earth,
I am part of the family

of plants and animals and bugs
and birds and all the mammals.

I'm just a part.

ENOTE:
Deep inside the teachings
of Chaco Canyon

resonate
and still continue today.

♪