Ghosts at Indian Creek

An Anasazi granary along the river. Photos by David Lansing.

All along this stretch of river are reminders of of the various Native American cultures that called these canyons home more than 1,000 years before John Wesley Powell ever passed by. According to one of Arlo’s geology books, the region was occupied by two distinct Native American groups. “One is called the Fremont Culture, a group whose presence is only known from distinctive pictographs, and who are thought to have inhabited the region sometime around 850 or 900 A.D. The second group is known as the Anasazi, or Pueblo Cultures, who dominated the region from about 1075 until they abandoned Canyonlands in the 12^th century.

“There is considerable evidence to support the idea that the climate was much wetter during times of Indian occupation between 900 and 1200 A.D., making it possible for the gardening cultures to survive. After this time the climate deteriorated; perhaps a drought set in as at Mesa Verde, and the climate became much like that of today. Archeologists find no evidence that marauding Indians forced the Anasazi from their dwellings. Whatever the cause, the Anasazi left Canyonlands in the 12^th century as quietly as they had come, leaving behind a treasury of stone dwellings, masonry granaries, and beautifully formed bowls and jars and hand-made jewelry.”

Yesterday after lunch, after we’d drifted down the river for a bit, we put into shore just below Indian Creek and hiked to some ruins up in the cliffs. It was interesting because here were the remnants of two cultures: an old granary from the Anasazi and, higher up, some pictographs—hand prints in the red rock.

The granary was interesting but it was the handprints that seemed so evocative, the fingers so long and slender, reaching up towards the sky, splayed, signifying what? This is our territory, do not come here? This is where we were successful hunting for game? Or perhaps just the simplest explanantion: We were here.