Indian Nations of the SouthwestIn Atlas of Indian Nations
The Native nations of the Southwest have long achieved amazing, seemingly impossible, accomplishments. The Anasazi, predecessors to the Hopi and Pueblo, built an astounding nine-mile-long city at Chaco Canyon, with more than 70 satellite communities and a central building constructed with more than 50 million sandstone blocks and 5,000 trees. All the major structures at Chaco align perfectly at the summer solstice. And the Anasazi did it without human slaves, beasts of burden, compasses, transits, or wheels. The climate in the Southwest is harsh, and the people could be just as tough as the weather. No matter how hot and dry the deserts, no matter how cold the highest peaks, the peoples of the Southwest found a way not just to survive but to thrive.