Into The Memory

Into The Memory. Navajo National Monument. , Who Was Here? , Descendants of the Hopi people who built this place call it Talastima, a Hopi word for "Place of the Blue Corn Tassels." They call their ancient relatives “Hisatsinom.” Zuni, also pueblo builders, know that several of their clans began in this area. Later, San Juan Southern Paiute, famous for their baskets, moved into this area and lived near the cliff dwellings. "Bétatakin" is a Navajo , or, Diné, as they call themselves , word, meaning House on a Ledge. Today this place is surrounded by the Navajo Nation, as it has been for hundreds of years. , Outside Sources , The Ancestral Puebloans were great traders. Here they made excellent ceramic pottery for trade. Rocks from elsewhere were used for grinding stones, tools, or arrowheads. They traded for turquoise, shell, parrots, and macaws. You can admire some of their carefully worked pottery inside the visitor center., Rock Art , Hopi say that the large pictographs painted on the right-hand wall of the alcove tell us who built this place: the Deer Clan, the Fire Clan, the Flute Clan, and the Water Clan. There are also some petroglyphs of large bighorn sheep pecked into the rock. Some of the rock art serve as a calendar, too, as sunlight at different times of the year casts shadows on it.