Into The Memory

Descendants of the Hopi people who built this place call it Talastima, meaning Place of the Blue Corn Tassels, and call their ancient relatives Hisatsinom. Zuni traditions hold that several of their clans began in this area. Later, San Juan Southern Paiute people, known for their baskets, moved into the area and lived near the cliff dwellings. Bétatakin is a Navajo, or Diné, word meaning House on a Ledge, and today this place is surrounded by the Navajo Nation, as it has been for hundreds of years. The Ancestral Puebloans here were great traders who made excellent ceramic pottery and used rocks from elsewhere for grinding stones, tools, and arrowheads, while obtaining turquoise, shell, parrots, and macaws through trade. Hopi tradition says the large pictographs on the right-hand wall of the alcove identify the builders as the Deer Clan, the Fire Clan, the Flute Clan, and the Water Clan, and nearby petroglyphs of large bighorn sheep and rock art that marks seasonal sunlight and shadow also remain.

Arizona · United States