From Caves to Cosmos - Native America | PBS (Episode 1)

it is another world thriving with a hundred million people connected by elaborate roads bridges and social networks spanning continents with some of the world's largest cities aligned to the heavens it is the birthplace of some of the greatest civilizations on earth [Music] this is the americas more than 500 years ago native americans create america's first democracy that later inspires the united states constitution 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 being in the grand canyon to me is like a womb what the czar represents is very sophisticated thinking these ancient people were keen observers of everything [Music] 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 [Music] in a remote canyon in new mexico more than a thousand years ago native americans build one of the largest cities in north america choco [Music] today all that remains are crumbling stone structures long abandoned and largely forgotten [Music] but some native americans maintain a strong connection to choco we make pilgrimages to chaco because it's a way of connecting back to our ancestral places lee kuwanasiyama is a hopi keeper of knowledge the hopi are one of the pueblo communities the most ancient peoples living in the southwest lee is taking tribal members to a sacred cave shrine above the ruins of choco it's a once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage for many of these elders the hopi have never shared this private ceremony outside their community they offer cornmeal and eagle feathers in gratitude today is a very important day for all of us to be here among our own ancestral people 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 happen 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 [Music] their walls carefully aligned to the sun and stars [Music] they transformed the surrounding desert into gardens and fields of corn the hopi believed choco 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 chuck was a place where clans came together to share their knowledge to share the wisdom of being caretakers of the earth [Music] now an archaeological discovery is showing the extent of choco's influence and just how far people would travel to come here [Music] archaeologist patty crown led the investigation this is room 28 a small room but one that has been critical in our understanding of choco first excavated in 1896 room 28 contained dozens of cylindrical pots they really seemed to be drinking vessels i just wasn't sure what they might have been drinking in them patty 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 choco 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 in its sacred drinking ritual must have traveled from central america to [Music] and choco 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 [Music] all objects of ritual significance brought from great distances it made choco part of this very very deep and distant belief system [Music] remains of an ancient city hopi traditions about a center of great knowledge sacred artifacts connecting choco to distant cultures a new picture is emerging of this remote room [Music] in a world of cities teeming with people immersed in the science and spirituality of earth and sky choco is a metropolis of ideas and beliefs that span two continents where did these ideas come from the story begins far from choco chris is a specialist in archaeoastronomy the study of how ancient peoples looked at the sky something's 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 to chris and anna these images are calculated observations of the sky and nature what the czar represents is very sophisticated thinking this art links people with their environment through its animals its plants and the heavenly bodies of the sky these paintings are the earliest art ever found in the americas [Music] 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 the reason we do these pilgrimages is to continue our connection to places like which is the hopi name for choco [Music] built in northwest new mexico between 900 and 1150 choco grows to cover an area roughly the size of modern san francisco at its core are 12 great houses five stories high in 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 prayers and rituals inside center on rain making healing and hunting all to ensure the continuation of life [Music] today the hopi are conducting a smoking ceremony [Music] it has been passed down for thousands of [Music] years [Music] 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 the prayers are to the environment you take time to contemplate the power around us the bird world the reptilian world the animal world the insect world they are part of who we are as hopi people [Music] 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 lee sprinkles the meal for birds and insects to spread to all four corners of the earth it is a ritual that connects the hopi to their origin story many native american peoples share a belief that they emerged from the earth hopi and pueblo traditions say that place of emergence is beneath america's best known natural wonder the grand canyon [Music] 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 when we come to a place of water we take water we put it on our head and we splash that water we lift it and throw it into the air in direction of zuni to encourage rain four times and then we drink the water 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 there we ancestors thank you joe he is joined by river guide francesca bob who is part zuni and zuni story keeper octavia siatua there's some panels up here on both [Music] sides maps show this place separate from the grand canyon and call it glen canyon the zuni just have one name for the whole area we call it in zuni that means the place of emergence the place where the zuni people came from [Music] a lot of people call it rock art but for us it's history wow it's a memory of our people being here it's not just a story but actually an experience right it's like a diary yeah 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 you follow their tracks you'll eventually find a way down to the river [Music] 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 their maps are unlike any others not limited by lines or topography they depict cultural landscapes and living memories 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's a different way of looking at the world [Music] 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 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 your mother is the place where we begin it's our ultimate reference point pueblo tradition requires them to honor mother 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 [Music] 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 [Music] 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 a true south so the sun rises here on the east and then sits to the west there there are two more sacred directions up and down climbing a ladder out of akiva is symbolic of emerging into this world [Music] the hopi believe the six directions give kiva's great power [Music] 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 1500 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 [Music] in almost every mesoamerican culture caves have a deep significance in cosmological thought that is why this discovery is so important in 2003 a monsoon rainstorm created a sinkhole near a pyramid known as the temple of the feathered serpent the entrance to the tunnel is located under the white tent at a depth of 14 meters sergio was the first to rappel down the sinkhole it led to a tunnel carved two thousand years ago [Music] inside he found artifacts brought here from fast distances just like at chocolate this is one of the thousands of pieces of artifacts that we've discovered in the interior of the tunnel it's a representation of the principal deity of both the underworld and the celestial region sergio believes many of the offerings symbolize heaven and earth and are carefully positioned in the tunnel we believe that the placement of each object throughout the tunnel had a particular meaning they were not just placed there randomly 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 the entire tunnel was originally covered in a dust of shiny metallic minerals they covered the walls and ceiling of the tunnel so it's as if you were seeing the sky and the stars twinkling 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 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 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 [Music] 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 [Music] [Music] these ideas are shared throughout many indigenous communities including indigenous communities in mexico today [Music] teotihuacan is part of something bigger going on across the americas the maya aztec and inca all build monumental cities aligned to compass directions with an eye to the world above and below [Music] and at choco the builders extend the science of six directions to apply not only to place but also to time 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 also uh determines the the months the moons when the certain ceremonies happen at the very center of chaco builders create a sacred space to unify time and place pueblo benito [Music] it is the largest of the city's 12 great houses with over 800 rooms and 30 ceremonial kievas [Music] 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 park ranger gb cornucopia came to choco 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 [Music] each day as the sun gets higher in the sky its shadow creeps closer to the north wall here we can see the shadows almost gone and in just a few moments it will disappear there this is solar noon when the sun is at its highest point in the sky pueblo benito is a clock that tracks the sun during the day it's also a calendar that tracks it during the year [Music] 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 [Music] and today on the fall equinox the sun lines up with the east-west wall [Music] we're between the two extremes but 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 [Music] the west wall tracks the year built to the six directions pueblo benito unites place in time [Music] 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 the people of chaco look to the sky to guide their agriculture and their ceremonies their city is the physical embodiment of their world view 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 sky watching the six directions in a search for people's place in the world these ideas are found throughout the americas [Music] they are part of a foundational belief system shared between distant and diverse cultures where does this common belief come from the schumash may have an answer their ancestors were the first coastal settlers of what is now southern california my ancestors were far better paddlers are better navigators for better fishermen or better craftsmen than i will ever be today these shumash men are taking to the water in a flat bottom canoe like that of their [Music] water's ancestors it's such a great teacher of respect it's a great teacher of power it's a great teacher of calmness long ago water taught the shoemash a lesson they still practice the best time to paddle is at night that's when the ocean is the calmest 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 far at sea in the dark of night the shoemash looked to the stars to guide them just as their ancestors did [Music] 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 [Music] new dna evidence suggests that all native americans are descended from one people they lived together for 25 000 years stuck behind a wall of ice in an area called beringia perhaps here over thousands of years people observed cycles of the earth sun and stars and plant the seeds for a world view that will be shared across the americas can these ideas really have been developed so far back in time [Music] if so they may be expressed in the earliest art found here it dates back thirteen thousand years to the very beginnings of native america anna roosevelt and chris davis re-examine the rock paintings in brazil's amazon rainforest 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 chris believes the paintings may relate to the sky all of the rock guards facing the west so maybe there was something important in the west maybe sunset 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 this is the southernmost image of the painting sequence and there's two concentric circles one above and another one for low 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 and as it angles downward it starts to rest on a pedestal 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 [Music] today the winter solstice sun sets behind the rocky platform just as depicted on the southern cliff [Music] face what's more art on the northern end of the cliff marks the summer solstice at the northern end we have a match with the summer solstice in between their 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 eight thousand years before england celebrated stonehenge native americans paint a cliff face to transform a mountain into a three-dimensional solar calendar [Music] it is the earliest evidence of tracking astronomical events in the americas they created a calendar that you can walk through pick the graphic almanac that encapsulates this landscape [Music] the calendar expresses an intimate knowledge of their new world caves and mountains provide shelter 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 they were not just living off of the land they were actually trying to figure out how to better place themselves in the landscape [Music] the pueblo people seek the same thing to find their place in the world they discover it in america's southwest the migration stopped here in this america in the southwest we came here to the center and this is where we all conduct our ceremonies and and to bless the world like masa instructed us to do the hopi fulfill the covenant they made when they entered this world they find the center place [Music] along the way they create charcoal balanced between the underworld and the heavens six directions aligned to the cosmos choco becomes a beacon drawing people from thousands of miles away visitors bring hallowed objects like turquoise stones tropical bird feathers seashells and chocolate both cacao and scarlet macaws are tropical species that were brought from a great distance into pueblo benito there's no question that there was this very large area of shared beliefs in ritual activities the hopi elders conduct their smoking ceremony to make rain [Music] you offer your own private prayer and you speak to the spirits of our ancestors [Music] 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 [Music] just like hopi tradition says choco was a special place to study the forces of nature it grows out of a deep connection with the earth planted in time and memorial 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 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 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 to me it's essential to my survival that i'm part of the earth i'm part of the family of plants and animals and bugs and birds and all the mammals i'm just apart deep aside the teachings of choco canyon resonate and still continue today native americans find their place among earth sea sky and all living things through careful observation over tens of thousands of years they form an intimate relationship with their world a world that continues to this day you

Channel: Indigenous Americans

Views: 345,931

Keywords: Native, Natives, Native People, Indigenous, Indigenous People, NDN, NDNs, Native American, Native Americans, Amerindians, Amerindian, American Indian, First Nations, First Nation, Aboriginal, Aboriginals, Indigena, Indigenas, US, USA, Americas, America, New World, Western Hemisphere, Turtle Island, Native America, Indian Country, NDN Country, Tribe, Tribal

Id: oZSUxrTSZUk

Length: 45min 52sec (2752 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 04 2018

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[u/kerberos101]

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