Chaco Canyon: A Contested Memory Anchor in the North American Southwest

Abstract

Natural and archaeological places are powerful loci for social memories and continually negotiated meanings. As ‘memory anchors’ they are focal points for the construction of memory and meaning, and can become flashpoints for disputes over access, land-use, and knowledge claims among stakeholders with contradictory interests. In the North American Southwest the competing claims of Native American tribes, archaeologists, government bureaucrats, tourists, and the mining industry come into sharp relief. In this paper, I explore how the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Chaco Canyon figures prominently in the origin stories and sacred geographies of contemporary Pueblo and Navajo peoples – two indigenous groups with competing political stakes in the present.