CMT cut down in 2019 for safety reasons

This educational site is dedicated to a Culturally Modified Tree (CMT), cut down in 2019 for safety reasons. The tree had died and was leaning dangerously over the road.

Always sad to lose a CMT, the Zapata Homeowners Association sponsors this site, for the benefit of All, and especially the CMT’s in the Zapata Subdivision.

For details, please see the large box at the back of the site.

CMT is an archaeological term for trees modified by humans, for cultural reasons. Most often it refers to trees modified in the past byIndigenous cultures, all around the world. Atleast fifty Ponderosa Pine Peel CMTs live inthe Zapata Subdivision. These are similar in age and appearance to the CMTs in the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. Three of the many American Indian cultural cultural groups who consider the Great Sand Dunes, the Zapata area and Sierra Blanca important ancestral homelands state officially that their ancestors peeled CMTs in this area: the three Ute Tribes, some Northern Rio Grande Pueblo groups, and the Jicarilla Apache People of northern New Mexico. (The Navajo People also consider the same overall area as part of their ancestral homelands, but have not officially acknowledged CMTs). The care and skill evident in the modifications show just how knowledgeable Indigenous cultures were, and are, about trees, and forestry in general.

Visiting a CMT:

To the descendants of those who peeled this tree, it is an esteemed Ancestor and Elder. The prayers and wisdom of the ancient ones who conducted the ceremonial peeling still radiate from it to the benefit of all. The same is true of all the CMTs living in the Zapata Subdivision. When you meet one as you walk, or decide to build near one on a lot, please recognize the tree’s cultural and ecosystem importance and give it lots of room and respect. Its root system extends over 20 feet beyond its crown drip line. That same root system helps to support younger trees far and wide. These are nationally recognized archaeological and cultural treasures.