THE ZAPATA SUBDIVISION: PLACE and PEOPLE - A Summary

The Place

To appreciate the 12,000 year old story of human presence in the area of what is now the Zapata Subdivision, it is important to understand something about why the descendants of those who were here before colonial settlement revere it even today as part of their ancestral homelands. A Place can be understood as a location that is defined by land forms and cultural features like homes, legal ownership, personal,  experience, and more. Although the lands within the Zapata Subdivision boundaries are A Place to property owners, the Zapata Subdivision is also an essential part of a Greater Place (which is itself a part of an even Greater Place, the San Luis Valley…… and so on).

This Greater Place encompasses the subdivision’s heart-lifting surroundings of high, saw-toothed peaks, massive sand dunes, ranch lands, vast and ancient valley floor, creeks, mixed conifer forests, cliffs, wildlife and all the interdependent processes that make it possible. Above and under us is the mass of Sierra Blanca, the powerful mountain massif with its three 14,000 foot peaks that forms the southern end of the northern Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Across the highway to the west is The Nature Conservancy Zapata Ranch. North and south of us are the grassy and piñon studded Bureau of Land Management lands, and only five miles north is the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

The way the Sangre de Cristo Mountains curve around the dune field, funneling the wild San Luis Valley winds towards lower passes, is one of the features that make possible the existence of the really big dunes. Medano Creek is also a crucial part of this process, as it carries sand west and south away from the dunes. So is the vast “sand sheet” that results, and that, with the help of the winds, feeds the dunes again. The way the weather takes charge around here, the way the animals and storms work to maintain meadow and forest, …..All of this  works together, inseparably, to make this Greater Place, including the Zapata Subdivision, possible. It is this Greater Place that is a significant and treasured part of ancestral homelands to the descendants of many ancient cultures.

To acknowledge that most readers will be Zapata Subdivision oriented, this little summary will use Zapata & Greater Place to refer to all this.

The People

The many Peoples of the Zapata & Greater Place span a time period from around 12,000 years ago to the Present!  The very earliest Peoples here are named by archaeologists and anthropologists for towns in New Mexico — Clovis and Folsom. Over the long intervening years, Peoples of many distinct cultures and language groups revered and depended on the bounty here.

Their descendants live today on reservations in Colorado (Ute), Utah (Ute, and Navajo), and New Mexico (Jicarilla Apache, Navajo, and some Pueblos along the Rio Grande). In ceremony and by teaching their youth, these descendants continue to protect the precious ancient knowledge and ceremony bequeathed to them by their ancestors, about how a relationship between humans and a Place should go. Through these they care, now often at a distance, for their homeland here. They know Zapata & Greater Place as powerful, a spiritually active place that must be respected and partnered with…… and that efforts to control or dominate it risk putting its out of balance with serious consequences.

Very few, if any, of the Peoples who were here before colonial settlement stayed for the harsh months of deep winter. Being of sound mind and great intelligence, they traveled to gentler, lower elevation areas for that time period. Some favorite spots for their winter refuges included along the Chama and northern Rio Grande in New Mexico, and the lower western slopes of Colorado. Some went to the Canyon Lands in Utah, or around what is now called Arizona. There, in relative ease, their Elders would read the passages of stars, moon and sun, and know when when the Zapata & Greater Place would stir from winter’s grip. Then, family groups of varying sizes would pack up and set off, arriving here at the just the right time to enjoy and care for the amazing bounty awaiting them. With colonial settlement, both bounty and seasonal movements began to change, at first only slowly.

**(This seasonal movement is called “Transhumance”, very different from wandering in search of food. They knew every inch from there to here and back, and what grew or grazed where, when!)

Among the ancient principles for caring for a Place that these descendants share publicly, the ancient teachings emphasize that the spiritual realm and practical realm are one and the same. In the “before times” (before colonial settlement) hunting, foraging, and wild gardening provided for all material needs. This taught In a direct and literal way how food, clothing, and shelter, Life itself, are gifts, made possible by the processes and forces at work in a Place. These forces and processes cannot be seen as such, only their signs of balance and health, or the lack of. They cannot be grasped hold of, or controlled by human effort, but must be partnered with for the good of Place and humans. They and all the Beings here, from the smallest to the largest, are interdependent, in the way of family members. The human job, in this case, was (and is) to take good care of all aspects, in a respectful and reliable way.

For more detail and Peoples and Place, please look for future posts, here and in the section “Culturally Modified Trees”  :-)