Eric Shulman on New Mexico's Sacred Places

As my first outside reading choice, I decided to search about what our first essay assignment was on. To recap, we had to choose a specific sacred place and research and write about. I chose to write on Stonehenge, which happened to have many sourceful information on why that place is considered sacred today. Today, I had found an article regarding New Mexico’s sacred places. For many of years, New Mexico was the place where many people fought to make it their own home. People who settled there were Native American, Spanish and Mexican people. They felt a connection to this land, and it was of great significance to them. To separate these groups of people, the Native Americans designated spiritual lands as different from the Spanish and Mexican. Places in nature such as caves and mountain and rock formations are designated as sacred to Native Americans. The Native Americans believe that these certain places have “sacred powers”. The Spanish and Mexican cultures have also designated certain areas in New Mexico as having spiritual and historical significance. Today, there are many examples of what are still considered sacred places in New Mexico such as El Morro National Monument, Rocks with Wings and Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs. The sacred place that jumped out to me was the Chaco Canyon. This place is the ruins of the Anasazi people. These people are the oldest pueblo and the present day pueblos are all said to be descendents of the Anasazi. The place is spectacular. You can spend a day or more at the Chaco Canyon and take in a unique experience of an entire society that lived their lives communing and respecting in nature. The Fajada Butte is a 300 foot tall group of rocks that stand upright. Most exciting, in my opinion, is that at Chaco Canyon you can see petroglyphs that depict cosmic occurrences such as Haley’s Comet and a Supernova explosion.