{"id":43186,"date":"2021-12-17T15:32:09","date_gmt":"2021-12-17T22:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/manitou-springs-cliff-dwellings-spark-conversation-about-preservation-and-indigenous-history\/"},"modified":"2021-12-17T22:32:09","modified_gmt":"2021-12-17T22:32:09","slug":"manitou-springs-cliff-dwellings-spark-conversation-about-preservation-and-indigenous-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/manitou-springs-cliff-dwellings-spark-conversation-about-preservation-and-indigenous-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Manitou Springs Cliff Dwellings spark conversation about preservation and Indigenous history"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Visitors
Visitors explore the Manitou Cliff Dwellings in Manitou Springs in summer 2021. The attraction, which features dwellings that were moved from Southwest Colorado in the early 20th century, has been criticized by some for how it portrays Ancient Puebloan people and for how buildings were reconstructed. (Monica Castillo\/CPR News)<\/span>Monica Castillo\/CPR News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Just outside of Colorado Springs, the Manitou Cliff Dwellings have been welcoming tourists for over 100 years.<\/p>\n

In some ways, they have taken on a history of their own as a destination for families, school trips and even international travelers. Ads for the cliff dwellings invite visitors to touch history.<\/p>\n

That caught the attention of new Coloradan Nick Culbert from nearby Fort Carson. He and his girlfriend went to the cliff dwellings to learn about the history of his new home.<\/p>\n

When asked what he learned on his visit, Culbert said, \u201cThe farthest home, way up there actually, is like the most perfectly preserved, in the Southwest, of all the cliffside homes which I thought was pretty interesting that it was right here in Colorado Springs.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the history of the dwellings \u2013 their origin and authenticity \u2013 is complicated.<\/p>\n

Some of the dwellings are indeed real, but they were also taken from their original site in Southwest Colorado and reconstructed near Colorado Springs. Indeed, the structures some tourism sites call \u201cauthentic\u201d are called \u201cfake\u201d by others.<\/p>\n

Raven Payment did not see authenticity when she visited the cliff dwellings over the summer. What she felt was disrespect. She took her observations to Twitter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I was very offended, but I was also infuriated,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is some world-class audacity and entitlement to not only steal these things, but then to not even put them back together the way they were and how those people would have used them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payment said that not only is their reconstruction insulting, the attraction also uses language and words that can be destructive.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a larger, broader conversation, it\u2019s reinforcing stereotypes that affect us in the modern age and how we move through the world socially and even politically,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

So, how did the cliff dwellings end up in Manitou Springs?<\/p>\n

\"Visitors
Visitors explore the Manitou Cliff Dwellings in Manitou Springs in summer 2021. The attraction, which features dwellings that were moved from Southwest Colorado in the early 20th century, has been criticized by some for how it portrays Ancient Puebloan people and for how buildings were reconstructed. (Monica Castillo\/CPR News)<\/span>Monica Castillo\/CPR News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Back at the turn of the 20th century, concerned Coloradans wanted to stop the pillaging and looting of ancient Indigenous sites.<\/p>\n

Virginia McClurg and Harold Ashenhurst thought the best way to preserve one of these sites was to move them closer to where white Coloradans were settling down. They had the homes of Ancestral Puebloans removed from their original site in McElmo Canyon in the southwest corner of Colorado to the Front Range.<\/p>\n

The buildings were reassembled with supplies not available to Ancestral Puebloans, such as mortar. They also added broken bits of ancient pottery into the binding mix, which further changed what these homes once looked like.<\/p>\n

Archaeologist Richard Wilshusen says those decisions damaged the attraction\u2019s claim to authenticity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be like having a replica of the Taj Mahal somewhere and thinking that you\u2019re in India and you\u2019re not, you\u2019re just viewing a replica,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Museums and cultural institutions all over the nation have been re-evaluating how they\u2019ve treated Indigenous historical sites in the past.<\/p>\n

Some have made strides in diversifying staff, recontextualizing often-whitewashed history and opening better lines of communication with affected communities. But some places have been slow to keep up.<\/p>\n

For instance, Payment says the cliff dwellings\u2019 use of the term \u201cAnasazi\u201d has been deemed offensive by many Indigenous people. White archaeologists adopted the term \u2013 which means \u201cancient enemy\u201d \u2013 from their Navajo guides.<\/p>\n

The descendants of Ancestral Puebloans don\u2019t use the term and pushed museums to update their language. But many state and local guides still use the term, and it figured prominently in many parts of the cliff dwellings attraction, even as recently as this summer.<\/p>\n

Since then, the privately owned attraction has taken some steps to drop the use of the term, but it remains in some places. The owners and management of the cliff dwellings declined to be interviewed for this story.<\/p>\n

Payment says she hopes potential visitors understand what it felt like for her and other Indigenous people to visit the attraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe things that they are seeing at the Manitou Springs Cliff Dwellings belong to people who are still alive, those are their relatives\u2019 items,\u201d she said. \u201cSo this is no different than going to a cemetery of their family. And if we pull things out of their family\u2019s coffins and put them on display, they would probably be rightfully bothered by that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit cpr.org.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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