Our Ancient Neighborhood

Our neighborhood plainly, yet beautifully, exhibits signs of pre-Anglo settlement. Well, at least signs of use. Due to its general geographic situation, proximate to both high mountains and river basins, and to its more specific character as a canyon, our surroundings were quite likely used as a gathering spot, perhaps socially, for the harvest of wild game, or as a stopover along a route of travel.

Having grown up in a region steeped in Native American culture, and still greatly influenced by that current and historical context, I can't help but be fascinated by the stark austerity of what once must have been life among this country's only endemic peoples. Very rarely, one encounters a more personal symbol of that life. The other day, while we were out for a walk with Suba, I had just such a rare and special encounter.

To preface the encounter, I confess my fascination with geology, and, thus, rocks. Wherever I might be outside, my eyes drift scan details beginning first at the macro (landscape) level, and progressing quickly to the more micro scale (leaves, insects, rocks and pebbles). Give me enough time wandering around someplace, and I'll eventually put together a collection of rocks and other items to which, for one reason or another, I assign immediate and intangible value. My current phase is composed primarily of fossils and petrified wood. Wyoming is a geologic kalidoscope, though - I don't know how anyone living here can help themselves from amassing their own piles of cool rocks.

Anyway, as I bent down beneath a red sandstone cliffband to add yet another piece to the collection, I picked up not just a cool rock, but one that had been carefully shapped and skillfully knapped to form the crescent edge of a hand-sized scraping tool. Standing there, staring at that ancient edge, I had a little out-of-body experience as I floated between those hundreds of years between when that tool was left behind and when I plucked it from the red silt. Materially it is beautiful; immaterially, it is priceless and profound.

Artifact
Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8G AF-S taken f/3.8 @1/60s; SB-800 Speedlight fired remotetly
Copyright 2009 schnitzerPHOTO

I won't get in to the tragedy of Native American culture in the wake of post-Columbian settlement, nor the generations of tragedy that followed westward expansion. It is with humility that I look upon this simple stone tool. I hope it serves as a reminder of how humans did, at one time, live in balance with their environment - the place we now call home.

More soon.