Preface

Hundreds of years ago, in the American Southwest, there lived a group of people who were called, in the Navajo tongue, Anasazi. This word, depending on how it is pronounced, could mean several different things, such as Cliff Dwellers, Ancient Ones, Ancient Teachers, or Ancient Enemies.

Whatever the meaning of their name, one question looms large: What happened to the Anasazi?

If you walk where they walked, you see traces of them: weapons, tools, shards of pottery, and large, elaborate cliff dwellings—echoes of an ancient people. All of these things were abandoned, left behind—as though the Anasazi people simply vanished.

No one knows exactly what happened to them. Archeologists have puzzled over their seeming disappearance and some have suggested it was due to disease whereas others say it was caused by famine. Some believe they ran out of water; others think they fled a natural disaster—a cataclysmic event.

Other researchers have accepted the voice of the Pueblo tribes, including the Hopi and the Zuni, who declare that they are the descendants of the Anasazi people. That being said, these people keep the story of their ancestors sacred and guard it closely.

Sadly, there is no way for us to know—for certain—what happened to the Anasazi people. But there is something we do know: The story of the Anasazi people is woven into the land.

As you walk through the American Southwest and see what the Ancient Ones left behind, you can almost feel their presence. It’s as though Mother Earth, in her mysterious way, is telling us their stories—whispering them to us—urging us to consider our own walking, inviting us to consider, What stories are we weaving into the land?

ANASAZI Foundation is a nonprofit wilderness therapy program based in Arizona. Through our name and in our conduct, we honor the fact that we walk upon a land once peopled by the Anasazi. And as we walk, we encourage the youth and young adults with whom we work to consider their own “walking” in life. For in a figurative yet very real way our lives are both a walking and a weaving. We travel only as far and as high as our hearts will take us, and our happiness on the journey depends on our connection to the Creator and to one another. For to turn away from one another—to turn away from the truth about one another—is to invite war and, ultimately, destruction.

Many of the unique and life-changing teachings at ANASAZI Foundation were inspired by Ezekiel C. Sanchez (a Totonac Indian whose given name is Good Buffalo Eagle) and his wife, Pauline Martin Sanchez (a Navajo native whose given name is Gentle White Dove). For more than thirty years these teachings have helped families turn their hearts to one another, begin anew, and walk in harmony in the wilderness of the world.

Inspired by their wisdom, this book tells an allegorical story of two brothers whose warring hearts threaten to destroy their lives and their community. This book is not historical, nor is it about any particular person or people. The story is an allegory. It is a story about you and your people.

It is an invitation for you to “live as WE.”