#cibola

Bowl with Black Interlocking Lattice on Interior; White Interlocking Squared Spirals on Exterior

Bowl with Geometric Black-and-White Motifs on Interior and Exterior Survace, Cibola, 1300, Art Institute of Chicago: Arts of the Americas

Edward E. Ayer Endowment in memory of Charles L. Hutchinson Size: Diam. 23.5 cm (9 1/4 in.) Medium: Ceramic and pigment

It's January 11th. On this day in 1908, 🇺🇸 US President Theodore Roosevelt declared the massive 800,000-acre Grand Canyon area in northwestern Arizona a 🏞️ national monument. “Let this great wonder of nature remain as it now is,” he declared. “You cannot improve on it. But what you can do is keep it for your children, your children’s children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see.”

🛶 Native Americans have been living in the Grand Canyon area in harmony with the bighorn sheep, 🦌 deer, elk, antelope, cougars, coyotes, 🐻 bears, and other wildlife for thousands of years. The first Europeans to view it were 🇪🇸 Spanish conquistadors led by García López de Cárdenas. In 1540, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado and his army traveled northward from 🇲🇽 Mexico City in search of the mythical Seven Cities of Cíbola. After Coronado’s army arrived at a Hopi village east of the canyon, he sent Cárdenas and a small party of men, guided by the Hopi, to find a reported “great river.” The Hopi guides took the unwelcome soldiers along an exaggerated route to the highest point above the river, about a mile up, and volunteered no information of value.

Cárdenas spent three days trying to reach the river at the bottom of the canyon, but only made it about a third of the way down. His view from there, though, was enough to convince him that this turbulent river was unnavigable. The Hopi were able to fool the Spaniards into thinking that the whole area was an impenetrable wasteland. Coronado dismissed further western exploration, and pointed his men east toward Texas. The Grand Canyon was left unexplored by white men for over 200 years until 1869, when American geologist John Wesley Powell led a group of 10 men in four 🚣🏼 rowboats down the Colorado River and its rapids all the way to the end of the 446-kilometer-long gorge.

September

Cibola National Forest

Alysa DeMella