Summer Solstice at Chaco Canyon: A Short Film

While at Chaco Canyon for solstice this June, I met Lillian Kelly, a freelance filmmaker in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She prepared a short film, "Summer Solstice at Chaco Canyon," highlighting the Laguna Pueblo dancers, and G.B. Cornucopia discussing Chaco and solstice.

Her material often appears on New Mexico PBS, KNME.

We were both working with the Friends of Native Cultures, headed by Caroline Brown, who brought the Acoma and Laguna Pueblo dancers to Chaco this summer.

She did a great job of distilling some of the essence of the solstice experience, and providing some of G.B.'s expert commentary.

Thanks Lillian!

Here is the text provided with the Chaco solstice video on YouTube:

There are several places in Chaco Canyon that mark the movement of the sun throughout the year. Casa Rinconada, one of the larger kivas in the Chacoan system, is open to the public just before sunrise during the few days of the summer solstice.

During these days, the longest of the year, the sun shines through a window and into a niche. It's controversial whether this marker was intentional on the part of the Chacoan people, who started building the kiva in 1070.

When the kiva was found by an archaeological team in the 1930s, it was rebuilt. The exact size of the window is not known. Also, there are low walls surrounding the window that indicate the window may not have received light at all when the kiva was originally constructed.

Regardless of the intention on the part of the Chacoans, the canyon is a spectacular place to view the sky, both during the day and at night. There's nothing like faring the 16 miles of dirt road from U.S. 550 and getting far, far, far away from the things of modern man.

Originally broadcast on New Mexico PBS station KNME.

Comments

[Lillian]

Christina,

Thank you for sharing this video.

Hope you are well...

Lillian