Canyon de Chelly National Monument [De Chelly, Sp. corruption of Navajo Tsegi = rock canyon], 83,840 acres (33,955 hectares), NE Ariz.; est. 1931. The area contains the ruins of several hundred prehistoric Native American villages, most of them built A.D. 350-1300. The spectacular cliff dwellings include Mummy Cave, with a three-story tower house. Artifacts have been found, and there are numerous pictographs in rock shelters and on cliff faces. The earliest people living in the region were the Basket Makers, predecessors of the Pueblo. The Navajo came to the canyon c.1700, and it became their chief stronghold. In 1805 a Spanish expedition fought the Navajo in a rock shelter (dubbed Massacre Cave) in Canyon del Muerto (site of a prehistoric burial ground). In 1864 a U.S. cavalry force under Kit Carson engaged the Navajo in Canyon de Chelly. See National Parks and Monuments, table.

Canyon de Chelly National Monument was established April 1, 1931, as a unit of the National Park Service and is located in northeastern Arizona within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation. The monument covers and encompasses the floors and rims of the three major canyons: de Chelly, del Muerto, and Monument. These canyons were cut by streams with headwaters in the Chuska mountains just to the east of the monument.

Its 83,840 acres (339 km²), all Navajo Tribal Trust Land, preserves artifacts of the early indigenous tribes that lived in the area, including the Ancient Pueblo Peoples (also called Anasazi) and Navajo.

Canyon de Chelly is unique among National Park service units, as it consists entirely of Navajo Tribal Trust Land that remains home to the canyon community. Access to the canyon floor is restricted, and visitors are allowed to travel in the canyons only when accompanied by a park ranger or an authorized Navajo guide. The only exception to this rule is the White House Ruin Trail. Most park visitors arrive by automobile and view Canyon de Chelly from the rim, following both North Rim Drive and South Rim Drive. Ancient ruins and geologic structures are visible, but in the distance, from turnoffs on each of these routes. Tours of the canyon floor can be booked at the visitor center. There is no fee to see the canyon.

The National Monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 25, 1970.

A spectacular geologic feature is Spider Rock, a sandstone spire that rises from the canyon floor at the junction of Canyon de Chelly and Monument Canyon. Spider Rock can be seen from South Rim Drive. It has served as the scene of a number of television commercials.

According to traditional Navajo beliefs the taller of the two spires is the home of spider woman.

Name

The name Chelly (or Chelley) is a Spanish borrowing of the Navajo word Tséyiʼ, which meaning "canyon" (literally "inside the rock" < tsé "rock" + -yiʼ "inside of, within"). The Navajo pronunciation is tséɣiʔ. The Spanish pronunciation of de Chelly [detʃeʝi] was adapted into English, apparently through modelling after a French-like spelling pronunciation, and is now ("dəshā'").

See also

• Ancient Pueblo Peoples
• Mesa Verde National Park

External links

• National Park Service: Canyon de Chelly National Monument
• National Park Service Geology Fieldnotes
• Canyon de Chelly Video

References

• Grant, Campbell. "Canyon de Chelly: Its People and Rock Art". University of Arizona Press, 1983. ISBN 0-8165-0523-3.