The Native American culture that developed in the Grand Canyon area is known as the Puebloans. Their architecture was structures of stone that were accessed from a hole in the roof.
Why a hole in the roof rather than a doorway on the side? Safety. Safety from wild animals and human enemies. I thought it was a pretty good idea!
The Tusayan Ruins on the rim of the Grand Canyon are what is left of a village of about 30 people who lived here for about 30 years in the late 1100's. The Spanish named the area, and when archeologists excavated here in the 1930's they affixed that name forevermore to the ruins.
This is all that's left of the original pueblos. It's been raining all morning so they are filled with water. (I wonder what they did with those holes in their roofs when it rained??) It really is beautiful here. I can easily see why they wanted to live here!
Their religious activities took place in a Kiva. Traditionally, kivas were built underground and accessed by an opening in the "roof" because they believed mankind first emerged on Earth from a Sipapu, a hole in the ground. There would have been a stone cover over it when no rites were being performed. Here on the rim, digging a hole in this rocky soil was impossible, so they built up the kiva.
As for agriculture, the Puebloan's relied on what most Native Americans relied on: cultivated corn, squash, and beans.
In ceramics, they had distinctive black on white, black on red or orange, or corrugated pottery. Corrugated pottery is usually made by coiling the clay or strips of clay and the making indentations on the surface. It was very common in the later stages of the Anasazi culture from which these Puebloans and today's Pueblo Native Americans are descended.
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