Chaco Culture National Historical Park

Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a major unit of the United States National Park System located within the Navajo Nation in northwest New Mexico. It preserves extensive ancestral pueblos of prehistoric American Indian communities. Chaco Canyon's largest pueblo, Pueblo Bonito, is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. For many years, people referred to the great houses in Chaco Canyon as ruins. Modern Pueblo Tribal members consider it more respectful to refer to the sites as ancestral pueblos. Tribal elders explain that Puebloan cultures moved from area to area to seek their place. Had the Spanish not arrived in the 1500s, it's possible, even likely that these sites may have once again been occupied. It is also preferred by the Pueblo Indians that the residents of Chaco Canyon and other ancestral villages be called "Ancestral Puebloans," rather than "Anasazi."