A Lunar Standstill message from Crow Canyon educator, Jon Ghahate (Laguna/Zuni)

Since time immemorial, countless Indigenous generations and civilizations in the Western Hemisphere have established—and perpetuate to this day—their stories and narratives of our Earth, the Moon, and the Cosmos and how we all are intimately connected. Through petroglyphs, pictographs, the alignment of architecture, and oral histories, Ancestral Pueblo people of the U.S. Southwest connected these celestial bodies/events to seasons, ceremonies, planting, harvests, and the establishment of clan responsibilities.

Today, math and science, and specifically archeoastronomy have helped us identify an 18.6-year cycle known as the ‘Lunar Standstill.’ During this event, there is an observable shadow created by moonlight on the Sun Dagger at Chaco Canyon’s Fajada Butte in northern New Mexico. That same cyclical pattern is observable when the Moon is positioned between the twin monolithic columns at Chimney Rock in southwest Colorado.

Other sites throughout the U.S. Southwest—as well as in the Western Hemisphere—have been known to exhibit similar lunar alignments. It is amazing to consider that the stars, the Sun, and certainly, the Moon which Ancestral Pueblo people viewed some 1,200 years ago are the same celestial bodies we see today. To fully appreciate this astonishment, we encourage you to spend time on the night of a full Moon, marvel at our closest celestial neighbor, wonder at the sunlight that reflects off its surface, and take time to imagine that you are witnessing what countless generations have witnesses since ‘time immemorial’. In the present-day U.S. Southwest, there are 21 Pueblo communities along with many other Indigenous communities throughout the Western Hemisphere, and it’s important to recognize that each has its own set of narratives and perspectives about the relationship between the us, the Earth, and the Moon.

Head to chimneyrockco.org for more information about the lunar standstill at Chimney Rock National Monument!