"Cliff dwellings where ancestors still live, according to those who descend from them"
Bandelier National Monument
Sandoval County, New Mexico, United States
In a volcanic canyon carved by centuries of water and wind, the Ancestral Puebloans built homes into the soft tuff cliffs, dug kivas into the earth, and left petroglyphs on the canyon walls. They departed five centuries ago. Their descendants, the people of Cochiti, San Ildefonso, and other Pueblos, say the ancestors never left. Bandelier holds the rare quality of being both archaeological ruin and living sacred landscape.
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Quick Facts
Location
Sandoval County, New Mexico, United States
Tradition
Site Type
Year Built
AD 1150 and 1600
Coordinates
35.7647, -106.3228
Last Updated
Feb 25, 2026
Learn More
Bandelier preserves the ancestral homeland of multiple Puebloan nations, settled during migrations from the Four Corners region beginning around 1150 CE. At its peak, the community at Tyuonyi sustained several hundred people across multi-story masonry buildings and hundreds of cliff-carved rooms. Environmental stress drove departure by the mid-1500s. The monument was established in 1916 following Adolph Bandelier's pioneering documentation. Today, at least twenty-three tribal nations maintain active connections to the site.
Origin Story
The people who built Frijoles Canyon's cliff dwellings came from elsewhere, and they knew they would eventually move on.
Around 1150 CE, severe drought in the Four Corners region drove Ancestral Puebloan populations south and east. The Pajarito Plateau, with its workable volcanic tuff, reliable water sources, and defensible canyons, offered what the drought-stricken north could not. Small communities formed first on the mesa tops. Over two centuries, they consolidated into the larger settlements of Frijoles Canyon.
The Puebloan migration narrative, shared across descendant communities, understands this movement not as displacement but as part of a longer pattern. The people moved, settled, built, and eventually moved again, each place adding to their collective experience and identity. Frijoles Canyon was one chapter in a story that stretches back millennia and continues today in the living pueblos along the Rio Grande.
For the Zuni, the Stone Lions carved at Bandelier hold a specific cosmological role: they guard the entrance to Shipapolima, the dwelling place of the supernatural being Poshaiyanki. This places the monument within a sacred geography that extends far beyond its physical boundaries.
Key Figures
Adolph Bandelier
archaeologist and anthropologist
Swiss-American scholar (1840-1914) who first visited Frijoles Canyon in 1880, guided by Jose Montoya of Cochiti Pueblo. His documentation of the ruins, oral histories, and cultural practices, published in works including 'The Delight Makers' (1890), laid the groundwork for the site's preservation. The monument bears his name.
Jose Montoya
guide and cultural intermediary
A member of Cochiti Pueblo who guided Adolph Bandelier to Frijoles Canyon in 1880, sharing knowledge of the ancestral homeland. His willingness to bring Bandelier to the site was an act of trust that ultimately led to the canyon's preservation.
Edgar Lee Hewett
archaeologist and preservationist
Archaeologist who led early twentieth-century excavations at Bandelier and was instrumental in the campaign to establish the national monument. His advocacy helped secure the 1916 presidential proclamation.
Evelyn Frey
custodian and steward
One of the early custodians of Bandelier National Monument who maintained the site during its formative years as a protected area, building the infrastructure that made visitor access possible while preserving the archaeological resources.
Ancestral Puebloan Builders
original inhabitants
The unnamed generations of Keresan and Tewa-speaking peoples who carved cavates from volcanic tuff, built Tyuonyi pueblo, dug ceremonial kivas, carved the Stone Lions, and sustained a community in Frijoles Canyon for approximately four centuries. Their descendants live in the pueblos along the Rio Grande.
Spiritual Lineage
The lineage at Bandelier runs unbroken from the Ancestral Puebloan builders through their descendant communities. Cochiti Pueblo, located approximately ten miles south along the Rio Grande, maintains the strongest connection to Frijoles Canyon. San Ildefonso Pueblo claims ancestral ties to Tsankawi. San Felipe and Santo Domingo (Kewa) Pueblos also trace lineage to the monument's inhabitants. This is not speculative history. The connections are established through oral tradition, linguistic analysis, architectural continuity, and ceremonial practice. The people of Cochiti do not describe Bandelier as a place their ancestors once lived. They describe it as a place their ancestors still live. As of 2024, tribal involvement in the monument's management reached unprecedented levels. The descendants are not merely stakeholders. They are the inheritors of a relationship with this landscape that predates the monument, the nation, and the colonial project by centuries.
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