Dan Flores

But as is evident from a place like San Lazaro, for all their successes, the Galisteo Pueblans struggled with long-term sustainability. The year-round fires to boil their crops meant that firewood cutting and gathering pushed farther out year after year.

One of the first scientists to investigate the ruins of their towns, Nels Nelson of the American Museum of Natural History, took a revelatory photograph of the San Lazaro site in 1912, 132 years after its abandonment. That photo showed a still, barren landscape almost entirely stripped of trees and shrubs for two miles around.

One of the first scientists to investigate the ruins of their towns, Nels Nelson of the American Museum of Natural History, took a revelatory photograph of the San Lazaro site in 1912, 132 years after its abandonment. That photo showed a still, barren landscape almost entirely stripped of trees and shrubs for two miles around.

One of the first scientists to investigate the ruins of their towns, Nels Nelson of the American Museum of Natural History, took a revelatory photograph of the San Lazaro site in 1912, 132 years after its abandonment. That photo showed a still, barren landscape almost entirely stripped of trees and shrubs for two miles around.

With the diaspora that followed Chaco's collapse, the new Pueblo town of Pecos, northeast of the Galiceo country, developed a mutualistic arrangement with plains hunters to trade Pueblo crop products for dried bison meat. There's no evidence these Galiceo villages ever managed something similar. So with eight towns and several thousand residents, huntable wildlife likely took a significant hit.

With the diaspora that followed Chaco's collapse, the new Pueblo town of Pecos, northeast of the Galiceo country, developed a mutualistic arrangement with plains hunters to trade Pueblo crop products for dried bison meat. There's no evidence these Galiceo villages ever managed something similar. So with eight towns and several thousand residents, huntable wildlife likely took a significant hit.

With the diaspora that followed Chaco's collapse, the new Pueblo town of Pecos, northeast of the Galiceo country, developed a mutualistic arrangement with plains hunters to trade Pueblo crop products for dried bison meat. There's no evidence these Galiceo villages ever managed something similar. So with eight towns and several thousand residents, huntable wildlife likely took a significant hit.

One bit of evidence comes from San Lazaro's archaeology's astonishing number of bones and skulls, many of them cracked open to get at marrow or brains from the goats and sheep Spanish settlers introduced. By the 1600s, protein was obviously a dietary addition the Galisteo Pueblo residents were avid for.

One bit of evidence comes from San Lazaro's archaeology's astonishing number of bones and skulls, many of them cracked open to get at marrow or brains from the goats and sheep Spanish settlers introduced. By the 1600s, protein was obviously a dietary addition the Galisteo Pueblo residents were avid for.

One bit of evidence comes from San Lazaro's archaeology's astonishing number of bones and skulls, many of them cracked open to get at marrow or brains from the goats and sheep Spanish settlers introduced. By the 1600s, protein was obviously a dietary addition the Galisteo Pueblo residents were avid for.

Their several hundred year inhabitation did leave the incoming Europeans a beautifully grassed basin and valley and a healthy Galiceo River that flowed over the surface of this landscape.

Their several hundred year inhabitation did leave the incoming Europeans a beautifully grassed basin and valley and a healthy Galiceo River that flowed over the surface of this landscape.

Their several hundred year inhabitation did leave the incoming Europeans a beautifully grassed basin and valley and a healthy Galiceo River that flowed over the surface of this landscape.

The ecological changes that left exotic weeds and spreading junipers and produced a river that slashed arroyos and stream beds 25 feet deep all came later with pasturage for New Spain's horse herds and flocks of sheep and goats. and when the Americans came with millions of cattle and renewed mining in the local mountains.

The ecological changes that left exotic weeds and spreading junipers and produced a river that slashed arroyos and stream beds 25 feet deep all came later with pasturage for New Spain's horse herds and flocks of sheep and goats. and when the Americans came with millions of cattle and renewed mining in the local mountains.

The ecological changes that left exotic weeds and spreading junipers and produced a river that slashed arroyos and stream beds 25 feet deep all came later with pasturage for New Spain's horse herds and flocks of sheep and goats. and when the Americans came with millions of cattle and renewed mining in the local mountains.

Beyond walking across the broken pots at San Lazaro, my own most vivid experience of the lingering presence of this former Galiseo world has come from hiking the remnant lava dikes that rise like black dragon backbones from the yellow grasslands here.

Beyond walking across the broken pots at San Lazaro, my own most vivid experience of the lingering presence of this former Galiseo world has come from hiking the remnant lava dikes that rise like black dragon backbones from the yellow grasslands here.

Beyond walking across the broken pots at San Lazaro, my own most vivid experience of the lingering presence of this former Galiseo world has come from hiking the remnant lava dikes that rise like black dragon backbones from the yellow grasslands here.

Centuries ago, my Galiseo neighbors lavishly adorned these lava boulders with petroglyphs, not a handful, not a few dozen, but with thousands of white outlined images carefully pecked into the black rock surfaces. For capturing some of the essentials of their world and their presence, nothing else brings them to life like these.