Sovereign Innovations

Who said January 1st was the beginning of the New Year?

Maybe your parents told you this and they said, Because I said so. Or maybe you had teachers in school who taught you something about the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and how they use religious reasons for dictating the start of the new year.

Well, what if I told you Indigenous peoples had their own calendars?

Great.

You've heard of the Mayan calendar.

Awesome.

But have you heard of the Navajo calendar?

Here, the year starts in October because of the harvesting of crops and the beginning of cold fronts to come.

The Navajo people understood the importance of these crops for their livelihood and culture, so they decided to name the month using indicators of things that were important to them at the time.

In contrast, many months in the Julian calendar are named after Roman gods and emperors.

Like August, which is named after Augustus Caesar.

But respectfully, what does that teach me about the month of August.

In the Navajo language, the month of August is termed the ripening of early crops.

And in the Laguna Pueblo calendar.

The month is termed the silk of corn appearing.

So that's why in this episode, I won't be using Western scientific understandings of the calendar and the naming of months, because before colonization, Indigenous peoples were already engaged in their own scientific research, which we call Indigenous Knowledge.

Welcome back to another episode of Sovereign Innovations.

As always, I'm your host, Cheyenne Bearfoot.

A large part of Indigenous Knowledge is simply observing the world around you.

And if you're like me, this involves a lot of trial and error.

Sometimes you get things wrong, but other times you get things just right.

And that affirmation is empowering from a Western perspective.

This might look like the first few steps of the scientific method.

As Indigenous peoples observed and adapted to the world around them, so did their documentation of what they experienced.

And while oral storytelling still continues to this day, I'm sure you're wondering how does Chey know that Indigenous peoples were scientists and researchers?

Well, that brings us to petroglyphs.

Like, what is this and believe in mean.

Wait.

I mean, this symbol.

for the Tewa people, their Indigenous Knowledge told them that this symbol represented a fingerprint.

And what if I told you that these rock etchings weren't just random them, but rather placed to signify what and where a particular astrological event happened?

Like an eclipse?

Well, not going to show that, because in many Navajo communities, they don't view the eclipse.

They see this as a time to self-reflect and to respect the sun and moon.

One Navajo astronomer David Begay, Ph.D., describes this belief based on their ancestors viewing of the eclipse without protective glasses.

And we're back to trial and error.

Anyways.

Petroglyphs are one way Indigenous peoples kept receipts for their discoveries.

Our southern relatives, the Aztec and Mayan, had documentation in the form of codices.

You know, like when you were in fifth grade and you had that super cringey diary that you hid under your bed and you only wrote in during the dead of night.

Were our ancestors foreshadowing all of the challenges, gaslighting, and pushback we'd face for our non-Western documentation of events?

I mean, likely not, but thankfully somebody was keeping track of this stuff.

because all of these petroglyphs, pictographs, rock art, cave paintings, whatever were ways of indicating a scientific thought that they planned to return back to Kurly Tlapoyawa is a scholar and archeologist who's been at the forefront of telling these stories.

He's like Indigiana Jones.

Now, what we have here at the Petroglyph National Monument are petroglyphs, and the difference between a Petroglyph and a pictographs is that petroglyphs are etched or chiseled into the rock itself, whereas a pictographs is more like a mural.

It's something that has been painted onto the face of the rock wall.

Of course, archeologists and anthropologists have been studying petroglyphs for years.

the oldest currently discovered petroglyphs date back nearly 40,000 years ago.

They study these images to try to understand how ancient peoples behaved and communicated.

But of course, for Indigenous peoples, these petroglyphs are more than just relics of the past.

They highlight a deep connection between culture and traditional knowledge, and they provide insight into our ancestors understanding of the earth and sky.

So I guess one way of thinking about them is stone stories.

And these stories demonstrate the incredible understanding that our ancestors had of the world around them.

Precise mappings, astronomical events and cultural knowledge were all contained in these powerful images.

These stories are a form of entertainment, right?

We know that the Mixtec codices, for example, are these accordion like books.

They all fold out.

They're usually written on deerskin or on a mock paper.

And we know that they were folded out, these beautiful, colorful images, and they were mounted on the wall and that there would be an interpreter there.

So an individual whose responsibility it was to impart the knowledge contained in that codex to everybody in the room.

And this could be done with musical accompaniment.

So it would be this really group event.

It would be a communal event where the entire community would come together and learn from this individual using their writing system.

And we see that here at Petroglyph National Monument.

We don't know.

Maybe the same thing was being done here.

Maybe, you know, the elders, the teachers were coming here with the group of people, with their families, with their grandkids, and just guiding them through these stories.

And so it's really important that we understand the various ways that Indigenous Knowledge is retained and imparted and how important it is that we keep these traditions alive.

From earth to sky.

Our stone stories weave together the past and present in ways that embody Indigenous ways of being and knowing.

There's another incredible example of this hidden way down in South Texas.

The White Shaman cave, named for the most prominent figure in the caves, tells the story of the Nahua people and their descendants, The Huichol and the Coahuiltecan the images are around 4000 years old, but accurately map the springs around the balconies escarpment as well as accurately predict the position and location of several celestial recurring events.

The oral narrative passed down through the ages, served as a way of verifying and centralizing important knowledge that was then recorded and woven into a deeper narrative and history of our Indigenous ancestors.

I think it's profound how our stone stories continue to demonstrate the wisdom and innovation of Indigenous peoples and how our narratives are deeply embedded in our understanding of the areas around us from land to sky.

Our stories live on through the descendants of those original storytellers and creators.

You know, in so many ways, the series has been all about finding our place in this world as Indigenous people.

Since day one.

I remember reading comments about how so many of you were so happy to know that content like this existed and was shared in this way.

And a lot of you were really happy that the algorithm led you here.

And I'm not going to lie.

There were a lot of times when I didn't really know what I was doing.

But I had an epic team to support me, and I'm so happy that I got to learn and grow alongside all of you.

These past nine months.

The path I took offered me not only an opportunity to share my story, but to give others in the community a chance to share theirs.

No matter how you navigate this world, whether you're from the rez or the suburbs or you grew up traditional or you're just now reconnecting, you will always find your way back to wherever you need to be.