Native Plants of Chaco Canyon

Shamans in the ancient Chacoan culture used a variety of native plants for medicinal, cultural, spiritual and ritual uses. Many of them are excellent for desert gardens.

There is something intensely spiritual about Chaco Canyon, the ruins of an ancient Native American civilization. It sits in the northwest corner of New Mexico, not far from Canyon de Chelly in Arizona and Mesa Verde in Colorado.(Click here for more info on Chaco Canyon)

The Puebloan, Zuni, Hopi and other Southwestern peoples still revere the canyon and make pilgrimages to this holy place.

I have traveled to Chaco several times, and although my reasons for going are more horticultural than spiritual, I always sense the peace of the place.

There are a great many plants that the ancient Native American shamans used for medicinal, spiritual and ritual purposes, and many still grow in that out-of-the-way canyon.

Big sagebrush, which grows everywhere in Chaco, was viewed (and still is by the Navajo and others) as a "life" medicine. It was (and still is) used as a cure for headaches, stomach problems, menstrual cramps, colds and fevers, and in sweat baths and purification rituals.

I know that the plant was used by the ancient Chacoans, because there are flowering branches of the shrub etched in petroglyphs in several holy places in Chaco Canyon.

Big sagebrush is an aromatic, fairly compact shrub. It can grow to six feet. The plant is found between 4,500 and 10,000 feet in dry plains, mesas and rocky places. It has gray-green foliage that emits a silvery sheen in the sunlight.

Properly cared for, it is also a great background addition to any desert garden.

Next week, more indigenous desert plants.