Indian Creek, Indian Creek, Crownpoint, McKinley County, NM

Significance: The Indian Creek community centers on two sandstone structures - Casa Cielo (Sky City) and Case Abajo (Lower House) - associated with the Anasazi culture which flourished one thousand years ago in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. The people who constructed these structures were part of a complex cultural system that integrated smaller remote "outlying" farming communities such as Indian Creek with a concentration of larger pueblos in Chaco Canyon. Features associated with the large public structures in the canyon and in the outlying communities are distinctive core and veneer masonry walls, blocked-in kivas, great kivas, road segments, earth works such as berms and mounds, and smaller house sites. Public structures such as Casa Cielo integrated the community on both social and religious levels while the great structures at Chaco Canyon integrated much of the Four Corners region. It is believed that large pilgrimages to Chaco Canyon from the outlying communities where made for social and religious events. By 1100 A.D. the center of the Anasazi culture dispersed and shifted north to the San Juan, Animas, and La Plata Rivers, and most of the sites, including Indian Creek were abandoned. Located 15 miles west of Chaco Canyon atop a small mesa, Casa Cielo is a rectangular stone structure containing 12 rooms and a single kiva. Casa Cielo probably served as the public and religious center for the surrounding community of at least 20 small Anasazi house sites. Although much of the massive masonry walls have collapsed, the distribution of the rubble indicates that the structure was one story in height with the primary entrance on the south elevation. A thin stone veneer was applied to the substantial sandstone core walls. Pottery fragments associated with the site are affiliated with the late Pueblo II and early Pueblo III horizons (ca. A.D. 1000-1100). Casa Abajo, located approximately .3 miles wet of Casa Cielo, is situated on the south slope of a low mesa. Like Casa Cielo, Casa Abajo probably served as a public center for the surrounding cluster of Anasazi house sites. The large "L" shaped structure contains nine rooms and an enclosed plaza. A small entryway, identified by a low area in the rubble, probably existed in the south wall of the plaza. An analysis of ceramic materials at the site suggests an occupation period of A.D. 900-1000. A number of related archeological features have been identified in proximity to the ruins including a line of upright stone slabs, middens, small houses and a segment of retaining wall.
Survey number: HABS NM-179