FCNP August 2024 Speaker Jon Ghahate

Pueblo Agrarian Civilizations Along The Rio Grande Presented by Jon Ghahate
Presented on Thursday, August 29, 5:00 – 6:15pm on Zoom

Pueblo Cultural Educator Jon Ghahate discusses the legacy of the ancestral Puebloan agrarian civilizations who established, inhabited, and sustained their communities since time 'immemorial' and into the present along the Rio Grande. Yet, despite environmental challenges, colonization, the 'encomienda', territorial occupation, and US federal policies, these Pueblo communities have resided on their ancestral homelands, maintained their cultural traditions, and perpetuated their communal agrarian practices, and most importantly, their unique languages.

The 'Cradle of Civilization', historically, has been referred to with numerous labels: Greater Khorāsān, Mesopotamia, the Ancient Near East, etc. We now refer to this region of our planet as Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and surrounding sovereign countries. What is portrayed as agrarian civilizations inform us that certain social structures and characteristics were the impetus for the development of agriculture and agrarian societies. Wheat, barley, and other commodities have their origins from this area. The promotion of hybridizations, i.e., artificial selections contributed to the development of these specific crops. This is just one side of our Earth.

In the Western Hemisphere, the same principles of hybridization, artificial selection, and bio-scientific principles were fundamental in the establishment and sustainability of many Indigenous agrarian civilizations throughout the Western Hemisphere before incursion by representatives of Eastern Hemisphere kingdoms. Specifically, in what is now referred toas the Rio Grande Corridor, Ancestral Puebloan and Pueblo agrarian civilizations thrived. Despite encroachment, colonization, and territorial rule, their descendants are fortunate to still practice the core principles of 'stewardship' of an agrarian society.

Jon Ghahate is of the Pueblos of Laguna and Zuni and of the Turkey and Badger Clans. Jon is an Educator at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Cortez, Colorado. Previously, he was the Museum Cultural Educator at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Jon was a Kellogg National Leadership Program Fellow. He is a parent of two children and resides on the homelands of the Pueblo peoples in the State of New Mexico.­­