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VIDEO: An eight year effort to preserve history in New Mexico brings together indigenous people, policy-makers and researchers, including a University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor. Carrie Heitman and her colleagues are trying...
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Credit: Produced by Mary Jane Bruce, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, Nebraska, July 1, 2021 -- Carrie Heitman can still remember the moment when -- as an undergraduate visiting for the first time -- Chaco Culture National Historic Park became the cornerstone of her academic career in anthropology.
"You have to take this 30-mile road off the beaten path to get there, and then you drop into the canyon and there are these really majestic geological features," Heitman said. "There's Fajada Butte that stands up in the center of this canyon as it opens up in front of you. When I first went there, in 1997, that was a really powerful experience, to be in this place, surrounded by these absolutely grand and majestic buildings. I fell in love with it."