WHERE OTHERS HAD PASSED

This Comanche war party is bound for home. They are led by a scout wearing the wolf headdress traditionally representative of his position. On the return from a successful foray, it was customary for them to stop a few miles from home so they could paint their bodies, blacken their faces and put on adornments as signs of victory. Native Americans inhabited lands where others - ancient Indians - had passed long before. Many different cultures lived here before the Comanche and they left their chipped images on the rocks. This petroglyph on the right is fascinating. There are images of musicians, warriors and people on horseback chasing either buffalo or elk. These images are the only written history of the region's early inhabitants because many of these civilizations simply died away. All through New Mexico, southern Colorado and northern Arizona, these people just disappeared. Nobody knows why they left and where they went but their chipped decorations on the rocks remain, showing us fragments of their lives.