Dear Historians,

History is not just rereading the same story from a dusty book and putting the right events in the right order on a timeline. History is a site of contention. History is where we try to figure out what happened in the past using evidence, arguments, and theories.

Mesa Verde shows this. Historians aren’t sure why the Ancestral Puebloans left in the 13th century after living there for 700 years. But it’s important for us to work to figure it out. Because we live here now. And the forces that drove people in the past are the same forces that drive us today. The better we understand them–the better we know our history–the better we can live with them.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck