For more than three centuries - about A.D. 1250 to 1577 - this spectacular locale was home for over 1500 Pueblo Indians who built villages, dwelled, farmed, and hunted game here. In the Tewa language, the name Puye translates as "pueblo ruin where the rabbits assemble or meet." Ancestors of the Tano and Tewa peoples who live at, and are tribalmembers of, the Santa Clara Pueblo in northern New Mexico were the ancient Anasazi peoples. Their impressive ancient towns, with enormous quantities of broken or abandoned pottery, are found in hundreds of buildings -- 9 full-sized towns, once inhabited by 500,000 people -- at Chaco Canyon,, which is now a National park, and many smaller sites, as well as Canyon de Chelley at Four corners. Anasazi sites were deserted sometime around 1300 A.D., probably because of a long drought that began around 1100, making it impossible to live in this area by drylands farming. The people who moved away settled down in newly-built pueblos mostly along the northerly Rio Grande, and are thought also to be ancestors of the Hopi tribal people, who live on and around 3 mesas in central Arizona. They brought with them the pottery skills and arts which left behind all sorts of pieces in their former homes. But perhaps because of the survival crisis, the people lost around this time their former art of making certain types of glazed pottery. These ancient arts, methods, techniques, and sources of material have been and are being rediscovered by talented potters of the desert river valley.