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How one national park is featuring the voices of Indigenous people

 The Spruce Tree House cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park are tucked beneath a large slab of overhanging rock behind green trees and shrubs rising up from the valley below.
Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
The Spruce Tree House cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park, Sept. 16, 2025.

Mesa Verde National Park in Southwestern Colorado is increasingly featuring the voices of Indigenous descendants from the area.

In an audio tour, Thelma Jean Atsye talks about the importance of the place to her people. “This is still a living place,” Atsye says. “We still make pilgrimages back to Mesa Verde to visit the ancestors and gather strength and resilience from them.”

Elaine Tassy joined CPR News as its race, diversity and equity reporter in February 2022.

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