Archeologists call the prehistoric Indians of the Mesa Verde “Anasazi.” Anasazi peoples once lived over a vast area of the northern Southwest, from the Four Corners to southern Nevada. The Anasazi were descended from nomadic hunting and gathering peoples who occupied the Southwest several thousand years before the time of Christ. Food plants, originally domesticated in Mexico, spread to the Southwest through trade. People were then able to produce food as well as collect it. Although the Anasazi raised crops of corn, beans, and squash, such foods probably made up only about half their diet. The people still relied on the hunting and gathering skills passed down from their ancestors. The Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New Mexico are the descendants of the Anasazi. Despite four centuries of contact—and sometimes conflict—with European culture, today’s Pueblos carry on much of the way of life the Anasazi developed over the centuries. The Anasazi heritage lives on.