<P> In this later period, the Pueblo II became more self - contained, decreasing trade and interaction with more distant communities . Southwest farmers developed irrigation techniques appropriate to seasonal rainfall, including soil and water control features such as check dams and terraces . The population of the region continued to be mobile, abandoning settlements and fields under adverse conditions . Along with the change in precipitation patterns, the drop in water table levels was due to a different cycle unrelated to rainfall . This forced the abandonment of settlements in the more arid or overfarmed locations . </P> <P> Evidence suggests a profound change in religion in this period . Chacoan and other structures constructed originally along astronomical alignments, and thought to have served important ceremonial purposes to the culture, were systematically dismantled . Doorways were sealed with rock and mortar . Kiva walls show marks from great fires set within them, which probably required removal of the massive roof--a task which would require significant effort . Habitations were abandoned, and tribes were split and divided and resettled far elsewhere . </P> <P> This evidence suggests that the religious structures were deliberately abandoned slowly over time . Puebloan tradition holds that the ancestors had achieved great spiritual power and control over natural forces . They used their power in ways that caused nature to change, and caused changes that were never meant to occur . Possibly, the dismantling of their religious structures was an effort to symbolically undo the changes they believed they caused due to their abuse of their spiritual power, and thus make amends with nature . </P> <P> Most modern Pueblo peoples (whether Keresans, Hopi, or Tanoans) assert the Ancestral Puebloans did not "vanish", as is commonly portrayed in media presentations or popular books . They say that the people migrated to areas in the southwest with more favorable rainfall and dependable streams . They merged into the various Pueblo peoples whose descendants still live in Arizona and New Mexico . This perspective was also presented by early 20th - century anthropologists, including Frank Hamilton Cushing, J. Walter Fewkes, and Alfred V. Kidder . </P>

A sense of historical cultural and sometimes ancestral connection