Wiatava Lodge #13 was founded on January 1, 1973 to serve the Orange County
Council. The original chapters in 1973 were Ahwahnee, Amimi, Denali (merged
with Ahwahnee in 1976), Koshare, Los Amigos (became Crow in 1979), Maga
Taskozu, Ta Tanka, Tenaja, Tiwahinkpe (became Tsungoni in 1976), Woapalanne
(merged with Tenaja in 1976), and Santee.
In 1980, Koshare Chapter was split and the northern half became Modoc
Chapter. In 1983, several districts, including Saddleback District, were
realigned. Parts of Tsungoni went to Koshare and Ta Tanka and what remained
was named Apatschin Chapter. Later, Apatschin merged into Ta Tanka. Tenaja
was split into Tenaja and Anasazi.
In the Spring of 1983, Saddleback District was realigned and Anasazi Chapter
was founded. Anasazi serves the areas of Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Laguna
Hills, and Rancho Santa Margarita. Fred Sage III, who was the Tenaja
advisor in 1983, chose the colors of brown and orange and the chapter name,
Anasazi, which is a Navajo word meaning "the ancient ones." The Anasazi
were Indians who built their homes in canyon walls and under rock overhangs
in what is now the Southwestern United States. These Indians were the
ancestors of the modern-day Pueblo Indians. Ruins of the cliff dwellings
lie in northern Arizona, northern New Mexico, southern Utah, and southern
Colorado. Some of the most spectacular of these cliff dwellings can still
be seen at Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado.
The cliff dwellers farmed on the plains at the foot of their cliff homes or
on the flat-topped hills, called mesas, above their dwellings. They grew
beans, corn, cotton, squash, and tobacco and raised turkeys. They hunted
deer and mountain sheep with arrows that had points of flaked stone. In
summer, they wore skirts woven from cotton, milkweed, and yucca fibers. In
winter, the Anasazi wore fir robes and blankets made of cords wrapped with
turkey feathers or strips of rabbit skin.
The Anasazi lived in two-or-three story cliff houses. The people built
their hhomes on protected ledges or in hollow spaces in cliff walls, using
sandstone blocks and mud mortar. They constructed the small rooms one upon
another and placed each story back a short distance from the edge of the one
below. As many as 1,500 people could live in some of these dwellings.
Anthropologists do not know for sure why the cliff-dwelling Anasazi left
their homes. Possible explanations are hostile Indian invaders, climate
changes, loss of food supply, or severe drought.
