Bandelier National Monument staff Jamie Civitello, Cultural Resources Manager, right, and Jackie Stark, Archeologist, show fellow staff members an atlatl. Atlatl is a Nahautl, or Aztec, word. The Spanish encountered indigenous peoples in the Americas using this technology. However, atlatls have been used all over the world for tens of thousands of years. The atlatl acts as a lever for your arm – adding more force so the dart can move faster and harder. Knowledge and use of atlatl technology probably persisted in some form throughout the Ancestral Pueblo world, even as the bow and arrow took over as the predominant hunting technique. Photo Courtesy NPS

Kevin Stillman, Maintenance Worker/Trails Leader at Bandelier National Monument, prepares to launch an atlatl to show fellow staff members how it is used. Photo Courtesy NPS