Dear friend,
Yes, I have been to several of these sites, which are amazing, and inspiring. I have been to several sites in the southwest: Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico (If you want to access a wonderful site that we developed with help from Native American scholars with ancestry in that area, and with the National Park Service and NASA, please visit the URL: http://traditionsofthesun.org - Traditions of the Sun). I have also been to Hovenweep National Monument in Utah. These two sites are the home of the ancestors of the Pueblo people, currently living in the southwest. The Pueblo indians still have strong solar practices, they follow the movement of the Sun, track and predict seasons, and hold sacred ceremonies tied to the Sun. At Chaco and Hovenweep, you can find evidence of similar solar traditions, since the indians there, about 1000 years ago, constructed buildings and used markings on the landscape along the horizon to predict and celebrate seasons. These practices are very much integrated with the culture's ideology and worldview, and had both practical and ceremonial significance.
I have also spent quite a bit of time in the Yucatan, Mexico. I have visited and work with archeo-astronomers in the sites of Chichen Itza, Uxmal, and Dzibilchaltun. These sites are magnificent, like Chaco and Hovenweep. They were built also more than 1000 years ago by the Maya. The Maya, like the Pueblo people, are a living culture today, with their language and practices still alive and thriving. There will be a live webcast from Chichen Itza showing a solar alignment with the pyramid of El Castillo, on March 20th, Sunday, the date of the Equinox, at 5 pm Eastern time. You can access this show at http://www.exploratorium.edu
Best wishes, and thank you for your question and interest,
Isabel Hawkins