WHEN YOU
LOOK
Western Bluebird
The Ant Tunnel: An Underground Atlantis
When you look at this ant tunnel, you see abandonment.
Ant tunnels (Formicary), reside underground within the soil and take on the role of the invisible. The carved-out passages, some horizontal, and others vertical cross each other in intricate intersections. These tunnels' architecture relies heavily on soil moisture and aeration, which molds and stabilizes their structure as tunnel depth increases. The relationship between ant tunnels and soil is one of reciprocity as the soil moisture provides protection and stability and the tunnels work to increase filtration systems, which in return, increases soil moisture, the rate of carbon absorption from the atmosphere, and the process of evapotranspiration that contributes to photosynthesis. Working together with soil, these tunnels are where life begins for its ant inhabitants as they are used for nursery protection, food storage, and transportation.
An uncovered ant nest. (Asman, Paul and Jill Lenoble. "Ant Nest." Flickr, 2016).
The ant tunnel and its inhabitants have a much deeper connection to our Earth, however, and it is its relation to the Indigenous Hopi Tribe. Although the abandonment of ant tunnels can impact the Earth directly through soil and carbon content, it is the culture of the Hopi tribe that is truly abandoned as climate change swallows the world. From the tales of the tribe, the creator, Sotuknang, created the first world with the Spider Woman, the creator of all things. As the world faced destruction from natural disaster and humankind’s hubris, the creator ushered for the Hopi Tribe to find protection in the tunnels of the Ant People, or “Anu Sinom.” The creator argued that the Ant People and their tunnels were a successful industrial civilization that could sustain the disasters of the world by living in harmony among each other in the caves underground.
A drawing of a Hopi Kachina, or an ancestral spirit that are the messengers between gods and humans. (Fewkes, Jesse Walter. “Hopi Katrina’s – Alosaka (1895) Drawn by the Native People.” Rawpixel, 1850-1930).
In the story of creation from the Hopi Tribe, the ants and their tunnels were the protectors of the Hopi and the legend of the Anu Sinom, and they are vital ties to culture for Indigenous people today. Climate change’s impacts on ants and their tunnels are a threat to our cultural history as Indigenous communities are forced to abandon their beliefs as they sacrifice their stories and identities to its tragic impacts.
A photograph of a male Hopi Native. (“Splendid Type of Hopi Indian, Hopi Pueblo, Arizona.” Picryl, 1920).
The Ant Tunnel in the Orma J. Smith Museum of Natural History.
The implication of climate change on this intricate ant tunnel goes deeper than the significance of soil as the entire Hopi culture is forced into the shadows of these invisible tunnels. The identity of Indigenous communities is simply abandoned and left in a state of desolation as climate change destroys the specimen that was once the home and protector for its people. The kingdom of ants that once protected the Hopi tribe as the world was destroyed and created, has been forgotten. Ant tunnels, the underground Atlantis, is where the hopes for harmonious civilization become a myth as anthropogenic climate change destroys the ties to culture and heritage.