Define 'better'. I'm not being (entirely) flip. After leaving Chaco they built a few more great houses, but ended up in a more hospitable environment with pres

Define 'better'. I'm not being (entirely) flip. After leaving Chaco they built a few more great houses, but ended up in a more hospitable environment with presumably lower environmental stress. Many different community styles seemed to form - variations on the Chaco culture. It's up to interpretation, but it seems likely that there were egalitarian and generally peaceful living coupled with social experimentation, but still stressed by environmental factors. Then the Spanish came, and relations were extraordinarily inhumane - slavery, massacres, famine, and so on. It's a lot of conjecture - no written records, and after the treatment by first the Spanish and then US Government the descendants are almost entirely silent on the matter despite having significant oral traditions on these matters.