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Title: Preliminary report on a visit to the Navaho National Monument, Arizona
Author: Jesse Walter Fewkes
Release date: December 29, 2023 [eBook #72541]
Language: English
Credits: Bob Taylor, Carlo Traverso and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRELIMINARY REPORT ON A VISIT TO THE NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA ***
Transcriber’s Note
Italic text displayed as: _italic_
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 1
KITSIEL]
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
BULLETIN 50
PRELIMINARY REPORT ON A VISIT TO THE
NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT
ARIZONA
BY
JESSE WALTER FEWKES
[Illustration: Decoration]
WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1911
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY,
_Washington, D. C., March 16, 1910_.
SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith, for publication, with your
approval, as Bulletin 50 of this Bureau, the manuscript of a paper by
Dr. Jesse Walter Fewkes, entitled “Preliminary Report on a Visit to the
Navaho National Monument, Arizona.”
Yours, respectfully,
F. W. HODGE,
_Ethnologist in Charge_.
DR. CHARLES D. WALCOTT,
_Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D. C._
CONTENTS
Page
Introduction 1
Routes to the Navaho National Monument 6
Route from Flagstaff to Marsh pass 6
Major antiquities 10
Ruin A 10
Cliff-house B 10
Swallows Nest 12
Betatakin 12
Kitsiel (Keet Seel) 16
Scaffold House 18
Cradle House 20
Ladder House 20
Forest-glen House 21
Pine-tree House 21
Trickling-spring House 21
Characteristic features of ruins 22
Minor antiquities 26
Pottery 27
Cliff-dwellers cradle 29
Miscellaneous objects 30
Summary and conclusions 30
Recommendations 35
ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE 1. Kitsiel Frontispiece
2. Inscription House 1
3. Wukóki ruin at Black Falls 2
4. Ruin A, southwest of Marsh pass 4
5. Ruin B, at Marsh pass 7
6. View into Laguna canyon from Marsh pass 9
7. Swallows Nest 10
8. Betatakin—general view 13
9. Betatakin—western end 14
10. Ground plan of Betatakin 14
11. Betatakin—central part 17
12. Pictographs at Betatakin 18
13. Ground plan of Kitsiel (Keet Seel) ruin 21
14. Diagrams showing kiva roof construction 23
15. Pottery from Navaho National Monument 24
16. Pottery from Navaho National Monument 26
17. Pottery and stone implements from Navaho National
Monument 28
18. Pottery from Navaho National Monument 30
19. Cliff-dwellers cradle—front 32
20. Cliff-dwellers cradle—rear 32
21. Cliff-dwellers cradle—side 32
22. Sketch map of the Navaho National Monument 34
FIGURE 1. Scaffold of Scaffold House 18
2. Ground plan of Trickling-spring House 22
3. Design on cliff-dwellers cradle 29
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 2
INSCRIPTION HOUSE
(From a photograph by William B. Douglass.)]
PRELIMINARY REPORT ON A VISIT TO THE NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA
By JESSE WALTER FEWKES
INTRODUCTION
On the completion of the work of excavation and repair of Cliff Palace,
in the Mesa Verde National Park, in southern Colorado, in charge of
the writer, under the Secretary of the Interior, he was instructed by
Mr. W. H. Holmes, then Chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology, to
make an archeologic reconnaissance of the northern part of Arizona,
where a tract of land containing important prehistoric ruins had been
reserved by the President under the name Navaho National Monument. In
the following pages are considered some of the results of that trip, a
more detailed account of the ruins being deferred to a future report,
after a more extended examination shall have been made.[1] Mention is
made of a few objects collected, and recommendations are submitted for
future excavation and repair work on these remarkable ruins to preserve
them for examination by students and tourists. As will appear later, a
scientific study of them is important, for they are connected with Hopi
pueblos still inhabited, in which are preserved traditions concerning
the ruins and their ancient inhabitants.
The present population of Walpi, a Hopi pueblo, is made up of
descendants of various clans, whose ancestors once lived in distant
villages, now ruins, situated in various directions from its site on
the East mesa. One of the problems before the student of the Pueblos
is to locate accurately the ancestral villages where these clans lived
in prehistoric times. From an examination of the architecture of these
villages and a study of the character of secular and cult objects found
in them, the culture of the clans that inhabited these dwellings could
be roughly determined. The culture at any epoch in the history of the
clan being known, data are available that may make possible comparison
and correlation with that which is still more ancient: in other words,
that may add a chapter to our knowledge of the migrations of the Hopi
Indians in prehistoric times.
The writer has already identified some of the ancient houses of those
Hopi clans that claim to have dwelt formerly south of Walpi, on the
Little Colorado near Winslow, but has not investigated the ruins to
the north, in which once lived the Snake, Horn, and Flute clans. An
investigation of the origin and migrations of this contingent is
instructive because it is claimed that these clans were among the first
to arrive at Walpi, or that they united with the previously existing
Bear clan, forming the nucleus of the population of that pueblo.
A preliminary step in the investigation of the culture of the clans
that played a most important part in founding Walpi and giving rise
to the Hopi people would be the identification of the houses (now
ruins) of the Snake, Horn, and Flute clans, the existence of which in
the region north of Walpi is known with a greater or less degree of
certainty from Hopi legends. An archeologic study of these ruins and
of cult objects found in them would reveal some of the prehistoric
features of the culture of the ancient Snake clans. “The ancient home
of my ancestors,” said the old Snake chief to the writer, “was called
Tokónabi,[2] which is situated not far from Navaho mountain. If you
go there, you will find ruins of their former houses.” In previous
years the writer had often looked with longing eyes to the mountains
that formed the Hopi horizon on the north where these mysterious homes
of the Snake and Flute clans were said to be situated, but had never
been able to explore them. In 1909 the opportunity came to visit this
region, and while some of the ruins found may not be identifiable with
Tokónabi, they were abodes of people almost identical in culture with
the ancient Snake, Horn, and Flute clans of the Hopi.
References to the northern ruins occur frequently in Hopi legends of
the Snake and Flute clans, and even accounts of the great natural
bridges lately seen for the first time by white people were given years
ago by Hopi familiar with legends of these families. The writer heard
the Hopi tell of their former homes among the “high rocks” in the north
and at Navaho mountain, fifteen years ago, at which time they offered
to guide him to them. The stories of the great cave ruins to the north
were heard even earlier from the lips of the Hopi priests by another
observer. Mr. A. M. Stephen, the pioneer in Hopi studies, informed the
writer that he had learned of great ruins in the north as far back as
1885, and Mr. Cosmos Mindeleff, aided by Mr. Stephen, published the
names of the clans which, according to the Hopi, inhabited them.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 3
_a._ FROM THE SOUTH
_b._ FROM THE NORTH
WUKÓKI RUIN AT BLACK FALLS]
Victor Mindeleff[3] summarizes the Hopi traditions concerning Tokónabi
still preserved by the Horn and Flute clans of Walpi:
The Horn people, to which the Lenbaki [Flute] belonged, have a legend
of coming from a mountain range in the east.
Its peaks were always snow covered, and the trees were always green.
From the hillside the plains were seen, over which roamed the deer,
the antelope, and the bison, feeding on never-failing grasses.
[Possibly the Horn people were so called from an ancient home where
horned animals abounded.] Twining through these plains were streams of
bright water, beautiful to look upon. A place where none but those who
were of our people ever gained access.
This description suggests some region of the headwaters of the Rio
Grande. Like the Snake people, they tell of a protracted migration,
not of continuous travel, for they remained for many seasons in one
place, where they would plant and build permanent houses. One of
these halting places is described as a canyon with high, steep walls,
in which was a flowing stream; this, it is said, was the Tségi (the
Navajo name for Canyon de Chelly).[4] Here they built a large house in
a cavernous recess, high up in the canyon wall. They tell of devoting
two years to ladder making and cutting and pecking shallow holes up
the steep rocky side by which to mount to the cavern, and three years
more were employed in building the house....
The legend goes on to tell that after they had lived there for a long
time a stranger happened to stray in their vicinity, who proved to be
a Hopituh [Hopi], and said that he lived in the south. After some stay
he left and was accompanied by a party of the “Horn” [clan], who were
to visit the land occupied by their kindred Hopituh and return with an
account of them; but they never came back. After waiting a long time
another band was sent, who returned and said that the first emissaries
had found wives and had built houses on the brink of a beautiful
canyon, not far from the other Hopituh dwellings. After this many of
the Horns grew dissatisfied with their cavern home, dissensions arose,
they left their home and finally they reached Tusayan.
The early legends of the Snake clans tell how bags containing their
ancestors were dropped from a rainbow in the neighborhood of Navaho
mountain. They recount how they built a pentagonal home and how one of
their young men married a Snake girl who gave birth to reptiles, which
bit the children and compelled the people to migrate. They left their
canyon homes and went southward, building houses at the stopping-places
all the way from Navaho mountain to Walpi. Some of these houses,
probably referring to their _kivas_ and _kihus_, legends declare, were
round[5] and others square.
Some of the ruins here mentioned have been known to white men for many
years. There is evidence that they have been repeatedly visited by
soldiers, prospectors, and relic hunters. The earliest white visitor of
whom there is any record was Lieutenant Bell, of the 2d (?) Infantry,
U. S. A.,[6] whose name, with the date 1859, is still to be seen cut on
a stone in a wall of ruin A.
A few years ago information was obtained from Navaho by Richard and
John Wetherill of the existence of some of the large cliff-houses
on Laguna creek and its branches; the latter has guided several
parties to them. Among other visitors in 1909 may be mentioned Dr.
Edgar L. Hewett, director of the School of American Archæology of the
Archæological Institute of America. A party[7] from the University of
Utah, under direction of Prof. Byron Cummings, has dug extensively in
the ruins and obtained a considerable collection.
The sites of several ruins in the Navaho National Monument,[8] which
was created on his recommendation, have been indicated by Mr. William
B. Douglass, United States Examiner of Surveys, General Land Office,
on a map accompanying the President’s proclamation, and also on a
recent map issued by the General Land Office. Although his report has
not yet been published, he has collected considerable data, including
photographs of Betatakin, Kitsiel (Keetseel), and the ruin called
Inscription House, situated in the Nitsi (Neetsee) canyon. While Mr.
Douglass does not claim to be the discoverer of these ruins, credit is
due him for directing the attention of the Interior Department to the
antiquities of this region and the desirability of preserving them.
The two ruins[9] in Nitsi (Neetsee),[10] West canyon, are not yet
included in the Navaho Monument, but according to Mr. Douglass these
are large ones, being 300 and 350 feet long, respectively,[11] and
promise a rich field for investigation. That these ruins will yield
large collections is indicated by the fact that the several specimens
of minor antiquities in a collection presented to the Smithsonian
Institution by Mr. Janus, the best of which are here figured (pls.
15-18), came from this neighborhood, possibly from one of these ruins.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 4
_a._ INTERIOR
_b._ EXTERIOR
RUIN A, SOUTHWEST OF MARSH PASS]
The ruins in West canyon (pl. 2) are particularly interesting from
the fact that the walls of some of the rooms are built of elongated
cylinders of clay shaped like a Vienna loaf of bread. These “bricks”
consist of a bundle of twigs enveloped in red clay, which forms a
superficial covering, the “brick” being flattened on two faces. These
unusual adobes were laid like bricks, and so tenaciously were they held
together by clay mortar that in one instance the corner of a room,
on account of undermining, had fallen as a single mass. The use of
straw-strengthened adobe blocks is unknown in the construction of other
cliff-houses, although the author’s investigations at Cliff Palace in
Mesa Verde National Park revealed the use of cubical clay blocks not
having the central core of twigs or sticks, and true adobes are found
in the Chelly canyon and at Awatobi. The ruins in West canyon can be
visited from either Bekishibito or Shanto, the approach from both of
these places being not difficult. There is good drinking water in West
canyon, where may be found also small areas of pasturage owned by a few
Navaho who inhabit this region. The trail by which one descends from
the rim of West canyon to the valley is steep and difficult.
One of the most interesting discoveries in West canyon is the grove of
peach trees in the valley a short distance from the canyon wall. The
existence of these trees indicates Spanish influence. Peach trees were
introduced into the Hopi country and the Canyon de Chelly in historic
times either by Spanish priests or by refugees from the Rio Grande
pueblos. They were observed in the Chelly canyon by Simpson in 1850.
The geographical position of these ruins in relation to Navaho
mountain[12] leads the writer to believe that they might have been
built by the Snake clans in their migration south and west from
Tokónabi to Wukóki, but he has not yet been able to identify them by
Hopi traditions.
But little has appeared in print on the ruins near Marsh pass. In
former times an old government road, now seldom used, ran through
Marsh pass, and those who traveled over it had a good view of some of
these ruins. Situated far from civilization, this region has attracted
but slight attention, although it is one of the most important,
archeologically speaking, in our Southwest. Much of this part of
Arizona is covered with ruins, some of which, as “Tecolote,”[13]
are indicated on the United States Engineers’ map of 1877. In his
excellent article[14] on this region Dr. T. Mitchell Prudden gives us
no description of the interesting cliff-dwellings in or near Marsh
pass, though he writes of the ruins in the neighboring canyon: “There
are numerous small valley sites, several cliff houses, and a few
pictographs in the canyon of the Towanache,[15] which enters Marsh
pass from the northwest.” As indicated on his map, Doctor Prudden’s
route did not pass the large ruins west and south of this canyon or
those on the road to Red Lake and Tuba.
Manifestly, the purpose of a national monument is the preservation
of important objects contained therein, and a primary object of
archeological work should be to attract to it as many visitors and
students as possible. As the country in which the Navaho National
Monument is situated is one of the least known parts of Arizona, first
place will be given to a brief account of one of the routes by which
the important ruins included in the reserve may be reached.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The author’s first visit to these ruins was made in September,
1909, and he returned to the work in the following May. A few notes
made on the latter trip on ruins not observed during the former are
incorporated in this report.
[2] The exact situation of Tokónabi has never been identified by
archeologists. Ruins are called by the Navaho _nasazi bogondi_, “houses
of the _nasazi_.” The name Tokónabi may be derived from Navaho _to_,
“water;” _ko_, contraction of _bokho_, “canyon;” and the Hopi locative
_obi_, “place of.” The derivation from Navaho _boko_, “coal oil,” is
rejected, since it is very modern.
[3] See A Study of Pueblo Architecture, Tusayan and Cibola, in _Eighth
Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_. The legend was obtained by
Mr. A. M. Stephen.
[4] Evidently a mistake in identification of localities. Although
the Navaho name _Tségi_ has persisted as the designation of Canyon
de Chelly, Arizona, there is little doubt that when the Hopi gave to
Stephen the tradition of their former life in “Tségi,” they did not
refer, as he interpreted the narration, to what is now called Canyon de
Chelly, but to Laguna canyon, likewise bordered by high cliffs, which
the Navaho also designate _Tségi_. The designation Canyon de Chelly was
used by Simpson in 1850 (Sen. Ex. Doc. no. 64, 31st Cong., 1st sess.),
who wrote (p. 69, footnote): “The orthography of this word I got from
Señor Donaciano Vigil, secretary of the province, who informs me that
it is of Indian origin. Its pronunciation is chay-e.”—J. W. F.
[5] The circular type disappeared before they arrived in the valley
below Walpi. Legends declare that the original Snake kivas were
circular, and there are references, in legends of clans other than
those that formerly lived in the north, to circular kivas formerly used
by the Hopi.
[6] Probably Lieut. William Hemphill Bell, of the Third Infantry,
United States Army.
[7] Since the writer’s return to Washington this party has spent
several months at Betatakin.
[8] Mr. Douglass has furnished the writer the following data from his
report regarding the positions of the most important ruins in the
Navaho National Monument:
LATITUDE LONGITUDE
Kitsiel, 36° 45’ 33” north. 110° 31’ 40” west.
Betatakin, 36° 40’ 57” north. 110° 34’ 01” west.
Inscription House, 36° 40’ 14” north. 110° 51’ 32” west.
[9] One of these is designated Inscription House on Mr. Douglass’s map
(pl. 22).
[10] According to one Navaho the meaning of this word is “antelope
drive,” referring to the resemblance of the canyon to such a structure.
[11] For photographs of Kitsiel (pl. 1) and of Inscription House (here
pl. 2), published by courtesy in advance of Mr. Douglass’s report, the
writer is indebted to the General Land Office. Acknowledgment is made
to the same office for ground plans of Kitsiel and Betatakin, which
were taken from Mr. Douglass’s report.
[12] Hopi legends ascribe the former home of the Snake clan to the
vicinity of this mountain.
[13] The Mexican Spanish name for the ground-owl, from Nahuatl
_tecolotl_.
[14] In _American Anthropologist_, N. S., V, no. 2, 1903.
[15] The word _bokho_ (“canyon”) is applied by the Navaho to this
canyon; _tségi_ (“high rocks”) is used to designate the cliffs that hem
it in.
ROUTES TO THE NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT
Three routes to the Monument have been used by visitors, namely: (1)
that from Bluff, Utah, by way of Oljato or Moonwater canyon; (2) that
from Gallup, New Mexico, via the Chin Lee valley, and (3) that from
Flagstaff, via Tuba and the Moenkopi wash. The disadvantages of the
first route, that used by most visitors, are the isolation of Bluff
from railroads, the treacherous character of the San Juan river, which
must be crossed, and the rugged country near Marsh pass. From the
Gallup road it would be possible to go through the Canyon de Chelly in
full view of many of its greatest cliff-dwellings, and while facilities
for outfitting and purchasing supplies along the route are not of the
best, this route has its advantages.
ROUTE FROM FLAGSTAFF TO MARSH PASS
The writer outfitted at Flagstaff, Arizona, and, following the “Tuba
road,” forded the Little Colorado at Tanners crossing, and continued on
to Tuba, a Navaho Indian agency situated near the Moenkopi wash, where
there is a trading place at which provisions can be had. The road from
Flagstaff to Tuba is well traveled, its sole drawback being the ford
of the river, the bottom of which at times is treacherous. Immediately
after leaving Flagstaff this route passes through a pine forest, which
offers many attractive camping places and where water can always be
obtained. For the greater part of the distance Sunset and O’Leary peaks
are in full view and the beautiful San Francisco mountains are likewise
conspicuous. After crossing Deadmans flat the road descends to Indian
Tanks, situated near the lower limit of the cedar trees; here is a
fairly good camping place where water is generally available. From this
camp to Halfway House[16] one crosses a semiarid desert, where wood and
water are hard to find.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 5
RUIN B AT MARSH PASS]
One of the most interesting landmarks visible from the road, after
leaving Indian Tanks, is called Superstition mountain, an elevation
situated to the north. According to Navaho stories, phantom fires are
sometimes seen on this mountain on dark nights, recalling an incident,
mentioned in the Snake legend, which occurred when the Snake clans came
south in their early migration from Tokónabi. This legend states that
all this land once belonged to their Fire God, Masauû, who was likewise
god of the surface of the earth. Lights moving around the mesas are
said to have been seen by these ancient inhabitants much as they are
now ascribed to Superstition mountain.
The traveler over the recent lava beds and cinder plains in the
neighborhood of the San Francisco mountains can readily accept the
statement that the early Hopi saw flames issuing from the earth or the
glow of hot lava, which gave substance to the legend still preserved
among this people. It was so natural for them to regard such a country
as the property of their Fire God that their legends state they
inherited the land from him.
The legends of the Snake clans recount also that when their ancestors
migrated from Tokónabi they went south and west until they reached the
Little Colorado river, where they built many houses of stone. They
remained there several years, but later left these houses and continued
in an easterly direction to Walpi. Where are the ruins of these ancient
houses of the Snake clans on the Little Colorado? There are several
Little Colorado ruins, as Homolobi near Winslow, but Hopi traditions
affirm these were built by people who came from the south. Lower down
the river at the Great Falls are other ruins, but these likewise are
ascribed to southern clans. The cluster of stone buildings near the
Black Falls conforms in position and direction from Walpi to Hopi
legends of the site of Wukóki, the Great Houses built by Snake clans
before they went to Walpi. In their migration from Tokónabi, probably
the Snake people tarried here and built houses, and then went on to the
Bear settlements or the Hopi pueblos, where their descendants now live.
More extensive archeologic work on these ruins may shed additional
light on this identification, and it is interesting to compare in point
of architecture the buildings at Black Falls[17] with those of extreme
northern Arizona.
An obscure trail branches from the Tuba road to the Black Falls ruins
just beyond the cedars below Indian Tanks, and the black walls of the
so-called “citadel” of this cluster are conspicuous for a considerable
distance before one leaves the main road. The ruin here figured is some
distance beyond the “citadel” and is hidden from view by intervening
hills and mesas, but from the time the traveler crosses the valley of
the Little Colorado and goes down into the Moenkopi wash he follows
approximately the old trail the Snake people took in their southerly
migration from Tokónabi.
Near Tanners crossing on the left bank, a short distance down the
river, Mr. Janus[18] has cemented a small basin above the highest level
of the flood, into which always flows pure water. The road from the
river to Moenkopi wash passes through a region where there is very
little wood for camping and no water. The distance from Flagstaff to
Tuba, about 90 miles, may be traveled in two days by taking the midday
meal of the first day at Indian Tanks and camping the first night at
Halfway House, where there is water for horses.
The pueblo settlement of Moenkopi (“place of the running water”), which
lies not far from Tuba, will give the visitor a fair idea of a small
Hopi pueblo. This settlement is said to be comparatively modern and
to have been made by colonists from Oraibi, but there are reasons to
believe that it dates back to the middle of the eighteenth century.
The pueblo is inhabited mainly by Pakab (Reed) clans, a people of late
advent in the Hopi country, whose arrival therein was subsequent,
at all events, to that of the Snake clans. The houses of Moenkopi
are arranged in rows, and it has one ceremonial room, or kiva, not
unlike the kivas of Walpi. None of the great nine-days ceremonies
of the Hopi is performed at Moenkopi; such dances as exist, called
_katcinas_, are conducted by masked participants. Possibly the presence
of Pakab clans in this pueblo is accounted for by need of warriors in
its exposed position, for the chief of the Hopi Warrior society (at
Walpi) belongs to the Pakab clan. The ruins about Moenkopi are small
and inconspicuous, but those between this pueblo and Oraibi are of
considerable size.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 6
VIEW INTO LAGUNA CANYON FROM MARSH PASS]
Beyond Tuba the road is rough, running over upturned strata of rocks
and extending along sandy stretches of plain and hills to Red Lake,
where there is an Indian trading store owned by well-known merchants
of Flagstaff.[19] Here also provisions may be obtained for the trip
and abundant water for stock. The road now becomes more difficult.
Just after leaving Red Lake there may be noticed to the left two great
pinnacles of rock called Elephant Legs, not unlike those in Monument
canyon, Utah, and far to the north the cliffs are fantastically eroded.
The White Mesa natural bridge, visible from Red Lake, is one of the
scenic features of this locality. There are prehistoric burials in the
sands near Red Lake, from which have been obtained several beautiful
specimens of pottery resembling in the main those from the Navaho
National Monument and from the Black Falls ruins.
The road continues from Red Lake to Bekishibito (Cow Spring),[20] where
the water issues from under a low cliff, spreading in the wet season
over the adjacent plain and forming a shallow lake several miles long,
whose bottom is somewhat dangerous on account of quicksands. When there
is water a rich mantle of grass—a boon to travelers in this dusty
land—covers the plain, making an attractive camping place. This stretch
of the road, not more than 20 miles in length, is fairly good and
easily traversed by wagons.
After leaving Bekishibito, the road to Marsh pass, although on the
whole not bad, becomes more and more obscure. The traveler now enters
the region of ruins, and passes several mounds indicating former
habitations, some of which still have standing walls. Several pools of
water, reduced to little more than mudholes, are found along the road,
but a constant supply of potable water is found at the sand hills in
the Black mesa opposite the butte called by the Navaho Saunee, 30 to
40 miles distant from Cow Spring. The distance from Red Lake to this
camp is a good day’s journey with a heavily loaded buckboard, noon camp
being made at Bekishibito. From Saunee one can easily reach Marsh pass
in another day, making in all five “sleeps” from Flagstaff to Marsh
pass. The only serious difficulties on the route are encountered as one
ascends the pass, but a few weeks’ work here would make the whole road
from Tuba to Marsh pass as good as that from Flagstaff to Tuba, which
is considered one of the best in this part of Arizona.
A large ruin with high walls is visible on a promontory of the
Sethlagini plateau westward from this camp. This ruin, as well
as another near the road, about halfway from the sand hills to
Bekishibito, was not studied; the latter, which lies only a short
distance from the road, on a low rocky hill, was visited and found to
be the remains of a small pueblo, more or less dilapidated but with
standing walls. The fragments of pottery in this vicinity are not
unlike those found at the Black Falls ruins, and the masonry of the
ruin is almost identical in character. At the time of the writer’s
visit there was a pool of water, not very inviting even to horses, a
few hundred feet from this ancient habitation. Numerous sheep pasturing
in the neighborhood befoul this pool, so that it can not be depended on
to supply the needs of either men or horses. The road (plate 2) follows
the valley west of the great Sethlagini mesa, over a hill and finally
down again to a Navaho cornfield, the owner of which served as a guide
to the large ruin A.
FOOTNOTES:
[16] A two-room stone house erected by the Indian Bureau for use of
employes.
[17] For plates representing ruins at Black Falls, see _Twenty-second
Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_. Plate 3
(hitherto unpublished) of the present report represents one of the
characteristic Black Falls ruins, which closely resembles several of
the characteristic ruins standing on low hills near the road to Marsh
pass, beyond Red Lake.
The architecture of the ruins on the Little Colorado near Black Falls
resembles that of the open ruins, especially Ruin A, and those near
the road from Bekishibito to Marsh pass. While great weight can not be
given to this resemblance, since we find much uniformity in stone ruins
everywhere in the Southwest, it is interesting to take in connection
with this fact the close likeness in minor objects from the Laguna
Creek ruins and the Black Falls cluster. The prevailing ware from both
is the gray pottery with black geometrical ornamentation and red ware
with black or brown decoration. The red ware and the yellow ware, so
abundant higher up the river, are not the prevailing kinds. The pottery
of the Black Falls ruins is essentially the same type as that of the
San Juan and its tributaries.
[18] Mr. Stephen Janus, agent of the Northwestern Navaho, to whom the
author is indebted for many kindnesses, joined him at Tuba and made the
trip to Marsh pass and the neighboring ruins with his party.
[19] The presence of excellent traders’ stores at Tuba and Red Lake
renders it unnecessary to carry groceries or fodder from Flagstaff.
[20] Spanish: _vaca_, “cow”; Navaho: _shi_, “her”; _to_, “water”.
MAJOR ANTIQUITIES
RUIN A
The first ruin of considerable size that was visited is situated to
the left of and somewhat distant from the road, a few miles west and
south of Marsh pass. As this ruin (pl. 4)[21] stands on an elevation,
it is visible for a considerable distance across the valley, especially
to one approaching it from the southwest. The standing walls rise in
places to a height of 10 feet, showing indications of two stories, some
of the rafters in places still projecting beyond the face of the wall.
The two walls highest and most prominent are parallel, inclosing a long
room or court; in one place a break has been made through these walls,
as appears in the illustration. The remnants or foundations of other
walls back of these show that ruin A was formerly very much larger than
the walls now standing would indicate.
The walls are composed of roughly laid masonry, bearing evidences on
the inside of adobe plastering. An exceptional feature is the large
number of the component stones decorated on their outer faces with
deeply incised geometrical figures, apparently traced with some pointed
implement.[22]
Comparison of the architecture of this ruin with that of the Black
Falls ruin here figured (pl. 3) shows a resemblance which is more
than superficial, in the elevated site, character of the masonry, and
general ground plan; and comparison of its walls with those of Old
Walpi shows a similar likeness, which is instructive so far as it goes.
This is the only large ruin visited that is characterized by high
standing walls on top of an eminence, but Navaho guides said they were
familiar with others in this neighborhood similar in structure and
situation.
Immediately after leaving this ruin the attention is drawn to the
first of the large cliff-dwellings, cliff-house B, situated near Marsh
pass. The contrast in color of the Cretaceous rocks on the right and
the Triassic formations on the left side of the pass is noticeable for
some distance. The great cliff-dwellings are found high up in the red
sandstone on the left.
CLIFF-HOUSE B
This picturesque ruin occupies the whole floor of a narrow, low cave
situated in an almost vertical cliff forming one side of a canyon which
extends deep into the mountain; the entrance is between low hills on
the left, where the road ascends to Marsh pass. The ruin can be seen
for a long distance, but as one approaches the canyon in which it lies
the site is hidden by foothills. The accompanying view (pl. 5) was
taken from the opposite side of the canyon, it being impossible to get
an extended detailed view of the ruin from above or below. Beyond the
ruin the canyon forms a narrowing fissure with precipitous sides; its
bed is covered with bushes, stunted trees, and fallen rocks. No flowing
water was found in this canyon, but in the ledges near its mouth, below
the ruins, there are pockets and potholes which contained considerable
water at the time of the writer’s visit.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 7
SWALLOWS NEST]
This cliff-dwelling is difficult to enter, the walls of the canyon,
both above and below and on the sides, being almost perpendicular. A
pathway extending along the side of the cliff on the level of the cave
approaches within 20 feet of the ruin; from its end to the first room
of the ruin this trail is continued by a series of footholes pecked
in the rock, making entrance hazardous at this point.[23] Although
the walls of this cliff-dwelling are more or less destroyed and their
foundations deeply buried, there still remains standing masonry of a
square tower (?) reaching from the floor to the roof of the cave. One
corner of this tower is completely broken out, but the remaining sides
show that this building was three stories high, composed of rooms one
above another.
Several other rooms lie concealed under fallen walls and débris. One
of the most instructive of these is what may have been a _kiva_,
or ceremonial room,[24] the location of its walls being indicated
by stakes projecting out of the ground. Lower down, where the wall
was better preserved, sticks or wickerwork were found interwoven in
the uprights, the whole being plastered with adobe, a form of wall
construction common in prehistoric ruins of Arizona.
In comparison with the Mesa Verde ruins, the masonry of this ruin is
poor, but the stones used in constructing the walls are large. The many
fragments of pottery strewn over the surface of the floor of the cave
resemble in symbolism pottery from Black Falls, the same colors, black
and white, predominating.[25]
In descending the declivity of the cliff in the sides of which
cliff-house B is situated, there comes to view a cluster of broken
walls crowning a low elevation, which indicate a former house of some
size. In their neighborhood are the foundations of other walls, and the
ground in the vicinity is strewn with many fragments of pottery and
much fallen masonry half buried in débris. Farther down the hill, on
the level of the road and extending parallel with it, are low ridges
or mounds covered with pottery, indicating the former presence of a
pueblo of considerable size. No walls were traced in these mounds,
which seem to indicate the existence of an ancient cemetery, as several
rings of small stones, suggesting graves, were found. A short distance
beyond this supposed cemetery is a little cave, situated a few hundred
feet to the left of the road. In this cave are a few walls, but the
cliff-dwelling is not of great size; beyond it the road rises steeply
to Marsh pass. (Pl. 6.)
Although some of the ruins in the Navaho Monument may be visited
without the use of saddle horses, the largest can not now be approached
with wagons. It would be possible at a small expense, however, so to
improve the Indian trail up the canyon of Laguna creek that one could
drive within a fraction of a mile of the great ruins, Betatakin and
Kitsiel. At present, to reach these one must leave carriages at Marsh
pass and descend with saddle horses to the bed of Laguna creek, which
flows along the canyon, in the side branches of which are situated the
greatest two cliff-dwellings of the region. One of these, Betatakin, is
about six miles, the other, Kitsiel, about 10 miles, from Marsh pass.
SWALLOWS NEST
Descending to Laguna creek and following the bottom of the canyon,
crossing and recrossing the stream several times, the first
cliff-dwelling is seen built in a niche in the cliffs high up on the
right. This ruin seems to fill the bottom of a symmetrically vaulted,
open cave, the high arched roof and sides of which are so eroded that
from one point of view the shadow cast by the ruin at certain times
outlines the profile of a head and part of a human body, as seen in
plate 7. Although a talus[26] extends from this ruin some distance down
the cliff, rendering access difficult, the ruin was entered, but found
to be in a poor state of preservation. Several of the walls, viewed
from the road, appeared to be in good condition, and some of the rooms
are more than one story high.
BETATAKIN
Following the canyon about five miles from Marsh pass, the writer’s
party came to a fork in the canyon,[27] where a guide was found who
led the way across the stream into a small side canyon, in the end of
which lies Betatakin. This canyon is wooded and at the time of the
writer’s visit contained plenty of water, a small stream issuing from
almost under the walls and trickling down through the bushes over a
mass of fallen rock which forms the talus. The climb to the ruin from
the place where horses must be abandoned is not a hard one and a trail
could easily be made; in fact a carriage road might be constructed at
small expense from Marsh pass to within half a mile of this great ruin,
one of the largest two and best preserved cliff-dwellings in the Navaho
National Monument.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 8
BETATAKIN—GENERAL VIEW]
A feature of this ruin (plates 8-11) which attracts attention on
entering it is the fine echo, due to the shape of the open cave in
which it lies. Were the name not preempted, it would seem that Echo
House would be a much more appropriate designation for the ruin than
Betatakin, “High-ledges House,” applied to it by the Navaho.
Certain differences in architectural features between cliff-houses
in the Mesa Verde region and those here considered are apparent. The
caves in which the cliff-dwellings of the Navaho Monument region
are situated differ in geological formation from those of the Mesa
Verde National Park. While in the former there are many instances of
horizontal cleavage planes, as a rule the falling of blocks of stone
has left vertical flat faces. On this account the caves are shallow and
high-vaulted rather than extending deep into the cliff. The process of
formation of these vertical planes of cleavage is shown by examining
plate 9; in this case a pinnacle of rock has begun to break away and is
partially separated from the surface of the cliff. This pinnacle will
ultimately topple over and fall as many have done before, leaving a
broken stump at its former base. In this way, from time to time, in the
past geological history of the cave, detached pinnacles and slabs of
rock have broken away along these vertical planes of cleavage, leaving
the tops of their broken bases later to become foundations for rooms.
Similar flat vertical planes of cleavage are rare, almost unknown,
in the Mesa Verde caves. Here the cleavage is horizontal, the caves
extending deep into the cliffs.[28]
The modifications in architecture brought about by the difference in
direction of these cleavage planes are apparent. The ancient builders
in the Navaho Monument region utilized the vertical faces as supports
for walls of rooms on one or more sides. In some cases the face of the
cliff forms the rear walls; in others a side wall and the rear wall
of a room are formed by vertical cleavage planes at right angles, as
shown in plate 9. It can be seen that adjacent houses built upon fallen
rocks of different heights, the vertical faces being utilized as rear
walls, would seem to stand one above another, or, in other words, they
would present the well-known terrace form which exists in some modern
pueblos.
The writer approached this ruin by following the fallen débris at
the end, where the rooms, being without covering and exposed to the
elements, are most dilapidated. Over this fallen mass one makes his way
with difficulty and is often in danger of falling from the cliff. On
account of the perpendicular face of the cliff below the foundations of
the other end of the ruin, it is impossible to climb into it, except
from this side. On approaching the ruin there is to be seen on the
vertical face of the cliff a pictograph (pl. 12) worthy of special
mention, or rather two pictographs which are doubtless connected in
meaning. The larger of these is a circle, painted white, resembling a
shield (a common object in pictographic representation), the other a
horned animal, perhaps a mountain sheep.[29] The figure on the shield,
which bears evidence of former coloration, represents a human being
with outstretched arms, the hands being raised to the level of the
head. On each side of the body are represented two designs—a circle of
yellow and a crescent in which are parallel bands of red, yellow, and
probably green.
The rooms in this cliff-house are rectangular, cubical, or box-like
structures built against the face of the cliff, which serves as their
rear wall. There are no towers or round rooms such as those that lend
picturesqueness to several of the Mesa Verde cliff-dwellings. Few of
the rooms are more than two stories high, the appearance of terraced
rooms being given by the varying heights of their foundations. The
masonry is crude, the lines are irregular, and the external faces of
the walls vertical. The interior wall was probably plastered, and some
walls afford good evidence that their exterior was formerly covered
with mud.
A marked feature of ruins in this region is the adobe walls supported
by rows of stakes with interwoven sticks. No adobe bricks were seen in
the walls examined.[30]
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 9
BETATAKIN—WESTERN END]
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 10
GROUND PLAN
OF THE
BETATA KIN
NAVAHO IND·RES·ARIZ·
BY
W·B·DOUGLASS
U·S·EXAMINER OF SURVEYS
·GENERAL LAND OFF·
]
One of the largest clusters of rooms in this cliff-house (Betatakin)
stands on a huge rock foundation, the vertical face of which is
continuous with the wall of masonry of the front building of the
cluster. (Pl. 11.) The rear wall of the front room is formed by the
vertical face of the cliff. About half of the roof of this room has
gone, but several patches still remain even in the broken section.
The rooms of the higher tier are set against an upright wall. The
doorway is on one side. The shelf of rock on which this room stands
is level with the roof of the first room and the cave wall
forms its rear. This room was probably a ceremonial chamber, having a
fire-hole in the floor, between which and the doorway is a low wall
of masonry corresponding to the deflector, or altar, in Mesa Verde
ruins.[31] The part of the floor on which one steps in entering this
room is raised slightly above the remainder, serving to connect the
base of the deflector with the doorsill. The deflector and fire-hole
are practically duplicates of features common to several Cliff Palace
kivas. At Betatakin, however, the ceremonial room is above ground, not
subterranean, and is entered from the side instead of from the top.
A two-story room stands on the rock one tier higher than the ceremonial
room just mentioned, its foundation being at the level of the roof
of the ceremonial room, as shown in the illustration. The front wall
of this room is more or less broken down, but on one side, where
projecting rafters are found in place, the masonry, otherwise unbroken,
is pierced by a small window. This room has also a door on the side.
Several well-preserved rooms extend along a ledge of rock on the same
level as the roofs of these buildings, forming another tier above the
ceremonial room. One of these has a fine roof; ends of rafters extend
from the walls.
Beyond the ceremonial room, on the side where the ruin is most
dilapidated, may be noted the same arrangement of the rooms in tiers
or terraces, brought about by the varying height of their foundations.
Several walls in these rooms are in good condition, but the fronts
of many are broken down. Here are found rows of sticks or supports
projecting from the débris. The walls are almost invariably of stone;
those supported by sticks are usually connecting walls. The roofs of
some of these rooms are entire, but many are broken, although their
rafters still remain in place.
The whole length of Betatakin is not far from 600 feet, following
the foundations from one end to the other. There are not far from
100 rooms visible, and evidences of others covered with débris. The
larger of the two rooms identified as ceremonial rooms on account of
their deflectors, measures 10 by 7 feet and is about 5 feet high; the
smaller is about 7 feet square. There are no vertical ventilators as in
circular kivas, the smoke evidently finding egress through a small hole
in the roof. The floor of one of these ceremonial rooms was cut in the
solid rock.
As above mentioned, there are no circular rooms or towers in Betatakin,
although one room has a rounded corner. Traces of the repair of doors
and windows are evident, but none of these apertures are T-shaped.
One of the interesting features in Betatakin and several other ruins in
this region consists in rows of eyelets cut in the rocky side of the
cliff evidently for the attachment of some long object.
A cluster of small rooms isolated from those above described are shown
in plate 9; these give a good idea of the general type of architecture
of these buildings and of the modifications or adaptations due to the
sites on which they are erected and the vertical cliffs against which
they are built. Three rooms set into the angle formed by two vertical
cliff faces at right angles to each other illustrate how the cliff
serves for rear walls and how the buildings are attached to it for
support. The roofs of these rooms are entire and their rafters project
beyond the upright walls. The doors and windows are, comparatively
speaking, small and rectangular in form. Fragments of walls projecting
out of the ground indicate the existence of many rooms covered with
débris. These are especially numerous at the end of the ruin to which
the trail leads, but as most of them are buried an adequate idea of
their arrangement can not be gained without systematic excavation.
KITSIEL (KEET SEEL)
This ruin, which lies about 10 miles from Marsh pass, is a most
interesting cliff-dwelling.[32] As this is the best preserved of all
the ruins thus far discovered in the Navaho National Monument, it
should be excavated and repaired for future visitors and students.
Kitsiel is a large ruin, its length (estimated at 300 feet) being
not less than that of the greatest cliff-dwelling of the Mesa Verde
National Park. Like other ruins in the vicinity, it is not so
picturesque as the structures of that region, lacking round towers and
other features so attractive in Cliff Palace.[33] The accompanying
illustration (pl. 13) presents the ground plan of this ruin, the
architectural features of which are similar to those of Betatakin.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 11
BETATAKIN—CENTRAL PART]
One of the most striking features of Kitsiel is the great log, 35 feet
long, under which the visitor passes to inspect the interior of the
ruin. West of this log, which evidently once supported a retaining
wall, the rooms are well preserved; east of it this wall in places has
slipped down the cliff and its component stones are to be found in
the talus below.
It is difficult to discover how many rooms this great cliff-house
formerly had, but there is little doubt that they numbered more than
150, besides the kivas. This ruin is believed to be one of the largest
known cliff-dwellings of the Southwest, ranking in size the Cliff
Palace in the Mesa Verde, which it does not rival, however, in variety
of architectural features. The masonry in Kitsiel is inferior to that
in the Spruce-tree House and the Balcony House, the walls of which show
the highest aboriginal achievement in stonework north of Mexico.[34]
The walled inclosures of Kitsiel are reducible to a few types of which
the following may be distinguished:
(1) Kivas, or circular subterranean rooms with a large banquette on one
side, the walls being generally broken down and without pilasters or
roof-supports.
(2) Kihus, or rectangular rooms with doors on one side, each having a
low bank, or “deflector,” rising from the floor between the doorway
and the fire-hole. Instead of this bank being free from the wall, as
at Betatakin, it is generally joined to it on one side, the floor at
the point of junction being raised slightly above the remaining level.
Smoke-holes are sometimes, but not always, present in the roof. These
rooms, like the circular rooms, are ceremonial in character. The only
opening in their floors that can be compared with the ceremonial
aperture, or _sipapû_, is a shallow depression a few inches deep. The
diameters of these openings are greater than in the case of the sipapû
in Cliff Palace kivas.
(3) Rectangular rooms, some of which have benches and show evidence of
having been living rooms.
(4) Large rooms each with a fireplace in the middle of the floor.
(5) Rooms with metates set in bins made of stone slabs (milling rooms).
(6) Courts and streets. The longest street extends from the middle of
the ruin to the western end and is lined on both sides by rooms many of
the roofs of which are still intact.
An instructive architectural feature of some of the rooms of this ruin
is the use of upright logs in supporting corners. Part of the roof of
one of these rooms situated deep in the cave is formed by the natural
rock and the remainder by an artificial covering supported by upright
logs forked at the end to receive the rafters.
SCAFFOLD HOUSE
This ruin, about 2 miles from the place where two large canyons open
into Laguna creek, lies in a cavern worn in the side of a large
butte on the left of the stream. It is appropriately called Scaffold
House from a finely made wooden scaffold (fig. 1) which the ancients
constructed in a vertical cleft in the cliff about 50 feet above the
east end of the ruin. Although this scaffold is now inaccessible from
the walls of the room below, all the beams and much of the earthen
floor still remain.
[Illustration: FIG. 1. Scaffold of Scaffold House.]
The construction of the scaffold is as follows: The crevice in which
it lies is rectangular, with the longest axis vertical. Several large
logs placed horizontally, their ends fitted into holes pecked in the
sides of the crevice, support smaller beams laid across them at right
angles. These latter in turn are covered with small sticks on which
are laid bark and clay, leaving a hatchway at a point about midway.
The construction of this scaffold, probably as daring a piece of
aerial building as can be found anywhere among cliff-dwellings, is so
well preserved that it shows no sign of deterioration. We can only
conjecture what its use may have been, but the plausible suggestion has
been made that it was an outlook or place of defense.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 12
PICTOGRAPHS AT BETATAKIN]
Scaffold House is about 300 feet long. The rooms, which are in fine
condition, extend along the side of the cliff, those situated midway
of the length of the ruin being fairly well preserved. There are not
far from 56 rooms still to be traced, and at least two circular kivas,
the walls of one of which are still in fair condition. The larger kiva
measures about 15 feet in diameter; it is subterranean, with a deep
bench or banquette on one side. There is no trace of the pilasters
so conspicuous in the circular kivas of the Mesa Verde. The inner
walls are smoothly plastered.
Enough of the roof of this kiva remains to show the method of
construction, and as this is the first example of such a roof the
writer has ever examined a brief description of it may prove to be
instructive. (See pl. 14.) The supports or rafters are three in number,
consisting of a large middle log laid across the center of the kiva
halfway between the banquette and the opposite side, and of two smaller
logs, parallel with it, resting on the top of the kiva wall, one across
the banquette, and the other at about an equal distance on the opposite
side. A number of smaller transverse beams, parallel with one another,
are supported by the three logs already mentioned, and upon these lie
the layers of sticks, bark, and adobe which cover the roof. No hatchway
or place for a vertical opening was to be seen, but as the covering of
the banquette is missing it is quite possible that the entrance to the
kiva may have had some connection with this feature.
The top of a vertical stone slab, comparable in shape and position
with a deflector, was seen projecting out of the débris that fills the
lower part of the kiva, and rods in the wall near the roof represent
pegs found at the tops of the pilasters in Mesa Verde kivas. There is a
niche at one side for small objects, a constant feature in all kivas,
circular and rectangular. The fire-hole was covered with débris.
The second circular kiva, which belongs to the same subtype, is
situated not far from the one described, but is much more dilapidated,
about half its walls having fallen. The roof of this kiva appears to
have been supported in part by upright logs isolated from the walls,
inside the chamber, three of which still stand in their original
positions. This feature reminds one of kivas of the Rio Grande region
as described by Castañeda, the historian of the Coronado expedition in
1540-42. In addition to the two circular kivas Scaffold House contains
another room that may have been ceremonial in character, having all the
essentials of the Betatakin rooms herein referred to as kivas. It lies
near the western end of the ruin, its northwestern wall being bound by
the vertical cliff. This room is rectangular, with a lateral entrance
opposite which is a low bank, or deflector; the floor between the
latter and the doorway is raised slightly above the general level. The
fire-hole occupies a position on the other side, as in rooms of this
kind in Betatakin. It was noticed that the sides of the doorway are
considerably worn and that its lintel is made of split sticks.
In addition to the two circular subterranean kivas at Scaffold House
there is at least one kihu in this ruin. This is situated near the
western end, being built against the upright or rear wall of the cavern
to which the two side walls are joined. The doorway is like those of
the kihus in Betatakin and is situated opposite the cliff-wall. The
roof has fallen in, but the beams and wattling remain in place as they
fell. There is a fire-hole in the middle of the floor, and between it
and the doorway is a deflector made of upright staves between which is
adobe work; the whole is plastered with adobe. The threshold of the low
doorway is slightly elevated above the floor, and between it and the
base of the deflector is a raised platform. The lintels are made of
sticks split with wedges, possibly of stone, as shown by their fibrous
surfaces.
There are many pictographs on the cliff at Scaffold House, the most
conspicuous of which represent human hands, snakes (one of them is 15
feet long), mountain sheep or other horned mammals, and nondescript
figures representing tailed human beings.
The ruins at Bubbling Spring, a short distance from Scaffold House, are
inconspicuous.
CRADLE HOUSE
This large ruin,[35] so named from the finding of the cradle described
and illustrated herein, is situated in the side of a bluff rising above
East canyon. It contains about 50 rooms and at least 3 circular kivas
without pilasters, the front walls of which are considerably broken
down.
The rooms of Cradle House as a rule extend along the rear of the cave,
their back walls generally being formed by the vertical wall of the
cliff, there being no recess behind them. The majority of the rooms lie
about midway in the length of the ruin, the kivas being situated in
front of the cluster. In two or three places rooms are found on levels
below or above that of the main cluster, but only rarely are there
rooms in front of others on the same level. On the upper ledge near the
western end a small bin is found at the base of which is a considerable
depression, probably artificial.
LADDER HOUSE
The more or less dilapidated walls of this ruin are to be seen from the
left bank of East canyon, a few miles farther upstream. The position
is indicated by an enormous butte which projects into the canyon and
diverts the stream at that point. One side of this butte is eroded in
such a way as to resemble in outline an elephant’s trunk, this erosion
marking the initial process in the formation of a “natural bridge.” On
the opposite side of this butte there is another large cliff-dwelling,
which was not visited.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 13
GROUND PLAN
OF THE
KEET SEEL RUIN
NAVAHO IND·RES·ARIZ
BY
W·B·DOUGLASS
U·S·EXAMINER OF SURVEYS
GENERAL LAND OFFICE
]
FOREST-GLEN HOUSE
The fine growth of trees at the base of a large cliff-house about 2
miles beyond Cradle House has suggested the name Forest-glen House.
Some of the walls are in the form of concentric semicircles with the
conspicuous representation of a head attached to one side. Many rocks
have fallen on this ruin from the cave roof, especially at one end, but
the rooms at the western end are still well preserved.
PINE-TREE HOUSE
About 8 miles up East canyon there is a large, almost inaccessible,
ruin, which lies a short distance from the main canyon. A striking
feature of this ruin is its division into three parts, of which the
central section is somewhat lower than the one on each side. A large
pine on the edge of the cliff above has suggested the name Pine-tree
House. Deep below this ruin is a large basin, in which grow many trees
and bushes; among these are a good spring and a small rivulet. This
ruin has two very large circular kivas, without pedestals, 20 to 30
feet in diameter. A deep banquette is present on one side. This ruin
exhibits no evidence of having been dug.
TRICKLING-SPRING HOUSE
After descending to Laguna creek from Marsh pass, crossing the
stream, and following the bank about 2 miles, one comes to a ridge of
copper-bearing rocks, beyond which the road crosses a deep ravine.
On following the right bank this ravine is found to extend into the
cliffs as a canyon. A few miles after entering the canyon a stream is
encountered emerging from a spring and trickling over a cliff. High
above this cliff, in a canyon 60 or 80 feet in size, the entrance
to which is surrounded and more or less concealed by stately pines,
spruces, and cedars, stands a cliff-ruin, possibly never before visited
by white men, for which the name Trickling-spring House is suggested.
Although this ruin is small, it is in several respects unique. The main
architectural feature is a diminutive court or plaza, into which open a
number of small rooms, having well-plastered walls and low entrances.
In this, as in most of the other ruins in the Navaho National Monument,
some of the house-walls are constructed of stone; but many are made of
clay, plastered on sticks or wickerwork supported by upright logs. The
masonry when present is poor as a rule, the component stones rarely
being dressed into shape, but the surface plastering, especially on
the kiva walls, is good. Many walls stand on rocks that have evidently
fallen from the roof of the cave. A metate set in position in one of
the smaller rooms indicates that this particular inclosure served as a
milling room.
[Illustration: FIG. 2. Ground plan of Trickling-spring House.
_A_, _B_, _C_, rooms; _D_, _D_, deflectors; _E_, doorway; _H_, _H_,
hatchways; _M_, metate; _P_, plaza; _R_, _R_, rock fragments.]
Two squarish rooms, with lateral doorways and a deflector or wall
before them, are identified as kihus. One of these has a platform
or floor connecting the base of the ventilator and the doorway. The
deflector is free from the kihu walls at both ends. The walls of a room
with a deflector which opens into the plaza are very much blackened
with smoke. No circular subterranean room was observed. There are
several well-preserved hatchways in the roofs, showing that entrances
of this kind were common in addition to lateral entrances with
well-preserved sills and lintels. One or two of the small windows in
the outer walls have a downward slant, as if to afford a better view of
visitors approaching from below. One of these old doorways was closed
with masonry, constructed possibly when the room was deserted. There
are no signs of vandalism in this ruin.[36]
CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF RUINS
The existence of recesses and of refuse heaps back of the buildings
in caves is characteristic of Mesa Verde cliff-dwellings. In the
cliff-houses of the Canyon de Chelly and Marsh Pass regions they rarely
exist, the house walls being built against the rear wall of the cave,
leaving very little space behind them for refuse or fallen débris.
This latter feature, due to the geological character of the caves, is
also prominent in the cliff-dwellings of the Red Rock country, at the
headwaters of the Verde and its tributaries, and is likewise found in a
few cliff-houses of the Gila visited by the writer. From one point of
view the use of the wall or walls of the cave as house-walls marks a
typical form of cliff-dwelling, or a dependent village, distinguished
from a cliff-dwelling like Cliff Palace, the walls of which are
independent or free on all sides from the cliffs.[37]
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 14
_a._ RELATION IN PARTS OF CIRCULAR AND RECTANGULAR KIVAS
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, banquettes with pilasters thereon; _C. O._ ceremonial
opening; _F_, fire-hole; _S_, sipapû (symbolic opening into
underworld); _V_, ventilator.
_b._ SCAFFOLD HOUSE
_A_, large banquette; _C_, adobe roof covering; _D_, deflector; _S_,
stick construction supporting roof.
DIAGRAM SHOWING KIVA ROOF CONSTRUCTION]
The masonry of the Navaho Monument ruins is crude as compared with that
found in the ruins of the Mesa Verde National Park, and walls made of
adobe supported by upright sticks are more numerous. The character
of the masonry may be due in part to the slab-like character of the
building stones, and possibly to their greater hardness. The relative
predominance of adobe walls supported by upright sticks was fostered
by the ease with which they could be constructed and the quantity of
clay available for building purposes. Comparison of the masonry of
ruins in the Navaho Monument with that of the Black Falls region shows
a resemblance much greater than that existing between either group and
the cliff-houses of the Mesa Verde region.
There is no architectural feature in Southwestern ruins more
distinctive than the ceremonial rooms, or kivas, but as these have
never been recognized throughout a large area of Arizona, it is
important to determine the character of the ceremonial rooms of the
Navaho Monument ruins and to compare them with kivas at present used by
the Hopi.
While as a rule there is great similarity in secular rooms in different
culture areas of the Southwest, the more archaic ceremonial rooms of
these regions vary considerably. The rooms ordinarily called kivas
are of two distinct types, circular and rectangular. There are two
kinds of circular kivas,[38] one having pilasters and banquettes to
support the roof, the other without pilasters, apparently roofless,
but surrounded by high walls as if for the purpose of obscuring the
view from neighboring plazas. The circular kivas commonly do not
form a part of the house mass, being separated some distance from
the secular rooms. From all that can be learned it appears that the
round kiva is an ancient type, its position in the rear of the cave in
such cliff-dwellings as Spruce-tree House and Cliff Palace indicating
that this form is as old as the building itself. The circular type,
with pilasters, is confined wholly to the eastern region, having been
reported from the Mesa Verde, the San Juan and many of its tributaries,
Chaco canyon, and certain ruins west of the Rio Grande. Circular kivas
somewhat modified are found also in many of the Rio Grande pueblos,
where they are still in use. A subtype of circular kivas without
pilasters but provided each with one large banquette is the common
form of circular ceremonial room in the Navaho National Monument and
the Canyon de Chelly. The modern representative of this subtype is
the Snake kiva of the Hopi, which has become rectangular, the large
banquette (_tuwibi_, pl. 14) being modified into the “spectators,” or
elevated surface of the floor.
The corresponding ceremonial rooms at Zuñi and in the prehistoric Hopi
pueblos are rectangular in form and of simpler architecture. Similarly
shaped ceremonial rooms, not subterranean, are still in use in modern
Hopi pueblos. As a good example of this archaic form of ceremonial room
at Walpi may be mentioned that in which the Flute altar is erected and
in which the Flute secret rites are performed.[39] This ancestral room
of the clan is a rectangular chamber forming part of the second floor,
and is entered from one side. The Flute clans came from a pueblo,
now a ruin, in the north, but after union with the Ala, who lived
at Tokónabi, they settled at the Snake pueblo, Walpi. So it may be
supposed that their ancestors also had no special kiva, but celebrated
their secret rites in an ordinary house.
The fraternity of Sun priests likewise erect their altar and perform
their secret ceremonies in a room, not in a kiva; so do the Kalektaka,
or warriors. None of these rooms is commonly regarded or enumerated as
a kiva, but such chambers are believed to be the direct representatives
of the ceremonial rooms built above ground as a part of the house, in
the manner more characteristic of ceremonial rooms in Arizona ruins.
The ruins in the Navaho Monument have ceremonial rooms allied on one
side to the kivas of the San Juan region, and on the other to rooms in
the Little Colorado ruins that may have been built for ceremonial use.
The latter are constructed above ground, inclosed by other houses, and
are rectangular in shape, with lateral doorways. Some of these rooms,
as at Betatakin, contain each a fire screen and a fire-hole, as in a
circular kiva, the ventilator being replaced by a lateral doorway. It
is possible that when the Snake people inhabited their northern homes,
before they came to Walpi, their ceremonial rooms were not built, as
at present, partly underground, and placed at a distance from the
secular houses. The ceremonial rooms of this clan and of immediate
relatives when living at Tokónabi or in the Navaho Monument region may
have resembled those of the Black Falls cluster of ruins.[40] Their
subterranean position and separation from other rooms may be regarded
as modifications due to foreign influences after the clan arrived at
Walpi.[41]
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 15
_a._ FOOD BOWL
Cat. No. 257781. Diameter, 4½ inches.
_b._ CLAY DISK WITH PERFORATED BORDER
Cat. No. 258330. Diameter, 5¼ inches.
_c._ DIPPER
Cat. No. 257779. Height, 4½ inches.
_d._ FOOD-BOWL WITH HANDLE
Cat. No. 257780. Diameter, 6 inches.
POTTERY FROM NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT]
The sunken or subterranean situation of the ceremonial assembly room,
or kiva, of the Pueblo region is an architectural survival of a people
whose secular and ceremonial rooms were subterranean. This feature may
not be autochthonous in this area, or limited to it geographically,
having probably been derived from people of kindred culture of the West
coast, as pointed out by Mr. Ernest Sarfert’s argument on this point,
which would seem to be conclusive if subterranean kivas could be found
in the Gila and Little Colorado regions.[42]
The forms of pueblo kivas, circular or rectangular, are not derived
one from the other, but suggest different geographical origins. The
circular form, confined to the eastern Pueblo area, bears evidence of
having been derived from the culture of a people inhabiting a forested
region; while the rectangular form strongly suggests a people with a
treeless habitat. Both circular and rectangular subterranean assembly
rooms existed in aboriginal California in historic and prehistoric
times. The archaic or prehistoric culture of the Pueblo region is
closely related to that of the West coast in other particulars also,
that do not concern the subject of this article.
When the Snake clans lived at Tokónabi, and later at Wukóki (on the
Little Colorado), so far as known they had no subterranean rooms
isolated from the others for ceremonial purposes, but used rooms so
closely resembling other apartments that they may be called “living
rooms.” Even when they came to the Hopi mesas they may not have had
at first a specialized ceremonial chamber. A study of Arizona ruins
reveals no rooms identified as ceremonial that are isolated from the
house masses. This is true of cliff-dwellings and pueblos, and it is
probable that the differentiation and separation of kivas from secular
houses, found in modern Hopi pueblos, are an introduced feature of
comparatively late date. At Zuñi a rectangular room, not separated
from the house mass, serves as a kiva, the custom in this respect
approaching more closely that found among their kindred, the ancient
people of the Little Colorado river, than among the more modified Hopi
of the present time.
While some of the rooms identified as ceremonial in preceding pages
are rectangular in shape and not isolated from secular rooms, the
circular type seems also to have been found in Utah, and at Kitsiel and
ruins near it. South of Marsh pass circular kivas are less abundant,
and it appears that somewhere in this region is a line of demarcation
between ruins with circular kivas and those with rectangular kivas. In
prehistoric ruins from Marsh pass southward[43] to the Gila valley no
rooms have ever been identified as kivas, although in the cavate ruins
called Old Caves, near Flagstaff, are subterranean rooms entered from
the floor of a room above, which may have served for the performance of
religious rites.[44]
From a comparison of some features of the kivas in the cliff-dwellings
of the San Juan and its tributaries with those of the Navaho Monument
it would appear that while the ceremonial rooms of the latter in
certain details are like those of the former, in some cases their form
and position are different. So far as this resemblance goes, it may be
reasoned that the San Juan ancients influenced by their culture the
northern Arizona cliff-dwellers, but there is scant evidence of the
reverse, that is, that the San Juan pueblos borrowed from the culture
of the northern Arizonians any architectural features, especially in
the form and construction of their kivas. The theory would be logical
that the prehistoric migration of culture was down rather than up the
river, and the symbolism of the pottery contributes interesting data
supporting this conclusion.
FOOTNOTES:
[21] This ruin may be that called Tecolote, which appears on many old
maps.
[22] Among other names cut on the walls of this ruin is that of
Lieutenant Bell, 1859.
[23] A few broken-down walls of rooms stand at the side of the trail
just before one reaches the dangerous part.
[24] No other rooms that could be called ceremonial were recognized in
cliff-house B, but the writer’s examination of the ruin was not very
thorough and their existence may have escaped him.
[25] Mr. Black informs me that it was in this ruin that he found the
beautiful woven belt now at El Tovar Hotel, Grand Canyon.
[26] Rooms are concealed by this talus, the walls of which project in
places out of the ground.
[27] Laguna creek is entered at this point on the right by a stream
bifurcating into the Cataract and East tributaries, which flow through
canyons of the same names. In or near East canyon are four large ruins:
Ladder House, Cradle House, Forest-glen House, and Pine-tree House. The
largest ruin in Cataract canyon is Kitsiel. The Navaho sometimes speak
of the East canyon as the Salt, or Alkaline, _bokho_.
[28] Another geological feature of the sites of the large
cliff-dwellings of the Navaho Monument is the almost constant presence
of a vertical cliff-wall below the cave floor, the talus rarely
extending to the base of the lowest rooms.
[29] According to Hopi legends, the Horn clans (animals with horns) are
kin to the Snake, and formerly lived with the Snake clans at Tokónabi.
Later they united with the Flute clans at Lengyanobi, and still later
joined the Snake clans at Walpi. Lengyanobi (“Pueblo of the Flute”) is
a large ruin north of the Hopi mesas.
[30] “Adobe bricks” with straw, according to Mr. W. B. Douglass, are
found at Inscription House near the end of the White mesa. The writer
has found adobe cubes in some of the walls of Cliff Palace, but these
contain no straw.
[31] Although circular kivas are found in several ruins in the Navaho
National Monument, as Kitsiel, Inscription House, Scaffold House, and
others, they were not seen in Betatakin, which has the rectangular
ceremonial room with side entrance above mentioned. Although such
rooms possess some of the features of kivas, it is perhaps better to
restrict that term to the circular chambers and adopt the word kihu to
designate the rectangular rooms above ground. The ceremonial chambers
of Betatakin suggest the Flute room at Walpi. This fact and the
discovery of a flute in one of the rooms make it appear that Betatakin
was inhabited by Flute clans, which, according to Hopi legends, lived
in this region.
[32] For the accompanying view of the ruin (pl. 1), from photographs
taken by Mr. William B. Douglass, the writer is indebted to the General
Land Office.
[33] The kivas appear to be circular; one of them has the large
banquette, like kiva M in Cliff Palace. No pilasters for supporting
roofs have yet been reported.
[34] The two ruins Kitsiel and Betatakin are those about which
extravagant statements as to size and character were made about two
years ago by newspapers and otherwise reliable magazines.
[35] Like all ruins in East canyon, Cradle House is situated in a small
side canyon on the left bank.
[36] Trickling-spring House is not located on the accompanying map and,
so far as could be ascertained, had not been visited by archeologists
previously to the writer’s visit. A young Navaho guided the writer to
it a short time before he left the region.
[37] Of course some of the rooms in Cliff Palace, especially those at
the western extension of the northern end, are dependent, the cliff
forming their rear walls.
[38] Both kinds of circular kivas are found in the cliff-ruins at Casa
Blanca and in Mummy cave in the Canyon de Chelly.
[39] These rites in all the Hopi pueblos are performed, as in ancient
times, in rectangular rooms not called kivas. The Snake rites are
performed now, as when the clan lived at Tokónabi in subterranean rooms
(kivas), the present form of which is rectangular instead of circular,
as at Tokónabi.
[40] It appears that in some of the ruins of the Navaho National
Monument there were both circular subterranean kivas and rectangular
rooms used for ceremonial purposes. At Wukóki the former do not
exist, but two of the latter can be recognized, one of which has a
construction like a ventilator.
[41] None of the five Walpi kivas is older than 1680, and one or two
are of later construction.
[42] Haus und Dorf bei den Eingeborenen Nordamerikas, in _Arch. für
Anthr._, N. F., Bd. VII, Heft 2 and 3, 1908.
[43] The circular kivas of Kükütcomo, the twin ruins on the mesa above
Sikyatki, near Walpi, are the only ceremonial rooms of this form known
from the Hopi mesas. These were the work of the Coyote clan and are of
Eastern origin.
[44] There are two types of cavate ruins, or rooms artificially
excavated in the tops or faces of cliffs, near Flagstaff. In one type,
Old Caves, the entrance to the subterranean rooms is vertical; in the
other, New Caves, it is from the side. In one type the walls of masonry
are built above the caves; in the other in front of them. The common
feature is the existence of chambers artificially excavated in the
cliff. Both types differ essentially from pueblos built in the open
or in natural caverns, although some of the kivas of the latter are
excavated in the solid rock.
MINOR ANTIQUITIES
Notwithstanding the limited duration of the writer’s visit to the
Navaho National Monument, a few specimens of stone, wood, pottery, and
other objects were collected. The whole pieces of pottery, numbering
14 specimens (pls. 15-18), the majority of which came probably from
Inscription House and other ruins near Red Lake, were presented to the
Smithsonian Institution by Mr. Stephen Janus, Navaho agent at Tuba, who
accompanied the writer on the trip to the Marsh Pass ruins. Fragments
of pottery were picked up on the surface at Betatakin, Kitsiel, and
several other ruins, and the most characteristic of these were brought
back to Washington. No excavations were attempted, nor could all
objects that were seen be brought away. Although up to within a few
years these ruins were practically in the condition they were when
abandoned, unfortunately of late they have been despoiled and many
beautiful specimens have been taken from them. Many objects still
remain which should be removed lest they fall into improper hands.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 16
_a._ ROUGH VASE OF CORRUGATED WARE
Cat. No. 257777. Height, 7 inches.
_b._ VASE WITH CONSTRICTED NECK
Cat. No. 257778. Height, 8 inches.
POTTERY FROM NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT]
POTTERY
The pottery collected consists of jars, vases, food bowls, and circular
disks with a row of perforations about the margin. There are also
dipper handles and broken ladles of the usual shape. Some of these
specimens are of corrugated ware, others have smooth surfaces with
painted decoration. The proportion of corrugated and indented ware
found in the Navaho Monument ruins is about the same as in the Mesa
Verde National Park. The finest coiled ware was obtained from the
latter locality. Several fragments of flat dishes, perforated on their
margins (pl. 15, _b_), or colanders having holes in the middle, form
part of the collection.[45]
The most instructive form of pottery in the collection brought back
from northern Arizona is a decorated globular vase of black-and-white
ware (pl. 16, _b_). The decoration on this specimen is not confined
to the exterior but is found also on the inner surface of the lip; it
consists mainly of triangles so united as to form hour-glass figures. A
unique design on this vessel consists of two parallel lines, each with
dots on one side, suggesting similar bands in red on the inner wall of
the third story of the square tower of Cliff Palace.
Three small bowls of crude ware are fluted on the outside, the ridge,
or fluting, being raised somewhat above the surface of the bowl and
having a zigzag course. One of the best of these unique ceramic
forms has this fluting broken into S-shaped figures, as shown in the
accompanying illustration (pl. 17, _a_).
The writer collected also several perforated clay disks which were
possibly used as spindle whorls, although they may have been gaming
implements. A similar disk made of mountain-sheep horn was found at
Kitsiel.
The largest and one of the finest vases (pl. 18, _a_) from the
neighborhood of Red Lake is also of black-and-white ware. The
decoration is external and consists of black figures covering the neck
and upper body. The base is rounded and the lip slightly flaring.
This vase may have been used for containing water or possibly as a
receptacle for prayer (corn) meal. The food bowls from Red Lake are
chiefly of black-and-white ware, the red and yellow varieties being
less numerous. A common feature in food bowls of this region is a
handle on one side, as shown in plate 15, _d_. Some of these vessels,
although of smooth ware, are without decoration on either the exterior
or the interior.
The shallow, slightly concave clay disk[46] shown in plate 15, _b_, is
characteristic in possessing a row of holes near the rim. This disk
seems to represent a common type, as several fragments with similar
holes were found on the surface of the ruins. The same or related forms
appear to have been common in ruins near the Hopi pueblos. These are
found in the collection of votive offerings now in the Peabody Museum
at Cambridge, from Jedito spring, near Awatobi, and the writer has
discovered specimens elsewhere in Hopi ruins, a brief mention of which
occurs in a report on the archeological results of his expedition to
Arizona in 1895.[47]
Several fragments of deep bowls, each having a handle (pl. 18, _b_) on
the surface, were obtained in the sands below cliff-house B; these are
commonly of red ware and have reddish-brown and black decorations. A
small dish of black-and-white ware (pl. 15, _a_) has the rim slightly
elevated and rounded on one side. The cups or mugs from this region
are shaped unlike those from the Mesa Verde. Mugs from the latter
region are cylindrical in form or the walls incline slightly inward
so that the diameter of the opening is somewhat less than that of the
base. The lip is thick and decorated. One of these cups, here figured,
has a constricted neck, and a slightly flaring rim which is thin and
undecorated. The decoration of another cup (pl. 15, _c_) suggests the
designs on several mugs from the Little Colorado ruins. So far as form
and decoration are concerned, this cup, or handled vase, might have
come from Homolobi, Chevlon, or Chaves pass.[48]
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 17
_a_ _b_ _c_
_a._ BOWLS BEARING RELIEF ORNAMENTS
(From left to right): Cat. Nos. 257783, 257784, 257782. Heights, 2½
inches, 2 inches, 2¾ inches.
_b._ HANDLES OF FOOD-BOWLS
Cat. No. 258326.
_c._ STONE IMPLEMENTS
(From left to right): Cat. Nos. 258334, 258335, 258336, 258337.
Dimensions, 6 x 4 x 1¾ inches; 5¼ x 3¾ x 2½ inches; 4½ x 3¾ x 2 inches;
4¾ x 2¾ x 2½ inches.
POTTERY AND STONE IMPLEMENTS FROM NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT]
The designs on fragments of pottery found in ruins in northern Arizona
are identical with or related to those from the Black Falls ruins, but
differ somewhat from those on pottery from ruins higher up the Little
Colorado river. If the history of the modification of ceramic symbols
in any of the large composite pueblos of the Southwest be studied, it
will be noticed that there are often radical changes, the later symbols
not being modifications of earlier ones. Thus modern Zuñi pottery
designs differ materially from those found in ruins in the same valley.
The modern pottery from East mesa is wholly different from that of
Sikyatki, a few miles away. Again, in so-called modern Hopi pottery,
Tewa symbols derived from the Rio Grande have replaced old Hopi symbols
dominant before the advent of Tewa clans. The changes in pottery
symbols in every large composite pueblo are not due to evolution of the
modern from the ancient, but reflect the history of the advent of new
clans, powerful enough to substitute their designs for those formerly
existing. One of the problems of the ethnologist is to determine
symbols associated with certain clans, and by means of legends to
identify clans with ruins. Having determined the symbols introduced
by certain clans and the places where these clans halted in their
migrations and built pueblos, the course of these prehistoric movements
may be followed. Comparison of symbols on pottery from northern Arizona
with those from Black Falls ruins support, so far as they go, the
legends that the Snake people, who once lived at Wukóki near the Black
Falls, lived also in cliff-houses now ruins near Marsh pass or the
White mesa. The symbolism indicates the presence of the same clans, and
tradition is thereby supported.
CLIFF-DWELLERS CRADLE
One of the most instructive specimens collected in the Navaho National
Monument was found by Mr. W. B. Douglass in a ruin designated as Cradle
House. This object is a cradle made of basket ware, open at one end
and continued at the opposite end into a biped extension to serve for
the legs. It is decorated on the outside with an archaic geometric
ornamentation, the unit design of which is shown in the accompanying
illustration. This specimen (pls. 19-21) may be regarded as one of the
finest examples of prehistoric basketry from the Southwest; moreover,
with one exception, it is the only known cradle of this form. A pair
of infant’s sandals found with the cradle leaves no doubt as to its
use, while the character and symbolism of the decoration refer it to
the ancient cliff-house culture. The design (fig. 3) suggests that
which characterizes certain specimens of the well-known black-and-white
pottery found in the San Juan drainage. Evidences of long use and
repair appear, especially on one side. Unfortunately, the specimen,
although entire when found, later was broken across its middle.
[Illustration: FIG. 3. Design on cliff-dwellers cradle.]
The only other known cradle of this type was brought to the
attention of ethnologists by Dr. W. J. McGee when in charge of the
anthropological exhibit at the St. Louis Exposition. This was found
in San Juan county, Utah, not far from the Colorado river.[49] This
specimen is better preserved than that here figured, but the decoration
is practically identical; so near, in fact, that the two might have
been made by the same woman.
MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS
The stone implements (pl. 17, _c_) consist of axes, pounding
stones,[50] and hatchets. On one of the roofs at Kitsiel there was
picked up a curved stick[51] identical with those placed by the
Walpi Snake priests about the sand-painting of their altar. A good
specimen of a planting stick and a rod formerly used as a spindle were
found near by; the latter is a perforated disk made of horn. A flute
identical with those used at the present day by Flute priests at Walpi
was found at Betatakin, thus tending to support the legend that the
Flute clan once lived at the latter pueblo.
FOOTNOTES:
[45] These dishes resemble those sometimes used by the Hopi for
sprinkling water on their altars as a prayer for rain. They may have
been used also in sifting sand on the kiva floor, to form a layer upon
which the sand picture is later drawn with sands of different colors.
[46] Small perforated clay disks are not rare here, as in other ruins.
They were used in the same way as the horn disk mentioned on page 30.
[47] In _Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology_, pt. 2.
[48] Compare figures from these ruins, in the _Twenty-second Annual
Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_.
[49] The finder was Mr. E. B. Wallace. This specimen was owned at one
time by Mr. J. T. Zeller, an architect of St. Louis. The writer has
been informed that Mr. Zeller sold the cradle and that it is now in the
Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
[50] A common feature of stone mauls is a raised ferrule above and one
below the groove to which the handle is attached.
[51] These sticks, or “crooks” (_gnela_), found on the Antelope altar
in the Walpi Snake ceremony are reported to have been brought to Walpi
from Tokónabi.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The route chosen by the author for visiting the ruins of the Navaho
National Monument is via Flagstaff and Tuba, the distance being not
far from 200 miles to Marsh pass and 10 miles beyond to the largest
cliff-dwellings. Although the wagon road is long, requiring a journey
of at least five days, it may be traversed with carriage or buckboard,
the sandy stretch between Tuba and Red Lake being the most difficult.
The trail from Marsh pass to the great cliff-dwellings, although now
passable only on horseback, could be made into a wagon road at small
expense.
The nature of the cliffs in which the ruins of the Navaho Monument are
situated favored the construction of cliff-dwellings rather than of
open pueblos in this region. These cliffs are full of caverns, large
and small, presenting much the same condition as the cliffs of the
red sandstone elsewhere in the Southwest, as the Mesa Verde, Canyon
de Chelly, the Red Rocks south of Flagstaff, and other sections where
caverns abound. Fragments of fallen rocks present good plane surfaces
for walls of masonry, and there is abundant clay for plastering.
Trees suitable for rafters and beams are not wanting. In short, all
conditions are favorable for stone and adobe houses in the cliffs.
The neighboring Sethlagini mesa is of different geological formation;
in it are no caverns, the mesa top is broad, and ruins thereon are
necessarily open pueblos. The effect of difference in geological
structure is nowhere more evident than in these adjacent formations.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 18
_a._ LARGE BLACK-AND-WHITE VASE
Cat. No. 257774. Height, 17 inches.
_b._ LARGE VASE WITH HANDLE
Cat. No. 257787. Height, 8½ inches.
POTTERY FROM NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT]
If environment has had so marked an influence on the character of
building, we can readily see how it has affected arts and crafts. We
can hardly imagine a people living any length of time in this region
without being mentally influenced by the precipitous cliffs that rise
on all sides. The summits of these heights are eroded into fantastic
shapes resembling animals or grotesque human forms. The constant
presence of these marvelous forms, of awe-inspiring size and weird
appearance, exerted a profound influence on the supernatural ideas of
the inhabitants. Here were born many conceptions of earth gods and the
like, survivals of which still remain among the Hopi.
As a rule the cliff-houses are not situated in sight of the main
stream, but are hidden away in secluded side canyons, approached by
narrow entrances, their sites having been determined no doubt by the
position of the springs with their constant water supply.
Almost every side canyon, even in a dry season, has its spring of water
which, trickling out of the rocks, follows the canyon bed until it is
finally drunk up by the thirsty sands. Often water seeps out of a soft
stratum of rock in the cave itself, where it was gathered in artificial
reservoirs that in ancient times furnished an adequate supply for the
inhabitants. One feature of these side canyons is that they enlarge
into basins surrounded on all sides by lofty cliffs. Many of these
basins are so hidden that they can be discovered only by following dry
stream-beds from their junction with the creeks. How many of these
basins are still undiscovered no one can yet tell. In these basins now
covered with bushes the aboriginal farms were probably situated.
As the width of the valley of Laguna creek from Marsh pass to the point
where the stream receives its largest branches on the left bank varies,
the amount of arable land is greater in some places than in others. In
stretches where the stream almost washes the bases of the ruins there
could have been no extensive farming lands. The creek meanders through
the soft clay and sand which fill the valley to the depth of many feet,
forming treacherous banks that are continually falling and changing
the course of the stream, so it is quite possible that the present
configuration of the valley is very different from what it was when the
cliff-dwellings were inhabited. If the occupants once had farms within
its limits all traces of them would have long since been obliterated.
Although too much credence should not be given to Navaho traditions,
it is not unreasonable to believe that in one particular at least
they are correct. These state that, before the introduction of sheep,
grass was much higher in the level part of the valley than at present,
and formerly game (at least the mountain sheep and the antelope)
may have been more abundant. This condition would have exerted a
marked influence on the life of the cliff-dwellers. Pictographs show
that the ancient people, either here or in their former homes, were
familiar with these animals, and various objects of bone and horn are
significant in this connection.
The Navaho National Monument (see sketch map, pl. 22) contains two
kinds of ruins,[52] cliff-dwellings and pueblos. Most of the latter are
situated on promontories or on low hills. The structural features of
the cliff-dwellings are characteristic, their walls being constructed
of stone or adobe built against, rarely free from, vertical faces of
the cliff.
There are two types of kivas, one circular and subterranean, allied to
those of the Mesa Verde, the other rectangular, above ground, entered
from the sides.
The masonry of these northern ruins is crude, resembling that of
modern Walpi. The component stones are neither dressed nor smoothed,
but the walls are sometimes plastered. There is a great similarity
in architecture. No round towers[53] relieve the monotony or impart
picturesqueness to the buildings. The walls of ruined pueblos in
this region and the ceramic remains closely resemble those at Black
Falls on the Little Colorado. A prominent feature of the walls is a
_jacal_ construction in which the mud is plastered on wattling between
upright poles. The ends of many of these supports project high above
the ground, constituting a characteristic feature of the ruins. This
method of wall construction is unknown at Black Falls or at Walpi, but
survives in modified form in one or more Oraibi kivas and in one at
least of the Mesa Verde ruins.[54] It has been described by Mr. Cosmos
Mindeleff as common to several ruins in the Canyon de Chelly.
The key to the culture of the people from which the cliff-dweller
culture was derived is probably the kiva, which furnishes also a good
basis for the classification of the Pueblos and cliff-dwellers into
subordinate groups.
Architecturally the kiva reached its highest development in the Mesa
Verde region, where it is a circular subterranean room with pilasters
and banquettes, ventilators and deflectors, fireplaces and ceremonial
openings, the features of which have been described elsewhere. As
we follow the San Juan down to its junction with the Colorado we
find a gradual simplification of the circular type of kiva by
the elimination of pilasters, ventilators, and other features, the
round kiva being here represented by rooms in which almost the only
architectural feature remaining is the large banquette. The question
naturally arising in this connection is, whether the circular kiva
in the eastern region is a development of that simpler form existing
in the western or whether the latter is a degenerate form of the
eastern. In other words, does the evidence show that this particular
modification spread from the east down the San Juan or from the west
up the river to the east? In this connection it may be urged that
originally the form of circular kiva lacking pilasters extended
along the entire course of the San Juan and that the kivas of the
Mesa Verde became highly specialized forms in which pilasters were
developed, while those lower down the river remained the same. We can
not definitely answer either of these questions, but taken with other
evidence it would seem that the circular form of kiva originated in the
eastern section and gradually extended westward.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 19
CLIFF-DWELLERS CRADLE—FRONT
Dimensions: length, 22 inches; breadth, 9 inches; diameter, 6 inches.]
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 20
CLIFF-DWELLERS CRADLE—REAR]
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 21
CLIFF-DWELLERS CRADLE—SIDE]
The modern Hopi rectangular form of ceremonial room situated
underground seems in some instances to have derived certain features
from the circular subterranean kiva.
The chief kiva at Walpi, that used by the Snake fraternity, is
rectangular and subterranean, while that used by the Flute priests,
which is practically a ceremonial room, is a chamber entered by a side
doorway. It is suggested that the Snake kiva at Walpi was derived
from the circular subterranean kiva of Tokónabi, the former home
of the Snake clan in northern Arizona, and that the Flute chamber
was developed from the rectangular rooms in the same ruins. The old
question, so often considered by Southwestern archeologists, whether
the circular subterranean kiva was derived from the rectangular or
_vice versa_, seems to the writer to be somewhat modified by the fact
that ceremonial rooms of both forms exist side by side in many ancient
cliff-dwellings. From circular subterranean kivas in some instances
developed square kivas, but the latter are sometimes the direct
development of square rooms; the determination of the original form can
best result from a study of clans and their migrations.[55]
Naturally the questions one asks in regard to these ruins are: Why
did the inhabitants build in these cliffs? Who were the ancient
inhabitants? When were these dwellings inhabited and deserted?
It is commonly believed that the caves were chosen for habitations
because they could be better defended than villages in the open. This
is a good answer to the first question, so far as it goes, although
somewhat imperfect. The ancients chose this region for their homes
on account of the constant water supply in the creek and the patches
of land in the valley that could be cultivated. This was a desirable
place for their farms. Had there been no caves in the cliffs they would
probably have built habitations in the open plain below. They may have
been harassed by marauders, but it must be borne in mind that their
enemies did not come in great numbers at any one time. Defense was
not the primary motive that led the sedentary people of this canyon
to utilize the caverns for shelter. Again, the inroads of enemies
never led to the abandonment of these great cliff-houses, if we can
impute valor in any appreciable degree to the inhabitants. Fancy, for
instance, the difficulty, or rather improbability, of a number of
nomadic warriors great enough to drive out the population of Kitsiel,
making their way up Cataract canyon and besieging the pueblo. Such an
approach would have been impossible. Marauders might have raided the
Kitsiel cornfields, but they could not have dislodged the inhabitants.
Even if they had succeeded in capturing one house but little would have
been gained, as it was a custom of the Pueblos to keep enough food in
store to last more than a year. In this connection the question is
pertinent, While hostiles were besieging Kitsiel how could they subsist
during any length of time? Only with the utmost difficulty, even with
aid of ropes and ladders, can one now gain access to some of these
ruins. How could marauding parties have entered them if the inhabitants
were hostile? The cliff-dwellings were constructed partly for defense,
but mainly for the shelter afforded by the overhanging cliff, and the
cause of their desertion was not due so much to predatory enemies as
failure of crops or the disappearance of the water supply.
The writer does not regard these ruins as of great antiquity; some
of the evidence indicates that they are of later time. Features in
their architecture show resemblances derived from other regions. The
Navaho ascribe the buildings to ancient people and say that the ruined
houses existed before their own advent in the country, but this was not
necessarily long ago. Such evidence as has been gathered supports Hopi
legends that the inhabitants were ancient Hopi belonging to the Flute,
Horn, and Snake families.
There is no evidence that cliff-house architecture developed in these
canyons, and rude structures older than these have been found in this
region. Whoever the builders of these structures were, they brought
their craft with them. The adoption of the deflector in the rectangular
ceremonial rooms called kihus implies the derivation of these rooms
from circular kivas, and all indications are that the ancient
inhabitants came from higher up San Juan river.
Many of the ruins in Canyon de Chelly situated east of Laguna creek
show marked evidence of being modern, and they in turn are not so old
as those of the Mesa Verde. If the ruins become older as we go up
the river the conclusion is logical that the migration of the San
Juan culture was down the river from east to west, rather than in the
opposite direction. The scanty traditions known to the author support
the belief in a migration from east to west, although there were
exceptional instances of clan movements in the opposite direction. The
general trend of migration would indicate that the ancestral home of
the Snake and Flute people was in Colorado and New Mexico.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 22
SKETCH MAP
OF THE
·NAVAHO NATL·MONUMENTS·
FROM OFFICIAL REPORTS BY
W·B·DOUGLASS
U·S·GENL· LAND OFFICE
1910
]
It is evident from the facts here recorded that the ruins in the
Navaho National Monument contain most important, most characteristic,
and well-preserved prehistoric buildings, and that the problems they
present are of a nature to arouse great interest in them. Having
suffered comparatively little from vandalism, these are among the
best-preserved monuments of the cliff-dwellers’ culture in our
Southwest, and if properly excavated and repaired they would preserve
most valuable data for the future student of prehistoric man in North
America. It is not necessary to preserve all the ruins within this
area, but it would be well to explore the region and to locate the
sites of the ruins that it contains.
FOOTNOTES:
[52] The writer was not able to determine the exact site of the
traditional Tokónabi, but believes one is justified in considering the
ruins visited to be prehistoric houses of the Snake (Flute), Horn, and
other Hopi clans whose descendants now live in Walpi.
[53] While circular subterranean kivas are found in some of the ruins,
none of these have the six pilasters so common higher up on the San
Juan, nor have these rooms ventilators like those of Spruce-tree House.
Some of the ruins have rectangular kivas, above ground, entered from
one side.
[54] The best example of walls of this kind is found in an undescribed
cliff-ruin in the canyon southwest of Cliff Palace.
[55] It is generally the custom to speak of the rectangular
subterranean rooms of Walpi as kivas, while the square or rectangular
rooms above ground, in which equally secret rites are performed, are
not so designated. Both types are ceremonial rooms, but for those not
subterranean the term _kihu_ (clan ceremonial room), instead of kiva,
is appropriate.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The writer has the honor to recommend that one of the largest two
cliff-dwellings in the Navaho National Monument, either Betatakin or
Kitsiel, be excavated, repaired, and preserved as a “type ruin” to
illustrate the prehistoric culture of the aborigines of this section of
Arizona; also that this work be supplemented by excavation and repair
of Inscription House, an ancient cliff-dwelling in West canyon.
He also recommends that one or more of the ruins in West canyon be
added to the Navaho National Monument and be permanently protected by
the Government.
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