The ruins of the lower Verde valley represent a comparatively late
period in the history of the Pueblo tribes. The period of occupancy was
not a long one and the population was never large, probably not
exceeding at any time 800 or 1,000 souls, possibly less than 700; nor
were the dwellings in that region all occupied at the same time.
There is no essential difference, other than those due to immediate
environment, between the architecture of the lower Verde region and that
of the more primitive types found in other regions, Tusayan for example.
The Verde architecture is, however, of a more purely aboriginal type
than that of any modern pueblo, and the absence of introduced or foreign
ideas is its chief characteristic. There are no chimneys, no adobe
walls, no constructive expedients other than aboriginal and rather
primitive ones. The absence of circular kivas[10] or sacred council
chambers is noteworthy.
[Footnote 10: As this term has been already defined, it is here
used without further explanation. For a full discussion of these
structures, see “A Study of Pueblo Architecture,” by Victor
Mindeleff, in 8th. Ann. Rep. Bur. Eth., 1886-87, Washington, 1891.]
The circular kiva is a survival of an ancient type--a survival supported
by all the power of religious feeling and the conservatism in religious
matters characteristic of savage and barbarous life; and while most of
the modern pueblos have at the present time rectangular kivas, such, for
example, as those at Tusayan, at Zuñi, and at Acoma, there is no doubt
that the circular form is the more primitive and was formerly used by
some tribes which now have only the rectangular form. Still the
abandonment of the circular and the adoption of the rectangular form,
due to expediency and the breaking down of old traditions, was a very
gradual process and proceeded at a different rate in different parts of
the country. At the time of the Spanish conquest the prevailing form in
the old province of Cibola was rectangular, although the circular kiva
was not entirely absent; while, on the other hand, in the cliff ruins of
Canyon de Chelly, whose date is partly subsequent to the sixteenth
century, the circular kiva is the prevailing, if not the exclusive form.
But notwithstanding this the Hopi Indians of Tusayan, to whom many of
the Canyon de Chelly ruins are to be attributed, today have not a single
circular kiva. The reason for this radical departure from the old type
is a simple one, and to be found in the single term environment. The
savage is truly a child of nature and almost completely under its sway.
A slight difference in the geologic formations of two regions will
produce a difference in the arts of the inhabitants of those regions,
provided the occupancy be a long one. In the case of the Tusayan kivas
the rectangular form was imposed on the builders by the character of the
sites they occupied. The requirement that the kiva should be under
ground, or partly under ground, was a more stringent one than that it
should be circular, and with the rude appliances at their command the
Tusayan builders could accomplish practically nothing unless they
utilized natural cracks and fissures in the rocks. Hence the abandonment
of the circular form and also of the more essential requirement, that
the kiva should be inclosed within the walls of the village or within a
court; the Tusayan kivas are located indiscriminately in the courts and
on the outskirts of the village, wherever a suitable site was found,
some of them being placed at a considerable distance from the nearest
house.
It will be seen, therefore, that it is impossible to base any
chronologic conclusions on the presence or absence of this feature,
notwithstanding the undoubted priority of the circular form, except in
so far as these conclusions are limited to some certain region or known
tribal stock. If it be assumed that the Verde ruins belong to the
Tusayan, and all the evidence in hand favors that assumption, the
conclusion follows that they should be assigned to a comparatively late
period in the history of that tribe.
That the period of occupancy of the lower Verde valley was not a long
one is proved by the character of the remains and by what we know of the
history of the pueblo-building tribes. There are no very large areas of
tillable land on the lower Verde and not a large number of small ones,
and aside from these areas the country is arid and forbidding in the
extreme. Such a country would be occupied only as a last resort, or
temporarily during the course of a migration. The term migration,
however, must not be taken in the sense in which it has been applied
to European stocks, a movement of people en masse or in several large
groups. Migration as used here, and as it generally applies to the
Pueblo Indians, means a slow gradual movement, generally without any
definite and ultimate end in view. A small section of a village,
generally a gens or a subgens, moves away from the parent village,
perhaps only a few miles. At another time another section moves to
another site, at still another time another section moves, and so on.
These movements are not possible where outside hostile pressure is
strong, and if such pressure is long continued it results in a
reaggregation of the various scattered settlements into one large
village. Such in brief is the process which is termed migration, and
which has covered the southwest with thousands of village ruins. Of
course larger movements have occurred and whole villages have been
abandoned in a day, but as a rule the abandonment of villages was a
gradual process often consuming years.
[Illustration: Plate XLVIII.
MASONRY OF RUIN AT MOUTH OF THE EAST VERDE.]
Before the archeologic investigation of the pueblo region commenced and
when there was little knowledge extant by which travelers could check
their conclusions, the immense number of ruins in that region was
commonly attributed to an immense population, some writers placing the
number as high as 500,000. Beside this figure the present population,
about 9,000, is so insignificant that it is hardly surprising that the
ancient and modern villages were separated and attributed to different
tribal stocks.
The process briefly sketched above explains the way in which village
ruins have their origin; a band of 500 village-building Indians might
leave the ruins of fifty villages in the course of a single century.
It is very doubtful whether the total number of Pueblo Indians ever
exceeded 30,000. This is the figure stated by Mr. A. F. Bandelier, whose
intimate acquaintance with the eastern part of the pueblo region gives
his opinion great weight. The apparently trifling causes which sometimes
result in the abandonment of villages have been already alluded to.
The lower Verde forms no exception to the general rule sketched above.
Scattered along the river, and always located on or immediately adjacent
to some area of tillable land, are found many small ruins, typical
examples of which have been described in detail. These form the
subordinate settlements whose place in the general scheme has been
indicated. The masonry is generally of river bowlders only, not dressed
or prepared in any way. The number of these settlements is no greater
than would be required for one complete cycle or period, although the
evidence seems to support the hypothesis that the movement commenced in
the northern part of the region and proceeded southward in two or
perhaps three separate steps. It is possible, however, that the movement
was in the other direction. This question can be settled only by a
thorough examination of the regions to the north and south.
There are two, possibly three, points in the region discussed where a
stand was made and the various minor settlements were abandoned, the
inhabitants congregating into larger bands and building a larger village
for better defense against the common foe. These are located at the
extreme northern and southern limits of the region treated, opposite
Verde and near Limestone creek, and possibly also at an intermediate
point, the limestone ruin above Fossil creek. These more important ruins
are all built of limestone slabs, and the sites are carefully selected.
The internal evidence supports the conclusion that the movement was
southward and that in the large ruin near Limestone creek the
inhabitants of the lower Verde valley had their last resting place
before they were absorbed by the population south of them, or were
driven permanently from this region. The strong resemblance of the
ground plan of this village to that of Zuñi has been already commented
on, and it is known that Zuñi was produced in the way stated, by the
inhabitants of the famous “seven cities of Cibola,” except that in this
case Zuñi was the second site adopted, the aggregation into one village,
or more properly a number of villages on one site, having taken place a
few years before. The fact that Zuñi dates only from the beginning of
the last century should not be lost sight of in this discussion.
The inhabitants of the Verde valley were an agricultural people, and
even in the darkest days of their history, when they were compelled to
abandon the minor settlements, they still relied on horticulture for
subsistence, and to a certain extent the defense motive was subordinated
to the requirements of this method of life. There can be no doubt that
the hostile pressure which produced the larger villages was Indian,
probably the Apache and Walapai, who were in undisputed possession at
the time of the American advent, and but little doubt that this pressure
consisted not of regular invasions and set sieges, but of sudden raids
and descents upon the fields, resulting in the carrying off of the
produce and the killing of the producers. Such raids were often made by
the Navajo on Tusayan, Zuñi, and the eastern pueblos and on the Mexican
villages along the Rio Grande for some years after the American
occupation, and are continued even today in a small way on the Tusayan.
The effect of such raids is cumulative, and it might be several years
before important action would result on the part of the village Indians
subjected to them. On the other hand, several long seasons might elapse
during which comparative immunity would be enjoyed by the village. In
the lower Verde there is evidence of two such periods, if not more, and
during that time the small pueblos and settlements previously referred
to were built. None of these small settlements was occupied, however,
for more than a few decades, the ground plans of most of them indicating
an even shorter period.
That cavate lodges and cliff-dwellings are simply varieties of the same
phase of life, and that life an agricultural one, is a conclusion,
supported by the remains in the lower Verde valley. The almost entire
absence of cliff-dwellings and the great abundance of cavate lodges has
already been commented on, and as the geologic formations are favorable
to the latter, and unfavorable to the former on the Verde, whereas the
Canyon de Chelly, where there are hundreds of cliff-dwellings and no
cavate lodges, the conditions are reversed, this abundance of cavate
lodges may be set down as due to an accident of environment. The cavate
lodge of the Rio Verde is a more easily constructed and more convenient
habitation than the cliff-dwelling of Canyon de Chelly.
[Illustration: Plate XLIX.
DOORWAY TO CAVATE LODGE.]
An examination and survey of the cliff ruins of Canyon de Chelly, made
some years ago by the writer, revealed the fact that they were always
located with reference to some area of adjacent tillable land and that
the defensive motive exercised so small an influence on the selection
of the site and the character of the buildings that it could be ignored.
It was found that the cliff-dwellings were merely farming outlooks,
and that the villages proper were almost always located on the canyon
bottom. With slight modifications these conclusions may be extended over
the Verde region and applied to the cavate lodges there. The relation of
these lodges to the village ruins and the character of the sites
occupied by them support the conclusion that they were farming outlooks,
probably occupied only during the farming season, according to the
methods followed by many of the Pueblos today, and that the defensive
motive had little or no influence on the selection of the site or the
character of the structures. The bowlder-marked sites and the small
single-room remains illustrate other phases of the same horticultural
methods, methods somewhat resembling the “intensive culture,” of modern
agriculture, but requiring further a close supervision or watching of
the crop during the period of ripening. As the area of tillable land in
the pueblo region, especially in its western part, is limited, these
requirements have developed a class of temporary structures, occupied
only during the farming season. In Tusayan, where the most primitive
architecture of the pueblo type is found, these structures are generally
of brush; in Canyon de Chelly they are cliff-dwellings; on the Rio Verde
they are cavate lodges, bowlder-marked sites and single house remains;
but at Zuñi they have reached their highest development in the three
summer villages of Ojo Caliente, Nutria, and Pescado.
[Illustration: Plate L.
DOORWAY TO CAVATE LODGE.]
Since the American occupancy of the country and the consequent removal
of the hostile pressure which has kept the Pueblo tribes in check,
development has been rapid and now threatens a speedy extinction of
pueblo life. The old Laguna has been abandoned, Acoma is being
depopulated, the summer pueblos of Zuñi are now occupied all the year
round by half a dozen or more families, and even in Tusayan, the most
conservative of all the pueblo groups, the abandonment of the home
village and location in more convenient single houses has commenced. It
is the old process over again, but with the difference that formerly the
cycle was completed by the reaggregation of the various families, and
little bands into larger groups under hostile pressure from wilder
tribes, but now that pressure has been permanently removed, and in a few
years, or at most in a few generations, the old pueblo life will be
known only by its records.