Canyon de Chelly National Monument is located in the red rock country of
northeastern Arizona’s high plateau, near the center of the Navajo
Indian Reservation. Included in its 131 square miles are three
spectacular canyons—Canyon de Chelly, Canyon del Muerto, and Monument
Canyon—and many ruins of long-deserted villages. Perched in alcoves and
on high ledges along the sheer-walled canyons, these villages are
evidence of man’s ability to adjust to a difficult environment, using
bare hands, simple stone age tools, and his own ingenuity. They stand as
enduring monuments to the culture of the ancestors of the present-day
Pueblo Indians of the southwestern United States.
The ancestors of the Navajo Indians who now live in the shadows of these
deep canyons came here long after the earlier peoples had left.
Originally the Navajos did not live in the canyon, but only passed
through it on their yearly migrations. Today some live here permanently,
and their hogans are scattered along the sandy canyon floor, almost
hidden by the thick growth of willows and cottonwoods and detectable
only by a column of smoke slowly rising from a cook fire or by the
barking of dogs. Occasionally one may catch a glimpse of a brightly
dressed woman working around the hogan or of black-hatted men trotting
their horses between the nearby trading post, cornfields, or peach
orchards. A reserved and dignified people, they still live in the
tradition of their fathers.
The main canyon’s name, de Chelly, stems from the Navajo word “Tsegi”
(pronounced tsay-yih or tsay-yhi and meaning “Rock Canyon”), the name by
which they know the canyon network. Two centuries of Spanish and English
usage have corrupted both the form and pronunciation. Most people now
pronounce it “dah-SHAY” or “d’SHAY.”
The first Europeans to see the extensive ruins in Canyon de Chelly are
unknown. A Spanish map of 1776 indicates its location, and other
documents reveal that Spanish military expeditions sometimes passed
through the neighborhood. In 1805, Spanish troops entered the canyon
while trying to suppress Navajo raids. During the period of Mexican rule
(1821-46), a number of military expeditions against the Navajo invaded
the Canyon de Chelly region. Though the ruins had not been described in
writing, the area was fairly well known, and by 1846, when the “Army of
the West” brought the region under United States control, there were
many tall tales and rumors about the wonderful cities built in the
cliffs.
[Illustration: Archeological excavations in Canyon del Muerto,
1929.]
In 1849, the New Mexico territorial government found it necessary to
request that a U.S. Army expedition be sent to subdue the Navajos. Lt.
J. H. Simpson of the Topographical Engineers accompanied the troops. His
journal, published in 1850, contained the first detailed account of some
of the Canyon de Chelly ruins.
After Simpson’s visit, other military expeditions and a few civilian
parties probably entered the canyons. No archeological investigations
were made, however, until 1882, when James Stevenson surveyed the area
for the Smithsonian Institution, making sketches, photographs, and
ground plans of 46 ruins in the two main canyons.
Stevenson found two mummies in a rock shelter ruin in the northern
canyon. Because of this find the ruin is known as Mummy Cave, and
Stevenson gave the canyon a Spanish name, Canyon de los Muertos, or
canyon of the dead men. The name has since been shortened to del Muerto.
[Illustration: First Ruin in the lower part of Canyon de Chelly. It
has 10 rooms and two kivas.]
Later in 1882, Cosmos Mindeleff, also from the Smithsonian and a member
of Stevenson’s party, mapped the canyons and showed the locations of
some of the larger ruins. Mindeleff’s monumental architectural survey of
the ruins of Canyon de Chelly was published in 1896, after two more
visits.
Much of our knowledge about material objects used by the early Puebloan
inhabitants of the canyons comes from the work of the late Earl H.
Morris, who excavated a number of the important cave sites in the
1920’s. Since then a comprehensive survey of the monument has been
carried out by David L. De Harport for the Peabody Museum of Harvard
University, and additional excavations have been conducted by National
Park Service archeologists.
[Illustration: The upper and lower White House ruins were probably
connected when the ancient Indians lived there.]