Located up the main canyon, about 6 miles from Park Service
headquarters, White House is one of the largest, best preserved, and
most accessible ruins in the monument.
[Illustration: A kiva at the White House ruin, where religious and
other ceremonies were held.]
Lt. J. H. Simpson described this ruin after his 1849 visit, calling it
Casa Blanca (White House). It is also known by its Navajo name,
Kini-na-e-kai. Both names derive from a conspicuous white-plastered wall
in the upper portion.
White House was constructed in two sections; one stands against the base
of the cliff on the canyon floor, and the other is in a small cave
immediately above. Mindeleff estimated that at one time the whole ruin
contained as many as 80 rooms. Much of the lower building has probably
been washed away by the stream nearby (a retaining wall now helps to
prevent this), but evidence of about 60 rooms and 4 kivas (special
ceremonial chambers) still survives.
Behind the back walls of the lower ruin the smooth cliff face rises 35
feet to the floor of the cave above. Marks on the face indicate that at
one time the rooms of the lower building stood several stories high, and
its roof came to within 4 feet of the cave floor above.
[Illustration: This map shows only the principal ruins in the
canyons that are open to visitors. Only some of these are discussed
in the text. The rock formations of these canyons eroded easily,
thus producing the steep cliffs and cave formations that provided
protection for the Anasazi.]
The upper ruin contains 10 rooms and has a large room nearly in the
center of the cave. The outside front wall of this room is 12 feet high
and still has the coating of white gypsum clay plaster with a decorative
band of yellow clay for which the ruin was named.
At the western edge of the lower ruin are the partial remains of two
well-built kivas. One kiva used to have holes in the floor like those
used to support looms in modern Pueblo kivas. The other kiva shows
evidence of six layers of plaster. Modern Zuni Indians have a ceremony
every 4 years in which they replaster the smoke-stained kiva interior,
and this tradition may give some idea of how long this kiva was in use.
A study of the annual growth rings of its roof timbers indicates that
most of the lower ruin was built after A.D. 1070.