RUINS OF HOUSES OF THE SEDENTARY INDIANS OF THE SAN JUAN RIVER
AND ITS TRIBUTARIES.
The finest structures of the Village Indians in New Mexico, and
northward of its present boundary line, are found on the San Juan
and its tributaries, unoccupied and in ruins. Even the regions in
which they are principally situated are not now occupied by this
class of Indians, but are roamed over by wild tribes of the Apaches
and the Utes. The most conspicuous cluster of these ruined and
deserted pueblos are in the canyon or valley of the Rio Chaco, which
stream is an affluent of the San Juan, a tributary of the Colorado.
Similar ruins of stone pueblos are also found in the valley of the
Animas River, and also in the region of the Ute Mountain in
Southwestern Colorado. Ruins of clusters of small single houses
built of cobble-stone and adobe mortar, and of large pueblos of the
same material, are to be seen in the La Plata Valley, and in the
Montezuma Valley, west of the Mancos River. On the Mancos River are
a large number of cliff houses of stone, and also round towers of
stone, of which the uses are not at present known. Cliff houses are
also found on the Dolores River. Other ruins are found in the canyon
of the Rio de Chelly.
The supposition is reasonable that the Village Indians north of
Mexico had attained their highest culture and development where
these stone structures are found. They are similar in style and plan
to the present occupied pueblos in New Mexico, but superior in
construction, as stone is superior to adobe or to cobble-stone and
adobe mortar. They are also equal, if not superior, in size and in
the extent of their accommodations, to any Indian pueblos ever
constructed in North America. This fact gives additional interest to
these ruins, which are here to be considered.
Two separate explorations and reports upon the Chaco ruins have been
made. The first was by Lieut. J. H. Simpson, who examined them in
1849 and first brought them to notice, and the second was a
re-examination by William H. Jackson in 1877. He was connected with
Prof. F. V. Hayden's Geological and Geographical Survey of the
Territories, and his report is in that of Professor Hayden,
published in 1878, p. 411.
The canyon of the Chaco, which commences about one hundred and ten
miles northwest from Santo Domingo, on the Rio Grande, is quite
remarkable. It has enough of the characteristics of the canyon to
justify the application of this peculiar term. But it differs from
the great canyons in the lowness of the bordering walls and in the
great breadth of the space between. Neither Simpson nor Jackson
describe the canyon or valley with as much particularity as could be
desired, but Mr. Jackson has furnished a map, Fig. 29, showing the
course of the stream with the walls of the canyon shaded in, and
with the breaks or gullies through these walls reduced to a scale.
This shows that the level plain between the encompassing walls
ranges from half a mile to a mile in places. The walls of the canyon
are composed of friable sandstone, and are usually vertical. Their
height is not given with precision. The engraving also shows the
outline forms and comparative size of the several structures, with
specimens of three varieties of masonry used in the walls. No. 2
shows an alternation of courses of stone from four to six inches
thick and from eight to twelve inches long, with intervening courses
of several thin stones. The same alternation of courses reappears in
the pueblos in ruins on the Animas River, about sixty miles north.
The canyon commences very much like the McElmo Canyon in
Southwestern Colorado, whose vertical walls are at first about three
feet high, with a level space between from three hundred to five
hundred feet in width; its walls rising slowly as you descend.
Without a present running stream, and bordered with open prairie land,
it makes a novel appearance to the eye. Lieutenant Simpson remarks
that after leaving the pueblo Pintado, which is above the
commencement of the canyon, "two miles over a slightly rolling
country, our general course still being to the northwest, brought us
to the commencement of the Canyon de Chaco, its width here being
about two hundred yards. Friable sandstone rocks, massive above,
stratified below, constitute its enclosing walls." [Footnote:
Lieutenant Simpson's Report, p. 77.]
And Mr. Jackson, who entered it from the same point, remarks that
"two miles from the river we descended into the canyon of the Chaco.
It is here only about fifty feet in depth, with vertical walls of
yellowish gray sandstone." [Footnote: Hayden's Report, p. 436.]
At a point twelve miles down, at the Pueblo Una Vida, he remarks
that "the canyon is here about five hundred yards wide, and is
perfectly level from one side to the other."
[Footnote: ib., p. 437.] Farther down the walls of the canyon rise
about a hundred feet, as appears in the restorations of the Pueblo
Bonito and of the Pueblo of Hungo Pavie. Whether the canyon is
accessible or not from the table-land above over against the several
pueblos, by means of the arroyos which break through the walls and
enter the canyon, does not appear from these reports; but it seems
probable, Mr. Jackson says, that near the Pueblo Bonito he ascended
to the top of the bluff by means of a stairway partly cut in the
face of the rock. [Footnote: ib., p. 448.]
Lieutenant Simpson, in his report, has furnished ground plans of
five of these structures with measurements. Mr. Jackson has
furnished eleven ground plans with measurements, two of which are
without the canyon. They agree substantially, but we shall follow
Mr. Jackson, as his are the most complete. The following engravings,
with two or three exceptions, are taken from his report. The
remainder are from Lieutenant Simpson's report.
The great edifices on the Chaco are all constructed of the same
materials, and upon the same general plan, but they differ in ground
dimensions, in the number of rows of apartments, and, consequently,
in the number of stories. They contained from one hundred to six
hundred apartments each, and would severally accommodate from five
hundred to four thousand persons, living in the fashion of Indians.
Speaking of the Pueblo of Pintado, Lieutenant Simpson remarks as
follows: "Forming one structure, and built of tabular pieces of hard,
fine-grained, compact, gray sandstone (a material entirely unknown
in the present architecture of New Mexico), to which the atmosphere
has imparted a reddish tinge, the layers or beds being not thicker
than three inches, and sometimes as thin as one-fourth of an inch,
it discovers in the masonry a combination of science and art which
can only be referred to a higher stage of civilization and
refinement than is discoverable in the works of Mexicans or Pueblos
of the present day. Indeed, so beautifully diminutive and true are
the details of the structure as to cause it at a little distance to
have all the appearance of a magnificent piece of mosaic work."
"In the outer face of the buildings there are no signs of mortar,
the intervals between the beds being chinked with stones of the
minutest thinness. The filling and backing are done in rubble masonry,
the mortar presenting no indications of the presence of lime. The
thickness of the main wall at base is within an inch or two of three
feet; higher up, it is less, diminishing every story by retreating
jogs on the inside, from bottom to top. Its elevation at its present
highest point is between twenty-five and thirty feet, the series of
floor beams indicating that there must have been originally three
stories. The ground plan, including the court, in exterior
development is about 403 feet. On the ground-floor, exclusive of the
out-buildings, are fifty-four apartments, some of them as small as
five feet square, and the largest about twelve by six feet. These
rooms communicate with each other by very small doors, some of them
as contracted as two and a half by two and a half feet; and in the
case of the inner suite, the doors communicating with the interior
court are as small as three and a half by two feet. The principal
rooms, or those most in use, were, on account of their having large
doors and windows, most probably those of the second story. The
system of flooring seems to have been large transverse unhewn beams,
six inches in diameter, laid transversely from wall to wall, and
then a number of smaller ones, about three inches in diameter, laid
longitudinally upon them. What was placed upon these does not appear,
but most probably it was brush, bark, or slabs, covered with a layer
of mud-mortar. The beams show no signs of the saw or axe; on the
contrary, they appear to have been hacked off by means of some very
imperfect instrument. On the west face of the structure, the windows,
which are only in the second story, are three feet two inches by two
feet two inches. On the north side they are only in the second and
third stories, and are as small as fourteen by fourteen inches. At
different points about the premises were three circular apartments
sunk in the ground, the walls being of masonry. These apartments the
Pueblo Indians called estufas, or places where the people held their
political and religions meetings." [Footnote: Simpson's Report, p. 76.]
The main building, Fig. 30, is two hundred and thirty-eight feet long,
and the wing one hundred and seventy-four feet. It seems probable,
from the symmetrical character of most of these structures, that the
original plan contemplated an extension of the main building, the
addition of another wing, to be followed by the connection of the
wings with a wall, thus closing the court. These buildings were not
all completed at once, but were extended and increased in the number
of stories from generation to generation, as the people increased in
numbers and prosperity. The plan upon which these houses were
erected favored such extension. The great size of some of these
structures can only be explained by the hypothesis of growth through
long periods of time. The stone for building this pueblo was found
quite near. Mr. Jackson remarks that "on the side of the bluff
facing the valley is an outcrop of a yellowish-gray sandstone,
showing in some places a seam of from twelve to eighteen inches in
thickness, where the rock breaks into thin slate-like layers. It was
from this stratum that most of the material in the walls was obtained."
[Footnote: Jackson's Report, p. 433.] He further remarks concerning
the estufas: "In the northwest angle of the court are two circular
rooms, or estufas, the best preserved one of which is built into the
main building and forms a portion of it, while the other stands
outside, but in juxtaposition, and is evidently a later and less
perfect addition. They are each twenty-five feet in diameter. The
inside walls are perfectly cylindrical, and in the case of the inner
one are in good preservation for a height of about five feet....
There are no side apertures, so that light and access was probably
obtained through the roof. These estufas, which figure so
prominently in these ruins and in fact in all the ancient ruins
extending southward from the basin of the Rio San Juan, are so
identical in their structure, position, and evident uses with the
similar ones in the pueblos now inhabited, that they indisputably
connect one with the other, and show this region to have been
covered at one time with a numerous population, of which the present
inhabitants of the pueblos of Moki and of New Mexico are either the
remnants or the descendants.... Beneath the ground plan [in Fig. 30]
is a section through a restoration of the pueblo from north to south,
showing the manner in which the stories were probably terraced from
the interior of the court outward. There is no positive evidence in
any of these ruins that they were thus built, but this arrangement
naturally suggests itself as being the only way in which light and
ease of access to the inner rooms could be readily obtained. It is
also quite certain from the character of the standing walls that
they were not terraced symmetrically but irregularly, after the
manner of the present pueblos. There is every reason to believe that
the first story was, in every case, reached from the outside by
ladders, the succeeding stories being also approached from the
outside, either by ladders or by stone stairways, after the manner
of the Moqui pueblos. There is no positive evidence to sustain any
conjecture upon this point, as in every ruin the upper stories are
so entirely dismantled that no indications of any sort of stairway
have ever been found. The ground-floor was divided into smaller
apartments than the second floor, many of the rooms, as shown in the
plan, being in the lower story divided into two or three. It would
be impossible to say how high this story had been, as the floor is
covered to a considerable extent with stones from the fallen walls.
The second floor was ten feet between joists, and the third somewhat
less, about seven feet, as near as we could judge from below. It is
probable that there was a fourth story, but there is now very little
evidence of it. Not a vestige of the vigas or other floor-timbers
now remain. Some of the lintels over the doors or windows, composed
of sticks of wood from one to two inches in thickness, laid close
together, are now in fair preservation." [Footnote: Jackson's Report,
p. 434.]
Twelve miles down the canyon from the Pueblo Pintado, are the ruins
of the Pueblo Wege-gi, Fig. 30. The main building is two hundred and
twenty-four feet, and the length of each wing is one hundred and
twenty feet, measured on the outside, but which would include the
depth of the main building. It is remarkably symmetrical. The rooms,
Mr. Jackson says, are small, the largest being eight by fourteen feet,
and the smallest eight feet square, and the estufas are each thirty
feet in diameter. It is built like the last pueblo "of small tabular
pieces of sandstone, arranged with beautiful effect of regularity
and finish."
The Pueblo of Una Vida, Fig. 31, seems to have been in process of
construction, and designed, when completed, to have been one of the
largest in the valley. The main building is two hundred and fifty
feet in length, and the wing two hundred feet. It requires for its
completion a considerable extension of the main building, and the
addition of another wing. If this supposition is tenable, it serves
to show that these great houses were of slow construction, by the
process of addition and extension from time to time, with the
increase of the people in numbers. Upon this theory of construction,
the first row of the main building on the court side would first be
completed one story high, and covered with a flat roof; after which,
by adding one parallel wall with partition walls at intervals, as
many more apartments would be obtained; and by a third and fourth
parallel wall, with partitions, twice as many more. The second row
was carried up two stories, the third three, and the fourth four;
the successive stories receding from the court side in the form of
great steps or terraces, one above the other. The wings would be
commenced and completed in the same manner. Further than this, it
seems evident, from the present condition of the structure, that the
main building was to be considerably extended, with a second wing
like the first to fill out the original design and produce a
symmetrical edifice. If these inferences are warranted, the
interesting conclusion is reached that these Indian architects
commenced their great houses upon a definite plan, which was to be
realized in its completeness after years and perhaps generations had
passed away. Like the pueblo last named, it is built of tabular
pieces of sandstone, and is two miles and a half lower down in the
canyon.
The highest portions of the wall still standing in this pueblo are
fifteen feet in height, twenty-five feet in Wege-gi, and thirty feet
in Hungo Pavie.
The Pueblo of Hungo Pavie or Crooked Nose, Fig. 31, is situated one
mile further down in the canyon, upon the north side, and quite near
the bordering walls. In exterior development, including the court,
it is eight hundred and seventy-two feet, of which the back wall
measures three hundred, and the side walls or wings one hundred and
forty-four feet each. It is of medium size, but symmetrical, and
larger than any single aboriginal structure in Central America in
ground dimensions. There are seventy-three apartments in the first
story, some of which are unusually large, being about thirteen by
eighteen feet, and with fifty-three rooms in the second story, and
twenty-nine in the third, contain an aggregate of one hundred and
fifty-five rooms. It would accommodate from eight hundred to one
thousand Indians.
To complete the representation of the architectural design of these
"great houses of stone," the annexed elevation is given, Fig. 32. It
is a restoration of the Pueblo of Hungo Pavie, made by Mr. Kern, who
accompanied General Simpson as draughtsman, and copied from his
engraving. The walls of the canyon are seen in the background of
engraving. We may recognize in this edifice, as it seems to the
author, a very satisfactory reproduction of the so-called palaces of
Montezuma, which, like this, were constructed on three sides of a
court which opened on a street or causeway, and in the terraced form.
From the light which this architecture throws upon that of the Aztecs,
which was contemporary, it appears extremely probable that these
famous palaces, considered as exclusive residences of an Indian
potentate, are purely fictitious; and that, on the contrary, they
were neither more nor less than great communal or joint-tenement
houses of the aboriginal American model, and with common Indians
crowding all their apartments. From what is now known of the
necessary constitution of society among the Village Indians, it
scarcely admits of a doubt that the great house in which he lived
was occupied on equal terms by many other families in common with
his own, all the individuals of which were joint proprietors of the
establishment which their own hands had constructed.
Two miles further down, and upon the north side of the canyon, near
the bluff, are the ruins of the Pueblo of Chettro Kettle, or the
Rain Pueblo, Fig. 33. The main building and the wings face the court,
from which alone they are entered, and from which the several
stories recede outward. Including the court, this great edifice has
an exterior development of one thousand three hundred feet. The
exterior wall of the main building measures four hundred and
fifty-two feet in length, and the longest of the wings two hundred
and twenty feet. These measurements are according to General Simpson.
From these measurements some impression may be formed of the extent
of the accommodations such an edifice would afford, especially in
Indian life, where a married pair and their children are found in a
smaller space than one of these apartments supplied. The plan shows
one hundred and seventy-five apartments in the ground story; one
hundred and thirty-four in the second; one hundred and thirteen in
the third; sixty in the fourth, and twenty-four in the fifth--making
an aggregate of five hundred and six apartments. It is not probable
that the several stories were carried up symmetrically, which would
involve a diminution of some of the rooms in the upper stories. This
pueblo is constructed of the same materials as those before named.
"The circular estufas," Lieutenant Simpson remarks, "of which there
are six in number, have a greater depth than any we have seen, and
differ from them also in exhibiting more stories, one of them
certainly showing two, and possibly three, the lowest one appearing
to be almost covered up with debris."
This room, Fig. 34, is described by Lieutenant Simpson, but at the
time of Mr. Jackson's visit he was unable to find it. "In the
northwest corner of the ruins," Lieutenant Simpson remarks,
"we found a room in an almost perfect state of preservation.... This
room is fourteen by seven and a half feet in plan, and ten feet in
elevation. It has an outside doorway, three and a half feet high by
two and a quarter wide, and one at its west end, leading into the
adjoining room, two feet wide, and at present, on account of rubbish,
only two and a half feet high. The stone walls still have their
plaster upon them in a tolerable state of preservation. In the south
wall is a recess or niche, three feet two inches high by four feet
five inches wide by four deep. Its position and size naturally
suggested the idea that it might have been a fire-place, but if so,
the smoke must have returned to the room, as there was no chimney
outlet for it. In addition to this large recess, there were three
smaller ones in the same wall. The ceiling showed two main beams,
laid transversely; on these, longitudinally, were a number of
smaller ones in juxtaposition, the ends being tied together by a
species of wooden fibre, and the interstices chinked in with small
stones; on these, again, transversely, in close contact, was a kind
of lathing of the odor and appearance of cedar, all in a good state
of preservation." [Footnote: Lieutenant Simpson's Report, p. 63.]
When in its original condition, this fine pueblo must have made a
very striking appearance.
Immediately under the walls of the canyon, and about a quarter of a
mile below the last pueblo, are the ruins of the still-greater
Pueblo Bonito, Fig. 35. This edifice is, in some respects, the most
interesting of the series as well as the best preserved in certain
portions. Its exterior development, including the court, is one
thousand three hundred feet. Its corners are rounded, and the east
wing, now the most ruinous part of the structure, appears to have
had row upon row of apartments added, until nearly one-third of the
area of the court was covered. "Its present elevation," General
Simpson observes, "shows that it had at least four stories of
apartments. The number of rooms on the ground floor is one hundred
and thirty-nine. In this enumeration, however, are not included the
apartments which are not distinguishable in the eastern portion of
the pueblo, and which would swell the number to about two hundred.
There, then, having been at least four stories of rooms ... there
must be a reduction ... of one range of rooms for every story after
the first, which would increase the number to six hundred and
forty-one." [Footnote: Simpson's Report, p. 81.]
No single edifice of equal accommodations, it may be here repeated,
has ever been found in any part of North America. It would
accommodate three thousand Indians.
One of the best of its rooms is shown in the engraving, Fig. 36. It
will compare, not unfavorably, with any of equal size to be found at
Palenque or Uxmal, although, from the want of a vaulted ceiling, not
equal in artistic design. The nice mechanical adjustment of the
masonry and the finish of the ceiling are highly creditable to the
taste and skill of the builders. "It is walled up," says Simpson,
"with alternate beds of large and small stones, the regularity of
the combination producing a very pleasant effect. The ceiling of
this room is also more tasteful than any we have seen, the
transverse beams being smaller and more numerous, and the
longitudinal pieces, which rest upon them, only about an inch in
diameter, and beautifully regular These latter have somewhat the
appearance of barked willow. The room has a doorway at each end, and
one at the side, each of them leading into adjacent apartments. The
light is let in by a window two feet by eight inches on the north
side." [Footnote: Simpson's Report, p. 81.]
Mr. Jackson's study of the ruins enabled him to produce a restoration,
which is given in his report, and of whose plate Fig. 37 is a copy.
It is an interesting work, considered as a restoration, which can
only claim to be an approximation. It will be noticed that three
passage-ways were left open into the court, although the ground plan
shows but one. In the Yucatan edifices, as the House of the Nuns at
Uxmal, there is usually an arched gateway through the center of the
building facing the court. The court was also open at each of the
four angles, which, however, might have been protected by palisades
in time of danger. The walls of the canyon are seen in the
background of the engraving.
Of this pueblo, Mr. Jackson remarks that "three hundred yards below
are the ruins of the Pueblo del Arroyo, Fig. 38, so named probably
because it is on the verge of the deep arroyo which traverses the
middle of the canyon." This was given only a passing glance by
Simpson, but it well repays more careful inspection. It is of the
rectangular form, but with the open space or court facing a few
degrees north of east. The west wall is two hundred and sixty-eight
feet long, and the two wings one hundred and twenty-five and one
hundred and thirty-five feet, respectively; their ends connected by
a narrow and low semi-circular wall. The wings are the most
massively-built and best-preserved portion of the whole building,
that portion which lies between them and back of the court being
much more ruinous and dissimilar in many respects. The walls, of the
south wing, which are in the first story, very heavy and massive,
are still standing to the height of the third story. Many, of the
vigas are still in place, and are large and perfectly smooth and
straight undressed logs of pine, averaging ten inches in thickness;
none of the smaller beams or other wood-work now remains. There is
one estufa thirty-seven feet in diameter in this wing. In the north
wing the walls are standing somewhat higher, but do not indicate
more than three stories, though there was probably another. The
vigas of the second floor project through the wall for a distance of
about five feet along its whole northern face, the same as in the
Pueblo Hungo Pavie. There are two estufas; one near the east end of
the wing, which is twenty-seven feet in diameter, was three stories
in height. The floor-beams are removed, but the remains show this
plainly. The interior is nearly filled up, but it was originally
over twenty-five feet in depth. The ruins of the other estufa are
insignificant compared with this, and it probably consisted of but
one low room. Facing the center of the court are remains of what
were three circular rooms. At the end of the wings, outside of the
building, are faint outlines of other circular apartments or
inclosures, shown by dotted lines on the plan. In the central
portion of the ruin, between the two wings, some rooms have been
preserved entire. I crawled down into one of these through a small
hole in the covering, and found its walls to consist of delicate
masonry, thinly plastered and whitewashed. The ceiling was formed in
the usual manner, fine willow brush supporting the earthen floor
above, instead of the lath-like sticks or thin boards that were used
in the exceptional cases noted.
Two miles below the Pueblo del Arroyo are the ruins of the Pueblo of
Penyasca Blanca, Fig. 39. "This is the largest pueblo in plan we
have seen," Lieutenant Simpson remarks, "and differs from others in
the arrangement of the stones composing its walls. The walls of the
other pueblos were all of one uniform character in the several beds
composing it; but in this there is a regular alternation of large
and small stones, which are about one foot in length and one-half a
foot in thickness, form but a single bed, and then, alternating with
these, are three or four beds of very small stones, each about an
inch in thickness. The general plan of the structure also differs
from the others in approximating the form of the circle. The number
of the rooms at present discoverable upon the first floor is one
hundred and twelve: and the existing walls show that there have been
at least three stories of apartments. The number of circular estufas
we counted was seven." [Footnote: Simpson's Report, p. 64.]
"In point of size," Mr. Jackson remarks, "the rooms of this ruin
will average larger than in most of the others; the twenty-eight
rooms, as they appear on the outer circumference, average twenty
feet in length from wall to wall inside. The smallest, which are
only ten feet wide, are at the two ends. The width of the rooms of
each tier appears to have been constant throughout the length of the
whole ruin. The dimensions given in these drawings are, in nearly
every case, of those apartments which constitute the second story,
as it is in those that there is the least obscuration of the walls.
"In most of the ruins the first floor is almost entirely filled up
with debris, but when the ruins can be followed they show that this
floor is generally divided into much smaller apartments, two or
three occurring sometimes in place of each one above them. The
eastern half of the ellipse, as above said, consists of a single
continuous line of small apartments, with a uniform width of
thirteen feet inside and an average length of twenty feet. By a
curious coincidence the same number of rooms are in this row as in
the outer tier of the main building. The walls of the central
portion for a distance of about two hundred feet are in fair
preservation, standing in places six to eight feet in height, the
dividing walls showing apertures leading from one room to another.
They are built of stones uniform in size, averaging six by nine by
three and a half inches. Mortar was used between the stones instead
of the small plates of stone. At both ends, for a distance of some
two hundred feet from the point of juncture with the main building,
the walls are entirely leveled, but enough remains to show the
dimensions of each apartment. Twenty yards from the south end of the
building are the ruins of a great circular room fifty feet in
diameter, with some portions of its interior wall in such
preservation that its character is readily discernible." [Footnote:
Hayden's Tenth Annual Report, 1878, p. 446.]
Without the canyon, upon the mesa, and about half a mile back of the
bluff, upon the north side, are the ruins of the Pueblo Alto,
constructed of stone on three sides of a court, like those before
described. The main building is three hundred feet long, and one
wing is two hundred feet measured externally from the back end of
the main building, the other wing is one hundred and seventy feet
measured the same way. This wing is but two rooms deep, while the
main building and the other wing are each three rooms deep. It has
six estufas, with remains of a convex wall, connecting the two wings,
and inclosing the court. These estufas, like those in the other
pueblos, suggest the probability that they were places for holding
the councils of the gentes and phratries.
This great ruin, with two others of smaller size, shown in Fig. 38
as No. 8 and No. 9, of which the first is one hundred and
thirty-five feet long and one hundred feet deep, and the other
seventy-eight by sixty-three feet, both of stone, complete the list
of ruins in the canyon. The pueblo of Pintado, is, however, at the
upper end, and without the canyon, and the Pueblo Alto, not yet
described, is not in the canyon, but on the bluff. It is a
remarkable display of ancient edifices; the most remarkable in New
Mexico. With the bordering walls of the canyon, rising vertically,
in places, one hundred feet high, it presented long vistas in either
direction, with natural and inclosing walls. Shut in from all view
of the table lands at the summit of these walls, this valley, at the
time its great houses were occupied, must have presented a very
striking picture of human life as it existed in the Middle Period of
Barbarism. The greater part of the valley must have been covered
with garden beds, from which the people derived their principal
support, as the mesa lands without the canyon were too dry for
cultivation. It no doubt presented an interesting picture of
industrious and contented life, with a corresponding advancement in
the arts of this period. There is still some uncertainty concerning
the time when these pueblos were last occupied, and the fate of
their inhabitants. There are a number of circumstances tending to
show that they were the "Seven Cities of Cibola," against which the
expedition of Coronado was directed in 1540-1542. There are seven
pueblos in ruins in the canyon, without reckoning Nos. 8 and 9, the
smallest in the valley. Some of the facts which point to these
pueblos as the Towns of Cibola may here be noted.
In his Relation to the Viceroy, which is dated from the province of
Cibola, August 3, 1540, Coronado describes his conquest and
intimates his disappointment in the following language:
"It remaineth now to certify your Honor of the seven cities, and of
the kingdoms and provinces whereof the Father Provincial made report
unto your Lordship. And, to be brief, I can assure your Honor he
said the truth in nothing that he reported, but all was quite
contrary, saving only the names of the cities, and great houses of
stone, for although they be not wrought with turqueses, nor with lime,
nor bricks, yet they are very excellent good houses, of three, or
four, or five lofts high, wherein are good lodging and fair chambers,
with ladders instead of stairs, and certain cellars under the ground,
very good and paved, which are made for winter,--they are in manner
like stoves; and the ladders which they have for their houses are in
a manner moveable and portable, which are taken away and set down
when they please; and they are made of two pieces of wood, with
their steps, as ours be. The seven cities are seven small towns, all
made with these kind of houses that I speak of; and they stand all
within four leagues together, and they are all called the Kingdom of
Cibola, and every one of them have their particular name, and none
of them is called Cibola, but all together they are called Cibola.
And this town, which I call a city, I have named Granada, as well
because it is somewhat like unto it, as also in remembrance of your
Lordship. In this town where I now remain there may be some two
hundred houses, all compassed with walls; and, I think, that, with
the rest of the houses which are not so walled, they may be together
five hundred. There is another town near this, which is one of the
seven, and it is somewhat bigger than this, and another of the same
bigness that this is of, and the four are somewhat less; and I send
them all painted unto your Lordship with the voyage. And the
parchment wherein the picture is was found here with other parchments.
The people of this town seem unto me of a reasonable stature, and
witty, yet they seem not to be such as they should be, of that
judgment and wit to build these houses in such sort as they are....
They travel eight days' journey unto certain plains lying towards
the North Sea. In this country there are certain skins, well dressed;
and they dress them and paint them where they kill their oxen
[buffalo]; for so they say themselves." [Footnote: Hakluyt, vol iii,
p. 377.]
On the fourth day after the capture of Cibola, Coronado further says:
"They set in order all their goods and substance, their women and
children, and fled to the hills, leaving their towns as it were
abandoned, wherein remained very few of them." [Footnote: ib., vol.
iii, p. 379.]
It will be observed that the phrases "great houses of stone," and
"good houses of three, or four, or five lofts high," not only
describe the pueblo on the Chaco in apt language, but there are no
other pueblos in New Mexico, exclusively of stone, of which we have
knowledge, except those of the Mokis, in the Canyon de Chelly, on
the Animas River, and elsewhere in Southwestern Colorado. There is
an apparent difficulty in the narrative, in the reference made to
the number of houses; but it is evident, I think, that Coronado
meant apartments or sections, treating each great house as a block
of houses, and expressing a doubt of their "judgment and wit to
build these houses in such sort as they are." If any doubt remained,
it is entirely removed by the fact that all the pueblo houses in New
Mexico, whether occupied or in ruins, are great edifices constructed
like these on the communal principle, and that two hundred such
houses grouped in one town were an utter impossibility.
Jaramillo, who wrote his Relation some time after the return of the
expedition, remarks, "that all the water-courses that we fell in with,
whether brook or river, as far as that of Cibola, and I believe for
one or two days' journey beyond, flow in the direction of the South
Sea [the Pacific]; farther on they take the direction of the North
Sea [the Atlantic]". [Footnote: Col. H. Ternaux-Compans, vol. ix, p.
370.]
This tends to show that Cibola was situated on a tributary of the
Colorado, which gathers all the waters of New Mexico west of the Rio
Grande and north of the Gila, and also that it was situated quite
near the dividing ridge. It is but ten miles from the Canyon de
Torrejon, on the Puerco, a tributary of the Rio Grande, to the
commencement of the Rio de Chaco, an affluent of the San Juan, and
but twenty-three miles to the Pueblo Pintado. In this respect the
sites of the ruins on the Chaco are in close agreement with the
description of the situations of the towns of Cibola. Castanyada,
after speaking of the seven villages, and the character of the houses,
remarks that "the valley is very narrow, between precipitous
mountains" ["C'est une vallee tres-etroite entre des montagues
escarpees"], [Footnote: Castenyada Relation, Ternaux-Compans, ix, p.
164.] which, in the light of Coronado's declaration, that "the
country is all plain, and on no side mountains," may perhaps have
reference to the encompassing walls of the canyon. This language,
literally interpreted, does not describe this canyon, neither is
there any valley in New Mexico, occupied by pueblos, which answers
this description.
Upon the evidence contained in these several narratives, and with
our present knowledge of New Mexico, the sites of the seven towns of
Cibola cannot be determined with certainty. It is a question of
probabilities; and those which seem the strongest in favor of the
ruins on the Chaco are the following: Firstly, they are superior,
architecturally, to any pueblos in New Mexico, now existing or in
ruins, and agree in number and in proximity to each other, with the
towns of Cibola as described. Secondly, they are upon an affluent of
the San Juan, and within "one or two days' journey" of the waters
which flow into the Gulf of Mexico; in other words, they are near
the summit of the watershed of the two oceans, where Jaramillo
distinctly states Cibola was situated. Thirdly, they are within
eight days of the buffalo ranges, the nearest of which are upon the
northeastern confines of New Mexico. Cibola was said to be thus
situated. Moreover, the name Cibola implies the buffalo country. We
are also told by Friar Marcos that the Indians south of the Gila
trafficked with the Cibolans for ox-hides, which he found them
wearing. Zunyi, the only known place, showing a probability that it
was one of the seven towns, is too far distant from the buffalo
ranges to answer to this portion of the narrative. Lastly, the
evidence, collectively, favors a far northern as well as far eastern
position for Cibola. The people of Cibola knew nothing of either
ocean. This could hardly have been true of the people of Zunyi with
respect to the Pacific, or at least the Gulf of California. Coronado
himself was in doubt as to which sea was nearest, and seems to have
been conscious of the widening of the continent upon both sides of
him. Assuming that the pueblos on the Chaco were inhabited in 1540,
they were the finest structures then in New Mexico. Coronado
captured all the villages on the Rio Grande, and probably sent a
detachment to the Moki Pueblos, and remained two years in the country.
It seems impossible, therefore, that he should have failed to find
the pueblos on the Chaco; and they answer his description better
than any other pueblos in New Mexico.
With respect to the manner of constructing these houses, it was
probably done, as elsewhere remarked, from time to time, and from
generation to generation. Like a feudal castle, each house was a
growth by additions from small beginnings, made as exigencies
required. When one of these houses, after attaining a sufficient size,
became overcrowded with inhabitants, it is probable that a strong
colony, "like the swarm from the parent hive, moved out, and
commenced a new house, above or below, in the same valley." This
would be repeated, as the people prospered, until several pueblos
grew up within an extent of twelve or fifteen miles, as in the
valley of the Chaco. When the capabilities of the valley were
becoming overtaxed for their joint subsistence, the colonists would
seek more distant homes. At the period of the highest prosperity of
these pueblos, the valley of the Chaco must have possessed
remarkable advantages for subsistence. The plain between the walls
of the canyon was between half a mile and a mile in width near the
several pueblos, but the amount of water now passing through it is
small. In July, according to Lieutenant Simpson, the running stream
was eight feet wide and a foot and a half deep at one of the pueblos;
while Mr. Jackson found no running water and the valley entirely dry
in the month of May, with the exception of pools of water in places
and a reservoir of pure water in the rocks at the top of the bluff.
The condition of the region is shown by these two statements. During
the rainy season in the summer, which is also the season of the
growing crops, there is an abundance of water; while in the dry
season it is confined to springs, pools and reservoirs. From the
number of pueblos in the valley, indicating a population of several
thousand, the gardens within it must have yielded a large amount of
subsistence; the climate being favorable to its growth and ripening.