Several forces which may have worked singly or in combination to
displace the cliff dwellers were drouth, enemy raids, and insanitary
conditions. One of the most probable causes of abandonment was drouth.
The Sinagua may have found it necessary to augment their water supply by
making earthen dams along the lower side of natural pools (particularly
farther down the canyon where it broadens). With only a slight decline
in annual precipitation the stream would fail entirely in early summer
and disrupt the entire community.
[Illustration: _Walnut Canyon Cliff Dwellers at Work_]
[Illustration: _Petroglyph cut on the walls of Walnut Canyon, below
the "Island"_]
A study of the tree rings reveals that a 23-year drouth prevailed in the
Southwest from 1276 to 1299 A.D. It appears that the Walnut Canyon cliff
dwellers were gone before that time, and perhaps they were displaced by
an earlier drouth of less duration.
It is doubtful that the cliff dwellers perished, but rather that their
blood flows in the veins of some of the living Pueblo Indians. The Hopis
are said to have legends which indicate their ancestors once lived in
cliff caves. Hopi Indian visitors sometimes comment on the cliff
dwellings being the homes of their ancestors, and there is some evidence
to support this. Hopi Indians are of the same basic type which inhabited
Walnut Canyon. Studies made on the cliff dwellers' physical remains
reveal they were a short, stocky people much like the Hopi of today.