maps.
[22] Among other names cut on the walls of this ruin is that of
Lieutenant Bell, 1859.
[23] A few broken-down walls of rooms stand at the side of the trail
just before one reaches the dangerous part.
[24] No other rooms that could be called ceremonial were recognized in
cliff-house B, but the writer’s examination of the ruin was not very
thorough and their existence may have escaped him.
[25] Mr. Black informs me that it was in this ruin that he found the
beautiful woven belt now at El Tovar Hotel, Grand Canyon.
[26] Rooms are concealed by this talus, the walls of which project in
places out of the ground.
[27] Laguna creek is entered at this point on the right by a stream
bifurcating into the Cataract and East tributaries, which flow through
canyons of the same names. In or near East canyon are four large ruins:
Ladder House, Cradle House, Forest-glen House, and Pine-tree House. The
largest ruin in Cataract canyon is Kitsiel. The Navaho sometimes speak
of the East canyon as the Salt, or Alkaline, _bokho_.
[28] Another geological feature of the sites of the large
cliff-dwellings of the Navaho Monument is the almost constant presence
of a vertical cliff-wall below the cave floor, the talus rarely
extending to the base of the lowest rooms.
[29] According to Hopi legends, the Horn clans (animals with horns) are
kin to the Snake, and formerly lived with the Snake clans at Tokónabi.
Later they united with the Flute clans at Lengyanobi, and still later
joined the Snake clans at Walpi. Lengyanobi (“Pueblo of the Flute”) is
a large ruin north of the Hopi mesas.
[30] “Adobe bricks” with straw, according to Mr. W. B. Douglass, are
found at Inscription House near the end of the White mesa. The writer
has found adobe cubes in some of the walls of Cliff Palace, but these
contain no straw.
[31] Although circular kivas are found in several ruins in the Navaho
National Monument, as Kitsiel, Inscription House, Scaffold House, and
others, they were not seen in Betatakin, which has the rectangular
ceremonial room with side entrance above mentioned. Although such
rooms possess some of the features of kivas, it is perhaps better to
restrict that term to the circular chambers and adopt the word kihu to
designate the rectangular rooms above ground. The ceremonial chambers
of Betatakin suggest the Flute room at Walpi. This fact and the
discovery of a flute in one of the rooms make it appear that Betatakin
was inhabited by Flute clans, which, according to Hopi legends, lived
in this region.
[32] For the accompanying view of the ruin (pl. 1), from photographs
taken by Mr. William B. Douglass, the writer is indebted to the General
Land Office.
[33] The kivas appear to be circular; one of them has the large
banquette, like kiva M in Cliff Palace. No pilasters for supporting
roofs have yet been reported.
[34] The two ruins Kitsiel and Betatakin are those about which
extravagant statements as to size and character were made about two
years ago by newspapers and otherwise reliable magazines.
[35] Like all ruins in East canyon, Cradle House is situated in a small
side canyon on the left bank.
[36] Trickling-spring House is not located on the accompanying map and,
so far as could be ascertained, had not been visited by archeologists
previously to the writer’s visit. A young Navaho guided the writer to
it a short time before he left the region.
[37] Of course some of the rooms in Cliff Palace, especially those at
the western extension of the northern end, are dependent, the cliff
forming their rear walls.
[38] Both kinds of circular kivas are found in the cliff-ruins at Casa
Blanca and in Mummy cave in the Canyon de Chelly.
[39] These rites in all the Hopi pueblos are performed, as in ancient
times, in rectangular rooms not called kivas. The Snake rites are
performed now, as when the clan lived at Tokónabi in subterranean rooms
(kivas), the present form of which is rectangular instead of circular,
as at Tokónabi.
[40] It appears that in some of the ruins of the Navaho National
Monument there were both circular subterranean kivas and rectangular
rooms used for ceremonial purposes. At Wukóki the former do not
exist, but two of the latter can be recognized, one of which has a
construction like a ventilator.
[41] None of the five Walpi kivas is older than 1680, and one or two
are of later construction.
[42] Haus und Dorf bei den Eingeborenen Nordamerikas, in _Arch. für
Anthr._, N. F., Bd. VII, Heft 2 and 3, 1908.
[43] The circular kivas of Kükütcomo, the twin ruins on the mesa above
Sikyatki, near Walpi, are the only ceremonial rooms of this form known
from the Hopi mesas. These were the work of the Coyote clan and are of
Eastern origin.
[44] There are two types of cavate ruins, or rooms artificially
excavated in the tops or faces of cliffs, near Flagstaff. In one type,
Old Caves, the entrance to the subterranean rooms is vertical; in the
other, New Caves, it is from the side. In one type the walls of masonry
are built above the caves; in the other in front of them. The common
feature is the existence of chambers artificially excavated in the
cliff. Both types differ essentially from pueblos built in the open
or in natural caverns, although some of the kivas of the latter are
excavated in the solid rock.
MINOR ANTIQUITIES
Notwithstanding the limited duration of the writer’s visit to the
Navaho National Monument, a few specimens of stone, wood, pottery, and
other objects were collected. The whole pieces of pottery, numbering
14 specimens (pls. 15-18), the majority of which came probably from
Inscription House and other ruins near Red Lake, were presented to the
Smithsonian Institution by Mr. Stephen Janus, Navaho agent at Tuba, who
accompanied the writer on the trip to the Marsh Pass ruins. Fragments
of pottery were picked up on the surface at Betatakin, Kitsiel, and
several other ruins, and the most characteristic of these were brought
back to Washington. No excavations were attempted, nor could all
objects that were seen be brought away. Although up to within a few
years these ruins were practically in the condition they were when
abandoned, unfortunately of late they have been despoiled and many
beautiful specimens have been taken from them. Many objects still
remain which should be removed lest they fall into improper hands.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 16
_a._ ROUGH VASE OF CORRUGATED WARE
Cat. No. 257777. Height, 7 inches.
_b._ VASE WITH CONSTRICTED NECK
Cat. No. 257778. Height, 8 inches.
POTTERY FROM NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT]
POTTERY
The pottery collected consists of jars, vases, food bowls, and circular
disks with a row of perforations about the margin. There are also
dipper handles and broken ladles of the usual shape. Some of these
specimens are of corrugated ware, others have smooth surfaces with
painted decoration. The proportion of corrugated and indented ware
found in the Navaho Monument ruins is about the same as in the Mesa
Verde National Park. The finest coiled ware was obtained from the
latter locality. Several fragments of flat dishes, perforated on their
margins (pl. 15, _b_), or colanders having holes in the middle, form
part of the collection.[45]
The most instructive form of pottery in the collection brought back
from northern Arizona is a decorated globular vase of black-and-white
ware (pl. 16, _b_). The decoration on this specimen is not confined
to the exterior but is found also on the inner surface of the lip; it
consists mainly of triangles so united as to form hour-glass figures. A
unique design on this vessel consists of two parallel lines, each with
dots on one side, suggesting similar bands in red on the inner wall of
the third story of the square tower of Cliff Palace.
Three small bowls of crude ware are fluted on the outside, the ridge,
or fluting, being raised somewhat above the surface of the bowl and
having a zigzag course. One of the best of these unique ceramic
forms has this fluting broken into S-shaped figures, as shown in the
accompanying illustration (pl. 17, _a_).
The writer collected also several perforated clay disks which were
possibly used as spindle whorls, although they may have been gaming
implements. A similar disk made of mountain-sheep horn was found at
Kitsiel.
The largest and one of the finest vases (pl. 18, _a_) from the
neighborhood of Red Lake is also of black-and-white ware. The
decoration is external and consists of black figures covering the neck
and upper body. The base is rounded and the lip slightly flaring.
This vase may have been used for containing water or possibly as a
receptacle for prayer (corn) meal. The food bowls from Red Lake are
chiefly of black-and-white ware, the red and yellow varieties being
less numerous. A common feature in food bowls of this region is a
handle on one side, as shown in plate 15, _d_. Some of these vessels,
although of smooth ware, are without decoration on either the exterior
or the interior.
The shallow, slightly concave clay disk[46] shown in plate 15, _b_, is
characteristic in possessing a row of holes near the rim. This disk
seems to represent a common type, as several fragments with similar
holes were found on the surface of the ruins. The same or related forms
appear to have been common in ruins near the Hopi pueblos. These are
found in the collection of votive offerings now in the Peabody Museum
at Cambridge, from Jedito spring, near Awatobi, and the writer has
discovered specimens elsewhere in Hopi ruins, a brief mention of which
occurs in a report on the archeological results of his expedition to
Arizona in 1895.[47]
Several fragments of deep bowls, each having a handle (pl. 18, _b_) on
the surface, were obtained in the sands below cliff-house B; these are
commonly of red ware and have reddish-brown and black decorations. A
small dish of black-and-white ware (pl. 15, _a_) has the rim slightly
elevated and rounded on one side. The cups or mugs from this region
are shaped unlike those from the Mesa Verde. Mugs from the latter
region are cylindrical in form or the walls incline slightly inward
so that the diameter of the opening is somewhat less than that of the
base. The lip is thick and decorated. One of these cups, here figured,
has a constricted neck, and a slightly flaring rim which is thin and
undecorated. The decoration of another cup (pl. 15, _c_) suggests the
designs on several mugs from the Little Colorado ruins. So far as form
and decoration are concerned, this cup, or handled vase, might have
come from Homolobi, Chevlon, or Chaves pass.[48]
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 17
_a_ _b_ _c_
_a._ BOWLS BEARING RELIEF ORNAMENTS
(From left to right): Cat. Nos. 257783, 257784, 257782. Heights, 2½
inches, 2 inches, 2¾ inches.
_b._ HANDLES OF FOOD-BOWLS
Cat. No. 258326.
_c._ STONE IMPLEMENTS
(From left to right): Cat. Nos. 258334, 258335, 258336, 258337.
Dimensions, 6 x 4 x 1¾ inches; 5¼ x 3¾ x 2½ inches; 4½ x 3¾ x 2 inches;
4¾ x 2¾ x 2½ inches.
POTTERY AND STONE IMPLEMENTS FROM NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT]
The designs on fragments of pottery found in ruins in northern Arizona
are identical with or related to those from the Black Falls ruins, but
differ somewhat from those on pottery from ruins higher up the Little
Colorado river. If the history of the modification of ceramic symbols
in any of the large composite pueblos of the Southwest be studied, it
will be noticed that there are often radical changes, the later symbols
not being modifications of earlier ones. Thus modern Zuñi pottery
designs differ materially from those found in ruins in the same valley.
The modern pottery from East mesa is wholly different from that of
Sikyatki, a few miles away. Again, in so-called modern Hopi pottery,
Tewa symbols derived from the Rio Grande have replaced old Hopi symbols
dominant before the advent of Tewa clans. The changes in pottery
symbols in every large composite pueblo are not due to evolution of the
modern from the ancient, but reflect the history of the advent of new
clans, powerful enough to substitute their designs for those formerly
existing. One of the problems of the ethnologist is to determine
symbols associated with certain clans, and by means of legends to
identify clans with ruins. Having determined the symbols introduced
by certain clans and the places where these clans halted in their
migrations and built pueblos, the course of these prehistoric movements
may be followed. Comparison of symbols on pottery from northern Arizona
with those from Black Falls ruins support, so far as they go, the
legends that the Snake people, who once lived at Wukóki near the Black
Falls, lived also in cliff-houses now ruins near Marsh pass or the
White mesa. The symbolism indicates the presence of the same clans, and
tradition is thereby supported.
CLIFF-DWELLERS CRADLE
One of the most instructive specimens collected in the Navaho National
Monument was found by Mr. W. B. Douglass in a ruin designated as Cradle
House. This object is a cradle made of basket ware, open at one end
and continued at the opposite end into a biped extension to serve for
the legs. It is decorated on the outside with an archaic geometric
ornamentation, the unit design of which is shown in the accompanying
illustration. This specimen (pls. 19-21) may be regarded as one of the
finest examples of prehistoric basketry from the Southwest; moreover,
with one exception, it is the only known cradle of this form. A pair
of infant’s sandals found with the cradle leaves no doubt as to its
use, while the character and symbolism of the decoration refer it to
the ancient cliff-house culture. The design (fig. 3) suggests that
which characterizes certain specimens of the well-known black-and-white
pottery found in the San Juan drainage. Evidences of long use and
repair appear, especially on one side. Unfortunately, the specimen,
although entire when found, later was broken across its middle.
[Illustration: FIG. 3. Design on cliff-dwellers cradle.]
The only other known cradle of this type was brought to the
attention of ethnologists by Dr. W. J. McGee when in charge of the
anthropological exhibit at the St. Louis Exposition. This was found
in San Juan county, Utah, not far from the Colorado river.[49] This
specimen is better preserved than that here figured, but the decoration
is practically identical; so near, in fact, that the two might have
been made by the same woman.
MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS
The stone implements (pl. 17, _c_) consist of axes, pounding
stones,[50] and hatchets. On one of the roofs at Kitsiel there was
picked up a curved stick[51] identical with those placed by the
Walpi Snake priests about the sand-painting of their altar. A good
specimen of a planting stick and a rod formerly used as a spindle were
found near by; the latter is a perforated disk made of horn. A flute
identical with those used at the present day by Flute priests at Walpi
was found at Betatakin, thus tending to support the legend that the
Flute clan once lived at the latter pueblo.
FOOTNOTES:
[45] These dishes resemble those sometimes used by the Hopi for
sprinkling water on their altars as a prayer for rain. They may have
been used also in sifting sand on the kiva floor, to form a layer upon
which the sand picture is later drawn with sands of different colors.
[46] Small perforated clay disks are not rare here, as in other ruins.
They were used in the same way as the horn disk mentioned on page 30.
[47] In _Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology_, pt. 2.
[48] Compare figures from these ruins, in the _Twenty-second Annual
Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_.
[49] The finder was Mr. E. B. Wallace. This specimen was owned at one
time by Mr. J. T. Zeller, an architect of St. Louis. The writer has
been informed that Mr. Zeller sold the cradle and that it is now in the
Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
[50] A common feature of stone mauls is a raised ferrule above and one
below the groove to which the handle is attached.
[51] These sticks, or “crooks” (_gnela_), found on the Antelope altar
in the Walpi Snake ceremony are reported to have been brought to Walpi
from Tokónabi.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The route chosen by the author for visiting the ruins of the Navaho
National Monument is via Flagstaff and Tuba, the distance being not
far from 200 miles to Marsh pass and 10 miles beyond to the largest
cliff-dwellings. Although the wagon road is long, requiring a journey
of at least five days, it may be traversed with carriage or buckboard,
the sandy stretch between Tuba and Red Lake being the most difficult.
The trail from Marsh pass to the great cliff-dwellings, although now
passable only on horseback, could be made into a wagon road at small
expense.
The nature of the cliffs in which the ruins of the Navaho Monument are
situated favored the construction of cliff-dwellings rather than of
open pueblos in this region. These cliffs are full of caverns, large
and small, presenting much the same condition as the cliffs of the
red sandstone elsewhere in the Southwest, as the Mesa Verde, Canyon
de Chelly, the Red Rocks south of Flagstaff, and other sections where
caverns abound. Fragments of fallen rocks present good plane surfaces
for walls of masonry, and there is abundant clay for plastering.
Trees suitable for rafters and beams are not wanting. In short, all
conditions are favorable for stone and adobe houses in the cliffs.
The neighboring Sethlagini mesa is of different geological formation;
in it are no caverns, the mesa top is broad, and ruins thereon are
necessarily open pueblos. The effect of difference in geological
structure is nowhere more evident than in these adjacent formations.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 18
_a._ LARGE BLACK-AND-WHITE VASE
Cat. No. 257774. Height, 17 inches.
_b._ LARGE VASE WITH HANDLE
Cat. No. 257787. Height, 8½ inches.
POTTERY FROM NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT]
If environment has had so marked an influence on the character of
building, we can readily see how it has affected arts and crafts. We
can hardly imagine a people living any length of time in this region
without being mentally influenced by the precipitous cliffs that rise
on all sides. The summits of these heights are eroded into fantastic
shapes resembling animals or grotesque human forms. The constant
presence of these marvelous forms, of awe-inspiring size and weird
appearance, exerted a profound influence on the supernatural ideas of
the inhabitants. Here were born many conceptions of earth gods and the
like, survivals of which still remain among the Hopi.
As a rule the cliff-houses are not situated in sight of the main
stream, but are hidden away in secluded side canyons, approached by
narrow entrances, their sites having been determined no doubt by the
position of the springs with their constant water supply.
Almost every side canyon, even in a dry season, has its spring of water
which, trickling out of the rocks, follows the canyon bed until it is
finally drunk up by the thirsty sands. Often water seeps out of a soft
stratum of rock in the cave itself, where it was gathered in artificial
reservoirs that in ancient times furnished an adequate supply for the
inhabitants. One feature of these side canyons is that they enlarge
into basins surrounded on all sides by lofty cliffs. Many of these
basins are so hidden that they can be discovered only by following dry
stream-beds from their junction with the creeks. How many of these
basins are still undiscovered no one can yet tell. In these basins now
covered with bushes the aboriginal farms were probably situated.
As the width of the valley of Laguna creek from Marsh pass to the point
where the stream receives its largest branches on the left bank varies,
the amount of arable land is greater in some places than in others. In
stretches where the stream almost washes the bases of the ruins there
could have been no extensive farming lands. The creek meanders through
the soft clay and sand which fill the valley to the depth of many feet,
forming treacherous banks that are continually falling and changing
the course of the stream, so it is quite possible that the present
configuration of the valley is very different from what it was when the
cliff-dwellings were inhabited. If the occupants once had farms within
its limits all traces of them would have long since been obliterated.
Although too much credence should not be given to Navaho traditions,
it is not unreasonable to believe that in one particular at least
they are correct. These state that, before the introduction of sheep,
grass was much higher in the level part of the valley than at present,
and formerly game (at least the mountain sheep and the antelope)
may have been more abundant. This condition would have exerted a
marked influence on the life of the cliff-dwellers. Pictographs show
that the ancient people, either here or in their former homes, were
familiar with these animals, and various objects of bone and horn are
significant in this connection.
The Navaho National Monument (see sketch map, pl. 22) contains two
kinds of ruins,[52] cliff-dwellings and pueblos. Most of the latter are
situated on promontories or on low hills. The structural features of
the cliff-dwellings are characteristic, their walls being constructed
of stone or adobe built against, rarely free from, vertical faces of
the cliff.
There are two types of kivas, one circular and subterranean, allied to
those of the Mesa Verde, the other rectangular, above ground, entered
from the sides.
The masonry of these northern ruins is crude, resembling that of
modern Walpi. The component stones are neither dressed nor smoothed,
but the walls are sometimes plastered. There is a great similarity
in architecture. No round towers[53] relieve the monotony or impart
picturesqueness to the buildings. The walls of ruined pueblos in
this region and the ceramic remains closely resemble those at Black
Falls on the Little Colorado. A prominent feature of the walls is a
_jacal_ construction in which the mud is plastered on wattling between
upright poles. The ends of many of these supports project high above
the ground, constituting a characteristic feature of the ruins. This
method of wall construction is unknown at Black Falls or at Walpi, but
survives in modified form in one or more Oraibi kivas and in one at
least of the Mesa Verde ruins.[54] It has been described by Mr. Cosmos
Mindeleff as common to several ruins in the Canyon de Chelly.
The key to the culture of the people from which the cliff-dweller
culture was derived is probably the kiva, which furnishes also a good
basis for the classification of the Pueblos and cliff-dwellers into
subordinate groups.