Facilities for the storage of grain and other produce are essential in
the pueblo system of horticulture, as in any other. As a result, storage
cists are found everywhere. In the modern pueblos the inner dark rooms,
which would otherwise be useless, provide the necessary space, but in
the settlements in De Chelly, which were very small as a rule, there
were few such rooms, and special structures had to be erected. These
differed from the dwelling rooms only in size, although as a rule,
perhaps, the openings by which they were entered were not so large as
those of the dwellings and were sometimes, possibly always, provided
with some means by which they could be closed.
[Illustration: Plate LX
Plastered Wall in Canyon De Chelly]
Immense numbers of these storage cists are found in the canyon, some of
them with masonry so roughly executed that it is difficult to
discriminate between the old pueblo and the modern Navaho work.
Sometimes these cists or small rooms form part of a village, more often
they are attached to the cliff outlooks, and not infrequently they stand
alone on sites overlooking the lands whose product they contained. It is
probable that many of the cliff outlooks themselves were used quite as
much for temporary storage as for habitations during the farming season.
These two uses, although quite distinct, do not conflict with each
other. Doubtless many excellent sites, now marked only by the remains of
storage cists, were occupied also during the summer as outlooks without
the erection of any house structures. Some of the modern pueblos now use
temporary shelters of brush for outlooks.
It is not meant that the crops when gathered were placed in these cists
and kept there until used. The harvest was, as a rule, permanently
stored in the home villages, and the cists were used only for temporary
storage. Doubtless the old practice resembled somewhat that followed by
the Navaho today. The harvest is gathered at the proper time and what is
not eaten at once is hidden away in cists of old or modern construction.
If it is well hidden, the grain may remain in the cists for a long time
if not withdrawn for consumption; but as a rule it is taken away a few
months later. The annual emigration of the Navaho commences soon after
the harvest, and at intervals during the winter and spring, and in
summer, if the supply is not then exhausted, visits are paid to the
cists and portions of the grain are carried away.
A large proportion of the cists are of modern Navaho work, but that some
of them were used by the pueblo people who preceded them seems probable
from the similarity in horticultural methods, and from the small size of
many of the villages. A village inhabited by half a dozen people was not
uncommon; one which could accommodate more than fifty was rare.
Moreover, some of the storage cists that occur in conjunction with
dwellings differ from the latter only in size and in their separation
from the other rooms. The masonry is quite as good as that of the
houses, and much superior to the Navaho work.
Plate LXI shows an example which occurs in the lower part of the canyon,
at the point marked 1 on the map. It is placed on a little ledge or
block of rock, 12 feet above the stream and about 8 feet above the
bottom land below it. This is the first considerable area of bottom land
in the canyon. The cist is 2 feet square inside and occupies the whole
width of the rock. An exceptionally large amount of mud plaster was used
on the walls, which are better finished outside than inside. Access was
had by hand-holes in the rock, now almost obliterated. Originally the
structure consisted of two or more rooms.
A little below this site there are some well-executed pictographs, and
on some rocks immediately to the right some crude work of the Navaho of
the same sort. To the left of the cist a round hole 6 or 8 inches in
diameter has been pecked into the almost vertical face of the rock. The
purpose of this is not clear.
The storage of water was so seldom attempted, or perhaps so seldom
necessary, that only one example of a reservoir was found. This has
already been described (page 126). If the cliff ruins were defensive
structures, a supply of water must have been kept in them, and where
this requirement was common, as it would be under the hypothesis,
certainly some receptacle other than jars of pottery would be provided.
Few, if any, of the cliff outlooks are so situated that a supply of
water could be procured without descending to the stream bed, and
without a supply of water the most impregnable site in the canyon would
have little value.
The number of burial cists in the canyon is remarkable; there are
hundreds of them. Practically every ruin whose walls are still standing
contains one or more, some have eight or ten. They are all of Navaho
origin and in many of them the remains of Navaho dead may still be seen.
Possibly the Navaho taboo of their own dead has brought about the
partial taboo of the cliff dwellers' remains which prevails, and which
is an element that must be taken into account in any discussion of the
antiquity of the ruins.
The burial cists are built usually in a corner or against a wall of a
cliff dweller's house, but sometimes they are built against a cliff
wall, and occasionally stand out alone. The masonry is always rough,
much inferior to the old walls against which it generally rests, and
usually very flimsy. The structures are dome-shape when standing alone,
or in the shape of a section of a dome when placed against other walls.
The natural bedding of the stone is sometimes wholly ignored, and in
some cases the walls consist merely of thin slabs of stone on edge, held
together with masses of mud, the whole presenting an average thickness
of less than 3 inches. Such structures on ordinary sites would not last
six months; protected as they are they might last for many years.
[Illustration: Plate LXI
Storage Cist in Canyon De Chelly]
Not all the Navaho dead in the canyon find their last resting place in
the ruins. Graves can be seen under bowlders and rocks high up on the
talus; and in one place in De Chelly a number of little piles of stones
are pointed out as the burial places of "many Americans," who, it is
said, were killed by the Navaho in their last war. It is also said that
in the olden days, when the Navaho considered De Chelly their stronghold
and the heart of their country, the remains of prominent men of the
tribe were often brought to the canyon for interment in the ruins. Such
burials are still made, both in the ruins themselves and in cists on
similar sites.
As a whole the Navaho burial cists are much more difficult of access
than the ruins, and some of them appear to be now really inaccessible, a
statement which can be made of but few ruins. Some of them appear to
have been reached from above. The agility and dexterity of the Navaho in
climbing the cliffs is remarkable, and possibly some of the sites now
apparently inaccessible are not so considered by them. As before stated,
there are a number of Navaho foot trails out of the canyon, where
shallow pits or holes have been pecked in the rock as an aid in the more
difficult places, and similar aids were often employed to afford access
to storage and burial cists. Plate LVI shows a site in the lower part of
the canyon where such means have been employed. The pits in the rock are
so much worn by atmospheric erosion that the ascent now is very
dangerous. The cove or ledge to which they lead is about halfway up the
cliff, and on it are a number of cists, one of them still intact, with a
doorway. The masonry consists of large slabs of sandstone set on edge,
sometimes irregularly one above another, the whole being roughly
plastered inside and out. About 200 yards farther up the cove, on the
same side, there is a series of foot holes leading to a small cave about
halfway up, and thence upward and probably out of the canyon. They are
probably of Navaho origin.
[Illustration: Fig. 68--Cist composed of upright slabs.]
The use of stone on edge is apparently confined to these cists. Figure
68 shows a structure which occurs a little above the ruin marked 37 on
the map. The walls consist of thin slabs of stone set upright and
roughly plastered where they meet. Instances of the use of stone in this
way are not uncommon in the pueblo country, and there are a number of
examples in De Chelly.
As before stated, the typical Navaho burial cist is of dome shape. The
roof or upper portion is supported on sticks so arranged as to leave a
small square opening in the top. Apparently at some stage in its
existence this hole is closed and sealed, but examples were examined
which were very old and one which was but twenty-four hours old, but in
neither case was the opening closed. Doubtless the opening has some
ceremonial significance; it is not of any actual use, as it is too small
to permit the passage of a human body. Plate LXII shows a typical cist
in good order and another such broken down. These examples occur at the
point marked 6 on the map, in the ruin shown in plate LIII. This site is
of comparatively easy access, and there are many others equally easy or
even more so, but, on the other hand, there are many Sites which now
seem to be wholly inaccessible.