CONCLUSIONS

To understand the ruins so profusely scattered over the ancient pueblo

country we must have some knowledge of the conditions under which their

inhabitants lived. Were nothing at all known, however, we would be

justified in inferring, from the results that have been produced, a

similarity of conditions with those prevailing among the pueblo tribes,

both formerly and now; and all the evidence so far obtained would

support that inference. There is no warrant whatever for the old

assumption that the "cliff dwellers" were a separate race, and the cliff

dwellings must be regarded as only a phase of pueblo architecture.

More or less speculation regarding the origin of pueblo culture is the

usual and perhaps proper accompaniment of nearly all treatises bearing

on that subject. Early writers on the Aztec culture, aided by a vague

tradition of that tribe that they came from the north, pushed the point

of emigration farther and farther and still farther north, until finally

the pueblo country was reached. Pueblo ruins are even now known locally

as "Aztec ruins." Logically the inhabited villages should be classed as

"Aztec colonies," and such classification was not unusual when the

country came into the possession of the United States some fifty years

ago.

As our knowledge of the pueblo culture increased, a gradual separation

between the old and the new took place, and we have as an intermediate

hypothesis many "Aztec ruins," but no "Aztec colonies." Finally, as a

result of still further knowledge, the ruins and the inhabited pueblos

are again brought together; several lines of investigation have combined

to show the continuity of the old and the present culture, and the

connection may be considered well established. But there is still a

disposition to regard the cliff ruins as a thing apart. The old idea of

a separate race of cliff dwellers now finds little credence, but the

cliff ruins are almost universally explained as the results of

extraordinary, primitive, or unusual causes.

The intimate relation between the savage and his physical environment

has already been alluded to. Nature, or that part of nature which we

term physical environment, enters into and becomes part of the life of

the savage in a way and to an extent that we can hardly conceive. A

change of physical environment does not produce an immediate change in

the man or in his arts, but in time such must inevitably result.

Twenty-five years ago the savage of the plains and the savage of the

pueblo country were regarded as distinct races, "as different from each

other as light is from darkness;" yet the differences which appeared so

striking at first have become fewer and fewer as our knowledge of the

Indian tribes increased, and those which remain today can almost all be

attributed to a difference in physical environment.

Linguistic researches have shown the close connection which exists

between the Hopi (Moki) and some of the plains (or so called "wild")

Indians. There is no doubt that at the time of the Spanish discovery,

some three hundred and fifty years ago, the Hopi were quite as far

advanced as the other pueblo tribes, and the conclusion is irresistible

that since it may reasonably be inferred that one tribe has made the

change from a nomadic to a sedentary life, other tribes also may have

done so. We may go even farther than this, and assume that a nomadic

tribe driven into the pueblo country, or drifting into it, would remain

as before under the direct influence of its physical environment,

although the environment would be a new one. Granting this, and the

element of time, and we will have no difficulty with the origin of

pueblo architecture.

The complete adaptation of pueblo architecture to the country in which

it is found has been commented on. Ordinarily such adaptation would

imply two things--origin within the country, and a long period of time

for development--but there are several factors that must be taken into

consideration. If the architecture did not originate in the country

where it is found it would almost certainly bear, traces of former

conditions. Such survivals are common in all arts, and instances of it

are so common in architecture that no examples need be cited. Only one

of these survivals has been found in pueblo architecture, but that one

is very instructive; it is the presence of circular chambers in groups

of rectangular rooms, which occur in certain regions. These chambers are

called estufas or kivas and are the council houses and temples of the

people, in which the governmental and religious affairs of the tribe are

transacted. It is owing to their religious connection that the form has

been preserved to the present day, carrying with it the record of the

time when the people lived in round chambers or huts,

In opposition to the hypothesis of local origin it might be stated that

there is no evidence of forms intermediate in development. The oldest

remains of pueblo architecture known are but little different from

recent examples. But it must be borne in mind that pueblo architecture

is of a very low order, so low that it hardly comes within a definition

of architecture as an art, as opposed to a craft. Except for a few

examples, some of which have already been mentioned, it was strictly

utilitarian in character; the savage had certain needs to supply, and he

supplied them in the easiest and most direct manner and with material

immediately at hand. The whole pueblo country is covered with the

remains of single rooms and groups of rooms, put up to meet some

immediate necessity. Some of these may have been built centuries ago,

some are only a few years or a few months old, yet the structures do not

differ from one another; nor, on the other hand, does the similarity

imply that the builder of the oldest example knew less or more than his

descendant today--both utilized the material at hand and each

accomplished his purpose in the easiest way. In both cases the result is

so rude that no sound inference of sequence can be drawn from the study

of individual examples, but in the study of large aggregations of rooms

we find some clues.

The aggregation of many single rooms into one great structure was

produced by causes which have been discussed. It must not be forgotten

that the unit of pueblo construction is the single room, even in the

large, many-storied villages. This unit is often quite as rude in modern

work as in ancient, and both modern and ancient examples are very close

to the result which would be produced by any Indian tribe who came into

the country and were left free to work out their own ideas. Starting

with this unit the whole system of pueblo architecture is a natural

product of the country in which it is found and the conditions of life

known to have affected the people by whom it was practiced.

Granting the local origin of pueblo architecture it would appear at

first sight that a very long period of time must have elapsed between

the erection of the first rude rooms and the building of the

many-storied pueblos, yet the evidence now available--that derived from

the ruins themselves, documentary evidence, and traditions--all suggest

that such was not necessarily the case. As a record of events, or rather

of a sequence of events, tradition, when unsupported, has practically no

value; but as a picture of life and of the conditions under which a

people lived it is very instructive and full of suggestions, which, when

followed out, often lead to the uncovering of valuable evidence. The

traditions of the pueblo tribes record a great number of movements or

migrations from place to place, the statements being more or less

obscured by mythologic details and accounts of magic or miraculous

occurrences. When numbers of such movements are recorded, it is safe to

infer that the conditions dictating the occupancy of sites were unstable

or even that the tribes were in a state of slow migration. When this

inference is supported by other evidence, it becomes much stronger, and

when the supporting evidence becomes more abundant, with no discordant

elements, the statement may be accepted as proved until disproved.

The evident inferiority of the modern pueblos to some of the old ruins

has been urged as an argument against their connection. While

degeneration in culture is yet to be proved, degeneration of some

particular art under adverse conditions, such as war, continued famine,

or pestilence, is not an uncommon incident in history, and it can be

shown that under the peculiar conditions which prevailed in the pueblo

country such degeneration would naturally take place. One of the

peculiarities of pueblo architecture is that its results were obtained

always by the employment of the material immediately at hand. In the

whole pueblo region no instance is known where the material (other than

timber) was transported to any distance; on the contrary, it was usually

obtained within a few feet of the site where it was used. Hence, it

comes about that difference in character of masonry is often only a

difference in material. Starting with a tribe or several tribes of

plains Indians, who came into the pueblo country, we should probably see

them at first building houses such as they were accustomed to

build--round huts of skin or brush, perhaps partly covered with earth,

such as were found all over middle and eastern United States. Supposing

the tribe to have been not very warlike in character and subsisting

principally by horticulture, these settlements would necessarily be

confined to the vicinity of springs and to little valleys where the

crops could be grown. The general character of the country is arid in

the extreme, and only in favored spots is horticulture possible. In a

very short time these people would be forced to the use of stone for

buildings, for the whole country is covered with tabular sandstone,

often broken up into blocks and flakes ready for immediate use without

any preparation whatever. Timber and brush could be procured only with

difficulty, and often had to be carried great distances.

It has been suggested that the rectangular form of rooms might have been

developed from the circular form by the crowding together upon

restricted sites of many circular chambers; but such a supposition seems

unnecessary. A structure of masonry designed to be roofed would

naturally be rectangular; in fact, the placing of a flat roof upon a

circular chamber was a problem whose solution was beyond the ability of

these people, as has already been shown. Along with this advance, or

perhaps preceding it, the social organization of the tribe, or its

division into clans and phratries, would manifest itself, and those who

"belong together" would build together. This requirement was a very

common one and was closely adhered to even a few years ago.

Although degeneration in arts is common enough, a peculiar condition

prevailed in the pueblo region. So far as the architecture was concerned

war and a hostile human environment produced not degeneration but

development. This came about partly by reason of the peculiarities of

the country, and partly through the methods of war. The term war is

rather a misnomer in this connection, as it does not express the idea.

The result was not brought about by armed bodies of men animated by

hostile intentions or bent on extermination, although forays of this

kind are too common in later pueblo history, but rather by predatory

bands, bent on robbery and not indisposed to incidental killing. The

pueblos, with their fixed habitations and their stores of food, were the

natural prey of such bands, and they suffered, just as did, at a later

period, the Mexican settlements on the Rio Grande, with their immense,

flocks of sheep. It was constant annoyance and danger, rather than war

and pitched battles.

The pueblo country is exceptionally rich in building material suited to

the knowledge and capacity of the pueblo builders. Had suitable material

been less abundant, military knowledge would have developed and

defensive structures would have been erected; but as such material could

be obtained everywhere, and there was no lack of sites, almost if not

quite equal to those occupied at any given time, the easiest and most

natural thing to do was to move. Owing to the nature of the hostile

pressure, such movements were generally gradual, not en masse; although

there is no doubt that movements of the latter kind have sometimes taken

place.

These conclusions are not based on a study of the ruins in Canyon de

Chelly alone, which illustrate only one phase of the subject, but of all

the pueblo remains, or rather of the remains so far as they are now

known. They imply a rather sparsely settled country, occupied by a

comparatively small number of tribes and subtribes, moving from place to

place under the influence of various motives, some of which we know,

others we can only surmise. It was a slow but practically constant

migratory movement with no definite end or direction in view. The course

of this movement in a geographical way does not as yet reveal a

preponderance in any one direction; tribes and subtribes moved from east

to west and from west to east, from north to south and from south to

north, and many were irregular in their course, but the movements, so

far as they can now be discerned, were all within a circumscribed area.

There is no evidence of any movement from without into the pueblo group,

unless the close relation of the Hopi (Moki) language to the other

Shoshonean dialects be such evidence, and none of a movement from within

this area out of it, although such movements must have taken place, at

least in the early history of the region. It must be borne in mind in

this discussion that while we can assign approximate boundaries to the

ancient pueblo region on the north, east, and west, no limit can as yet

be fixed on the south. The arid country southward of Gila river and

northward of the Mexican boundary would be a great obstacle to a

movement either north or south, but little as we know about that region

we do know that it was not an insurmountable obstacle. The Casas Grandes

of Janos, in Chihuahua, closely resemble the type of ruins on the Gila

river, in Arizona, of which the best example we now have is the

well-known Casa Grande ruin. We know that there are cliff ruins in the

Sierra Madre, but beyond this we know little. Concerning the immense

region which stretches from Gila river to the valley of Mexico, over

1300 miles in length, we know practically nothing.

In that portion of the pueblo region lying within the United States

migratory movements have, as a rule, been confined to very small areas,

each linguistic family moving within its own circumscribed region. Some

instances of movement away from the home region have taken place even in

historic times, as, for example, the migration of a considerable band of

Tewas from the Rio Grande to Tusayan, where they now are, and moreover,

this movement probably occurred en masse and over a considerable

distance; but there is little doubt that the usual procedure was

different.

Canyon de Chelly was occupied because it was the best place in that

vicinity for the practice of horticulture. The cliff ruins there grew

out of the natural conditions, as they have in other places. It is not

meant that a type of house structure developed here and was transferred

subsequently to other places. When the geological and topographical

environment favored their construction, cliff outlooks were built; from

a different geological structure in certain regions cavate lodges

resulted; in other places there were "watch towers;" in still others

single rooms were built, either lone or in clusters, and these results

obtained quite as often if not oftener within the historic period as in

prehistoric times.

Notwithstanding the possible division of the De Chelly ruins into four

well defined types, there is no warrant for the assumption of a large

population. The types are interrelated and to a large extent were

inhabited not contemporaneously but conjointly. There are about 140

ruins in Canyon de Chelly and its branches, but few of them could

accommodate more than a very small population. Settlements large enough

to furnish homes for 50 or 60 people were rare. As not all of the sites

were occupied at one time, the maximum population of the canyon could

hardly have exceeded 400; it is more likely to have been 300.

The character of the site occupied is one of the most important elements

to be studied in the examination of ruins in the pueblo country. In De

Chelly whatever defensive value the settlements had was due to the

character of the sites selected. It is believed, however, that other

considerations dictated the selection of the sites, and that the

defensive motive, if present at all, exercised very little influence in

this region. The sites here are always selected with a view to an

outlook over some adjacent area of cultivable land, and the structures

erected on them were industrial or horticultural, rather than military

or defensive.

The masonry of the ruins and the constructive expedients employed by the

builders are an insurmountable obstacle in the way of the hypothesis

that the cliff ruins represent a primitive or intermediate stage in the

growth of pueblo architecture. The builders were well acquainted with

the principles and methods of construction employed in the best work

found in other regions; the inferiority of their work is due to special

conditions and to the locality. The presence of a number of extraneous

features, both in methods and principles employed, is further evidence

in the same line. These features are certainly foreign to this region,

some of them suggest even Spanish or Mexican origin, which implies

comparatively recent occupancy.

The openings--doorways and windows--found in the ruins are of the

regular pueblo types. They are arranged as convenience dictated, without

any reference to the defensive motive, which, if it existed at all,

exercised less influence here than it did in the modern pueblos. There

is no evidence of the use of very modern features, such as the paneled

wooden doors found in the pueblos; nor, on the other hand, are there any

very primitive expedients or methods--none which can not be found today

in the modern villages.

The roof, floors, and timber work are also essentially the same as the

examples found in the modern pueblos. The notable scarcity of roofing

timbers in the ruins can probably be explained by the hypothesis of

successive occupancies and subsequent or repeated use of material

difficult to obtain. So far as regards the use of timber as an element

of masonry construction the results obtained in De Chelly are rude and

primitive as compared with the work found in other regions.

The immense number of storage cists found in De Chelly are a natural

outgrowth of the conditions there and support the hypothesis that the

cliff outlooks were merely farming shelters. The small size of many of

the settlements made the construction of storage cists a necessity. The

storage of water was very seldom attempted. A large proportion of the

cists found in De Chelly were burial places and of Navaho origin. As a

rule they are far more difficult of access than the ruins.

There is no evidence of the influence of the defensive motive. Defensive

works on the approaches to sites are never found, nor can such influence

be detected in the arrangement of openings, in the character of masonry,

or in the ground plan. If the cliff ruins were defensive structures, an

influence strong enough to bring about the occupancy of such

inconvenient and unsuitable sites would certainly be strong enough also

to bring about some slight modifications in the architecture, such as

would render more suitable sites available. If we assume that the cliff

ruins were farming outlooks, occupied only during the farming season,

and then only for a few days or weeks at a time, the character of the

sites occupied by them, seems natural enough, for the same sites are

used by the Navaho today in connection with farming operations.

The distribution of kivas in the ruins of De Chelly affords another

indication that the occupancy of that region was quiet and little

disturbed, and that the ruins were in no sense defensive structures.

Kivas are found only in permanent settlements, and the presence of two

or three of them in a small settlement comprising a total of five or six

rooms implies, first, that the little village was the home of two or

more families, and, second, that there was comparative if not entire

immunity from hostile incursions. If the conditions were otherwise,

these small settlements would have combined into larger ones, as was

done in other regions. Probably these small settlements with several

kivas mark a late period in the use of outlying sites. The position of

the kivas in some of the settlements on defensive sites, and their

arrangement across the front of the cove, suggest that such sites were

first used for outlooks, and that their occupancy by regular villages

came at a later period.

All of the now available traditions of the Navaho and of the Hopi

Indians support the conclusions reached from a study of the intrinsic

evidence of the ruins, that they represent a comparatively late period

in the history of pueblo architecture. It appears that some at least of

the ruins are of Hopi origin. It is certain that the ruins were not

occupied at one time, nor by one tribe or band.

As criteria in development or in time the cliff ruins are valueless,

except in a certain restricted way. They represent simply a phase of

pueblo life, due more to the geological character of the region occupied

than to extraordinary conditions, and they pertain partly to the old

villages, partly to the more modern. Apparently they reached their

greatest (not their highest) development in the period immediately

preceding the last well-defined stage in the growth of pueblo

architecture, a stage in which most of the pueblos were at the time of

their discovery by the Spaniards, and in which some of them are now.

Reliance for defense was had on the site occupied, and outlying

settlements for horticultural purposes were very numerous, as they must

necessarily be also in the last stage--the aggregation of many related

villages into one great cluster.

The cliff outlooks in Canyon de Chelly and in other regions, the cavate

lodges of New Mexico and Arizona, the "watch towers" of the San Juan and

of the Zuni country, the summer villages attached to many of the

pueblos, the single-room remains found everywhere, even the brush

shelters or "kisis" of Tusayan, are all functionally analogous, and all

are the outgrowth of certain industrial requirements, which were

essentially the same throughout the pueblo country, but whose product

was modified by geological and topographical conditions. In the cliff

ruins of De Chelly we have an interesting and most instructive example

of the influence of a peculiar and sometimes adverse environment on a

primitive people, who entered the region with preconceived and, as it

were, fully developed ideas of house construction, and who left it

before those ideas were brought fully in accord with the environment,

but not before they were influenced by it.