The origin of the pueblo settlement at Sikyatki is doubtful, but as I
have shown in my enumeration of the clans of Walpi, the Kokop
(Firewood) and the Isauûh (Coyote) phratries which lived there are
supposed to have come into Tusayan from the far east or the valley
of the Rio Grande. The former phratry is not regarded as one of the
earliest arrivals in Tusayan, for when its members arrived at Walpi
they found living there the Flute, Snake, and Water-house phratries.
It is highly probable that the Firewood, or as they are sometimes
called the Fire, people, once lived in the round pueblo known as
Fire-house, and as the form of this ruin is exceptional in Tusayan,
and highly characteristic of the region east of this province, there
is archeological evidence of the eastern origin of the Fire people.
Perhaps the most intelligent folklorist of the Kokop people was
Nasyuñweve, who died a few years ago--unfortunately before I had been
able to record all the traditions which he knew concerning his
ancestors. At the present day Katci, his successor[100] in these
sacerdotal duties in the Antelope-Snake mysteries, claims that his
people formerly occupied Sikyatki, and indeed the contiguous fields
are still cultivated by members of that phratry.
It is hardly possible to do more than estimate the population of
Sikyatki when in its prime, but I do not believe that it was more than
500;[101] probably 300 inhabitants would be a closer estimate if we
judge from the relative population to the size of the pueblo of Walpi
at the present time. On the basis of population given, the evidences
from the size of the Sikyatki cemeteries would not point to an
occupancy of the village for several centuries, although, of course,
the strict confines of these burial places may not have been
determined by our excavations. The comparatively great depth at which
some of the human remains were found does not necessarily mean great
antiquity, for the drifting sands of the region may cover or uncover
the soil or rocks in a very short time, and the depth at which an
object is found below the surface is a very uncertain medium for
estimating the antiquity of buried remains.