Half-way up the side of the mesa, about opposite Sikyatki, there is a
large reservoir, used as a watering place for sheep. The splash of the
water, as it falls into this reservoir, is an unusual sound in this
arid region, and is worth a tramp of many miles. There are many
evidences that this spring was a popular one in former times. As it is
approached from the top of the mesa, a brief inspection of the
surroundings shows that for about a quarter of a mile, on either side,
there are signs of ancient terraced gardens, walled in with rows of
stones. These gardens have today greatly diminished in size, as
compared with the ancient outlines, and only that portion which is
occupied by a grove of peach trees is now under cultivation, although
there is plenty of water for the successful irrigation of a much
larger tract of land than the gardens now cover.[103] Judging from
their size, many of the peach trees are very old, although they still
bear their annual crop of fruit. Everything indicates, as the legends
relate, that these Kanelba gardens, the walls of which now form sheep
corrals, were long ago abandoned.
The terraces south of the Kanelba peach grove resemble the lower
terraces of Wipo. About 100 rods farther south, along the foot of the
mesa, on the same level, are a number of unused fields, and a cluster
of house remains. The whole of this terrace is of a type which shows
greater action of the weather than the others, but the boundaries of
the fields are still marked with rows of stones. The adjacent
foothills contain piles of ashes in several places, as if the sites of
ancient pottery kilns, and very old stone inclosures occur on the top
of the mesa above Kanelba. All indications seem to point to the
ancient occupancy of the region about Kanelba by many more farmers
than today. Possibly the inhabitants of Sikyatki, which is only two or
three miles away, frequented this place and cultivated these ancient
gardens. Kanelba is regarded as a sacred spring by several Hopi
religious societies of East Mesa. The Snake priests of Walpi always
celebrate a feast there on the day of the snake hunt to the east in
odd years,[104] while in the alternate years it is visited by the
Flute men.
The present appearance of Sikyatki (plate CXV) is very desolate, and
when visited by our party previously to the initiation of the work,
seemed to promise little in the way of archeological results. No walls
were standing above ground, and the outlines of the rooms were very
indistinct. All we saw at that time was a series of mounds,
irregularly rectangular in shape, of varying altitude, with here and
there faint traces of walls. Prominent above all these mounds,
however, was the pinnacle of rock on the northwestern corner, rising
abruptly from the remainder of the ruin, easily approached from the
west and sloping more gradually to the south. This rocky elevation,
which we styled the acropolis, was doubtless once covered with houses.
On the western edge of the ruin a solitary farmhouse, used during the
summer season, had been constructed of materials from the old walls,
and was inhabited by an Indian named Lelo and his family during our
excavations. He is the recognized owner of the farm land about
Sikyatki and the cultivator of the soil in the old plaza of the ruins.
Jakwaina, an enterprising Tewan who lives not far from Isba, the
spring near the trail to Hano, has also erected a modern house near
the Sikyatki spring, but it had not been completed at the time of our
stay. Probably never since its destruction in prehistoric times have
so many people as there were in our party lived for so long a time at
this desolate place.
The disposition of the mounds show that the ground plan of Sikyatki
(plate CXVI) was rectangular in shape, the houses inclosing a court in
which are several mounds that may be the remains of kivas. The highest
range of rooms, and we may suppose the most populous part of the
ancient pueblo, was on the same side as the acropolis, where a large
number of walled chambers in several series were traced.
The surface of what was formerly the plaza is crossed by rows of
stones regularly arranged to form gardens, in which several kinds of
gourds are cultivated. In the sands north of the ruin there are many
peach trees, small and stunted, but yearly furnishing a fair crop.
These are owned by Tcino,[105] and of course were planted long after
the destruction of the pueblo.
In order to obtain legends of the former occupancy and destruction of
Sikyatki, I consulted Nasyuñweve, the former head of the Kokop people,
and while the results were not very satisfactory, I learned that the
land about Sikyatki is still claimed by that phratry. Nasyuñweve,[106]
Katci, and other prominent Kokop people occupy and cultivate the land
about Sikyatki on the ground of inheritance from their ancestors who
once inhabited the place.
Two routes were taken to approach Sikyatki--one directly across the
sandy plain from the entrance to Keam's canyon, following for some
distance the road to East Mesa; the other along the edge of the mesa,
on the first terrace, to the cluster of houses at Coyote spring. The
trail to the pueblos of East Mesa ascends the cliff just above
Sikyatki spring, and joins that to Kanelba or Sheep spring, not far
from Küküchomo, the twin mounds. By keeping along the first terrace a
well-traveled trail, with interesting views of the plain and the ruin,
joins the old wagon road to _Wala_, the "gap" of East Mesa, at a
higher level than the cluster of Tewan houses at Isba. In going and
returning from their homes our Hopi workmen preferred the trail along
the mesa, which we also often used; but the climb to the mesa top from
the ruin is very steep and somewhat tiresome.
We prosecuted our excavations at Sikyatki for a few days over three
weeks, choosing as a site for our camp a small depression to the east
of the ruin near a dwarf cedar at the point where the trail to Kanelba
passes the ruin. The place was advantageously near the cemeteries, and
not too far from water. For purposes other than cooking and drinking
the Sikyatki spring was used, the remainder of the supply being
brought from Kanelba by means of a burro.
I employed Indian workmen at the ruin, and found them, as a rule,
efficient helpers. The zeal which they manifested at the beginning of
the work did not flag, but it must be confessed that toward the close
of the excavations it became necessary to incite their enthusiasm by
prizes, and, to them, extraordinary offers of overalls and calico.
They at first objected to working in the cemeteries, regarding it as a
desecration of the dead, but several of their number overcame their
scruples, even handling skulls and other parts of skeletons. The Snake
chief, Kopeli, however, never worked with the others, desiring not to
dig in the graves. Respecting his feelings, I allotted him the special
task of excavating the rooms of the acropolis, which he performed with
much care, showing great interest in the results. At the close of our
daily work prayer-offerings were placed in the trenches by the Indian
workmen, as conciliatory sacrifices to Masauwûh, the dread God of
Death, to offset any malign influence which might result from our
desecration of his domain. A superstitious feeling that this god was
not congenial to the work which was going on, seemed always to haunt
the minds of the laborers, and once or twice I was admonished by old
men, visitors from Walpi, not to persist in my excavations. The
excavators, at times, paused in their work and called my attention to
strange voices echoing from the cliffs, which they ascribed, half in
earnest, to Masauwûh.
The Indians faithfully delivered to me all objects which they found in
their digging, with the exception of turquoises, many of which, I
have good reason to suspect, they concealed while our backs were
turned and, in a few instances, even before our eyes.
The accompanying plan of Sikyatki (plate CXVI) shows that it was a
rectangular ruin with an inclosed plaza. It is evident that the
ancient pueblo was built on a number of low hills and that the eastern
portion was the highest. In this respect it resembled Awatobi, but
apparently differed from the latter pueblo in having the inclosed
plaza. In the same way it was unlike Walpi or the ancient and modern
pueblos of Middle Mesa and Oraibi. In fact, there is no Tusayan ruin
which resembles it in ground plan, except Payüpki, a Tanoan town of
much later construction. The typical Tusayan form of architecture is
the pyramidal, especially in the most ancient pueblos. The ground plan
of Sikyatki is of a type more common in the eastern pueblo region and
in those towns of Tusayan which were built by emigrants from the Rio
Grande region. Sikyatki and some of the villages overlooking Antelope
valley are of this type.
In studying the ground plans of the three modern villages on East
Mesa, the fact is noted that both Sichomovi and Hano differ
architecturally from Walpi. The forms of the former smaller pueblos
are primarily rectangular with an inclosed plaza in which is situated
the kiva; Walpi, on the other hand, although furnished with a small
plaza at the western end, has kivas located peripherally rather than
in an open space between the highest house clusters. Sichomovi is
considered by the Hopi as like Zuñi, and is sometimes called by the
Hano people, Sionimone, "Zuñi court," because to the Tewan mind it
resembles Zuñi; but the term is never applied to Walpi.[107] The
distinction thus recognized is, I believe, architecturally valid. The
inclosed court or plaza in Tusayan is an intrusion from the east, and
as eastern colonists built both Hano and Sichomovi, they preserved the
form to which they were accustomed. The Sikyatki builders drew their
architectural inspiration likewise from the east, hence the inclosed
court in the ruins of that village.
The two most considerable house clusters of Sikyatki are at each end
of a longer axis, connected by a narrow row of houses on the other
sides. The western rows of houses face the plain, and were of one
story, with a gateway at one point. The opposite row was more
elevated, no doubt overlooking cultivated fields beyond the confines
of the ruin. No kivas were discovered, but if such exist they ought to
be found in the mass of houses at the southern end. I thought we had
found circular rooms in that region, but cursory excavations did not
demonstrate their existence. As there is no reason to suspect the
existence of circular kivas in ancient Tusayan, it would be difficult
to decide whether or not any one of the large rectangular rooms was
used for ceremonial purposes, for it is an interesting fact that some
of the oldest secret rites in the Hopi villages occur, not in kivas,
but in ordinary dwelling rooms in the village. It has yet to be shown
that there were special kivas in prehistoric Tusayan.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY