CONCLUSIONS.

The ruins of the lower Verde valley represent a comparatively late period in the history of the Pueblo tribes. The period of occupancy was not a long one and the population was never large, probably not exceeding at any time 800 or 1,000 souls, possibly less than 700; nor were the dwellings in that region all occupied at the same time.

There is no essential difference, other than those due to immediate environment, between the architecture of the lower Verde region and that of the more primitive types found in other regions, Tusayan for example. The Verde architecture is, however, of a more purely aboriginal type than that of any modern pueblo, and the absence of introduced or foreign ideas is its chief characteristic. There are no chimneys, no adobe walls, no constructive expedients other than aboriginal and rather primitive ones. The absence of circular kivas[10] or sacred council chambers is noteworthy.

[Footnote 10: As this term has been already defined, it is here used without further explanation. For a full discussion of these structures, see "A Study of Pueblo Architecture," by Victor Mindeleff, in 8th. Ann. Rep. Bur. Eth., 1886-87, Washington, 1891.]

The circular kiva is a survival of an ancient type—a survival supported by all the power of religious feeling and the conservatism in religious matters characteristic of savage and barbarous life; and while most of the modern pueblos have at the present time rectangular kivas, such, for example, as those at Tusayan, at Zui, and at Acoma, there is no doubt that the circular form is the more primitive and was formerly used by some tribes which now have only the rectangular form. Still the abandonment of the circular and the adoption of the rectangular form, due to expediency and the breaking down of old traditions, was a very gradual process and proceeded at a different rate in different parts of the country. At the time of the Spanish conquest the prevailing form in the old province of Cibola was rectangular, although the circular kiva was not entirely absent; while, on the other hand, in the cliff ruins of Canyon de Chelly, whose date is partly subsequent to the sixteenth century, the circular kiva is the prevailing, if not the exclusive form. But notwithstanding this the Hopi Indians of Tusayan, to whom many of the Canyon de Chelly ruins are to be attributed, today have not a single circular kiva. The reason for this radical departure from the old type is a simple one, and to be found in the single term environment. The savage is truly a child of nature and almost completely under its sway. A slight difference in the geologic formations of two regions will produce a difference in the arts of the inhabitants of those regions, provided the occupancy be a long one. In the case of the Tusayan kivas the rectangular form was imposed on the builders by the character of the sites they occupied. The requirement that the kiva should be under ground, or partly under ground, was a more stringent one than that it should be circular, and with the rude appliances at their command the Tusayan builders could accomplish practically nothing unless they utilized natural cracks and fissures in the rocks. Hence the abandonment of the circular form and also of the more essential requirement, that the kiva should be inclosed within the walls of the village or within a court; the Tusayan kivas are located indiscriminately in the courts and on the outskirts of the village, wherever a suitable site was found, some of them being placed at a considerable distance from the nearest house.

It will be seen, therefore, that it is impossible to base any chronologic conclusions on the presence or absence of this feature, notwithstanding the undoubted priority of the circular form, except in so far as these conclusions are limited to some certain region or known tribal stock. If it be assumed that the Verde ruins belong to the Tusayan, and all the evidence in hand favors that assumption, the conclusion follows that they should be assigned to a comparatively late period in the history of that tribe.

That the period of occupancy of the lower Verde valley was not a long one is proved by the character of the remains and by what we know of the history of the pueblo-building tribes. There are no very large areas of tillable land on the lower Verde and not a large number of small ones, and aside from these areas the country is arid and forbidding in the extreme. Such a country would be occupied only as a last resort, or temporarily during the course of a migration. The term migration, however, must not be taken in the sense in which it has been applied to European stocks, a movement of people en masse or in several large groups. Migration as used here, and as it generally applies to the Pueblo Indians, means a slow gradual movement, generally without any definite and ultimate end in view. A small section of a village, generally a gens or a subgens, moves away from the parent village, perhaps only a few miles. At another time another section moves to another site, at still another time another section moves, and so on. These movements are not possible where outside hostile pressure is strong, and if such pressure is long continued it results in a reaggregation of the various scattered settlements into one large village. Such in brief is the process which is termed migration, and which has covered the southwest with thousands of village ruins. Of course larger movements have occurred and whole villages have been abandoned in a day, but as a rule the abandonment of villages was a gradual process often consuming years.



Before the archeologic investigation of the pueblo region commenced and when there was little knowledge extant by which travelers could check their conclusions, the immense number of ruins in that region was commonly attributed to an immense population, some writers placing the number as high as 500,000. Beside this figure the present population, about 9,000, is so insignificant that it is hardly surprising that the ancient and modern villages were separated and attributed to different tribal stocks.

The process briefly sketched above explains the way in which village ruins have their origin; a band of 500 village-building Indians might leave the ruins of fifty villages in the course of a single century. It is very doubtful whether the total number of Pueblo Indians ever exceeded 30,000. This is the figure stated by Mr. A. F. Bandelier, whose intimate acquaintance with the eastern part of the pueblo region gives his opinion great weight. The apparently trifling causes which sometimes result in the abandonment of villages have been already alluded to.

The lower Verde forms no exception to the general rule sketched above. Scattered along the river, and always located on or immediately adjacent to some area of tillable land, are found many small ruins, typical examples of which have been described in detail. These form the subordinate settlements whose place in the general scheme has been indicated. The masonry is generally of river bowlders only, not dressed or prepared in any way. The number of these settlements is no greater than would be required for one complete cycle or period, although the evidence seems to support the hypothesis that the movement commenced in the northern part of the region and proceeded southward in two or perhaps three separate steps. It is possible, however, that the movement was in the other direction. This question can be settled only by a thorough examination of the regions to the north and south.

There are two, possibly three, points in the region discussed where a stand was made and the various minor settlements were abandoned, the inhabitants congregating into larger bands and building a larger village for better defense against the common foe. These are located at the extreme northern and southern limits of the region treated, opposite Verde and near Limestone creek, and possibly also at an intermediate point, the limestone ruin above Fossil creek. These more important ruins are all built of limestone slabs, and the sites are carefully selected. The internal evidence supports the conclusion that the movement was southward and that in the large ruin near Limestone creek the inhabitants of the lower Verde valley had their last resting place before they were absorbed by the population south of them, or were driven permanently from this region. The strong resemblance of the ground plan of this village to that of Zui has been already commented on, and it is known that Zui was produced in the way stated, by the inhabitants of the famous "seven cities of Cibola," except that in this case Zui was the second site adopted, the aggregation into one village, or more properly a number of villages on one site, having taken place a few years before. The fact that Zui dates only from the beginning of the last century should not be lost sight of in this discussion.

The inhabitants of the Verde valley were an agricultural people, and even in the darkest days of their history, when they were compelled to abandon the minor settlements, they still relied on horticulture for subsistence, and to a certain extent the defense motive was subordinated to the requirements of this method of life. There can be no doubt that the hostile pressure which produced the larger villages was Indian, probably the Apache and Walapai, who were in undisputed possession at the time of the American advent, and but little doubt that this pressure consisted not of regular invasions and set sieges, but of sudden raids and descents upon the fields, resulting in the carrying off of the produce and the killing of the producers. Such raids were often made by the Navajo on Tusayan, Zui, and the eastern pueblos and on the Mexican villages along the Rio Grande for some years after the American occupation, and are continued even today in a small way on the Tusayan. The effect of such raids is cumulative, and it might be several years before important action would result on the part of the village Indians subjected to them. On the other hand, several long seasons might elapse during which comparative immunity would be enjoyed by the village. In the lower Verde there is evidence of two such periods, if not more, and during that time the small pueblos and settlements previously referred to were built. None of these small settlements was occupied, however, for more than a few decades, the ground plans of most of them indicating an even shorter period.

That cavate lodges and cliff-dwellings are simply varieties of the same phase of life, and that life an agricultural one, is a conclusion, supported by the remains in the lower Verde valley. The almost entire absence of cliff-dwellings and the great abundance of cavate lodges has already been commented on, and as the geologic formations are favorable to the latter, and unfavorable to the former on the Verde, whereas the Canyon de Chelly, where there are hundreds of cliff-dwellings and no cavate lodges, the conditions are reversed, this abundance of cavate lodges may be set down as due to an accident of environment. The cavate lodge of the Rio Verde is a more easily constructed and more convenient habitation than the cliff-dwelling of Canyon de Chelly.



An examination and survey of the cliff ruins of Canyon de Chelly, made some years ago by the writer, revealed the fact that they were always located with reference to some area of adjacent tillable land and that the defensive motive exercised so small an influence on the selection of the site and the character of the buildings that it could be ignored. It was found that the cliff-dwellings were merely farming outlooks, and that the villages proper were almost always located on the canyon bottom. With slight modifications these conclusions may be extended over the Verde region and applied to the cavate lodges there. The relation of these lodges to the village ruins and the character of the sites occupied by them support the conclusion that they were farming outlooks, probably occupied only during the farming season, according to the methods followed by many of the Pueblos today, and that the defensive motive had little or no influence on the selection of the site or the character of the structures. The bowlder-marked sites and the small single-room remains illustrate other phases of the same horticultural methods, methods somewhat resembling the "intensive culture," of modern agriculture, but requiring further a close supervision or watching of the crop during the period of ripening. As the area of tillable land in the pueblo region, especially in its western part, is limited, these requirements have developed a class of temporary structures, occupied only during the farming season. In Tusayan, where the most primitive architecture of the pueblo type is found, these structures are generally of brush; in Canyon de Chelly they are cliff-dwellings; on the Rio Verde they are cavate lodges, bowlder-marked sites and single house remains; but at Zui they have reached their highest development in the three summer villages of Ojo Caliente, Nutria, and Pescado.



Since the American occupancy of the country and the consequent removal of the hostile pressure which has kept the Pueblo tribes in check, development has been rapid and now threatens a speedy extinction of pueblo life. The old Laguna has been abandoned, Acoma is being depopulated, the summer pueblos of Zui are now occupied all the year round by half a dozen or more families, and even in Tusayan, the most conservative of all the pueblo groups, the abandonment of the home village and location in more convenient single houses has commenced. It is the old process over again, but with the difference that formerly the cycle was completed by the reaggregation of the various families, and little bands into larger groups under hostile pressure from wilder tribes, but now that pressure has been permanently removed, and in a few years, or at most in a few generations, the old pueblo life will be known only by its records.



INDEX

ACOMA, Abandonment of 261 — Kivas in 257 — Selection of site of 215 ADOBE, Absence of, in Verde ruins 187, 257 — construction of modern introduction 238 — Limit to use of 238 AGE of cavate lodges 225 — — Verde ruins 209, 257 AGRICULTURE, Ancient, in Verde valley 247 ANAWITA, Tusayan tradition by 188 APACHE, Effect of, on pueblo tribes 260 ARCHITECTURE of ancient Verde pueblos 185 BANDELIER, A. F., on ancient pueblo population 259 BASKETRY in cavate lodges 228 BEAVER CREEK cliff ruin, Description of 186 BONE implements in cavate lodges 223, 224 BOWLDERS, ancient pueblo walls of 206, 217, 246, 249 — on line of ancient irrigating ditch 244 — Sites marked by, in Verde valley 194, 235, 261 BRUSH, Structures of, discussed 237 CAMP VERDE established and abandoned 185 CANYON DE CHELLY, Cliff dwellings in 254 — Kivas in 257 CASA GRANDE, Character of structure of 238 — and San Juan ruins compared 186 CAVATE LODGES, Ancient, how excavated 251 — described and figured 217 — in Verde valley 187, 192 — on Fossil creek 203 — Reason for abundance of 260 CAVE DWELLINGS in Arizona 224 CHACO ruins and Casa Grande compared 186 CHIMNEYS, Absence of, in Verde cavate lodges 187, 256, 257 CHINKING of walls 248 CI-PA, an ancient Hopi stopping place 189 CISTS. See Storage cist; Water pocket CLIFF DWELLINGS, Absence of, in Verde valley 187, 260 — in Arizona 224 — why constructed 260 — See Cavate lodge. CORN found in cavate lodges 225 COURTS in ancient Verde ruins 196 — See Plaza. CUSHING, F. H., on depressed structures in Arizona 245 DEBRIS, Height of ancient villages judged by 198, 240 DEFENSIVE motive of cliff dwellings 260 — sites of ancient Verde villages 193, 206, 208, 214, 215, 216 DE FOREST, J. W., on Connecticut indian spades 183 DILLER, J. S., on formation in which cavate lodges occur 219 DIMENSIONS of ancient pueblos 211 DOORWAYS in cavate lodges 222, 251 ESPEJO, A. DE, Expedition of, in 1583 185 FARFAN, M, Visit of, to Arizona in 1598 185 FIBER Bundles of, in cavate lodges 228 FIREHOLES in ancient Arizona structures 232, 246 FIREPLACE in cavate lodges 224, 256 FLAGSTAFF, Ariz., Cavate lodges near 217, 223 FLOORS plastered for leveling 251 FRESHET, Effect of, on ancient Verde irrigating ditch 240 — in Rio Verde 191 GARDENS of cavate village 224 GENTES, Aggregation, of, in villages 195 GRANARIES, Pima, how formed 246 GROUND-PLAN, how affected by long occupancy 212 HAVASUPAI cavate lodges 224, 225 HAWIKUH, Mission established at 229 HEIGHT of ancient Verde pueblos 209 HOFFMAN, W. J., on Beaver creek cliff ruin 186 — on Montezuma well 186 HOLMES, W. H., on San Juan cavate lodges 222 HOMOLOBI, an ancient Hopi village 189 HOPI, Canyon de Chelly ruins attributed to the 257 HORN implements in cavate lodges 224 HORTICULTURE, Ancient, on Rio Verde 187, 194, 238 IMPLEMENTS in cavate lodges 224, 228 IRRIGATION ditches in Verde valley 194, 237-238 JACAL structures 237 KIVA architecture, Evolution of 257 — circular, Absence of, in Verde cavate lodges 257 — in Verde ruins 196 LAGUNA, Abandonment of 261 LEROUX, ——, Ruins in Verde valley mentioned by 186 MANCOS RIVER, Cavate lodges on 222 MARRIAGE custom of the pueblos 197 MASONRY of ancient Verde villages 201, 203, 204, 212, 248, 259 — — cavate lodges 225 MEARNS, E. A., on Verde ruins 186 METATES in cavate lodges 223 MIGRATION, Pueblo, how effected 258 — tradition of the Hopi 188 MILITARY art of ancient pueblos 215 MINDELEFF, V., on notched doorways 254 — on pueblo kivas 257 MONTEZUMA WELL described 186 MORTAR, Excessive use of, in ancient villages 249 NAVAJO, Effect of, on pueblo tribes 260 — Hogan construction by the 237 NELSON, E. W., on certain ruined pueblo features 202 NUTRIA, a Zui summer village 206, 261 OJO CALIENTE, a Zui summer village 206, 261 OATE, JUAN DE, Expeditions of 185 ORAIBI, Architectural character of 195 OVEN in cavate lodge 226 PALAT-KWABI, a Hopi stopping place 189 PL-L-KOA, the Hopi serpent deity 188 PASSAGEWAY in cavate lodge 222, 225, 227, 231, 232, 235 — Absence of, in Verde ruins 199 PAT-KI-NYM, the Hopi water-house phratry 188 PESCADO, a Zui summer village 206, 261 PIMA, Granaries of the 246 PIS construction in Arizona 238 PLASTERING in Verde cavate lodges 222, 225, 251 PLAZA in cavate village 223 — See Court. POPULATION of ancient cavate lodges 251 — — pueblos 203, 211, 259 POTSHERDS around cavate lodges 224 — in cavate lodges 228 — in Verde ruins 213, 217 — on bowlder-marked sites 235 — Cavate fireplace lined with 256 POWELL, J. W. on Arizona cavate lodges 223 — Santa Clara cavate lodges 224 PRESCOTT, Arizona, Mines discovered near 185 — Visit of Espejo to vicinity of 185 QUESADA, A. DE, Visit of, to Arizona 185 RAINFALL in Verde valley 245 RESERVOIR, ancient, Traces of 236, 237 —, Depression like, in Verde valley 245 ROOF timbers, Source of, in Verde valley 196 ROOMS, Arrangement of, in cavate lodges 220, 221, 229 — Detached, in Verde ruins 198 — Distribution of, in ancient villages 197, 210 — Size of, in ancient villages 198, 210 RUINS, Extent of, in the southwest 259 — of Verde valley 185 SANDAL in cavate lodges 228 SAN FRANCISCO, early name of Rio Verde 186 — MOUNTAIN, Cavate lodges near 217, 223, 225 SAN JUAN RIVER, Cavate lodges on 222 SANTA CLARA, Cavate lodges near 217, 224 — Ancient pueblos of 225 SITE of cavate lodges 219 — Selection of, of ancient villages 215 SITTING STONES in ancient Arizona structures 246 SPRINGERVILLE, N. Mex., Ruins at 202 STEPHEN, A. M., Tusayan tradition obtained by 188 STEPPING-STONES to cavate lodge 253 STEVENSON, JAS., Cavate lodges visited by 223 STONE implements in cavate lodges 223, 224 STORAGE cist described and figured 221, 250 — room in cavate lodge 228, 229 SUMMER village, Ruins of, on Rio Verde 206 TAGS, Architectural character of 195 — Defensive character of 215 TEXTILE fabrics in cavate lodges 228 THRASHING FLOORS in Verde valley 246 TRADITION of Hopi water-people 188 TSEGI. See Canyon de Chelly. TUSAYAN, Primitive architecture of 261 — Kivas in 257 — Notched doorways in 254, 255 — Occupancy of Verde valley by the 188 — Water gentes of the 188 — See Hopi. VARGAS, DIEGO DE, New Mexico reconquered by 231 VERDE RIVER, Former name of 186 — VALLEY, Aboriginal remains in 185-261 VILLAGES, Ancient, in Verde valley 192 WALAPAI and Havasupai affinity 224 — Effect of, on pueblo tribes 260 — tradition of cavate lodges 225 WALLS, Ancient pueblo, how built 248 — Carved, in ancient ruins 202 — Defensive, in Verde ruins 202, 203 — Massive, in Verde ruin 199 WATER PEOPLE of Tusayan probably from south 188 — pockets in cavate lodge 228, 235 — storage in ancient Verde pueblo 199 WINDOW-OPENINGS of cavate lodges 222, 251 WOMEN, House building by 197 WOOD, Implements of, in cavate lodges 224 ZUI, Adoption of site of 215, 259 — Defensive character of 215 — Kivas in 257 — Population of 195

* * * * *

Errors and Notes

Limestone creek, Clear creek, Fossil creek etc. capitalization as in the original The spelling "bowlder" is standard for Bureau of Ethnology articles.

we dwelt in the Pa-lt-kwa-bi We traveled northward from Palat-kwabi inconsistent spelling in original somewhat different text reads "diferent" about ten rooms arranged in L shape text unchanged the artificial improvement of the site text reads "artifical" A group occurring at the point marked E on the map text reads "occuring" plate XLV shows the character of stone employed text reads "LXV" rude in character. As elsewhere stated text has comma for period

THE END