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ARCHEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION TO ARIZONA IN 1895
BY
JESSE WALTER FEWKES
CONTENTS
Page
Introductory note
Plan of the expedition
Ruins in Verde valley
Classification of the ruins
Cavate dwellings
Montezuma Well
Cliff houses of the Red-rocks
Ruins near Schürmann's ranch
Palatki
Honanki
Objects found at Palatki and Honanki
Conclusions regarding the Verde valley ruins
Ruins in Tusayan
General features
The Middle Mesa ruins
Shuñopovi
Mishoñinovi
Chukubi
Payüpki
The East Mesa ruins
Küchaptüvela and Kisakobi
Küküchomo
Kachinba
Tukinobi
Jeditoh valley ruins
Awatobi
Characteristics of the ruin
Nomenclature of Awatobi
Historical knowledge of Awatobi
Legend of the destruction of Awatobi
Evidences of fire in the destruction
The ruins of the mission
The kivas of Awatobi
Old Awatobi
Rooms of the western mound
Smaller Awatobi
Mortuary remains
Shrines
Pottery
Stone implements
Bone objects
Miscellaneous objects
Ornaments in the form of birds and shells
Clay bell
Textile fabrics
Prayer-sticks—Pigments
Objects showing Spanish influence
The ruins of Sikyatki
Traditional knowledge of the pueblo
Nomenclature
Former inhabitants of Sikyatki
General features
The acropolis
Modern gardens
The cemeteries
Pottery
Characteristics—Mortuary pottery
Coiled and indented ware
Smooth undecorated ware
Polished decorated ware
Paleography of the pottery
General features
Human figures
The human hand
Quadrupeds
Reptiles
Tadpoles
Butterflies or moths
Dragon-flies
Birds
Vegetal designs
The sun
Geometric figures
Interpretation of the figures
Crosses
Terraced figures
The crook
The germinative symbol
Broken lines
Decorations on the exterior of food bowls
Pigments
Stone objects
Obsidian
Necklaces, gorgets, and other ornaments
Tobacco pipes
Prayer-sticks
Marine shells and other objects
Perishable contents of mortuary food bowls
APPENDIX
INDEX
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
PLATE .Cavate dwellings—Rio Verde537
.Cavate dwellings—Oak creek539
.Entrances to cavate ruins541
.Bowlder with pictographs near Wood's ranch545
.Montezuma Well547
.Cliff house, Montezuma Well549
.Ruin on the brink of Montezuma Well551
.Pictographs near Cliff ranch, Verde valley553
.The Red-rocks; Temple canyon555
.Palatki (Ruin I)557
.Palatki (Ruin I)559
.Front wall of Palatki (Ruin II)561
Honanki (Ruin II)563
.Walls of Honanki565
.Approach to main part of Honanki567
.Map of the ruins of Tusayan583
.The ruins of Küküchomo587
.Ground plan of Awatobi603
.Ruins of San Bernardino de Awatobi607
.Excavations in the western mound of Awatobi615
.Excavated room in the western mound of Awatobi617
.Vase and mugs from the western mounds of Awatobi618
.Paint pots, vase, and dipper from Awatobi620
.Pottery from intramural burial at Awatobi622
.Bone implements from Awatobi and Sikyatki626
.Sikyatki mounds from the Kanelba trail637
.Ground plan of Sikyatki639
.Excavated rooms on the acropolis of Sikyatki643
.Plan of excavated rooms on the acropolis of Sikyatki644
.Coiled and indented pottery from Sikyatki650
.Saucers and slipper bowls from Sikyatki652
.Decorated pottery from Sikyatki654
.Decorated pottery from Sikyatki654
.Decorated pottery from Sikyatki657
.Decorated pottery from Sikyatki660
.Flat dippers and medicine box from Sikyatki662
.Double-lobe vases from Sikyatki664
.Unusual forms of vases from Sikyatki666
.Medicine box and pigment pots from Sikyatki668
.Designs on food bowls from Sikyatki670
.Food bowls with figures of quadrupeds from Sikyatki672
.Ornamented ladles from Sikyatki674
.Food bowls with figures of reptiles from Sikyatki676
.Bowls and dippers with figures of tadpoles, birds, etc., from Sikyatki676
.Food bowls with figures of sun, butterfly, and flower, from Sikyatki676
.Vases with figures of butterflies from Sikyatki678
.Vases with figures of birds and feathers from Sikyatki678
.Vessels with figures of human hand, birds, turtle, etc., from Sikyatki680
.Food bowls with figures of birds from Sikyatki682
.Food bowls with figures of birds from Sikyatki684
.Figures of birds from Sikyatki686
.Food bowls with figures of birds and feathers from Sikyatki688
.Vases, bowls, and ladle with figures of feathers from Sikyatki688
.Vase with figures of birds from Sikyatki690
.Vase with figures of birds from Sikyatki690
.Vases with figures of birds from Sikyatki690
.Bowls and potsherd with figures of birds from Sikyatki692
.Food bowls with figures of birds from Sikyatki692
.Food bowls with symbols of feathers from Sikyatki694
.Food bowls with symbols of feathers from Sikyatki694
.Figures of birds and feathers from Sikyatki696
.Figures of birds and feathers from Sikyatki696
.Food bowls with bird, feather, and flower symbols from Sikyatki698
.Food bowls with figures of birds and feathers from Sikyatki698
.Food bowls with figures of birds and feathers from Sikyatki700
.Food bowls with figures of birds and feathers from Sikyatki700
.Food bowls with figures of birds and feathers from Sikyatki700
.Figures of birds and feathers from Sikyatki702
.Food bowls with figures of sun and related symbols from Sikyatki702
.Cross and related designs from Sikyatki704
.Cross and other symbols from Sikyatki704
.Star, sun, and related symbols from Sikyatki704
.Geometric ornamentation from Sikyatki706
.Food bowls with geometric ornamentation from Sikyatki708
.Food bowls with geometric ornamentation from Sikyatki710
.Food bowls with geometric ornamentation from Sikyatki714
.Linear figures on food bowls from Sikyatki718
.Geometric ornamentation from Awatobi722
.Geometric ornamentation from Awatobi726
.Arrowshaft smoothers, selenite, and symbolic corn from Sikyatki728
.Corn grinder from Sikyatki730
.Stone implements from Palatki, Awatobi, and Sikyatki732
.Paint grinder, fetish, lignite, and kaolin disks from Sikyatki734
.Pipes, bell, clay birds, and shells from Awatobi and Sikyatki736
.Pahos or prayer-sticks from Sikyatki738
.Pahos or prayer-sticks from Sikyatki738
FIGURE .Plan of cavate dwelling on Rio Verde540
.Casa Montezuma on Beaver creek552
.Ground plan of Palatki (Ruins I and II)554
.Ground plan of Honanki559
.The main ruin of Honanki562
.Structure of wall of Honanki564
.Stone implement from Honanki571
.Tinder tube from Honanki572
.Küküchomo587
.Defensive wall on the East Mesa588
.Ground plan of San Bernardino de Awatobi608
.Structure of house wall of Awatobi615
.Alosaka shrine at Awatobi620
.Shrine at Awatobi621
.Shrine at Awatobi621
.Shrine at Awatobi621
.Clay bell from Awatobi629
.The acropolis of Sikyatki644
.War god shooting an animal (fragment of food bowl)665
.Mountain sheep669
.Mountain lion670
.Plumed serpent672
.Unknown reptile674
.Unknown reptile675
.Unknown reptile676
.Outline of plate cxxxv, b678
.Butterfly design on upper surface of plate cxxxv, b679
.Man-eagle683
.Pendent feather ornaments on a vase690
.Upper surface of vase with bird decoration691
.Kwataka eating an animal692
.Decoration on the bottom of plate cxlvi, f694
.Oblique parallel line decoration706
.Parallel lines fused at one point706
.Parallel lines with zigzag arrangement706
.Parallel lines connected by middle bar707
.Parallel lines of different width; serrate margin707
.Parallel lines of different width; median serrate707
.Parallel lines of different width; marginal serrate707
.Parallel lines and triangles708
.Line with alternate triangles708
.Single line with alternate spurs708
.Single line with hourglass figures708
.Single line with triangles709
.Single line with alternate triangles and ovals709
.Triangles and quadrilaterals709
.Triangle with spurs709
.Rectangle with single line709
.Double triangle; multiple lines710
.Double triangle; terraced edges710
.Single line; closed fret710
.Single line; open fret711
.Single line; broken fret711
.Single line; parts displaced711
.Open fret; attachment displaced711
.Simple rectangular design711
.Rectangular S-form712
.Rectangular S-form with crooks712
.Rectangular S-form with triangles712
.Rectangular S-form with terraced triangles712
.S-form with interdigitating spurs713
.Square with rectangles and parallel lines713
.Rectangles, triangles, stars, and feathers713
.Crook, feathers, and parallel lines713
.Crooks and feathers714
.Rectangle, triangles, and feathers714
.Terraced crook, triangle, and feathers714
.Double key715
.Triangular terrace715
.Crook, serrate end715
.Key pattern; rectangle and triangles716
.Rectangle and crook716
.Crook and tail-feathers716
.Rectangle, triangle, and serrate spurs717
.W-pattern; terminal crooks717
.W-pattern; terminal rectangles717
.W-pattern; terminal terraces and crooks718
.W-pattern; terminal spurs718
.W-pattern; bird form719
.W-pattern; median triangle719
.Double triangle; two breath feathers720
.Double triangle; median trapezoid720
.Double triangle; median rectangle720
.Double compound triangle; median rectangle720
.Double triangle; median triangle721
.Double compound triangle721
.Double rectangle; median rectangle721
.Double rectangle; median triangle721
.Double triangle with crooks722
.W-shape figure; single line with feathers722
.Compound rectangles, triangles, and feathers722
.Double triangle722
.Double triangle and feathers723
.Twin triangles723
.Triangle with terraced appendages723
.Mosaic pattern723
.Rectangles, stars, crooks, and parallel lines724
.Continuous crooks724
.Rectangular terrace pattern724
.Terrace pattern with parallel lines725
.Terrace pattern725
.Triangular pattern with feathers725
.S-pattern726
.Triangular and terrace figures726
.Crook, terrace, and parallel lines726
.Triangles, squares, and terraces726
.Bifurcated rectangular design727
.Lines of life and triangles727
.Infolded triangles727
.Human hand728
.Animal paw, limb, and triangle728
.Kaolin disk729
.Mortuary prayer-stick736
ARCHEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION TO ARIZONA IN 1895
By Jesse Walter Fewkes
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
About the close of May, 1895, I was invited to make a collection of
objects for the National Museum, illustrating the archeology of the
Southwest, especially that phase of pueblo life pertaining to the so-called
cliff houses. I was specially urged to make as large a collection
as possible, and the choice of locality was generously left to my
discretion.
Leaving Washington on the 25th of May, I obtained a collection and
returned with it to that city on the 15th of September, having spent
three months in the field. The material brought back by the expedition
was catalogued under 966 entries, numbering somewhat over a thousand
specimens. The majority of these objects are fine examples of mortuary
pottery of excellent character, fully 500 of which are decorated.
I was particularly fortunate in my scientific collaborators. Mr F. W.
Hodge, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, joined me at Sikyatki,
and remained with the expedition until it disbanded, at the close of
August. Much of my success in the work at that ruin was due to his
advice and aid. He was constantly at the excavations, and the majority
of the beautiful specimens were taken out of the graves by him. It
is with the greatest pleasure that I am permitted to express my appreciation
of his assistance in my archeological investigations at Sikyatki.
Mr G. P. Winship, now librarian of the John Carter Brown Library at
Providence, visited our camp at the ruin mentioned, and remained with
us a few weeks, rendering important aid and adding an enthusiastic
student to our number. Mr James S. Judd was a volunteer assistant
while we were at Sikyatki, aiding me in many ways, especially in the
management of our camp. I need only to refer to the beautiful drawings
which accompany this memoir to show how much I am indebted to
Mrs Hodge for faithful colored figures of the remarkable pottery uncovered
from the Tusayan sands. My party included Mr S. Goddard, of
Prescott, Arizona, who served as cook and driver, and Mr Erwin Baer,
of the same city, as photographer. The manual work at the ruins was
done by a number of young Indians from the East Mesa, who very properly
were employed on the Moki reservation. An all too prevalent and
often unjust criticism that Indians will not work if paid for their labor,
was not voiced by any of our party. They gave many a weary hour's
labor in the hot sun, in their enthusiasm to make the collection as large
as possible.
On my return to Washington I was invited to prepare a preliminary
account of my work in the field, which the Secretary of the Smithsonian
Institution did me the honor to publish in his report for 1895. This
report was of a very general character, and from necessity limited in
pages; consequently it presented only the more salient features of my
explorations.
The following account was prepared as a more exhaustive discussion
of the results of my summer's work. The memoir is much more extended
than I had expected to make it when I accepted the invitation
to collect archeological objects for the Museum, and betrays, I fear, imperfections
due to the limited time spent in the field. The main object
of the expedition was a collection of specimens, the majority of which,
now on exhibition in the National Museum, tell their own story regarding
its success.
I am under deep obligations to the officers of the Smithsonian Institution,
the National Museum, and the Bureau of American Ethnology
for many kindnesses, and wish especially to express my thanks to Mr
S. P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, for the opportunity
to study the ancient ruins of Tusayan. Nothing had a greater
influence on my final decision to abandon other congenial work and
undertake this, than my profound respect for the late Dr G. Brown
Goode, who suggested the expedition to me and urged me to plan and
undertake it.
Jesse Walter Fewkes.
Washington, May, 1897.
PLAN OF THE EXPEDITION
It seemed to me in making a plan for archeological field work in 1895,
that the prehistoric cliff houses, cave dwellings, and ruined pueblos of
Arizona afforded valuable opportunities for research, and past experience
induced me to turn my steps more especially to the northern and
northeastern parts of the territory. The ruins of ancient habitations
in these regions had been partially, and, I believe, unsatisfactorily
explored, especially those in a limited area called Tusayan, now inhabited
by the Moki or Hopi Indians. These agricultural people claim to
be descendants of those who once lived in the now deserted villages of
that province.
I had some knowledge of the ethnology of the Hopi, derived from
several summers' field work among them, and I believed this information
could be successfully utilized in an attempt to solve certain archeological
questions which presented themselves. I desired, among other
things, to obtain new information on the former extension, in one direction,
of the ancestral abodes of certain clans of the sedentary people of
Tusayan which are now limited to six pueblos in the northeastern part
of the territory. In carrying out this general plan I made an examination
of cliff dwellings and other ruins in Verde valley, and undertook
an exploration of two old pueblos near the Hopi villages. The
reason which determined my choice of the former as a field for investigation
was a wish to obtain archeological data bearing on certain Tusayan
traditions. It is claimed by the traditionists of Walpi, especially
those of the Patki or Water-house phratry, that their ancestors came
from a land far to the south of Tusayan, to which they give the name
Palatkwabi. The situation of this mythic place is a matter of considerable
conjecture, but it was thought that an archeological examination
of the country at or near the headwaters of the Rio Verde and its
tributaries might shed light on this tradition.
It is not claimed, however, that all the ancestors of the Tusayan
people migrated from the south, nor do I believe that those who came
from that direction necessarily passed through Verde valley. Some, no
doubt, came from Tonto Basin, but I believe it can be shown that a continuous
line of ruins, similar in details of architecture, extend along
this river from its junction with Salt river to well-established prehistoric
dwelling places of the Hopi people. Similar lines may likewise
be traced along other northern tributaries of the Salt or the Gila, which
may be found to indicate early migration stages.
The ruins of Verde valley were discovered in 1854 by Antoine Leroux,
a celebrated guide and trapper of his time, and were thus described
by Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner in the following year:
The river banks were covered with ruins of stone houses and regular fortifications;
which, he [Leroux] says, appeared to have been the work of civilized men, but had
not been occupied for centuries. They were built upon the most fertile tracts of the
valley, where were signs of acequias and of cultivation. The walls were of solid
masonry, of rectangular form, some twenty or thirty paces in length, and yet remaining
ten or fifteen feet in height. The buildings were of two stories, with small apertures
or loopholes for defence when besieged.... In other respects, however,
Leroux says that they reminded him of the great pueblos of the Moquinos.
A fragment of folklore, which is widely distributed among both the
aboriginal peoples of Gila valley and the modern Tusayan Indians,
recounts how the latter were at one time in communication with the
people of the south, and traditions of both distinctly connect the sedentary
people of Tusayan with those who formerly inhabited the great
pueblos, now in ruins, dotting the plain in the delta between Gila and
Salt rivers. That archeology might give valuable information on this
question had long been my conviction, and was the main influence
which led me to the studies recorded in the following pages.
An examination of a map of Arizona will show that one of the
pathways or feasible routes of travel possible to have been used in
any connection between the pueblos of the Gila and those of northern
Arizona would naturally be along Rio Verde valley. Its tributaries
rise at the foot of San Francisco mountains, and the main river empties
into the Salt, traversing from north to south a comparatively fertile
valley, in the main advantageous for the subsistence of semisedentary
bands in their migrations. Here was a natural highway leading from
the Gila pueblos, now in ruins, to the former villages in the north.
The study of the archeology of Verde valley had gone far enough
to show that the banks of the river were formerly the sites of many
and populous pueblos, while the neighboring mesas from one end to
another are riddled with cavate dwellings or crowned with stone buildings.
Northward from that famous crater-like depression in the Verde
region, the so-called Montezuma Well on Beaver creek, one of the
affluents of the Rio Verde, little archeological exploration had been
attempted. There was, in other words, a break in the almost continuous
series of ruins from Tusayan as far south as the Gila. Ruined towns
had been reported as existing not far southward from San Francisco
mountains, and from there by easy stages the abodes of a former race
had been detected at intervals all the way to the Tusayan pueblos.
At either end the chain of ruins between the Tusayan towns and the
Gila ruins was unbroken, but middle links were wanting. All conditions
imply former habitations in this untrodden hiatus, the region
between the Verde and the Tusayan series, ending near the present
town of Flagstaff, Arizona; but southward from that town the country
was broken and impassable, a land where the foot of the archeologist
had not trodden. Remains of human habitations had, however, been
reported by ranchmen, but these reports were vague and unsatisfactory.
So far as they went they confirmed my suspicions, and there
were other significant facts looking the same way. The color of the
red cliffs fulfilled the Tusayan tradition of Palatkwabi, or their former
home in the far south. Led by all these considerations, before I took to
the field I had long been convinced that this must have been one of the
homes of certain Hopi clans, and when the occasion presented itself I
determined to follow the northward extension of the ancient people of
the Verde into these rugged rocks. By my discoveries in this region
of ruins indicative of dwellings of great size in ancient times I have
supplied the missing links in the chain of ancient dwellings extending
from the great towns of the Gila to the ruins west of the modern
Tusayan towns. If this line of ruins, continuous from Gila valley to
Tusayan and beyond, be taken in connection with legends ascribing
Casa Grande to the Hopi and those of certain Tusayan clans which
tell of the homes of their ancestors in the south, a plausible explanation
is offered for the many similarities between two apparently widely
different peoples, and the theory of a kinship between southern and
northern sedentary tribes of Arizona does not seem as unlikely as it
might otherwise appear.
The reader will notice that I accept without question the belief that
the so-called cliff dwellers were not a distinct people, but a specially
adaptive condition of life of a race whose place of habitation was determined
by its environment. We are considering a people who sometimes
built dwellings in caverns and sometimes in the plains, but often
in both places at the same epoch. Moreover, as long ago pointed out
by other students, the existing Pueblo Indians are descendants of a
people who at times lived in cliffs, and some of the Tusayan clans have
inhabited true cliff houses in the historic period. By intermarriage with
nomadic races and from other causes the character of Pueblo consanguinity
is no doubt somewhat different from that of their ancient kin,
but the character of the culture, as shown by a comparison of cliff-house
and modern objects, has not greatly changed.
While recognizing the kinship of the Pueblos and the Cliff villagers,
this resemblance is not restricted to any one pueblo or group of modern
pueblos to the exclusion of others. Of all modern differentiations of
this ancient substratum of culture of which cliff villages are one adaptive
expression, the Tusayan Indians are the nearest of all existing people
of the Southwest to the ancient people of Arizona.
The more southerly ruins of Tusayan, which I have been able satisfactorily
to identify and to designate by a Hopi name, are those called
Homolobi, situated not far from Winslow, Arizona, near where the
railroad crosses the Little Colorado. These ruins are claimed by the
Hopi as the former residences of their ancestors, and were halting
places in the migration of certain clans from the south. They were
examined by Mr Cosmos Mindeleff, of the Bureau of American Ethnology,
in 1893, but no report on them has yet been published.
While, however, the Homolobi group of ruins is the most southerly to
which I have been able to affix a Hopi name, others still more to the
southward are claimed by certain of their traditions. The Hopi likewise
regard as homes of their ancestors certain habitations, now in
ruins, near San Francisco mountains. In a report on his exploration
of Zuñi and Little Colorado rivers in 1852, Captain L. Sitgreaves called
attention to several interesting ruins, one of which was not far from the
"cascades" of the latter river. After ascending the plateau, which he
found covered with volcanic detritus, he discovered that "all the prominent
points" were "occupied by the ruins of stone houses, which were
in some instances three stories in height. They are evidently," he says,
"the remains of a large town, as they occurred at intervals for an
extent of eight or nine miles, and the ground was thickly strewn with
fragments of pottery in all directions."
In 1884 a portion of Colonel James Stevenson's expedition, under
F. D. Bickford, examined the cliff houses in Walnut canyon, and in
1886 Major J. W. Powell and Colonel Stevenson found scattered ruins
north of San Francisco mountains having one, two, or three rooms,
each "built of basaltic cinders and blocks of lava." These explorers
likewise reported ruins of extensive dwellings in the same region
made of sandstone and limestone. At about 25 miles north of the
mountains mentioned they discovered a small volcanic cone of cinders
and basalt, which was formerly the site of a village or pueblo built
around a crater, and estimated that this little pueblo contained 60 or
70 rooms, with a plaza occupying one-third of an acre of surface.
Twelve miles eastward from San Francisco mountains they found
another cinder cone resembling a dome, and on its southern slope, in
a coherent cinder mass, were many chambers, of which one hundred
and fifty are said to have been excavated. They mention the existence
on the summit of this cone of a plaza inclosed by a rude wall of volcanic
cinders, with a carefully leveled floor. The former inhabitants of
these rooms apparently lived in underground chambers hewn from the
volcanic formation. Eighteen miles farther eastward was another
ruined village built about the crater of a volcanic cone. Several villages
were discovered in this locality and many natural caves which
had been utilized as dwellings by inclosing them in front with walls of
volcanic rocks and cinders. These cavate rooms were arranged tier
above tier in a very irregular way.
At this place three distinct kinds of ruins were found—cliff villages,
cave dwellings, and pueblos. Eight miles southeastward from Flagstaff,
in Oak creek canyon, a cliff house of several hundred rooms was
discovered. It was concluded that all these ruins were abandoned
at a comparatively recent date, or not more than three or four centuries
ago, and the Havasupai Indians of Cataract canyon were regarded as
descendants of the former inhabitants of these villages. The situation
of some of these ruins and the published descriptions would
indicate that some of them were similar to those described and figured
by Sitgreaves, to which reference has already been made.
In 1896 two amateur explorers, George Campbell and Everett Howell,
of Flagstaff, reported that they had found, about eighteen miles from
that place, several well-preserved cliff towns and a remarkable tunnel
excavation. The whole region in the immediate neighborhood of San
Francisco mountains appears, therefore, to have been populated in
ancient times by an agricultural people, and legends ascribe some of
these ruins to ancestors of the Hopi Indians.
There are several ruins due south of Tusayan which have not been
investigated, but which would furnish important contributions to a
study of Hopi migrations. Near Saint Johns, Arizona, likewise, there
are ruins of considerable size, possibly referable to the Cibolan series;
and south of Holbrook, which lies about due south of Walpi, there are
ruins, the pottery from which I have examined and found to be of the
black-and-white ware typical of the Cliff people. Perhaps, however,
no ruined pueblo presents more interesting problems than the magnificent
Pueblo Grande or Kintiel, about 20 miles north of Navaho Springs.
This large ruin, lying between the Cibolan and Tusayan groups, has
been referred to both of these provinces, and would, if properly excavated,
shed much light on the archeology of the two provinces. Kinnazinde
lies not far from Kintiel.
The ruins reported from Tonto Basin, of which little is known, may
later be found to be connected with early migrations of those Hopi
clans which claim southern origin. From what I can judge by the
present appearance of ruins just north of the Mogollon mountains, in a
direct line between Tonto Basin and the present Tusayan towns, there
is nothing to show the age of these ruined villages, and it is quite
likely that they may have been inhabited in the middle of the sixteenth
century. While it is commonly agreed that the province of "Totonteac,"
which figures extensively in certain early Spanish narratives,
was the same as Tusayan, the linguistic similarity of the word to "tonto"
has been suggested by others. In the troublesome years between 1860
and 1870 the Hopi, decimated by disease and harried by nomads, sent
delegates to Prescott asking to be removed to Tonto Basin, and it is
not improbable that in making this reasonable request they simply
wished to return to a place which they associated with their ancestors,
who had been driven out by the Apache. Totonteac is ordinarily
thought to be the same as Tusayan, but it may have included some of
the southern pueblos now in ruins west of Zuñi.
Having determined that the line of Verde ruins was continued into
the Red-rock country, it was desirable to see how the latter compared
with those nearer Tusayan. This necessitated reexamination of many
ruins in Verde valley, which was my aim during the most of June. I
followed this valley from the cavate dwellings near Squaw mountain
past the great ruin in the neighborhood of Old Camp Verde, the unique
Montezuma Well, to the base of the Red-rocks. Throughout this region
I saw, as had been expected, no change in the character of the ruins
great enough to indicate that they originally were inhabited by peoples
racially different. Stopped from further advance by a barrier of rugged
cliffs, I turned westward along their base until I found similar
ruins, which were named Palatki and Honanki. Having satisfied
myself that there was good evidence that the numbers of ancient
people were as great here as at any point in the Verde valley and that
their culture was similar, I continued the work with an examination of
the ruins north of the Red-rocks, where there is substantial evidence
that these were likewise of the same general character.
The last two months of the summer, July and August, 1895, were
devoted to explorations of two Tusayan ruins, called Awatobi and
Sikyatki. In this work, apparently unconnected with that already
outlined, I still had in mind the light to be shed on the problem of
Tusayan origin. The question which presented itself was: How are
these ruins related to the modern pueblos? Awatobi was a historic
ruin, destroyed in 1700, and therefore somewhat influenced by the
Spaniards. Many of the survivors became amalgamated with pueblos
still inhabited. Its kinship with the surviving villagers was clear.
Sikyatki, however, was overthrown in prehistoric times, and at its
destruction part of its people went to Awatobi. Its culture was prehistoric.
The discovery of what these two ruins teach, by bringing
prehistoric Tusayan culture down to the present time and comparing
them with the ruins of Verde valley and southern Arizona, is of great
archeological interest.
While engaged in preparing this report, having in fact written most
of it, I received Mr Cosmos Mindeleff's valuable article on the Verde
ruins, in which special attention is given to the cavate lodges and
villages of this interesting valley. This contribution anticipates many
of my observations on these two groups of aboriginal habitations, and
renders it unnecessary to describe them in the detailed manner I had
planned. I shall therefore touch but briefly on these ruins, paying
special attention to the cliff houses of Verde valley, situated in the
Red-rock country. This variety of dwelling was overlooked in both
Mearns' and Mindeleff's classifications, from the fact that it seems to
be confined to the region of the valley characterized by the red-rock
formation, which appears not to have been explored by them. The
close resemblance of these cliff houses to those of the region north of
Tusayan is instructive, in view of the ground, well taken, I believe,
by Mr Mindeleff, that there is a close likeness between the Verde ruins
and those farther north, especially in Tusayan.
RUINS IN VERDE VALLEY
Classification of the Ruins
The ruined habitations in the valley of the Rio Verde may be considered
under three divisions or types, differing in form, but essentially
the same in character. In adopting this classification, which is by no
means restricted to this single valley, I do not claim originality, but
follow that used by the best writers on this subject. My limitation
of the types and general definitions may, however, be found to differ
somewhat from those of my predecessors.
The three groups of ruins in our Southwest are the following:
I—Pueblos, or Independent habitations.
II—Cliff Houses }
III—Cavate Dwellings } Dependent habitations.
In the first group are placed those ancient or modern habitations
which are isolated, on all sides, from cliffs. They may be situated in
valleys or on elevations or mesas; they may be constructed of clay,
adobe, or stone of various kinds, but are always isolated from cliffs.
They are single or multiple chambered, circular or rectangular in
shape, and may have been built either as permanent habitations or as
temporary outlooks. Their main feature is freedom, on all sides except
the foundation, from cliffs or walls of rock in place.
The second group includes those not isolated from natural cliffs, but
with some part of their lateral walls formed by natural rock in situ,
and are built ordinarily in caverns with overhanging roofs, which the
highest courses of their walls do not join. Generally erected in caves,
their front walls never close the entrances to those caverns. This kind
of aboriginal buildings may, like the former, vary in structural material;
but, so far as I know, they are not, for obvious reasons, made of
adobe alone.
The third kind of pueblo dwellings are called cavate dwellings or
lodges, a group which includes that peculiar kind of aboriginal dwelling
where the rooms are excavated from the cliff wall, forming caves,
where natural rock is a support or more often serves as the wall itself
of the dwelling. The entrance may be partially closed by masonry,
the floor laid with flat stones, and the sides plastered with clay; but
never in this group is there a roof distinct from the top of the cave.
Naturally cavate dwellings grade into cliff houses, but neither of
these types can be confounded with the first group, which affords us
no difficulty in identification. All these kinds of dwellings were made
by people of the same culture, the character of the habitation depending
on geological environment.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XCIa
CAVATE DWELLINGS—RIO VERDE
In Verde valley, villages, cliff houses, and cavate dwellings exist
together, and were, I believe, contemporaneously inhabited by a people
of the same culture.
These types of ancient habitations are not believed to stand in the
relationship of sequence in development; nor is one simpler or less
difficult of construction than the others. Cliff houses display no less
skill and daring than do the villages in the plain, called pueblos. The
cavate dwellings are likewise a form of habitation which shows considerable
workmanship, and are far from caves like those inhabited by
"cave men." These dwellings were laboriously excavated with rude
implements; had floors, banquettes, windows, walled recesses, and the
like. It is hardly proper to regard them, as less difficult to construct
than pueblos or cliff houses.
Cavate dwellings, like villages or cliff houses, may be single or multiple,
single or many chambered, and a cluster of these troglodytic
dwellings was, in fact, as truly a village as a pueblo or cliff house.
The same principle of seeking safety by crowding together held in all
three instances; and this very naturally, for the culture of the inhabitants
was identical. I shall consider only two of the three types of
dwellings in Verde valley, namely, the second and third groups.
It has, I think, been conclusively shown by Mr Cosmos Mindeleff, so
far as types of the first group of ruins on the Verde are concerned,
that they practically do not differ from the modern Tusayan pueblos.
The remaining types, when rightly interpreted, furnish evidence of
no less important character. Notwithstanding Mindeleff's excellent
descriptions of the cavate dwellings of this region, already cited, I
have thought it well to bring into prominence certain features which
seem to me to indicate that this form of aboriginal dwelling was high
in its development, showing considerable skill in its construction, and
was fashioned on the same general plan as the others. For this demonstration
I have chosen one of the most striking clusters in Verde valley.
Cavate Dwellings
The most accessible cavate dwellings in Verde valley () are
situated on the left bank of the river, about eight miles southward from
Camp Verde and three miles from the mouth of Clear creek. The
general characteristics of this group have been well described by Mr
Mindeleff in the Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau, so that I
need but refer to a few additional observations made on these interesting
habitations.
These cavate lodges afford a fair idea of the best known of these
prehistoric dwellings in this part of Arizona. Although Verde valley
has many fine ranches, the land in immediate proximity to these ruins
is uncultivated. The nearest habitation, however, is not far away, and
it is not difficult to find guides to these caves, so well known are they
to the inhabitants of this part of the valley. It did not take long to
learn that any investigations which I might attempt there had been
anticipated by other archeologists and laymen, for many of the rooms
had been rifled of their contents and their walls thrown down, while it
was also evident that some careful excavations had been made.
There is, however, abundant opportunity for more detailed scientific
work than has yet been attempted on these ruins, and what has thus
far been accomplished has been more in the nature of reconnoissance.
The cemeteries and burial places of the prehistoric people of the cavate
dwellings are yet to be discovered, and it is probable, judging from
experience gained at other ruins, that when they are found and carefully
investigated much light will be thrown on the character of
ancient cave life.
The entrances to the cavate dwellings opposite Squaw mountain are
visible from the road for quite a distance, appearing as rows of holes
in the steep walls of the cliff on the opposite or left bank of the Rio
Verde. Owing to their proximity to the river, from which the precipice
in which they are situated rises almost vertically, we were unable
to camp under them, but remained on the right bank of the river,
where a level plain extends for some distance, bordering the river and
stretching back to the distant cliffs. We pitched our camp on a bluff,
about 30 feet above the river, in full sight of the cave entrances, near
a small stone inclosure which bears quite a close resemblance to a
Tusayan shrine.
Aboriginal people had evidently cultivated the plain where we
camped, for there are many evidences of irrigating ditches and even
walls of former houses. At present, however, this once highly cultivated
field lies unused, and is destitute of any valuable plants save
the scanty grass which served to eke out the fodder of our horses.
At the time of my visit the water of Rio Verde at this point was confined
to a very narrow channel under the bluff near its right bank, but
the appearance of its bed showed that in heavy freshets during the
rainy season the water filled the interval between the base of the cliffs
in which the cavate dwellings are situated and the bluffs which form
the right bank.
In visits to the caves it was necessary, on account of the site of the
camp, to ford the stream each time and to climb to their level over
fallen stones, a task of no slight difficulty. The water in places was
shallow and the current only moderately rapid. Considering the fact
that it furnished potable liquid for ourselves and horses, and that the
line of trees which skirted the bluff was available for firewood, our
camp compared well with many which we subsequently made in our
summer's explorations.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XCIb
CAVATE DWELLINGS—OAK CREEK
The section of the cliff which was examined embraced the northern
series of these caves, extending from a promontory forming one side of
a blind or box canyon to nearly opposite our camp. Adjacent to this
series of rooms, but farther down the river, on the same side, there
are two narrow side canyons, in both of which are also numerous
caves, in all respects similar to the series we chose for examination.
At several points on the summit of the cliffs, above the caves, large
rectangular ruins, with fallen walls, were discovered; these ruins are,
however, in no respect peculiar, but closely resemble those ordinarily
found in a similar position throughout this region and elsewhere in
Arizona and New Mexico. From their proximity to the caves it would
seem that the cavate dwellings, and the pueblos on the summits of the
mesas in which they are found, had been inhabited by one people;
but better evidence that such is true is drawn from the character of
the architecture and the nature of the art remains common to both.
Let us first consider the series of caves from a point opposite our
camp to the promontory which forms a pinnacle at the mouth of the
first of the two side caverns—a row of caves the entrances to which
are shown in the accompanying illustration (). I have lettered
these rooms, as indicated by their entrances, a to l, beginning with the
opening on the left.
The rock in which these caves have been hewn is very soft, and
almost white in color, save for a slightly reddish brown stratum just
below the line of entrances to the cavate chambers. Although, as a
general thing, the wall of the cliff is almost perpendicular, and the
caves at points inaccessible, entrance to the majority of them can be
effected by mounting the heaps of small stones forming the débris,
which has fallen even to the bed of the river at various places, and by
following a ledge which connects the line of entrances. The easiest
approach mounts a steep decline, not far from the promontory at the
lower level of the line, which conducts to a ledge running along in
front of the caves about 150 feet above the bed of the stream. Roughly
speaking, this ledge is about 100 feet below the summit of the cliff. It
was impossible to reach several of the rooms, and it is probable that
when the caves were inhabited access to any one of them was even
more difficult than at present.
Judging from the number of rooms, the cliffs on the left bank of the
Verde must have had a considerable population when inhabited. These
caverns, no doubt, swarmed with human beings, and their inaccessible
position furnished the inhabitants with a safe refuge from enemies, or
an advantageous outlook or observation shelter for their fields on the
opposite side of the stream. The soft rock of which the mesa is formed
is easily worked, and there are abundant evidences, from the marks of
tools employed, that the greater part of each cave was pecked out by
hand. Fragments of wood were very rarely seen in these cliff dugouts;
and although there is much adobe plastering, only in a few instances
were the mouths of the caves walled or a doorway of usual shape
present. The last room at the southern end, near the promontory at
the right of the entrance to a side canyon, has walls in front resembling
those of true cliff houses and pueblos in the Red-rock country farther
northward, as will be shown in subsequent pages.
This group of cavate dwellings, while a good example of the cavern
type of ruins, is so closely associated, both in geographical position and
in archeological remains, with other types in Verde valley, that we are
justified in referring them to one and the same people. The number of
these troglodytic dwelling places on the Verde is very large; indeed the
mesas may be said to be fairly honeycombed with subterranean habitations.
Confined as a general thing to the softer strata of rock, which
from its character was readily excavated, they lie side by side at the
same general level, and are entered from a projecting ledge, formed by
the top of the talus which follows the level of their entrances.
Fig. 245—Plan of cavate dwelling on Rio Verde
This ledge is easily accessible in certain places from the river bed,
where stones have fallen to the base of the cliff; but at most points no
approach is possible, and in their impregnable position the inhabitants
could easily defend themselves from hostile peoples.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XCII
ENTRANCES TO CAVATE RUINS
Whether the rock had recesses in it before the caves were enlarged
would seem to be answered in the affirmative, for similar caves without
evidences of habitations were observed. These, however, are as a rule
small, and wherever available the larger caverns have been appropriated
and enlarged by stone implements, as shown by the pecking on
the walls. The enlargement of these caverns, however, would not be a
difficult task, for the rock is very soft and easily worked.
Entering one of these cavate rooms the visitor finds himself in a dark
chamber, as a rule with side openings or passageways into adjoining
rooms. Broad lateral banquettes are prominent features in the most
complicated caves, and there are many recesses and small closets or
cists.
The ramifications formed by lateral rooms are often extensive, and
the chambers communicate with others so dark that we can hardly
regard them as once inhabited. In these dimly lighted rooms the walls
were blackened with smoke, as if from former fires, and in many of the
largest the position of fireplaces could plainly be discovered. As a
type of one of the more complicated I have chosen that figured to illustrate
the arrangement of these cavate dwellings (). Many are
smaller, others have more lateral chambers, but one type is characteristic
of all.
A main room (a, ), or that first entered from outside, is
roughly rectangular in shape, 12 feet long by 6 feet wide, and about
6 feet high. The floor, however, was covered with very dry débris
which had blown in from the exterior or, in some instances, fallen from
the roof. That part of the floor which was exposed shows that it was
roughly plastered, sometimes paved or formed of solid rock.
On three sides of this room there is a step 2 feet high, to platforms,
three in number, one in the rear and one on each side. These platforms
are 5, 6, and 6 feet 6 inches wide, respectively, and of the same
length as the corresponding sides of the central room. It would appear
that these platforms are characteristic architectural features of these
habitations, and we find them reproduced in some of the rooms of
the cliff houses of the Red-rocks, while Nordenskiöld has described
a kindred feature in the kivas of the Mesa Verde ruins. A somewhat
similar elevation of the floor in modern Tusayan kivas forms what may
be called the spectator's part, in front of the ladder as one descends,
and the same feature is common to many older Hopi dwellings.
Beginning with the lateral platforms (b, ) we first note, as
we step upon it at c, about midway of its length, a small circular depression
in the floor of the central room extending slightly beneath the
platform, as indicated by the dotted line. It is possible that this niche
was a receptacle for important household objects, although it may
have been a fireplace.
In a corner of the right platform a round cist, partially hewn out of
the rock, was found, but its walls (a, ) were badly broken down
by some former explorer. The floor of this recess lies below that of the
platform, while the cist itself (d) reminds one of the closed or walled
structures, so commonly found in the Verde, attached to the side of the
cliff. On the lateral wall of this chamber, at about the height of the
head, a row of small holes had been drilled into the solid wall. These
holes (d, d, d) are almost too small for the insertion of roof beams, and
were probably made for pegs on which to rest a beam for hanging
blankets and other textile fabrics when not in use. The roof of the
cave was the natural rock, and showed over its whole surface marks of
a pecking implement.
The left chamber is 6 feet 6 inches broad, and from one corner, opposite
the doorway, a low passageway leads into a circular chamber, 6 feet
in diameter, with its floor below the platform of the lateral room.
Between the chamber, on the left of the entrance, and the open air,
the wall of solid rock is broken by a slit-like crevice, which allows the
light to enter, and no doubt served as a window. A recess, the floor
of which is elevated, on a platform opposite the doorway, is 5 feet
broad, and has a small circular depression in one corner. The floor
and upraise of this recess is plastered with adobe, which in several
places is smooth and well made.
In comparing the remaining cavate dwellings of this series with that
described, we find every degree of complication in the arrangement of
rooms, from a simple cave, or irregular hole in the side of the cliff, to
squared chambers with lateral rooms. The room I, for instance, is
rectangular, 6 feet long by 3 feet wide, with an entrance the same
width as that of the room itself.
In room III, however, the external opening is very small, and there is
a low, narrow ledge, or platform, opposite the doorway. There is likewise
in this room a small shelf in the left-hand wall. In IV there is a
raised platform on two adjacent sides of the square room, and the
doorway is an irregular orifice broken through the wall to the open air.
Room IV is a subterranean chamber, most of the floor of which is
littered with large fragments of rock which have fallen from the roof.
It has numerous small recesses in the wall resembling cubby-holes
where household utensils of various kinds were undoubtedly formerly
kept. This room is instructive, in that the entrance is partially closed
by two walls of masonry, which do not join. The stones are laid in
adobe in which fragments of pottery were detected. These unjoined
walls leave a doorway which is thus flanked on each side by stone
masonry, recalling in every particular the well-known walls of cliff
houses. Here, in fact, we have so close a resemblance to the masonry
of true cliff houses that we can hardly doubt that the excavators of
the cavate dwellings were, in reality, people similar to those who built
the cliff houses of Verde valley.
Room VIII is a simple cave hewn out of the rock, with a chamber
behind it, entered by a passageway made of masonry, which partially
fills a larger opening. The doorway through this masonry is small
below, but broadens above in much the same manner as some of the
doorways in Tusayan of today.
Continuing along the left bank of the river, from the row of cavate
rooms, just described, on the first mesa, we round a promontory and
enter a small canyon, which is perforated on each side with numerous
other cavate dwellings, large and small, all of the same general
character as the type described. Here, likewise, are small external
openings which evidently communicated with subterranean chambers,
but many of them are so elevated that access to them from the floor of
the canyon or from the cliff above is not possible. A marked feature
of the whole series is the existence here and there of small, often
inaccessible, stone cists of masonry plastered to the side of the rocky
cliff like swallows' nests.
All of these cists which are accessible had been opened and plundered
before my visit, but there yet remain a few which are still intact
and would repay examination and study. Similar walled-up cists are
likewise found, as we shall see later, in the cliff-houses of the Red-rock
country, hence are not confined to the Verde system of ruins.
Cavate dwellings similar to those here described are reported to exist
in the canyons of upper Salado, Gala, and Zuñi rivers, and we may
with reason suspect that the distribution of cavate dwellings is as
wide as that of the pueblos themselves, the sole requisite being a soft
tufaceous rock, capable of being easily worked by people with stone
implements. In none of the different regions in which they exist is there
any probability that these caves were made by people different in culture
from pueblo or cliff dwellers. They are much more likely to have
been permanent than temporary habitations of the same culture stock
of Indians who availed themselves of rock shelters wherever the nature
of the cliff permitted excavation in its walls.
That the cavate lodges are simple "horticultural outlooks" is an
important suggestion, but one might question whether they were conveniently
placed for that purpose. So far as overlooking the opposite
plain (which had undoubtedly been cultivated in ancient times) is concerned,
the position of some of them may be regarded good for that
purpose, but certainly not so commanding as that of the hill or mesa
above, where well-marked ruins still exist.
The position of the cavate dwellings is a disadvantageous one to
reach any cultivated fields if defenders were necessary. When the
Tusayan Indian today moves to his kisi or summer brush house shelter
he practically camps in his corn or near it, in easy reach to drive away
crows, or build wind-breaks to shelter the tender sprouts; but to go to
their cornfields the inhabitants of the cavate dwellings I have described
were forced to cross a river before the farm was reached. That these
cavate dwellings were lookouts none can deny, but I incline to a belief
that this does not tell the whole story if we limit them to such use.
It is not wholly clear to me that they were not likewise an asylum
for refuge, possibly not inhabited continuously, but a very welcome
retreat when the agriculturist was sorely pressed by enemies. Following
the analogy of a Hopi custom of building temporary booths
near their fields, may we not suppose that the former inhabitants of
Verde valley may have erected similar shelters in their cornfields
during summer months, retiring to the cavate dwellings and the mesa
tops in winter? All available evidence would indicate that the cavate
dwellings were permanent habitations.
There are several square ruins on top of the mesa above the cavate
dwellings. The walls of these were massive, but they are now very
much broken down, and the adobe plastering is so eroded from the
masonry that I regard them of considerable antiquity. They do not
differ from other similar ruins, so common elsewhere in New Mexico
and Arizona, and are identical with others in the Verde region. I
visited several of these ruins, but made no excavations in them, nor
added any new data to our knowledge of this type of aboriginal buildings.
The pottery picked up on the surface resembles that of the ruins
of the Little Colorado and Gila.
The dwellings which I have mentioned above are said to be duplicated
at many other points in the watershed of the Verde, and many
undescribed ruins of this nature were reported to me by ranchmen. I
do not regard them as older than the adjacent ruins on the mesa above
or the plains below them, much less as productions of people of different
stages of culture, for everything about them suggests contemporaneous
occupancy.
From what little I saw of the village sites on the Verde I believe
that Mindeleff is correct in considering that these ruins represent a
comparatively late period of pueblo architecture. The character of
the cliff houses of the Red-rocks shows no very great antiquity of
occupancy. While it is not possible to give any approximate date
when they were inhabited, their general appearance indicates that
they are not more than two centuries old. There is, however, no reference
to them in the early Spanish history of the Southwest.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XCIII
BOWLDER WITH PICTOGRAPHS NEAR WOOD'S RANCH
Few pictographs were found in the immediate neighborhood of the
cavate dwellings; indeed the rock in their vicinity is too soft to preserve
for any considerable time any great number of these rock etchings.
Examples of ancient paleography were, however, discovered a
short distance higher up the river on malpais rock, which is harder and
less rapidly eroded. A half-buried bowlder () near Wood's
ranch was found to be covered with the well-known spirals with zigzag
attachments, horned animals resembling antelopes, growing corn, rain
clouds, and similar figures. These pictographs occur on a black, superficial
layer of lava rock, or upon lighter stone with a malpais layer,
which had been pecked through, showing a lighter color beneath.
There is little doubt that many examples of aboriginal pictography
exist in this neighborhood, which would reward exploration with interesting
data. The Verde pictographs can not be distinguished, so far as
designs are concerned, from many found elsewhere in Colorado, Utah,
New Mexico, and Arizona.
An instructive pictograph, different from any which I have elsewhere
seen, was discovered on the upturned side of a bowlder not far from
Hance's ranch, near the road from Camp Verde to the cavate dwellings.
The bowlder upon which they occur lies on top of a low hill, to the left
of the road, near the river. It consists of a rectangular network of
lines, with attached key extensions, crooks, and triangles, all pecked
in the surface. This dædalus of lines arises from grooves, which
originate in two small, rounded depressions in the rock, near which
is depicted the figure of a mountain lion. The whole pictograph is 3-1/2
feet square, and legible in all its parts.
The intent of the ancient scribe is not wholly clear, but it has been
suggested that he sought to represent the nexus of irrigating ditches
in the plain below. It might have been intended as a chart of the
neighboring fields of corn, and it is highly suggestive, if we adopt
either of these explanations or interpretations, that a figure of the
mountain lion is found near the depressions, which may provisionally
be regarded as representing ancient reservoirs. Among the Tusayan
Indians the mountain lion is looked on as a guardian of cultivated
fields, which he is said to protect, and his stone image is sometimes
placed there for the same purpose.
In the vicinity of the pictograph last described other bowlders, of
which there are many, were found to be covered with smaller rock
etchings in no respect characteristic, and there is a remnant of an
ancient shrine a few yards away from the bowlder upon which they
occur.
Montezuma Well
One of the most interesting sites of ancient habitation in Verde valley
is known as Montezuma Well, and it is remarkable how little attention
has been paid to it by archeologists. Dr Mearns, in his article on
the ancient dwellings of Verde valley, does not mention the well, and
Mindeleff simply refers to the brief description by Dr Hoffman in 1877.
These ruins are worthy of more study than I was able to give them,
for like many other travelers I remained but a short time in the neighborhood.
It is possible, however, that some of my hurried observations
at this point may be worthy of record.
Montezuma Well () is an irregular, circular depression,
closely resembling a volcanic crater, but evidently, as Dr Hoffman well
points out, due to erosion rather than to volcanic agencies. As one
approaches it from a neighboring ranch the road ascends a low elevation,
and when on top the visitor finds that the crater occupies the
whole interior of the hill. The exact dimensions I did not accurately
determine, but the longest diameter of the excavation is estimated at
about 400 feet; its depth possibly 70 feet. On the eastern side this
depression is separated from Beaver creek by a precipitous wall which
can not be scaled from that side. At the time of my visit there was considerable
water in the "well," which was reported to be very deep, but
did not cover the whole bottom. It is possible to descend to the water
at one point on the eastern side, where a trail leads to the water's edge.
There appears to be a subterranean waterway under the eastern rim
of the well, and the water from the spring rushes through this passage
into Beaver creek. At the time of my visit this outflow was very considerable,
and in the rainy season it must be much greater. The well
is never dry, and is supplied by perennial subterranean springs rather
than by surface drainage.
The geological agency which has been potent in giving the remarkable
crater-like form to Montezuma Well was correctly recognized by
Dr Hoffman and others as the solvent or erosive power of the spring.
There is no evidence of volcanic formation in the neighborhood, and
the surrounding rocks are limestones and sandstones. Not far from
Navaho springs there is a similar circular depression, called Jacob's
Well, but which was dry when visited by me. This may later be found
to have been formed in a similar way. At several places in Arizona
there are formations of like geological character.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XCIV
MONTEZUMA WELL
The walls of Montezuma Well are so nearly perpendicular that descent
to the edge of the water is difficult save by a single trail which follows
the detritus to a cave on one side. In this cave, the roof of which is
not much higher than the water level, there are fragments of masonry,
as if structures of some kind had formerly been erected in it. I have
regarded this cave rather as a place of religious rites than of former
habitation, possibly a place of retreat for ancient priests when praying
for rain or moisture, or a shrine for the deposit of prayer offerings to
rain or water gods.
Several isolated cliff dwellings are built at different levels in the
sides of the cliffs. One of the best of these is diametrically opposite
the cave mentioned above, a few feet below the rim of the depression.
While this house was entered with little difficulty, there were others
which I did not venture to visit.
The accompanying illustration () gives an idea of the general
appearance of one of these cliff houses of Montezuma Well. It is
built under an overhanging archway of rock in a deep recess, with
masonry on three sides. The openings are shown, one of which overlooks
the spring; the other is an entrance at one side. The face of
masonry on the front is not plastered, and if it was formerly rough cast
the mud has been worn away, leaving the stones exposed. The side
wall, which has been less exposed to the elements, still retains the plastering,
which is likewise found on the inner walls where it is quite
smooth in places.
The number of cliff rooms in the walls of the well is small and their
capacity, if used as dwellings, very limited. There are, however, ruins
of pueblos of some size on the edge of the well.
One of the largest of these, shown in the accompanying illustration
(), is situated on the neck of land separating the well from
the valley of Beaver creek. This pueblo was rectangular in form, of
considerable size, built of stones, and although at present almost demolished,
shows perfectly the walls of former rooms. Fragments of ancient
pottery would seem to indicate that the people who once inhabited this
pueblo were in no respect different from other sedentary occupants of
Verde valley. From their housetops they had a wide view over the
creek on one side and the spring on the other, defending, by the site of
their village, the one trail by which descent to the well was possible.
The remarkable geological character of Montezuma Well, and the
spring within it, would have profoundly impressed itself on the folklore
of any people of agricultural bent who lived in its neighborhood after
emigrating to more arid lands. About a month after my visit to this
remarkable spring I described the place to some of the old priests at
Walpi and showed them sketches of the ruins. These priests seemed
to have legendary knowledge of a place somewhat like it where they
said the Great Plumed Snake had one of his numerous houses. They
reminded me of a legend they had formerly related to me of how the
Snake arose from a great cavity or depression in the ground, and how,
they had heard, water boiled out of that hole into a neighboring river.
The Hopi have personal knowledge of Montezuma Well, for many of
their number have visited Verde valley, and they claim the ruins there
as the homes of their ancestors. It would not be strange, therefore,
if this marvelous crater was regarded by them as a house of Palülükoñ,
their mythic Plumed Serpent.
Practically little is known of the pictography of this part of the
Verde valley people, although it has an important bearing on the distribution
of the cliff dwellers of the Southwest. There is evidence of
at least two kinds of petroglyphs, indicative of two distinct peoples.
One of these was of the Apache Mohave; the other, the agriculturists
who built the cliff homes and villages of the plain. Those of the
latter are almost identical with the work of the Pueblo peoples in
the cliff dweller stage, from southern Utah and Colorado to the Mexican
boundary. It is not a difficult task to distinguish the pictography of
these two peoples, wherever found. The pictographs of the latter are
generally pecked into the rock with a sharpened implement, probably
of stone, while those of the former are usually scratched or painted on
the surface of the rocks. Their main differences, however, are found in
the character of the designs and the objects represented. This difference
can be described only by considering individual rock drawings,
but the practiced eye may readily distinguish the two kinds at a glance.
The pictographs which are pecked in the cliff are, as a rule, older than
those which are drawn or scratched, and resemble more closely those
widely spread in the Pueblo area, for if the cliff-house people ever made
painted pictographs, as there is every reason to believe they did, time
has long ago obliterated them.
The pictured rocks () near Cliff's ranch, on Beaver creek,
four miles from Montezuma Well, have a great variety of objects depicted
upon them. These rocks, which rise from the left bank of the creek
opposite Cliff's ranch, bear over a hundred different rock pictures,
figures of which are seen in the accompanying illustration. The rock
surface is a layer of black malpais, through which the totem signatures
have been pecked, showing the light stone beneath, and thus rendering
them very conspicuous. Among these pictographs many familiar forms
are recognizable, among them being the crane or blue heron, bears' and
badgers' paws, turtles, snakes, antelopes, earth symbols, spirals, and
meanders.
Among these many totems there was an unusual pictograph in the
form of the figure 8, above which was a bear's paw accompanied by a
human figure so common in southwestern rock etchings. A square
figure with interior parallel squares extending to the center is also
found, as elsewhere, in cliff-dweller pictography.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XCV
CLIFF HOUSE, MONTEZUMA WELL
Cliff Houses of the Red-Rocks
After the road from old Camp Verde to Flagstaff passes a deserted
cabin at Beaver Head, it winds up a steep hill of lava or malpais to the
top of the Mogollones. If, instead of ascending this hill, one turns to
the left, taking an obscure road across the river bed, which is full of
rough lava blocks, and in June, when I traveled its course, was without
water, he soon finds himself penetrating a rugged country with bright-red
cliffs on his right (). Continuing through great parks
and plains he finally descends to the well-wooded valley of Oak creek,
an affluent of Rio Verde. Here he finds evidences of aboriginal occupancy
on all sides—ruins of buildings, fortified hilltops, pictographs, and
irrigating ditches—testifying that there was at one time a considerable
population in this valley. The fields of the ancient inhabitants have now
given place to many excellent ranches, one of the most flourishing of
which is not far from a lofty butte of red rock called the Court-house,
which from its great size is a conspicuous object for miles around. In
many of these canyons there are evidences of a former population, but
the country is as yet almost unexplored; there are many difficult places
to pass, yet once near the base of the rocks a way can be picked from
the mouth of one canyon to another. It does not take long to discover
that this now uninhabited region contains, like that along the Verde
and its tributaries, many ancient dwellings, for there is scarcely a
single canyon leading into these red cliffs in which evidences of former
human habitations are not found in the form of ruins. There is
little doubt that these unfrequented canyons have many and extensive
cliff houses, the existence of which has thus far escaped the explorer.
The sandstone of which they are composed is much eroded into caves
with overhanging roofs, forming admirable sites for cliff houses as distinguished
from cavate dwellings like those we have described. They
are the only described ruins of a type hitherto thought to be unrepresented
in the valley of the Verde.
In our excursion into the Red-rock country we were obliged to make
our own wagon road, as no vehicle had ever penetrated the rugged
canyons visited by us. It was necessary to carry our drinking water
with us from Oak creek, which fact impeded our progress and limited
the time available in our reconnoissance. There was, however, in the
pool near the ruins of Honanki enough water for our horses, and at the
time we were there a limited amount of grass for fodder was found. I
was told that later in the season both forage and water are abundant,
so that these prime necessities being met, there is no reason why successful
archeological investigations may not be successfully conducted
in this part of the Verde region.
The limited population of this portion of the country rendered it difficult
to get laborers at the time I made my reconnoissance, so that it
would be advisable for one who expects to excavate the ruins in this
region to take with him workmen from the settled portions of the
valley.
Ruins near Schürmann's Ranch
The valley of Oak creek, near Court-house butte, especially in the
vicinity of Schürmann's ranch, is dotted with fortifications, mounds
indicative of ruins, and like evidences of aboriginal occupancy. There
is undoubted proof that the former occupants of this plain constructed
elaborate irrigating ditches, and that the waters of Oak creek were
diverted from the stream and conducted over the adjoining valleys.
There are several fortified hills in this locality. One of the best of
these defensive works crowned a symmetrical mountain near Schürmann's
house. The top of this mesa is practically inaccessible from any
but the southern side, and was found to have a flat surface covered
with scattered cacti and scrub cedar, among which were walls of
houses nowhere rising more than two feet. The summit is perhaps 200
feet above the valley, and the ground plan of the former habitations
extends over an area 100 feet in length, practically occupying the whole
of the summit. Although fragments of pottery are scarce, and other
evidences of long habitation difficult to find, the house walls give every
evidence of being extremely ancient, and most of the rooms are filled
with red soil out of which grow trees of considerable age.
Descending from this ruin-capped mesa, I noticed on the first terrace
the remains of a roundhouse, or lookout, in the middle of which
a cedar tree had taken root and was growing vigorously. Although
the walls of this structure do not rise above the level of the ground,
there is no doubt that they are the remains of either a lookout or
circular tower formerly situated at this point.
Many similar ruins are found throughout this vicinity, yet but little
more is known of them than that they antedate the advent of white
men. The majority of them were defensive works, built by the house
dwellers, and their frequency would indicate either considerable population
or long occupancy. Although many of those on the hilltops
differ somewhat from the habitations in the valleys, I think there is
little doubt that both were built by the same people. There are likewise
many caves in this region, which seem to have been camping
places, for their walls are covered with soot and their floors strewn
with charred mescal, evidences, probably, of Apache occupancy. This
whole section of country was a stronghold of this ferocious tribe within
the last few decades, which may account for the modern appearance of
many of the evidences of aboriginal habitation.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XCVI
RUIN ON THE BRINK OF MONTEZUMA WELL
There are some good pictographs on the foundation rocks of that
great pinnacle of red rock, called the Court-house, not far from Schürmann's
ranch. Some of these are Apache productions, and the neighboring
caves evidently formed shelters for these nomads, as ash pit
and half-burnt logs would seem to show. This whole land was a stronghold
of the Apache up to a recent date, and from it they were dislodged,
many of the Indians being killed or removed by authority of
the Government.
From the geological character of the Red-rocks I was led to suspect
that cavate dwellings were not to be expected. The stone is hard and
not readily excavated by the rude implements with which the aborigines
of the region were supplied. But the remarkable erosion shown in this
rock elsewhere had formed many deep caverns or caves, with overreaching
roofs, very favorable for the sites of cliff houses. My hurried examination
confirmed my surmises, for we here found dwellings of this kind,
so similar to the type best illustrated in Mancos canyon of southern
Colorado. There were several smoke-blackened caves without walls of
masonry, but with floors strewn with charred wood, showing Apache
occupancy. No cavate dwellings were found in the section of the Red-rocks
visited by our party.
The two largest of the Red-rock cliff houses to which I shall refer
were named Honanki or Bear-house and Palatki or Red-house. The
former of these, as I learned from the names scribbled on its walls,
had previously been visited by white men, but so far as I know it has
never been mentioned in archeological literature. My attention was
called to it by Mr Schürmann, at whose hospitable ranch I outfitted
for my reconnoissance into the Red-rock country. The smaller ruin,
Palatki, we discovered by chance during our visit, and while it is possible
that some vaquero in search of a wild steer may have visited the
neighborhood before us, there is every reason to believe that the ruin
had escaped even the notice of these persons, and, like Honanki, was
unknown to the archeologist.
The two ruins, Honanki and Palatki, are not the only ones in the
lone canyon where we encamped. Following the canyon a short distance
from its entrance, there was found to open into it from the left
a tributary, or so-called box canyon, the walls of which are very
precipitous. Perched on ledges of the cliffs there are several rows
of fortifications or walls of masonry extending for many yards. It
was impossible for us to enter these works, even after we had clambered
up the side of the precipice to their level, so inaccessible were they to
our approach. These "forts" were probably for refuge, but they are
ill adapted as points of observation on account of the configuration of
the canyon. Their masonry, as examined at a distance with a field
glass, resembles that of Palatki and Honanki.
I was impressed by the close resemblance between the large cliff
houses of the Red-rocks, with their overhanging roof of rock, and those
of the San Juan and its tributaries in northern New Mexico. While it
is recognized that cliff houses have been reported from Verde valley, I
find them nowhere described, and our lack of information about them,
so far as they are concerned, may have justified Nordenskiöld's belief
that "the basin of the Colorado actually contains almost all the cliff
dwellings of the United States." As the Gila flows into the Colorado
near its mouth, the Red-rock ruins may in a sense be included in the
Colorado basin, but there are many and beautiful cliff houses higher
up near the sources of the Gila and its tributary, the Salt. In calling
attention to the characteristic cliff dwellings of the Red-rocks I am
making known a new region of ruins closely related to those of Canyon
de Tségi, or Chelly, the San Juan and its tributaries.
Although the cliff houses of Verde valley had been known for many
years, and the ruins here described are of the same general character,
anyone who examines Casa Montezuma, on Beaver creek, and compares
it with Honanki, will note differences of an adaptive nature.
The one feature common to Honanki and the "Cliff Palace" of Mancos
canyon is the great overhanging roof of the cavern, which, in that
form, we miss in Casa Montezuma ().
Fig. 246—Casa Montezuma on Beaver creek
We made two camps in the Red-rock country, one at the mouth of a
wild canyon near an older camp where a well had been dug and the
cellar of an American house was visible. This camp was fully six miles
from Schürmann's ranch and was surrounded by some of the wildest
scenery that I had ever witnessed. The accompanying view () was taken from a small elevation near by, and gives a faint
idea of the magnificent mountains by which we were surrounded. The
colors of the rocks are variegated, so that the gorgeous cliffs appear to
be banded, rising from 800 to 1,000 feet sheer on all sides. These rocks
had weathered into fantastic shapes suggestive of cathedrals, Greek
temples, and sharp steeples of churches extending like giant needles
into the sky. The scenery compares very favorably with that of the
Garden of the Gods, and is much more extended. This place, I have
no doubt, will sooner or later become popular with the sightseer, and I
regard the discovery of these cliffs one of the most interesting of my
summer's field work.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XCVII
PICTOGRAPHS NEAR CLIFF RANCH, VERDE VALLEY
On the sides of these inaccessible cliffs we noticed several cliff
houses, but so high were they perched above us that they were almost
invisible. To reach them at their dizzy altitude was impossible, but
we were able to enter some caves a few hundred feet above our camp,
finding in them nothing but charred mescal and other evidences of
Apache camps. Their walls and entrances are blackened with smoke,
but no sign of masonry was detected.
We moved our camp westward from this canyon (which, from a great
cliff resembling the Parthenon, I called Temple canyon), following the
base of the precipitous mountains to a second canyon, equally beautiful
but not so grand, and built our fire in a small grove of scrub oak and
cottonwood. In this lonely place Lloyd had lived over a winter, watching
his stock, and had dug a well and erected a corral. We adopted
his name for this camp and called it Lloyd canyon. There was no water
in the well, but a few rods beyond it there was a pool, from which we
watered our horses. On the first evening at this camp we sighted a
bear, which gave the name Honanki, "Bear-house," to the adjacent
ruined dwellings.
The enormous precipice of red rock west of our camp at Lloyd's corral
hid Honanki from view at first, but we soon found a trail leading
directly to it, and during our short stay in this neighborhood we
remained camped near the cottonwoods at the entrance to the canyon,
not far from the abandoned corral. Our studies of Honanki led to the
discovery of Palatki (), which we investigated on our return to
Temple canyon. I will, therefore, begin my description of the Red-rock
cliff houses with those last discovered, which, up to the visit which I
made, had never been studied by archeologists.
Palatki
There are two neighboring ruins which I shall include in my consideration
of Palatki, and these for convenience may be known as Ruin i
and Ruin ii, the former situated a little eastward from the latter.
They are but a short distance apart, and are in the same box canyon.
Ruin i () is the better preserved, and is a fine type of the
compact form of cliff dwellings in the Red-rock country.
This ruin is perched on the top of a talus which has fallen from the
cliff above, and is visible for some distance above the trees, as one
penetrates the canyon. It is built to the side of a perpendicular wall
of rock which, high above its tallest walls, arches over it, sheltering
the walls from rain or eroding influences. From the dry character of
the earth on the floors I suspect that for years not a drop of water has
penetrated the inclosures, although they are now roofless.
A highly characteristic feature of Ruin i is the repetition of rounded
or bow-shape front walls, occurring several times in their length, and
arranged in such a way as to correspond roughly to the inclosures
behind them. By this arrangement the size of the rooms was increased
and possibly additional solidity given to the wall itself. This departure
from a straight wall implies a degree of architectural skill, which,
while not peculiar to the cliff dwellings of the Red-rocks, is rarely found
in southern cliff houses. The total length of the front wall of the ruin,
including the part which has fallen, is approximately 120 feet, and the
altitude of the highest wall is not far from 30 feet.
Fig. 247—Ground plan of Palatki (Ruins I and II)
From the arrangement of openings in the front wall at the highest
part there is good evidence of the former existence of two stories. At
several points the foundation of the wall is laid on massive bowlders,
which contribute to the height of the wall itself. The masonry is made
up of irregular or roughly squared blocks of red stone laid in red clay,
both evidently gathered in the immediate neighborhood of the ruin.
The building stones vary in size, but are as a rule flat, and show
well directed fractures as if dressed by hammering. In several places
there still remains a superficial plastering, which almost conceals the
masonry. The blocks of stone in the lower courses are generally more
massive than those higher up; this feature, however, whether considered
as occurring here or in the cliff houses of Mesa Verde, as pointed
out by Nordenskiöld, seems to me not to indicate different builders, but
is due simply to convenience. There appears to be no regularity in
the courses of component blocks of stone, and when necessity compelled,
as in the courses laid on bowlders, which serve as a foundation,
thin wedges of stone, or spalls, were inserted in the crevices. The walls
are vertical, but the corners are sometimes far from perpendicular.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XCVIII
THE RED ROCKS; TEMPLE CANYON
The interior of the ruin is divided into a number of inclosures by
partitions at right angles to the front wall, fastening it to the face of the
cliff. This I have lettered, beginning at the extreme right inclosure
with A. The inclosure has bounding walls, built on a bowlder somewhat
more than six feet high. It has no external passageway, and probably
the entrance was from the roof. This inclosure communicates by
a doorway directly with the adjoining chamber, B. The corner of this
room, or the angle made by the lateral with the front walls, is rounded,
a constant feature in well-built cliff houses. No windows exist, and the
upper edge of both front and lateral walls is but slightly broken.
The front wall of inclosure B bulges into bow-shape form, and was
evidently at least two stories high. This wall is a finely laid section
of masonry, composed of large, rough stones in the lower courses, upon
which smaller, roughly hewn stones are built. It is probable, from the
large amount of débris in the neighborhood, that formerly there were
rows of single-story rooms in front of what are now the standing walls,
but the character of their architecture is difficult to determine with certainty.
Their foundations, although partially covered, are not wholly
concealed.
The front wall of inclosure B is pierced by three openings, the largest
of which is a square passageway into the adjoining room, and is situated
in the middle of the curved wall. A wooden lintel, which had been
well hewn with stone implements, still remains in place above this
passageway, and under it the visitor passes through a low opening
which has the appearance of having been once a doorway. Above this
entrance, on each side, in the wall, is a square hole, which originally
may have been the points of support of floor beams. Formerly, likewise,
there was a large square opening above the middle passageway,
but this has been closed with masonry, leaving in place the wooden
beam which once supported the wall above. The upper edge of the
front wall of inclosure B is level, and is but little broken except in two
places, where there are notches, one above each of the square holes
already mentioned. It is probable that these depressions were intended
for the ends of the beams which once supported a combined roof and
floor.
On the perpendicular wall which forms the rear of inclosure B, many
feet above the top of the standing front walls, there are several pictographs
of Apache origin. The height of these above the level of the
former roof would appear to indicate the existence of a third story, for
the hands which drew them must have been at least 15 feet above the
present top of the standing wall.
The front of C is curved like that of inclosure B, and is much broken
near the foundations, where there is a passageway. There is a small
hole on each side of a middle line, as in B, situated at about the same
level as the floor, indicating the former position of a beam. Within
the ruin there is a well-made partition separating inclosures B and C.
The size of room D is much less than that of B or C, but, with the
exception of a section at the left, the front wall has fallen. The part
which remains upright, however, stands like a pinnacle, unconnected
with the face of the cliff or with the second-story wall of inclosure C. It
is about 20 feet in height, and possibly its altitude appears greater than
it really is from the fact that its foundations rest upon a bowlder nearly
six feet high ().
The foundations of rooms E and F () are built on a lower
level than those of B and C or D, and their front walls, which are really
low, are helped out by similar bowlders, which serve as foundations.
The indications are that both these inclosures were originally one story
in height, forming a wing to the central section of the ruin, which
had an additional tier of rooms. There is an entrance to F at the extreme
left, and the whole room was lower than the floor of the lower
stories of B, C, and D.
The most conspicuous pictograph on the cliff above Ruin i of Palatki,
is a circular white figure, seen in the accompanying illustration. This
pictograph is situated directly above the first room on the right, A, and
was apparently made with chalk, so elevated that at present it is far
above the reach of a person standing on any of the walls. From its
general character I am led to believe that it was made by the Apache
and not by the builders of the pueblo.
There were no names of white visitors anywhere on the walls of
Palatki, which, so far as it goes, affords substantial support of my
belief that we were the first white men to visit this ruin. While it can
not be positively asserted that we were the original discoverers of this
interesting building, there is no doubt that I was the first to describe
it and to call attention to its highly characteristic architectural plan.
The walls of Palatki are not so massive as those of the neighboring
Honanki, and the number of rooms in both ruins which form Palatki
is much smaller. Each of these components probably housed not more
than a few families, while several phratries could readily be accommodated
in Honanki.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XCIX
PALATKI (RUIN I)
The second Palatki ruin is well preserved, and as a rule the rooms,
especially those in front, have suffered more from vandalism and from
the elements than have those of Ruin i. The arrangement of the
rooms is somewhat different from that of the more exposed eastern
ruin, to which it undoubtedly formerly belonged.
Ruin ii lies in a deep recess or cave, the roof of which forms a perfect
arch above the walls. It is situated a few hundred feet to the
west, and is easily approached by following the fallen débris at the foot
of a perpendicular cliff. The front walls have all fallen, exposing the
rear wall of what was formerly a row of rooms, as shown in the accompanying
illustration (). There are evidences that this row of
rooms was but a single story in height, while those behind it have indications
of three stories. Ruin ii is more hidden by the trees and by its
obscure position in a cavern than the former, but the masonry in
both is of the same general character.
On approaching Ruin ii from Ruin i there is first observed a well-made
though rough wall, as a rule intact, along which the line of
roof and flooring can readily be traced (). In front of this
upright wall are fragments of other walls, some standing in unconnected
sections, others fallen, their fragments extending down the sides of the
talus among the bushes. It was observed that this wall is broken by
an entrance which passes into a chamber, which may be called A, and
two square holes are visible, one on each side, above it. These holes
were formerly filled by two logs, which once supported the floor of a
second chamber, the line of which still remains on the upright wall.
The small square orifice directly above the entrance is a peephole.
In examining the character of the wall it will be noticed that its
masonry is in places rough cast, and that there was little attempt at
regularity in the courses of the component stones, which are neither
dressed nor aligned, although the wall is practically vertical.
At one point, in full view of the observer, a log is apparently inserted
in the wall, and if the surrounding masonry be examined it will be
found that an opening below it had been filled in after the wall was
erected. It is evident, from its position relatively to the line indicating
the roof, that this opening was originally a passageway from one room
to another. Passing back of the standing wall an inclosure (room A)
is entered, one side of which is the rock of the cliff, while the other
three bounding walls are built of masonry, 20 feet high. This inclosure
was formerly divided into an upper and a lower room by a partition,
which served as the roof of the lower and the floor of the upper chambers.
Two beams stretched across this inclosure about six feet above
the débris of the present floor, and the openings in the walls, where
these beams formerly rested, are readily observed. In the same way
the beam-holes of the upper story may also be easily seen on the top of
the wall. Between the rear wall of this inclosure and the perpendicular
cliff there was a recess which appears to have been a dark chamber,
probably designed for use as a storage room or granary. The configuration
of the cliff, which forms the major part of the inclosing wall
of this chamber, imparts to it an irregular or roughly triangular form.
The entire central portion of the ruin is very much broken down, and
the floor is strewn to a considerable depth with the débris of fallen
walls. On both sides there are nicely aligned, smoothly finished walls,
with traces of beams on the level of former floors. Some of these
bounding walls are curved; others are straight, and in places they rise
20 feet. Marks of fire are visible everywhere; most of the beams have
been wrenched from their places, as a result of which the walls have
been much mutilated, badly cracked, or thrown down.
There are no pictographs near this ruin, and no signs of former visits
by white men.
Midway between Honanki and the second Palatki ruin a small ancient
house of the same character as the latter was discovered. This ruin is
very much exposed, and therefore the walls are considerably worn,
but six well-marked inclosures, indicative of former rooms, were readily
made out. No overarching rock shielded this ruin from the elements,
and rubble from fallen walls covers the talus upon which it stands.
The adobe mortar between the stones is much worn, and no fragment
of plastering is traceable within or without. This evidence of the
great weathering of the walls of the ruin is not considered indicative
of greater age than the better preserved ruins in the neighborhood,
but rather of exposure to the action of the elements. Not only are
the walls in a very poor condition, but also the floors show, from the
absence of dry soil upon them, that the whole ruin has suffered greatly
from the same denudation. There are no fragments of pottery about
it, and small objects indicating former habitation are also wanting. A
cedar had taken root where the floor once was, and its present great
size shows considerable age. If any pictographs formerly existed in
the adjacent cliff they have disappeared. There is likewise no evidence
that the Apache had ever sought it for shelter, or if they had,
their occupancy occurred so long ago that time has effaced all evidence
of their presence.
Honanki
The largest ruin visited in the Red-rock country was called, following
Hopi etymology, Honanki; but the nomenclature was adopted not
because it was so called by the Hopi, but following the rule elsewhere
suggested.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. C
PALATKI (RUIN I)
This ruin lies under a lofty buttress of rock westward from Lloyd's
canyon, which presented the only available camping place in its neighborhood.
At the time of my visit there was but scanty water in the
canyon and that not potable except for stock. We carried with us all
the water we used, and when this was exhausted were obliged to
retrace our steps to Oak creek. There are groves of trees in the canyon
and evidences that at some seasons there is an abundant water supply.
A corral had been made and a well dug near its mouth, but with these
exceptions there were no evidences of previous
occupancy by white men. We had
hardly pitched our camp before tracks of
large game were noticed, and before we left
we sighted a bear which had come down to
the water to drink, but which beat a hasty
retreat at our approach. As previously
stated, the knowledge of this ruin was communicated
to me by Mr Schürmann.
Fig. 248—Ground plan of Honanki
The Honanki ruin () extends
along the base of the cliff for a considerable
distance, and may for convenience of
description be divided into two sections,
which, although generally similar, differ
somewhat in structural features. The former
is lineal in its arrangement, and consists
of a fringe of houses extending along
the base of the cliff at a somewhat lower
level than the other. The walls of this section
were for the greater part broken, and
at no place could anything more than the
foundation of the front wall be detected,
although fragments of masonry strewed the
sides of the declivity near its base. The
house walls which remain are well-built parallel
spurs constructed at right angles to
the cliff, which served as the rear of all the
chambers. At the extreme right end of this
row of rooms, situated deep in a large cavern
with overhanging roof, portions of a
rear wall of masonry are well preserved,
and the lateral walls of one or two chambers
in this portion of the ruin are still intact.
Straggling along from that point, following
the contour of the base of the cliff
under which it lies, there extends a long
row of rooms, all destitute of a front wall.
The first division (), beginning
with the most easterly of the series, is
quite hidden at one end in a deep cavern.
At this point the builders, in order to obtain
a good rear wall to their rooms, constructed
a line of masonry parallel with the face of the cliff. At right angles
to this construction, at the eastern extremity, there are remnants of a
lateral wall, but the remainder had tumbled to the ground. The standing
wall of z is not continuous with that of the next room, y, and
apparently was simply the rear of a large room with the remains of a
lateral wall at right angles to it. The other walls of this chamber had
tumbled into a deep gorge, overgrown with bushes which conceal
the fragments. This building is set back deeply in the cave, and is
isolated from the remaining parts of the ruin, although at the level
which may have been its roof there runs a kind of gallery formed by a
ledge of rock, plastered with adobe, which formerly connected the roof
with the rest of the pueblo. This ledge was a means of intercommunication,
and a continuation of the same ledge, in rooms s, t, and u,
supported the rafters of these chambers. At u there are evidences of
two stories or two tiers of rooms, but those in front have fallen to the
ground.
The standing wall at u is about five feet high, connected with the
face of the cliff by masonry. The space between it and the cliff was
not large enough for a habitable chamber, and was used probably as
a storage place. In front of the standing wall of room u there was
another chamber, the walls of which now strew the talus of the cliff.
The highest and best preserved room of the second series of chambers
at Honanki is that designated p, at a point where the ruin reached
an elevation of 20 feet. Here we have good evidence of rooms of two
stories, as indicated by the points of insertion of the beams of a floor,
at the usual levels above the ground. In fact, it is probable that the
whole section of the ruin was two stories high throughout, the front
walls having fallen along the entire length. From the last room on
the left to the eastern extremity of the line of houses which leads
to the main ruin of Honanki, no ground plans were detected at the
base of the cliffs, but fallen rocks and scattered débris are strewn
over the whole interval.
The eastern part of the main ruin of Honanki, however, lies but a
short distance west of that described, and consists of many similar
chambers, arranged side by side. These are lettered in the diagram h
to u, beginning with h, which is irregularly circular in form, and ends
with a high wall, the first to be seen as one approaches the ruin from
Lloyd canyon. This range of houses is situated on a lower foundation
and at a lower level than that of the main quarter of Honanki, and a
trail runs along so close to the rooms that the whole series is easily
visited without much climbing. No woodwork remains in any of
these rooms, and the masonry is badly broken in places either by
natural agencies or through vandalism.
Beginning with h, the round room, which adjoins the main quarter
of Honanki, we find much in its shape to remind us of a kiva. The
walls are in part built on foundations of large bowlders, one of which
formed the greater part of the front wall. This circular room was
found to be full of fallen débris, and could not be examined without
considerable excavation. If it were a kiva, which I very much doubt,
it is an exception among the Verde valley ruins, where no true kiva
has yet been detected.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CI
FRONT WALL OF PALATKI (RUIN II)
Following h there is an inclosure which originally may have been a
habitable room, as indicated by the well-constructed front wall, but it is
so filled with large stones that it is difficult to examine its interior. On
one side the wall, which is at right angles to the face of the cliff, is 10
feet high, and the front wall follows the surface of a huge bowlder
which serves as its foundation.
Room i is clearly defined, and is in part inclosed by a large rock, on
top of which there still remains a fragment of a portion of the front
wall. A spur of masonry connects this bowlder with the face of the cliff,
indicating all that remains of the former division between rooms i and j.
An offshoot from this bowlder, in the form of a wall 10 feet high, formerly
inclosed one side of a room. In the rear of chamber j there are
found two receptacles or spaces left between the rear wall and the face
of the cliff, while the remaining wall, which is 10 feet high, is a good
specimen of pueblo masonry.
The two side walls of room k are well preserved, but the chamber
resembles the others of the series in the absence of a front wall. In
this room, however, there remains what may have been the fragment of
a rear wall parallel with the face of the cliff. This room has also a
small cist of masonry in one corner, which calls to mind certain sealed
cavities in the cavate dwellings.
The two side walls of m and n are respectively eight and ten feet high.
There is nothing exceptional in the standing walls of room o, one of
which, five feet in altitude, still remains erect. Room p has a remnant
of a rear wall plastered to the face of the cliff.
Room r () is a finely preserved chamber, with lateral walls
20 feet high, of well-constructed masonry, that in the rear, through
which there is an opening leading into a dark chamber, occupying the
space between it and the cliff. It is braced by connecting walls at
right angles to the face of the solid rock.
At s, the face of the cliff forms a rear wall of the room, and one of
the side walls is fully 20 feet high. The points of insertion of the
flooring are well shown, about 10 feet from the ground, proving that
the ruin at this point was at least two stories high.
Two walled inclosures, one within the other, characterize room u.
On the cliff above it there is a series of simple pictographs, consisting
of short parallel lines pecked into the rock, and are probably of Apache
origin. This room closes the second series, along the whole length of
which, in front of the lateral walls which mark different chambers,
there are, at intervals, piles of débris, which enabled an approximate
determination of the situation of the former front wall, fragments of
the foundations of which are traceable in situ in several places.
The hand of man and the erosion of the elements have dealt harshly
with this portion of Honanki, for not a fragment of timber now remains
in its walls. This destruction, so far as human agency is concerned,
could not have been due to white men, but probably to the Apache, or
possibly to the cliff villagers themselves at the time of or shortly after
the abandonment of the settlement.
From the second section of Honanki we pass to the third and best-preserved
portion of the ruins (), indicated in the diagram
from a to g. To this section I have referred as the "main ruin," for it
was evidently the most populous quarter of the ancient cliff dwelling.
It is better preserved than the remainder of Honanki, and is the only
part in which all four walls of the chambers still remain erect. Built at
a higher level than the series of rooms already considered, it must have
towered above them, and possibly served as a place of retreat when
danger beset the more exposed quarters of the village.
Fig. 249—The main ruin of Honanki
Approaching the main ruin of Honanki () from the east, or
the parts already described, one passes between the buttress on which
the front wall of the rounded room h is built and a fragment of masonry
on the left, by a natural gateway through which the trail is very steep.
On the right there towers above the visitor a well-preserved wall of
masonry, the front of room a, and he soon passes abreast of the main
portion of the ruin of Honanki. This section is built in a huge cavern,
the overhanging roof of which, is formed by natural rock, arching far
above the tops of the highest walls of the pueblo and suggesting the
surroundings of the "Cliff Palace" of Mesa Verde, so well described
by the late Baron G. Nordenskiöld in his valuable monograph on the
ruins of that section of southern Colorado. The main ruin of Honanki
is one of the largest and best preserved architectural monuments of the
former people of Verde valley that has yet been described. Although
somewhat resembling its rival, the well-known "Casa Montezuma" of
Beaver creek, its architecture is dissimilar on account of the difference
in the form of the cavern in which it is built and the geological character
of the surrounding cliffs. Other Verde ruins may have accommodated
more people, when inhabited, but none of its type south of
Canyon de Chelly have yet been described which excel it in size and
condition of preservation. I soon found that our party were not the
first whites who had seen this lonely village, as the names scribbled on
its walls attested; but so far as I know it had not previously been
visited by archeologists.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CII
HONANKI (RUIN II)
In the main portion of Honanki we found that the two ends of the
crescentic row of united rooms which compose it are built on rocky elevations,
with foundations considerably higher than those of the rooms
in the middle portion of the ruins. The line of the front wall is, therefore,
not exactly crescentic, but irregularly curved (), conforming
to the rear of the cavern in which the houses are situated. About
midway in the curve of the front walls two walls indicative of former
rooms extend at an angle of about 25° to the main front wall. All the
component rooms of the main part of Honanki can be entered, some by
external passageways, others by doorways communicating with adjacent
chambers. None of the inclosures have roofs or upper floors, although
indications of the former existence of both these structural features
may readily be seen in several places. Although wooden beams are
invariably wanting, fragments of these still project from the walls,
almost always showing on their free ends, inside the rooms, the effect
of fire. I succeeded in adding to the collection a portion of one of
these beams, the extremity of which had been battered off, evidently
with a stone implement. In the alkaline dust which covered the floor
several similar specimens were seen.
The stones which form the masonry of the wall () were not,
as a rule, dressed or squared before they were laid with adobe mortar,
but were generally set in place in the rough condition in which they
may still be obtained anywhere under the cliff.
All the mortar used was of adobe or the tenacious clay which serves
so many purposes among the Pueblos. The walls of the rooms were
plastered with a thick layer of the same material. The rear wall of
each room is the natural rock of the cliff, which rises vertically and
has a very smooth surface. The great natural archway which covers the
whole pueblo protects it from wind and rain, and as a consequence,
save on the front face, there are few signs of natural erosion. The hand
of man, however, has dealt rudely with this venerable building, and
many of the walls, especially of rooms which formerly stood before the
central portion, lie prone upon the earth; but so securely were the
component stones held together by the adobe that even after their fall
sections of masonry still remain intact.
Fig. 250—Structure of wall of Honanki
There are seven walled inclosures in the main part of Honanki, and
as each of these was formerly at least two stories high there is substantial
evidence of the former existence of fourteen rooms in this part
of the ruin. There can be little doubt that there were other rooms
along the front of the central portion, and the fallen walls show them
to have been of large size. It would likewise appear that the middle
part was higher than the two wings, which would increase the number
of chambers, so that with these additions it may safely be said that this
part of Honanki alone contained not far from twenty rooms.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CIII
WALLS OF HONANKI
The recess in the cliff in which the ruin is situated is lower in the
middle than at either side, where there are projecting ledges of rock
which were utilized by the builders in the construction of the foundations,
the line of the front wall following the inequalities of the ground.
It thus results that rooms g, a, b, and a part of c, rise from a foundation
about breast high, or a little higher than the base of rooms d, e,
and f.
The front wall of a has for its foundation a spur or ledge of rock,
which is continued under b and a part of c. The corner or angle of
this wall, facing the round chamber, is curved in the form of a tower,
a considerable section of its masonry being intact. Near the foundation
and following the inequalities of the rock surface the beginning
of a wall at right angles to the face of the ruin at this point is seen.
A small embrasure, high above the base of the front wall, on the side
by which one approaches the ruin from the east, and two smaller openings
on the same level, looking out over the valley, suggest a floor and
lookouts. The large square orifice in the middle of the face of the
wall has a wooden lintel, still in place; the opening is large enough for
use as a door or passageway. The upper edge of the front wall is
somewhat irregular, but a notch in it above the square opening is
conspicuous.
The rear wall of room a was the face of the cliff, formed of solid
rock without masonry and very much blackened by smoke from former
fires. As, however, there is evidence that since its destruction or
abandonment by its builders this ruin has been occupied as a camping
place by the Apache, it is doubtful to which race we should ascribe
this discoloration of the walls by soot.
On the ground floor there is a passageway into chamber b, which is
considerably enlarged, although the position of the lintel is clearly
indicated by notches in the wall. The beam which was formed there
had been torn from its place and undoubtedly long ago used for firewood
by nomadic visitors. The open passageway, measured externally,
is about 15 feet above the foundation of the wall, through which it is
broken, and about 8 feet below the upper edge of the wall.
Room b is an irregular, square chamber, two stories high, communicating
with a and c by passages which are enlarged by breakage in
the walls. A small hole in the front wall, about 6 feet from the floor,
opens externally to the air. The walls are, in general, about 2 feet
thick, and are composed of flat red stones laid in clay of the same
color. The cliff forms the rear wall of the chamber. The clay at
certain places in the walls, especially near the insertions of the beams
and about the window openings, appears to have been mixed with a
black pitch, which serves to harden the mixture.
Room c is the first of a series of chambers, with external passageways,
but its walls are very much broken down, and the openings
thereby enlarged. The front wall is almost straight and in one place
stands 30 feet, the maximum height of the standing wall of the ruins.
In one corner a considerable quantity of ashes and many evidences of
fire, some of which may be ascribed to Apache occupants, was detected.
A wooden beam, marking the line of the floor of a second story, was seen
projecting from the front wall, and there are other evidences of a floor
at this level. Large beams apparently extended from the front wall to
the rear of the chamber, where they rested on a ledge in the cliff, and
over these smaller sticks were laid side by side and at right angles to
the beams. These in turn supported either flat stones or a layer of
mud or clay. The method of construction of one of these roofs is
typical of a Tusayan kiva, where ancient architectural forms are
adhered to and best preserved.
The entrance to room d is very much enlarged by the disintegration
of the wall, and apparently there was at this point a difference in level
of the front wall, for there is evidence of rooms in advance of those
connected with the chambers described, as shown by a line of masonry,
still standing, parallel to the front face of inclosures c and d.
Room e communicates by a doorway with the chamber marked f,
and there is a small window in the same partition. This room had a
raised banquette on the side toward the cliff, recalling an arrangement
of the floor similar to that in the cavate dwellings opposite Squaw mountain
which I have described. This platform is raised about three
feet above the remainder of the floor of f, and, like it, is strewn with
large slabs of stone, which have fallen from the overhanging roof. In
the main floor, at one corner, near the platform, there is a rectangular
box-like structure made of thin slabs of stone set on edge, suggesting
the grinding bins of the Pueblos. Room f communicates with g by a
passageway which has a stone lintel. The holes in the walls, in which
beams were once inserted, are seen in several places at different levels
above the floor. The ends of several beams, one extremity of which
is invariably charred, were found set in the masonry, and others were
dug from the débris in the floor.
As a result of the curve in the front wall of the ruin at that point, the
shape of room f is roughly quadrate, with banquettes on two sides.
There are six large beam holes in the walls, and the position of the first
floor is well shown on the face of the partition, separating f from g.
The passageway from one of these rooms to the other is slightly arched.
Room g is elongated, without an external entrance, and communicates
with f by a small opening, through which it is very difficult to
crawl. Its longest dimension is almost at right angles to the front
face of the remaining rooms, and it is raised above them by its foundation
on an elevated rock like that of a, b, and c. There is a small,
square, external opening which may have served as the position of a
former beam or log. The upper level of the front wall is more or less
broken down in places, and formerly may have been much higher.
Beyond g a spur of masonry is built at right angles to the cliff, inclosing
a rectangular chamber at the end of the ruin which could not be
entered. Possibly in former times it was accessible by means of a
ladder from the roof, whence communication with other portions of the
structure was also had.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CIV
APPROACH TO MAIN PART OF HONANKI
A short distance beyond the westernmost rooms of Honanki, almost
covered with bushes and adjoining the base of the cliff, there is a large
ash heap in which are many fragments of pottery and the bones of
various animals. It is probable that excavation in this quarter would
reveal many interesting objects. In the cliffs above this ash heap, far
beyond reach, there is a walled niche which has never been disturbed.
This structure is similar to those near the cavate dwellings, and when
opened will probably be found to contain buried mortuary objects of
interesting character. I did not disturb this inclosure, inasmuch as I
had no ladders or ropes with which to approach it.
It is very difficult to properly estimate, from the number of rooms in
a cliff house, the former population, and as a general thing the tendency
is rather to overstate than to fall short of the true total. In a
pueblo like Hano, on the first or east mesa of Tusayan, for instance,
there are many uninhabited rooms, and others serve as storage chambers,
while in places the pueblo has so far fallen into ruin as to be uninhabitable.
If a pueblo is very much concentrated the population varies
at different seasons of the year. In summer it is sparsely inhabited;
in winter it is rather densely populated. While Palatki and Honanki
together had rooms sufficient to house 500 people, I doubt whether their
aggregate population, ever exceeded 200. This estimate, of course, is
based on the supposition that these villages were contemporaneously
inhabited.
The evidences all point to a belief, however, that they were both permanent
dwelling places and not temporary resorts at certain seasons
of the year.
The pictographs on the face of the cliff above Honanki are for the
greater part due to the former Apache occupants of the rooms, and are
situated high above the tops of the walls of the ruin. They are, as a
rule, drawn with white chalk, which shows very clearly on the red rock,
and are particularly numerous above room g. The figure of a circle,
with lines crossing one another diametrically and continued as rays
beyond the periphery, possibly represent the sun. Many spiral figures,
almost constant pictographs in cliff ruins, are found in several places.
Another strange design, resembling some kind of insect, is very conspicuous.
A circle painted green and inclosed in a border of yellow is undoubtedly
of Apache origin. There is at one point a row of small pits,
arranged in line, suggesting a score or enumeration of some kind, and a
series of short parallel lines of similar import was found not far away.
This latter method of recording accounts is commonly used at the present
time in Tusayan, both in houses and on cliffs; and one of the best
of these, said to enumerate the number of Apache killed by the Hopi
in a raid many years ago, may be seen above the trail by which the
visitor enters the pueblo of Hano on the East Mesa. The names of several
persons scratched on the face of the cliff indicate that Americans
had visited Honanki before me.
The majority of the paleoglyphs at both Palatki and Honanki are of
Apache origin, and are of comparatively modern date, as would naturally
be expected. In some instances their colors are as fresh as if made
a few years ago, and there is no doubt that they were drawn after the
building was deserted by its original occupants. The positions of
the pictographs on the cliffs imply that they were drawn before the
roofs and flooring had been destroyed, thus showing how lately the
ruin preserved its ancient form. In their sheltered position there seems
to be no reason why the ancient pictographs should not have been
preserved, and the fact that so few of the figures pecked in the cliff
now remain is therefore instructive.
One of the first tendencies of man in visiting a ruin is to inscribe
his name on its walls or on neighboring cliffs. This is shared by both
Indians and whites, and the former generally makes his totem on the
rock surface, or adds that of his gods, the sun, rain-cloud, or katcinas.
Inscriptions recording events are less common, as they are more difficult
to indicate with exactitude in this system of pictography. The majority
of ancient pictographs in the Red-rock country, like those I have considered
in other parts of Verde valley, are identical with picture writings
now made in Tusayan, and are recognized and interpreted without
hesitation by the Hopi Indians. In their legends, in which the migrations
of their ancestors are recounted, the traditionists often mention
the fact that their ancestors left their totem signatures at certain points
in their wanderings. The Patki people say that you will find on the
rocks of Palatkwabi, the "Red Land of the South" from which they
came, totems of the rain-cloud, sun, crane, parrot, etc. If we find these
markings in the direction which they are thus definitely declared to
exist, and the Hopi say similar pictures were made by their ancestors,
there seems no reason to question such circumstantial evidence that
some of the Hopi clans once came from this region.
One of the most interesting of the pictographs pecked in the rock
is a figure which, variously modified, is a common decoration on cliff-dweller
pottery from the Verde valley region to the ruins of the San Juan
and its tributaries. This figure has the form of two concentric spirals,
the ends of which do not join. As this design assumes many modifications,
it may be well to consider a few forms which it assumes on the
pottery of the cliff people and on that of their descendants, the Pueblos.
The so-called black-and-white ware, or white pottery decorated with
black lines, which is so characteristic of the ceramics of the cliff-dwellers,
is sometimes, as we shall see, found in ruins like Awatobi and Sikyatki;
but it is so rare, as compared with other varieties, that it may be
regarded as intrusive.
One of the simplest forms of the broken-line motive is a Greek fret, in
which there is a break in the component square figures or where the
line is noncontinuous. In the simplest form, which appears prominently
on modern pottery, but which is rare or wanting on true black-and-white
ware, we have two crescentic figures, the concavities of which
face in different directions, but the horns overlap. This is a symbol
which the participants in the dance called the Húmiskatcina still paint
with pigments on their ***, and which is used on shields and
various religious paraphernalia.
A study of any large collection of decorated Pueblo ware, ancient or
modern, will show many modifications of this broken line, a number of
which I shall discuss more in detail when pottery ornamentation is considered.
A design so distinctive and so widespread as this must certainly
have a symbolic interpretation. The concentric spirals with a
broken line, the Hopi say, are symbols of the whirlpool, and it is
interesting to find in the beautiful plates of Chavero's Antigüedades
Mexicanas that the water in the lagoon surrounding the ancient Aztec
capital was indicated by the Nahuatl Indians with similar symbols.
Objects Found at Palatki and Honanki
The isolation of these ruins and the impossibility of obtaining workmen,
combined with the brief visit which I was able to make to them,
rendered it impossible to collect very many specimens of ancient handiwork.
The few excavations which were made were limited almost
wholly to Honanki, and from their success I can readily predict a rich
harvest for anyone who may attempt systematic work in this ***
field. We naturally chose the interior of the rooms for excavation,
and I will say limited our work to these places. Every chamber was
more or less filled with débris—fragments of overturned walls, detached
rock from the cliff above, dry alkaline soil, drifted sand, dust, and
animal excreta. In those places where digging was possible we found
the dust and guano so dry and alkaline that it was next to impossible
to work for any length of time in the rooms, for the air became so
impure that the workmen could hardly breathe, especially where the
inclosing walls prevented ventilation. Notwithstanding this obstacle,
however, we removed the accumulated débris down to the floor in one or
two chambers, and examined with care the various objects of aboriginal
origin which were revealed.
In studying the specimens found in cliff-houses due attention has
not always been given to the fact that occupants have oftentimes
camped in them subsequently to their abandonment by the original
builders. As a consequence of this temporary habitation objects
owned by unrelated Indians have frequently been confused with those
of the cliff-dwellers proper. We found evidences that both Honanki
and Palatki had been occupied by Apache Mohave people for longer
or shorter periods of time, and some of the specimens were probably
left there by these inhabitants.
The ancient pottery found in the rooms, although fragmentary, is
sufficiently complete to render a comparison with known ceramics from
the Verde ruins. Had we discovered the cemeteries, for which we zealously
searched in vain, no doubt entire vessels, deposited as mortuary
offerings, would have been found; but the kind of ware of which they
were made would undoubtedly have been the same as that of the
fragments.
No pottery distinctively different from that which has already been
reported from the Verde valley ruins was found, and the majority
resembled so closely in texture and symbolism that of the cliff houses
of the San Juan, in northern New Mexico and southern Utah, that
they may be regarded as practically identical.
The following varieties of pottery were found at Honanki:
I. Coiled ware.
II. Indented ware.
III. Smooth ware.
IV. Smooth ware painted white, with black geometric figures.
V. Smooth red ware, with black decoration.
By far the largest number of fragments belong to the first division,
and these, as a rule, are blackened by soot, as if used in cooking.
The majority are parts of large open-mouth jars with flaring rims, corrugated
or often indented with the thumb-nail or some hard substance,
the coil becoming obscure on the lower surface. The inside of these
jars is smooth, but never polished, and in one instance the potter used
the corrugations of the coil as an ornamental motive. The paste of
which this coiled ware was composed is coarse, with argillaceous
grains scattered through it; but it was well fired and is still hard and
durable. When taken in connection with its tenuity, these features
show a highly developed potter's technique. A single fragment is ornamented
with an S-shape coil of clay fastened to the corrugations in
much the same way as in similar ware from the ruins near the Colorado
Chiquito.
The fragments of smooth ware show that they, too, had been made
originally in the same way as coiled ware, and that their outer as well
as their inner surface had been rubbed smooth before firing. As a rule,
however, they are coarse in texture and have little symmetry of form.
Fragments identified as parts of bowls, vases, jars, and dippers are
classed under this variety. As a rule they are badly or unevenly fired,
although evidently submitted to great heat. There was seldom an
effort made to smooth the outer surface to a polish, and no attempt at
pictorial ornamentation was made.
The fragments represented in classes iv and v were made of a much
finer clay, and the surface bears a gloss, almost a glaze. The ornamentation
on the few fragments which were found is composed of geometric
patterns, and is identical with the sherds from other ruins of
Verde valley. A fragment each of a dipper and a ladle, portions of a red
bowl, and a rim of a large vase of the same color were picked up near
the ruin. Most of the fragments, however, belong to the first classes—the
coiled and indented wares.
There was no evidence that the former inhabitants of these buildings
were acquainted with metals. The ends of the beams had been hacked
off evidently with blunt stone axes, aided by fire, and the lintels of the
houses were of split logs which showed no evidence that any metal implement
was used in fashioning them. We found, however, several stone
tools, which exhibit considerable skill in the art of stone working.
These include a single ax, blunt at one end, sharpened at the other,
and girt by a single groove. The variety of stone from which the ax
was made does not occur in the immediate vicinity of the ruin. There
were one or two stone hammers, grooved for hafting, like the ax. A
third stone maul, being grooveless, was evidently a hand tool for
breaking other stones or for grinding pigments.
Fig. 251—Stone implement from Honanki
Perhaps the most interesting stone implement which was found was
uncovered in the excavation of one of the middle rooms of the western
part of the ruin, about three feet below the surface. It consists of
a wooden handle rounded at each end and slightly curved, with a
sharpened stone inserted midway of its length and cemented to the
wood with pitch or asphaltum. The stone of this implement would
hardly bear rough usage, or sustain, without fracture, a heavy blow.
The edge is tolerably sharp, and it therefore may have been used in
skinning animals. Judging from the form of the handle, the implement
is better suited for use as a scraper than for any other purpose
which has occurred to me ().
The inhabitants of the two ruins of the Red-rocks used obsidian
arrowpoints with shafts of reeds, and evidently highly regarded fragments
of the former material for knives, spearheads, and one or two
other purposes.
The stone metates from these ruins are in no respect characteristic,
and several fine specimens were found in place on the floors of the rooms.
One of these was a well-worn specimen of lava, which must have been
brought from a considerable distance, since none of that material occurs
in the neighborhood. The existence of these grinding stones implies the
use of maize as food, and this evidence was much strengthened by the
finding of corncobs, kernels of corn, and charred fragments at several
points below the surface of the débris in the chambers of Honanki.
One of these grinding stones was found set in the floor of one of the rooms
in the same way that similar metates may be seen in Walpi today.
Of bone implements, our limited excavations revealed only a few fragments.
Leg bones of the turkey were used for awls, bodkins, needles,
and similar objects. In general character the implements of this kind
which were found are almost identical in form with
the bone implements from Awatobi and Sikyatki,
which are later figured and described. Although the
bone implements unearthed were not numerous, we were
well repaid for our excavations by finding an ancient
fireboard, identical with those now used at Tusayan in
the ceremony of kindling "new fire," and probably
universally used for that purpose in former times. The
only shell was a fragment of a bracelet
made from a Pectunculus, a Pacific coast
mollusk highly esteemed in ancient times among prehistoric
Pueblos. The majority of the wooden objects found showed
marks of fire, which were especially evident on the ends of
the roof and floor beams projecting from the walls.
Fig. 252—Tinder tube from Honanki
A considerable collection of objects made of wickerwork
and woven vegetal fiber was found in the alkaline dust and
ashes of the Red-rock cliff houses, and while there is some
difficulty here as elsewhere, in deciding whether certain specimens
belonged to the original builders or to later temporary occupants,
there is little doubt that most of them were the property of the latter.
There were many specimens of basketry found on the surface of the
rubbish of the floors which, from the position of their occurrence and
from their resemblance to the wickerwork still used by the Apache,
seem without doubt to have been left there by temporary occupants of
the rooms. There were likewise many wisps of yucca fiber tied in
knots which must probably be regarded as of identical origin. The
Yucca baccata affords the favorite fiber used by the natives at the
present time, and it appears to have been popular for that purpose
among the ancients.
Several specimens of sandals, some of which are very much worn on
the soles, were found buried at the floor level. These are all of the
same kind, and are made of yucca leaves plaited in narrow strips.
The mode of attachment to the foot was evidently by a loop passing
over the toes. Hide and cloth sandals have as yet not been reported
from the Red-rock ruins of Verde valley. These sandals belonged to
the original occupants of the cliff houses.
Fabrics made of cotton are common in the ruins of the Red-rocks,
and at times this fiber was combined with yucca. Some of the specimens
of cotton cloth were finely woven and are still quite strong,
although stained dark or almost black. Specimens of netting are also
common, and an open-mesh legging, similar to the kind manufactured
in ancient times by the Hopi and still worn by certain personators in
their sacred dances, were taken from the western room of Honanki.
There were also many fragments of rope, string, cord, and loosely
twisted bands, resembling head bands for carrying burdens.
A reed () in which was inserted a fragment of cotton fiber
was unlike anything yet reported from cliff houses, and as the end of
the cotton which projected beyond the cavity of the reed was charred,
it possibly was used as a slow-match or tinder-box.
Several shell and turquois beads were found, but my limited studies
of the cliff-houses revealed only a few other ornaments, among them
being beads of turkey-bone and a single wristlet fashioned from a Pectunculus.
One or two fragments of prayer-sticks were discovered in a
rock inclosure in a cleft to the west of the ruin.
Conclusions Regarding the Verde Valley Ruins
The ruins of the Verde region closely resemble those of Tusayan,
and seem to support the claim of the Hopi that some of their ancestors
formerly lived in that region. This is true more especially of the
villages of the plains and mesa tops, for neither cave-houses nor
cavate dwellings are found in the immediate vicinity of the inhabited
Tusayan pueblos. The objects taken from the ruins are similar to
those found universally over the pueblo area, and from them alone we
can not say more than that they probably indicate the same substratum
of culture as that from which modern pueblo life with its many modifications
has sprung.
The symbolism of the decorations on the fragments of pottery found
in the Verde ruins is the same as that of the ancient pueblos of the
Colorado Chiquito, and it remains to be shown whether the ancestors
of these were Hopi or Zuñi. I believe it will be found that they were
both, or that when the villages along the Colorado Chiquito were
abandoned part of the inhabitants went to the mesas of Tusayan and
others migrated farther up the river to the Zuñi villages.
Two centers of distribution of cliff houses occur in our Southwest:
those of the upper tributaries of the Colorado in the north and the cliff
houses of the affluents of the Salt and the Gila in the south. The
watershed of the Rio Grande is, so far as is known, destitute of this
kind of aboriginal dwellings. Between the two centers of distribution
lie the pueblos of the Little Colorado and its tributaries, the home of
the ancestors of the Hopi and the Zuñi. The many resemblances
between the cliff houses of the north and those of the south indicate
that the stage of culture of both was uniform, and probably the same
conditions of environment led both peoples to build similar dwellings.
All those likenesses which can be found between the modern Zuñi and
the Hopi to the former cliff peoples of the San Juan region in the
north, apply equally to those of the upper Salado and the Gila and
their tributaries to the south; and so far as arguments of a northern
origin of either, built on architectural or technological resemblances,
are concerned, they are not conclusive, since they are also applicable to
the cliff peoples of the south. The one important difference between the
northern and the southern tier of cliff houses is the occurrence of the circular
kiva, which has never been reported south of the divide between
the Little Colorado and the Gila-Salado drainage. If a kiva was a
feature in southern cliff houses, which I doubt, it appears to have been
a rectangular chamber similar to a dwelling room. The circular kiva
exists in neither the modern Hopi nor the Zuñi pueblos, and it has not
been found in adjacent Tusayan ruins; therefore, if these habitations
were profoundly influenced by settlers from the north, it is strange
that such a radical change in the form of this room resulted. The
arguments advanced that one of the two component stocks of the Zuñi,
and that the aboriginal, came from the cliff peoples of the San Juan,
are not conclusive, although I have no doubt that the Zuñi may have
received increment from that direction.
Cushing has, I believe, furnished good evidence that some of the
ancestors of the Zuñi population came from the south and southwest;
and that some of these came from pueblos now in ruins on the Little
Colorado is indicated by the great similarity in the antiquities of
ancient Zuñi and the Colorado Chiquito ruins. Part of the Patki people
of the Hopi went to Zuñi and part to Tusayan, from the same
abandoned pueblo, and the descendants of this family in Walpi still
recognize this ancient kinship; but I do not know, and so far as can
be seen there is no way of determining, the relative antiquity of the
pueblos in Zuñi valley and those on the lower Colorado.
The approximate date of the immigration of the Patki people to
Tusayan is as yet a matter of conjecture. It may have been in prehistoric
times, or more likely at a comparatively late period in the history
of the people. It seems well substantiated, however, that when this
Water-house people joined the other Hopi, the latter inhabited pueblos
and were to all intents a pueblo people. If this hypothesis be a correct
one, the Snake, Horn, and Bear peoples, whom the southern colonists
found in Tusayan, had a culture of their own similar to that of the people
from the south. Whence that culture came must be determined by
studies of the component clans of the Hopi before the arrival of the
Patki people.
The origin of the round shape of the estufa, according to Nordenskiöld
(p. 168), is most easily explained on the hypothesis that it is a
reminiscence of the cliff-dwellers' nomadic period. "There must be
some very cogent reason for the employment of this shape," he says,
"for the construction of a cylindrical chamber within a block of
rectangular rooms involves no small amount of labor. We know how
obstinately primitive nations cling to everything connected with their
religious ideas. Then what is more natural than the retention, for the
room where religious ceremonies were performed, of the round shape
characteristic of the original dwelling place, the nomadic hut? This
assumption is further corroborated by the situation of the hearth and
the structure of the roof of the estufa, when we find points of analogy
to the method employed by certain nomadic Indians in the *** of
their huts." This theory of the origin of the round form of dwelling
and its retention in the architecture of the kiva, advanced by Nordenskiöld
in 1893, has much in its favor, but the rectangular form, which,
so far as known, is the only shape of these sacred rooms in the Tusayan
region, is still unexplained. From Castañeda's narrative of the Coronado
expedition it appears that in the middle of the sixteenth century
the eastern pueblos had both square and round estufas or kivas, and
that these kivas belonged to the men while the rooms of the pueblo were
in the possession of the women. The apparent reason why we find no
round rooms or kivas in the southern cliff houses and in Tusayan may
be due to several causes. Local conditions, including the character of
the building sites on the Hopi mesa, made square rooms more practical,
or the nomadic stage was so far removed that the form of the inclosure
in which the ancients held their rites had not been preserved. Moreover,
some of the most ancient and secret observances at Walpi, as the
Flute ceremony, are not performed in special kivas, but take place in
ordinary living rooms.
As in all the other ruins of Verde valley, circular kivas are absent in
the Red-rock country, and this fact, which has attracted the attention
of several observers, is, I believe, very significant. Although as yet
our knowledge of the cliff houses of the upper Gila and Salado and
their numerous tributaries is very fragmentary, and generalization on
that account unsafe, it may be stated provisionally that no circular
kivas have yet been found in any ruins of the Gila-Salado watershed.
This form of kiva, however, is an essential feature of the cliff dwellings
of Rio Colorado, especially of those along its affluents in southern
Colorado and northern New Mexico. Roughly speaking, then, the circular
kiva is characteristic of the ruins of this region and of certain
others in the valley of the Rio Grande, where they still survive in
inhabited pueblos.
Circular ruins likewise are limited in their distribution in the Southwest,
and it is an interesting fact that the geographic distribution of
ancient pueblos of this form is in a general way the same as that of
circular kivas. There are, of course, many exceptions, but so far as I
know these can readily be explained. No ruins of circular dwellings
occur in the Gila-Salado drainage area, where likewise no circular
kivas have been observed. Moreover, the circular form of dwelling
and kiva is distinctively characteristic of prehistoric peoples east of
Tusayan, and the few instances of their occurrence on its eastern
border can readily be explained as extra-Hopi.
The explanation of these circular kivas advanced by Nordenskiöld
and the Mindeleffs, that they are survivals of round habitations of
nomads, has much to commend it; but whether sufficient or not, the
geographic limitation of these structures tells in favor of the absence
of any considerable migration of the prehistoric peoples of the upper
Colorado and Rio Grande watersheds southward into the drainage area
of the Gila-Salado. Had the migration been in that direction it may
readily be believed that the round kiva and the circular form of dwelling
would have been brought with it.
The round kiva has been regarded as a survival of the form of the
original homes of the nomad, when he became a sedentary agriculturist
by conquest and marriage.
The presence of rectangular kivas in the same areas in which round
kivas occur does not necessarily militate against this theory, nor does
it oblige us to offer an explanation of a necessarily radical change in
architecture if we would derive it from a circular form. It would
indeed be very unusual to find such a change in a structure devoted to
religious purposes where conservatism is so strong. The rectangular
kiva is the ancient form, or rather the original form; the round kiva is
not a development from it, but an introduction from an alien people. It
never penetrated southward of the Colorado and upper Rio Grande
drainage areas because the element which introduced it in the north
was never strong enough to influence the house builders of the Gila-Salado
and tributary valleys.
RUINS IN TUSAYAN
General Features
No region of our Southwest presents more instructive antiquities than
the ancient province of Tusayan, more widely known as the Moki reservation.
In the more limited use of the term, Tusayan is applied to
the immediate surroundings of the Hopi pueblos, to which "province"
it was given in the middle of the sixteenth century. In a broader sense
the name would include an as yet unbounded country claimed by the
component clans of this people as the homes of their ancestors.
The general character and distribution of Tusayan ruins (plate xvi)
has been ably presented by Mr Victor Mindeleff in a previous report.
While this memoir is not regarded as exhaustive, it considers most of
the large ruins in immediate proximity to the three mesas on which
the pueblos inhabited by the Hopi are situated. It is not my purpose
here to consider all Tusayan ruins, even if I were able to do so, but
to supplement with additional data the observations already published
on two of the most noteworthy pueblo settlements. Broadly speaking,
I have attempted archeological excavations in order to obtain more light
on the nature of prehistoric life in Tusayan. It may be advantageous,
however, to refer briefly to some of the ruins thus far discovered in the
Tusayan region as preliminary to more systematic descriptions of the
two which I have chosen for special description.
The legends of the surviving Hopi contain constant references to
former habitations of different clans in the country round about their
present villages. These clans, which by consolidation make up the present
population of the Hopi pueblos, are said to have originally entered
Tusayan from regions as far eastward as the Rio Grande, and from the
southern country included within the drainage of the Gila, the Salt,
and their affluents. Other increments are reputed to have come from
the northward and the westward, so that the people we now find in
Tusayan are descendants from an aggregation of stocks from several
directions, some of them having migrated from considerable distances.
Natives of other regions have settled among the ancient Hopi, built
pueblos, and later returned to their former homes; and the Hopi in
turn have sent colonists into the eastern pueblo country.
These legends of former movements of the tribal clans of Tusayan
are supplemented and supported by historical documents, and we know
from this evidence that there has been a continual interchange between
the people of Tusayan and almost every large pueblo of New Mexico and
Arizona. Some of the ruins of this region were abandoned in historic
times; others are prehistoric; many were simply temporary halting
places in Hopi migrations, and were abandoned as the clans drifted
together in friendship or destroyed as a result of internecine conflicts.
There is documentary evidence that in the years following the great
rebellion of the Pueblo tribes in 1680, which were characterized by
catastrophes of all kinds among the Rio Grande villagers, many
Tanoan people fled to Tusayan to escape from their troubles. According
to Niel, 4,000 Tanoan refugees, under Frasquillo, loaded with ***
which they had looted from the churches, went to Oraibi by way of
Zuñi, and there established a "kingdom," with their chief as ruler.
How much reliance may be placed on this account is not clear to me,
but there is no doubt that many Tanoan people joined the Hopi about
this time, and among them were the Asa people, the ancestors of the
present inhabitants of Hano pueblo, and probably the accolents of
Payüpki. The ease with which two Franciscan fathers, in 1742, persuaded
441 of these to return to the Rio Grande, implies that they were
not very hostile to Christianity, and it is possible that one reason they
sought Tusayan in the years after the Spaniards were expelled may
have been their friendship for the church party.
With the exception of Oraibi, not one of the present inhabited
pueblos of Tusayan occupies the site on which it stood in the sixteenth
century, and the majority of them do not antedate the beginning of
the eighteenth century. The villages have shifted their positions but
retained their names.
At the time of the advent of Tobar, in 1540, there was but one of the
present three villages of East Mesa. This was Walpi, and at the period
referred to it was situated on the terrace below the site of the present
town, near the northwestern base of the mesa proper. Two well-defined
ruins, called Kisakobi and Küchaptüvela, are now pointed out as the
sites of Old Walpi. Of these Küchaptüvela is regarded as the older.
Judging by their ruins these towns were of considerable size. From
their exposed situation they were open to the inroads of predatory
tribes, and from these hostile raids their abandonment became necessary.
From Küchaptüvela the ancient Walpians moved to a point higher
on the mesa, nearer its western limit, and built Kisakobi, where the
pueblo stood in the seventeenth century. There is evidence that a Spanish
mission was erected at this point, and the place is sometimes called
Nüshaki, a corruption of "Missa-ki," Mass-house. From this place the
original nucleus of Walpians moved to the present site about the close
of the seventeenth century. Later the original population was joined
by other phratries, some of which, as the Asa, had lived in the cliff-houses
of Tségi, or Canyon de Chelly, as late as the beginning of
the eighteenth century. This, however, is not the place to trace the
composition of the different modern villages.
Sichomovi was a colony from Walpi, founded about 1750, and Hano
was built not earlier than 1700. The former was settled by the Badger
people, later joined by a group of Tanoan clans called the Asa, from
the Rio Grande, who were invited to Tusayan to aid the Hopi in resisting
the invasions of northern nomads.
By the middle of the eighteenth century the population of the province
of Tusayan was for the first time distributed in the seven pueblos
now inhabited. No village has been deserted since that time, nor has
any new site been occupied.
In order that the reader may have an idea of the Tusayan pueblos
at the time mentioned, an account of them from a little-known description
by Morfi in 1782 is introduced:
Morfi's account of the Tusayan pueblos
Quarenta y seis leguas al Poniente de Zuñi, con alguna inclinacion al N. O. están
los tres primeros pueblos de la provincia de Moqui, que en el dia en el corto distrito
de 4-1/2 leguas (112 recto) tiene siete pueblos en tres mesas ó peñoles que corren linea
recta de Oriente á Poniente.
Tanos
En la punta occidental de la primera, y en la mas estrecho de su eminencia están
situados tres de los quales el primero es el de Tanos (alli dicen Tegüas), cuyas moradores
tienen idioma particular y distinto del Moquino. Es pueblo regular con un
plaza en el centro, y un formacion de calles. Tendrá 110 familias.
El segundo pueblo dista del precedente como un tiro de piedra, es de fundacion
moderna, y se compondrá de mas 15 familias que se retiraron aqui de:
Gualpi
Gualpi que dista del anterior un tiro de fusil, es mas grande y populoso que los dos
anteriores, puede tener hasta 200 familias. Estas tres pueblos tienen poco caballada,
y algunas vacas; pero mucho ganado lanar.
Mosasnabi
Al poniente de esta mesa, y á legua y media de distancia está la segunda, cuyo
intermedio es un (112 v.) arenal, que ertrando un poco en ella la divide en dos brazas.
En el septentrional, que es el mas inmediata á Gualpi hay dos anillos distantes entre
si un tiro de piedra. En la cima del primero está situado el pueblo de Mosasnabi
compuesto de 50 familias poco mas ó menos.
Xipaolabi
En la cumbre del secundo cerrito se fundó el quinto pueblo llamado Xipaolabi, que
tendrá solo 14 familias: está casi arruinado, porque sus vecinos se han trasladado al
brazo austral de la mesa y formaron el sexto pueblo llamado:
Xongopabi
Xongopabi goza mejor situacion que todos los demas, tienen tres quarteles mui bien
dispuestos y en ellas unas 60 familias. Estos tres pueblos tienen mas caballada que
los primeros y mucho ganado menor.
Oraybe
Dos y media leguas al Poniente de esta mesa, está la tercera, y en sucima el septimo
pueblo que llaman Oraybe. Es como la capital de la provincia, el mayor y mas bien
formado de toda ella, y acaso de todas las provincias internas. Tiene once quarteles
ó manzanas bien largas y dispuestos con calles á cordel yá (113 r.) todos vientos, y
puede llegar su poblacion á 800 familias. Tienen buena caballada, mucho ganado
menor y algun vacuno. Aunque no gozan sino una pequeña fuente de buena agua,
distante del pueblo mas de una milla al Norte, han construido para suplir esta escasez,
en la misma mesa, y mui inmediato à las casas seis cisternas grandes donde recoger la
agua de las lluvias y nieves.
The distribution of the population of Tusayan in the seven pueblos
mentioned above remained practically the same during the century
between 1782 and 1882. Summer settlements for farming purposes
were inhabited by the Oraibi for brief periods. Between the years 1880
and 1890 a beginning of a new distribution of Hopi families began,
when one or two of the less timid erected houses near Coyote spring,
at the East Mesa. The Tewa, represented by Polaka and Jakwaina,
took the lead in this movement. From 1890 to the present time a large
number of Walpi, Sichomovi, and Hano families have built houses in
the foothills of the East Mesa and in the plain beyond the "wash." A
large schoolhouse has been erected at Sun spring and a considerable
number of East Mesa villagers have abandoned their mesa dwellings.
In this shifting of the population the isolated house is always adopted
and the aboriginal method of roof building is abandoned. The indications
are that in a few years the population of the East Mesa will be
settled in unconnected farmhouses with little resemblance to the ancient
communal pueblo.
This movement is shared to a less extent by the Middle Mesa and
Oraibi people. On my first visit to the pueblos of these mesas, in 1890,
there was not a single permanent dwelling save in the ancient pueblos;
but now numerous small farmhouses have been erected at or near the
springs in the foothills. I mention these facts as a matter of record of
progress in the life of these people in adapting themselves to the new
conditions or influences by which they are surrounded. I believe that if
this exodus of Hopi families from the old pueblo to the plain continues
during the next two decades as it has in the last ten years, there are
children now living in Walpi who will some day see it uninhabited.
This disintegration of the Hopi phratries, by which families are separated
from one another, is, I believe, a return to the prehistoric distribution
of the clans, and as Walpi grew into a pueblo by a union of
kindred people, so now it is again being divided and distributed, still
preserving family ties in new clusters or groupings. It is thus not
impossible that the sites of certain old ruins, as Sikyatki, deserted for
many years, will again be built upon if better suited for new modes of
life. The settlement near Coyote spring, for instance, is not far from
the old site of a former home of the Tanoan families, who went to
Tusayan in the beginning of the eighteenth century, and the people
who inhabit these new houses are all Tanoan descendants of the
original contingent.
In order to become familiar with the general character of Tusayan
ruins, I made a brief reconnoissance of those mentioned in the following
list, from which I selected Awatobi and Sikyatki as places for a
more exhaustive exploration. This list is followed by a brief mention
of those which I believe would offer fair opportunities for a continuation
of the work inaugurated. The ruins near Oraibi were not examined
and are therefore omitted, not that they are regarded as less
important, but because I was unable to undertake a study of them in
the limited time at my disposal. There are also many ruins in Tusayan,
north of the inhabited pueblos, which have never been described,
and would well repay extended investigation. Some of these, as the
ruins at the sacred spring called Kishuba, are of the utmost traditional
importance.
I. Middle Mesa ruins—(1) Old Shuñopovi; (2) Old Mishoñinovi;
(3) Shitaumû; (4) Chukubi; (5) Payüpki.
II. East Mesa ruins—(1) Kisakobi; (2) Küchaptüvela; (3) Küküchomo;
(4) Tukinobi; (5) Kachinba; (6) Sikyatki.
III. Ruins in Keam's canyon.
IV. Jeditoh valley ruins—(1) Bat-house; (2) Jeditoh, Kawaika;
(3) Horn-house; (4) Awatobi; Smaller Awatobi.
This method of classification is purely geographical, and is adopted
simply for convenience; but there are one or two facts worthy of
mention in regard to the distribution of ruins in these four sections.
The inhabited pueblos, like the ruins, are, as a rule, situated on the
eastern side of their respective mesas, or on the cliffs or hills which
border the adjacent plains on the west. This uniformity is thought to
have resulted from a desire to occupy a sunny site for warmth and
for other reasons.
The pueblos at or nearest the southern ends of the mesas were found
to be best suited for habitation, consequently the present towns occupy
those sites, or, as in the case of the Jeditoh series, the pueblo at that
point was the last abandoned. The reason for this is thought to be an
attempt to concentrate on the most inaccessible sites available, which
implies inroads of hostile peoples. For the same reason, likewise, the
tendency was to move from the foothills to the mesa tops when these
invasions began.
Early settlers near East Mesa appeared to have chosen exposed sites
for their pueblos. This would imply that they feared no invasion, and
legendary history indicates that the first pueblos were erected before
the hostile Ute, Apache, and Navaho appeared. The early settlements
on Middle Mesa were also apparently not made with an absorbing idea
of inaccessibility. All the Jeditoh villages, however, were on the
mesa tops, these sites having been selected evidently with a view to
protection, since they were not convenient to the farms.
For many reasons it would seem that the people who occupied the
now ruined Jeditoh villages were later arrivals in Tusayan than those
of East and Middle Mesas, and that, as a rule, they came from the eastward,
while those of Middle Mesa arrived from the south. The first
colonists of all, however, appear to have been the East Mesa clans, the
Bear and Snake families. If this conjecture be true, we may believe
that the oldest pueblos in Tusayan were probably the house groups of
the Snake clan of East Mesa, for whom their traditionists claim a
northern origin.
The Middle Mesa Ruins
SHUÑOPOVI
The site of Old Shuñopovi () at the advent of the first
Spaniards, and for a century or more afterward, was at the foot of the
mesa on which the present village stands. The site of the old pueblo
is easily detected by the foundations of the ancient houses and their
overturned walls, surrounded by mounds of soil filled with fragments
of the finest pottery.
The old village was situated on a ridge of foothills east of the present
town and near the spring, which is still used. On the highest point
of the ridge there rise to a considerable height the massive walls of the
old Spanish mission church, forming an inclosure, now used as a sheep
corral. The cemeteries are near by, close to the outer walls, and among
a clump of peach trees about half a mile east of the old houses. The
pottery, as shown by the fragments, is of the finest old Tusayan ware,
cream and red being the predominating colors, while fragments of coiled
and black-and-white ware are likewise common.
MISHOÑINOVI
The ruins of Old Mishoñinovi lie west of the present pueblo in the
foothills, not far from the two rocky pinnacles at that point and adjacent
to a spring. In strolling over the site of the old town I have noted
its ground plan, and have picked up many sherds which indicate that
the pottery made at that place was the fine cream-color ware for which
Tusayan has always been famous. The site offers unusual opportunities
for archeological studies, but excavation there is not practicable on
account of the opposition of the chiefs.
Old Mishoñinovi was a pueblo of considerable size, and was probably
inhabited up to the close of the seventeenth century. It was probably
on this site that the early Spanish explorers found the largest pueblo
of the Middle Mesa. The ruin of Shitaimovi, in the foothills near
Mishoñinovi, mentioned by Mindeleff, was not visited by our party.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CV.
SKETCH MAP OF THE MESA COUNTRY
OCCUPIED BY THE HOPI INDIANS
CHUKUBI
The ruin of Chukubi bears every evidence of antiquity. It is situated
on one of the eastward projecting spurs of Middle Mesa, midway
between Payüpki and Shipaulovi, near an excellent spring at the base
of the mesa.
Chukubi was built in rectangular form, with a central plaza surrounded
by rooms, two deep. There are many indications of outlying
chambers, some of which are arranged in rows. The house walls are
almost wholly demolished, and in far poorer state of preservation than
those of the neighboring ruin of Payüpki. The evidence now obtainable
indicates that it was an ancient habitation of a limited period of
occupancy. It is said to have been settled by the Patuñ or Squash
people, whose original home was far to the south, on Little Colorado
river. A fair ground plan is given by Mindeleff in his memoir on
Pueblo Architecture; but so far as known no studies of the pottery of
this pueblo have ever been made.
PAYÜPKI
One of the best-preserved ruins on Middle Mesa is called Payüpki
by the Hopi, and is interesting in connection with the traditions of
the migration of peoples from the Rio Grande, which followed the
troublesome years at the close of the seventeenth century. In the
reconquest of New Mexico by the Spaniards we can hardly say that
Tusayan was conquered; the province was visited and nominally subjugated
after the great rebellion, but with the exception of repeated
expeditions, which were often repulsed, the Hopi were practically independent
and were so regarded. No adequate punishment was inflicted
on the inhabitants of Walpi for the destruction of the town of Awatobi,
and although there were a few military expeditious to Tusayan no effort
at subjugation was seriously made.
Tusayan was regarded as an asylum for the discontented or apostate,
and about the close of the seventeenth century many people from
the Rio Grande fled there for refuge. Some of these refugees appear
to have founded pueblos of their own; others were amalgamated with
existing villages. Payüpki seems to have been founded about this
period, for we find no account of it before this time, and it is not mentioned
in connection with ancient migrations. In 1706 Holguin is said
to have attacked the "Tanos" village between Walpi and Oraibi and
forced the inhabitants to give hostages, but he was later set upon by
the Tano and driven back to Zuñi. It would hardly seem possible that
the pueblo mentioned could have been Hano, for this village does not
lie between Oraibi and Walpi and could not have been surrounded in
the way indicated in the account. Payüpki, however, not only lay on
the trail between Walpi and Oraibi—about midway, as the chronicler
states—but was so situated on a projecting promontory that it could
easily have been surrounded and isolated from the other pueblos.
The Hopi legends definitely assert that the Payüpki people came from
the "great river," the Rio Grande, and spoke a language allied to that
of the people of Hano. They were probably apostates, who came from
the east about 1680, but did not seem to agree well with the people of
the Middle Mesa, and about 1750 returned to the river and were domiciled
in Sandia, where their descendants still live. The name Payüpki
is applied by the Hopi to the pueblo of Sandia as well as to the ruin on
the Middle Mesa. The general appearance of the ruin of Payüpki indicates
that it was not long inhabited, and that it was abandoned at a
comparatively recent date. The general plan is not that common to
ancient Tusayan ruins, but more like that of Hano and Sichomovi,
which were erected about the time Payüpki was built. Many fragments
of a kind of pottery which in general appearance is foreign to
Tusayan, but which resembles the Rio Grande ware, were found on the
mounds, and the walls are better preserved than those of the ancient
Tusayan ruins.
A notable absence of fragments of obsidian, the presence of which
in abundance is characteristic of ancient ruins, was observed on the
site of Payüpki. All these evidences substantiate the Hopi legend
that the Tanoan inhabitants of the village of Middle Mesa, above the
trail from Walpi to Oraibi, made but a short stay in Tusayan.
There is good documentary evidence that Sandia was settled by
Tanoan people from Tusayan. Morfi in 1782 so states, and in a copy
of the acts of possession of the pueblo grants of 1748 we find still
further proof of the settlement of "Moquinos" in Sandia.
When Otermin returned to New Mexico in his attempted reconquest,
in 1681, he reached Isleta on December 6, and on the 8th Dominguez
encamped in sight of Sandia, but found the inhabitants had fled. The
discord following this event drove the few surviving families of the
Tiwa on their old range to Tusayan, for they were set upon by Keres
and Jemez warriors on the plea that they received back the Spaniards.
Possibly these families formed the nucleus of Payüpki. It was about
this time, also, if we can believe Niel's story, that 4,000 Tanos went to
Tusayan. It would thus appear that the Hopi Payüpki was settled in
the decade 1680-1690.
The East Mesa Ruins
KÜCHAPTÜVELA AND KISAKOBI
The two ruins of Küchaptüvela and Kisakobi mark the sites of Walpi
during the period of Spanish exploration and occupancy between 1540
and 1700. The former was the older. In all probability the latter had
a mission church and was inhabited at the time of the great rebellion
in 1680, having been founded about fifty years previously.
The former or more ancient pueblo was situated on the first or lowest
terrace of East Mesa, below the present pueblo, on the northern and
western sides. The name Küchaptüvela signifies "Ash-hill terrace,"
and probably the old settlement, like the modern, was known as Walpi,
"Place-of-the-gap," referring to the gap or notch (wala) in the mesa
east of Hano.
Old Walpi is said to have been abandoned because it was in the shade
of the mesa, but doubtless the true cause of its removal was that the
site was too much exposed, commanded as it was by the towering mesa
above it, and easily approached on three sides. The Walpi which was
contemporary with Sikyatki was built in an exposed location, for at
that time the Hopi were comparatively secure from invaders. Later,
however, Apache, Ute, and Navaho began to raid their fields, and the
Spaniards came in their midst again and again, forcing them to work
like slaves. A more protected site was necessary, and late in the
seventeenth century the Walpians began to erect houses on the mesa,
which formed the nucleus of the present town. The standing walls of
Old Walpi are buried in the débris, but the plans of the rooms may
readily be traced. Comparatively speaking, it was a large, compact,
well-built pueblo, and, from the great piles of débris in the neighborhood,
would seem to have been occupied during several generations.
The pottery found in the neighborhood is the fine, ancient Tusayan
ware, like that of Sikyatki and Shuñopovi. Extended excavations
would reveal, I am sure, many beautiful objects and shed considerable
light on the obscure history of Walpi and its early population.
After moving from Old Walpi it seems that the people first built
houses on the terrace above, or on the platform extending westward
from the western limits of the summit of East Mesa. The whole top of
that part of the mesa is covered with house walls, showing the former
existence of a large pueblo. Here, no doubt, if we can trust tradition,
the mission of Walpi was built, and I have found in the débris fragments
of pottery similar to that used in Mexico, and very different from
ancient or modern Pueblo ware. But even Kisakobi was not a safe
site for the Walpians to choose for their village, so after they destroyed
the mission and killed the priest they moved up to their present site
and abandoned both of their former villages.
It is said that with this removal of the villagers there were found to
be no easy means of climbing the precipitous walls, and that the stairway
trails were made as late as the beginning of the present century. In
those early days there was a ladder near where the stairway trail is
now situated, and some of the older men of Walpi have pointed out to
me where this ladder formerly stood.
The present plan of Walpi shows marked differences from that made
twenty years ago, and several houses between the stairway trail and
the Wikwaliobi kiva, on the edge of the mesa, which have now fallen
into ruin, were inhabited when I first visited Walpi in 1890. The buildings
between the Snake kiva and the Nacab kiva are rapidly becoming
unsafe for habitation, and most of these rooms will soon be deserted.
As many Walpi families are building new houses on the plain, it needs
no prophet to predict that the desertion of the present site of Walpi
will progress rapidly in the next few years, and possibly by the end of
our generation the pueblo may be wholly deserted—one more ruin
added to the multitudes in the Southwest.
The site of Old Walpi, at Küchaptüvela, is the scene of an interesting
rite in the New-fire ceremony at Walpi, for not far from it is a shrine
dedicated to a supernatural being called Tüwapoñtumsi, "Earth-altar-woman."
This shrine, or house, as it is called, is about 230 feet from
the ruin, among the neighboring bowlders, and consists of four flat slabs
set upright, forming an inclosure in which stands a log of fossil wood.
The ceremonials at Old Walpi in the New-fire rites are described in
my account of this observance, and from their nature I suspect that
the essential part of this episode is the deposit of offerings at this
shrine. The circuits about the old ruin are regarded as survivals of
the rites which took place in former times at Old Walpi. The ruin was
spoken of in the ceremony as the Sipapüni, the abode of the dead who
had become katcinas, to whom the prayers said in the circuits were
addressed.
KÜKÜCHOMO
The two conical mounds on the mesa above Sikyatki are often
referred to that ancient pueblo, but from their style of architecture and
from other considerations I am led to connect them with other phratries
of Tusayan. From limited excavations made in these mounds in
1891, I was led to believe that they were round pueblos, similar to those
east of Tusayan, and that they were temporary habitations, possibly
vantage points, occupied for defense. illustrates their general
appearance, while the rooms of which they are composed are shown
in . At the place where the mesa narrows between these
mounds and the pueblos to the west, a wall was built from one edge of
the mesa to the other to defend the trail on this side. This wall appears
to have had watch towers or houses at intervals, which are now in ruins,
as shown in .
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THE RUINS OF KÜKÜCHOMO
Fig. 253—Küküchomo
The legends concerning the ancient inhabitants of Küküchomo are
conflicting. The late A. M. Stephen stated that tradition ascribes them
to the Coyote and Pikya (Corn) peoples, with whom the denizens of
Sikyatki made friendship, and whom the latter induced to settle there
to protect them from the Walpians. He regarded them as the last
arrivals of the Water-house phratry, while the Coyote people came from
the north at nearly the same time. From his account it would appear
that the twin mounds, Küküchomo, were abandoned before the destruction
of Sikyatki. The Coyote people were, I believe, akin to the Kokop
or Firewood phratry, and as the pueblo of Sikyatki was settled by the
latter, it is highly probable that the inhabitants of the two villages were
friendly and naturally combined against the Snake pueblo of Walpi. I
believe, however, there is some doubt that any branch of the Patki
people settled in Küküchomo, and the size of the town as indicated by
the ruin was hardly large enough to accommodate more than one clan.
Still, as there are two Küküchomo ruins, there may have been a different
family in each of the two house clusters.
Fig. 254—Defensive wall on the East Mesa
It has been said that in ancient times, before the twin mounds of
Küküchomo were erected, the people of Sikyatki were greatly harassed
by the young slingers and archers of Walpi, who would come
across to the edge of the high cliff and assail them with impunity.
Anyone, however, who contemplates the great distance from Sikyatki
to the edge of the mesa may well doubt whether it was possible for the
Walpi bowmen to inflict much harm in that way.
Moreover, if the word "slingers" is advisedly chosen, it introduces a
kind of warfare which is not mentioned in other Tusayan legends,
although apparently throwing stones at their enemies was practiced
among Pueblos of other stocks in early historic times.
We may suppose, however, that the survivors of both Küküchomo
and Sikyatki sought refuge in Awatobi after the prehistoric destruction
of their pueblos, for both were peopled by clans which came from the
east, and naturally went to that village, the founders of which migrated
from the same direction.
KACHINBA
The small ruin at Kachinba, the halting place of the Kachina people,
seems to have escaped the attention of students of Tusayan archeology.
It lies about six miles from Sikyatki, about east of Walpi, and is
approached by following the trail at the foot of the same mesa upon
which Küküchomo is situated. The ruin is located on a small foothill
and has a few standing walls. It was evidently diminutive in size and
only temporarily inhabited. The best wall found at this ruin lies at
the base of the hill, where the spring formerly was. This spring is
now filled in, but a circular wall of masonry indicates its great size in
former times.
TUKINOBI
There are evidences that the large hill on top of East Mesa, not far
from the twin mounds, was once the site of a pueblo of considerable size,
but I have not been able to gather any definite legend about it. Near
this ruin is the "Eagle shrine" in which round wooden imitations of eagle
eggs are ceremonially deposited, and in the immediate vicinity of which
is another shrine near which tracks are cut in the rock, and which were
evidently considered by the Indian who pointed them out to me as
having been made by some bird. It is probably from these footprints,
which are elsewhere numerous, that the two ruins called Küküchomo
("footprints mound") takes its name.
Jeditoh Valley Ruins
As one enters Antelope valley, following the Holbrook road, he finds
himself in what was formerly a densely populated region of Tusayan.
This valley in former times was regarded as a garden spot, and the plain
was covered with patches of corn, beans, squashes, and chile. The former
inhabitants lived in pueblos on the northern side, high up on the mesa
which separates Jeditoh valley from Keam's canyon. All of these
pueblos are now in ruins, and only a few Navaho and Hopi families
cultivate small tracts in the once productive fields.
The majority of the series of ruins along the northern rim of Antelope
valley resemble Awatobi, which is later described in detail. It is interesting
to note that in the abandonment of villages the same law appears
to have prevailed here as in the other Tusayan mesas, for in the shrinkage
of the Hopi people they concentrated more and more to the points
of the mesas. Thus, at East Mesa, Sikyatki, Kachinba, and Küküchomo
were destroyed, while Walpi remained. At Middle Mesa, Chukubi and
Payüpki became ruins, and in Antelope valley Awatobi was the last of
the Jeditoh series to fall. There has thus been a gradual tendency to
drift from readily accessible locations to the most impregnable sites,
which indicates how severely the Hopi must have been harassed by
their foes. It is significant that some of the oldest pueblos were originally
built in the most exposed positions, and it may rightly be conjectured
that the pressure on the villagers came long after these sites
were chosen. The ancient or original Hopi had a sense of security when
they built their first houses, and they, therefore, did not find it necessary
to seek the protection of cliffs. Many of them lived in the valley
of the Colorado Chiquito, others at Kishuba. As time went on, however,
they were forced, as were their kindred in other pueblos, to move to
inaccessible mesas guarded by vertical cliffs.
Of the several ruins of Antelope valley, that on the mesa above
Jeditoh or Antelope spring is one of the largest and most interesting.
Stephen calls this ruin Mishiptonga, and a plan of the old house is
given by Mindeleff.
The spring called Kawaika, situated near the former village of the
same name, was evidently much used by the ancient accolents of Antelope
valley. From this neighborhood there was excavated a few years
ago a beautiful collection of ancient mortuary pottery objects, which
was purchased by Mrs Mary Hemenway, of Boston, and is now in the
Peabody Museum at Cambridge. These objects have never been adequately
described, although a good illustration of some of the specimens,
with a brief reference thereto, was published by James Mooney
a few years ago.
Among the most striking objects in this collection are clay models
of houses, dishes, and small vases with rims pierced with holes, and
rectangular vessels ornamented with pictures of birds. There are
specimens of cream, yellow, red, and white pottery in the collection
which, judging by the small size of most of the specimens, was
apparently votive in character.
The ruins called by Stephen "Horn-house" and "Bat-house," as well
as the smaller ruin between them, have been described by Mindeleff,
who has likewise published plans of the first two. From their general
appearance I should judge they were not occupied for so long a time
as Awatobi, and by a population considerably smaller. If all these
Jeditoh pueblos were built by peoples from the Rio Grande, it is possible
that those around Jeditoh spring were the first founded and that
Awatobi was of later construction; but from the data at hand the
relative age of the ruins of this part of Tusayan can not be determined.
There are many ruins situated on the periphery of Tusayan which
are connected traditionally with the Hopi, but are not here mentioned.
Of these, the so-called "Fire-house" is said to have been the home of
the ancestors of Sikyatki, and Kintiel of certain Zuñi people akin to
the Hopi. Both of the ruins mentioned differ in their architectural
features from characteristic prehistoric Tusayan ruins, for they are circular
in form, as are many of the ruins in the middle zone of the pueblo
area. With these exceptions there are no circular ruins within the area
over which the Hopi lay claim, and it is probable that the accolents of
Kintiel were more Zuñi than Hopi in kinship.
Many ruins north of Oraibi and in the neighborhood of the farming
village of Moenkopi are attributed to the Hopi by their traditionists.
The ruins about Kishyuba, connected with the Kachina people, also
belong to Tusayan. These and many others doubtless offer most important
contributions to an exact knowledge of the prehistoric migrations
of this most interesting people.
Among the many Tusayan ruins which offer good facilities for archeological
work, the two which I chose for that purpose are Awatobi
and Sikyatki. My reasons for this choice may briefly be stated.
Awatobi is a historic pueblo of the Hopi, which was more or less
under Spanish influence between the years 1540 and 1700. When
properly investigated, in the light of archeology, it ought to present a
good picture of Tusayan life before the beginning of the modifications
which appear in the modern villages of that isolated province. While
I expected to find evidences of Spanish occupancy, I also sought facts
bearing on the character of Tusayan life in the seventeenth century.
Sikyatki, however, showed us the character of Tusayan life in the
fifteenth century, or the unmodified aboriginal pueblo culture of this
section of the Southwest. Here we expected to find Hopi culture
unmodified by Spanish influence.
The three pueblos of Sikyatki, Awatobi, and Walpi, when properly
studied, will show the condition of pueblo culture in three centuries—in
Sikyatki, pure, unmodified pueblo culture; in Awatobi, pueblo life
as slightly modified by the Spaniards, and in Walpi, those changes
resulting from the advent of Americans superadded. While special
attention has thus far been given by ethnologists mainly to the last-mentioned
pueblo, a study of the ruins of the other two villages is of
great value in showing how the modern life developed and what part
of it is due to foreign influence.
A knowledge of the inner life of the inhabitants of Tusayan as it
exists today is a necessary prerequisite to the interpretation of the
ancient culture of that province; but we must always bear in mind the
evolution of society and the influences of foreign origin which have
been exerted on it. Many, possibly the majority, of modern customs
at Walpi are inherited, but others are incorporated and still others, of
ancient date, have become extinct.
As much stress is laid in this memoir on the claim that objects from
Sikyatki indicate a culture uninfluenced by the Spaniards, it is well to
present the evidence on which this assertion is based.
(1) Hopi legends all declare that Sikyatki was destroyed before the
Spaniards, called the "long-gowned" and "iron-shirted" men, came to
Tusayan. (2) Sikyatki is not mentioned by name in any documentary
account of Tusayan, although the other villages are named and are
readily identifiable with existing pueblos. (3) No fragment of glass,
metal, or other object indicative of the contact of European civilization
was found anywhere in the ruin. If we add to the above the general
appearance of age in the mounds and the depth of the débris which
has accumulated in the rooms and over the graves, we have the main
facts on which I have relied to support my belief that Sikyatki is a
prehistoric ruin.
Awatobi
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RUIN
No Tusayan ruin offers to the archeologist a better picture of the
character of Hopi village life in the seventeenth century than that
known as Awatobi (). It is peculiarly interesting as connecting
the prehistoric culture of Sikyatki and modern Tusayan life,
with which we have become well acquainted through recent research.
Awatobi was one of the largest Tusayan pueblos in the middle of the
sixteenth century, and continued to exist to the close of the seventeenth.
It was therefore a historic pueblo. It had a mission, notices
of which occur in historical documents of the period. From its preponderance
in size, no less than from its position, we may suspect that
it held relatively the same leadership among the other Antelope valley
ruins that Walpi does today to Sichomovi and Hano.
The present condition of the ruins of Awatobi is in no respect peculiar
or different from that of the remains of prehistoric structures,
except that its mounds occupy a position on a mesa top commanding a
wide outlook over a valley. On its east it is hemmed in by extensive
sand dunes, which also stretch to the north and west, receding from the
village all the way from a few hundred yards to a quarter of a mile.
On the south the ruins overlook the plain, and the sands on the west
separate it from a canyon in which there are several springs, some cornfields,
and one or two modern Hopi houses. There is no water in the
valley which stretches away from the mesa on which Awatobi is situated,
and the foothills are only sparingly clothed with desert vegetation.
The mounds of the ruin have numerous clumps of sibibi (Rhus
trilobata), and are a favorite resort of Hopi women for the berries of this
highly prized shrub. There is a solitary tree midway between the sand
dunes west of the village and the western mounds, near which we found
it convenient to camp. The only inhabitants of the Awatobi mesa are
a Navaho family, who have appropriated, for the shade it affords, a
dwarf cedar east of the old mission walls. No land is cultivated, save
that in the canyons above mentioned, west of the sand hills; some fair
harvests are, however, still gathered from Antelope valley by the
Navaho, especially in the section higher up, near Jeditoh spring.
The ruin may be approached from the road between Holbrook and
Keam's Canyon, turning to the left after climbing the mesa. This road,
however, is not usually traveled, since it trends through the difficult
sand hills. As Keam's Canyon is the only place in this region at which
to provision an expedition, it is usual to approach Awatobi from that
side, the road turning to the right shortly after one ascends the steep
hill out of the canyon near Keam's trading post.
My archeological work at Awatobi began on July 6, 1895, and was
continued for two weeks, being abandoned on account of the defection
of my Hopi workmen, who left their work to attend the celebration of
the Niman or "Farewell" katcina, a July festival in which many of
them participated. The ruin is conveniently situated for the best
archeological results; it has a good spring near by, and is not far from
Keam's Canyon, the base of supplies. The soil covering the rooms, however,
is almost as hard as cement, and fragile objects, such as pottery,
were often broken before their removal from the matrix. A considerable
quantity of débris had to be removed before the floors were reached,
and as this was firmly impacted great difficulty was encountered in
successful excavations.
With a corps of trained workmen much better results than those we
obtained might have been expected, and the experience which the
Indians subsequently had at Sikyatki would have made my excavations
at Awatobi, had they been carried on later in the season, more remunerative.
While my archeological work at certain points in these interesting
mounds of Awatobi was more or less superficial, it was in other
places thorough, and revealed many new facts in regard to the culture
of the inhabitants of this most important pueblo.
I found it inexpedient to dig in the burial places among the sand
dunes, on account of the religious prejudices of my workmen. This
fear they afterward overcame to a certain extent, but never completely
outgrew, although the cemeteries at Sikyatki were quite thoroughly
excavated, yielding some of the most striking results of the summer's
exploration. The sand hills west of Sikyatki are often swept by
violent gales, by which the surface is continually changing, and mortuary
pottery is frequently exposed. This has always been a favorite
place for the collector, and many a beautiful food bowl has been carried
by the Indians from this cemetery to the trading store, for the natives
do not seem to object to selling a vase or other object which they find
on the surface, but rarely dig in the ground for the purpose of obtaining
specimens.
NOMENCLATURE OF AWATOBI
The name Awatobi is evidently derived from awata, a bow (referring
to the Bow clan, one of the strongest in the ancient pueblo), and obi,
"high place of." A derivation from owa, rock, has also been suggested,
but it seems hardly distinctive enough to be applicable, and is not
accepted by the Hopi themselves.
While the different pueblos of Tusayan were not specially mentioned
until forty years after they were first visited, the name Awatobi is
readily recognized in the account of Espejo in 1583, where it is called
Aguato, which appears as Zaguato and Ahuato in Hakluyt. In the
time of Oñate (1598) the same name is written Aguatuybá. Vetancurt,
about 1680, mentions the pueblo under the names Aguatobi and
Ahuatobi, and in 1692, or twelve years after the great rebellion, Vargas
visited "San Bernardo de Aguatuvi," ten leagues from Zuñi. The name
appears on maps up to the middle of the eighteenth century, several
years after its destruction. In more modern times various older spellings
have been adopted or new ones introduced. Among these may
be mentioned:
Aguatuví. Buschmann, Neu-Mexico, 231, 1858.
Aguatuya. Bandelier in Journal of American Ethnology and Archæology, iii, 85, 1892 (misquoting Oñate).
Aguitobi. Bandelier in Archæological Institute Papers, Am. series, iii, pt. 1, 115, 1890.
Ahuatu. Bandelier, ibid., 115, 135.
Ahuatuyba. Bandelier, ibid., 109.
Ah-wat-tenna. Bourke, Snake Dance of the Moquis of Arizona, 195, 1884 (so called by a Tusayan Indian).
Aquatasi. Walch, Charte America, 1805.
Aquatubi. Davis, Spanish Conquest of New Mexico, 368, 1869.
Atabi-hogandi. Bourke, op. cit., 84, 1884 (Navaho name).
Aua-tu-ui. Bandelier in Archæological Institute Papers, op. cit., iv, pt. 2, 368, 1892.
A-wa-te-u. Cushing in Atlantic Monthly, 367, September, 1882.
Awatúbi. Bourke, op. cit., 91, 1884.
Á wat u i. Cushing in Fourth Report Bureau of Ethnology, 493, 1886 (or Aguatóbi).
Zagnato. Brackenridge, Early Spanish Discoveries, 19, 1857 (misprint of Hakluyt's Zaguato).
Zaguate. Prince, New Mexico, 34, 1883 (misquoting Hakluyt).
Zuguato. Hinton, Handbook to Arizona, 388, 1878 (misquoting Hakluyt).
The Navaho name of the ruin, as is well known, is Talla-hogan, ordinarily
translated "Singing-house," and generally interpreted to refer to
the mass said by the padres in the ancient church. It is probable, however,
that kivas were used as chambers where songs were sung in ceremonials
prior to the introduction of Christianity. Therefore why Awatobi
should preeminently be designated as the "Singing-house" is not
quite apparent.
The name of the mission, San Bernardino, or San Bernardo, refers to
its patron saint, and was first applied by Porras in honor of the natal
day of this saint, on which day, in 1629, he and his companions arrived
in Tusayan.
HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE OF AWATOBI
The identification of Tusayan with the present country of the Hopi
depends in great measure on the correct determination of the situation
of Cibola. I have regarded as conclusive Bandelier's argument that
Cibola comprised the group of pueblos inhabited by the Zuñi in the
sixteenth century. Regarding this as proven, Tusayan corresponds
with the Hopi villages, of which Awatobi was one of the largest. It lies
in the same direction and about the same distance from Zuñi as stated
in Castañeda's narrative. The fact that Cardenas passed through
Tusayan when he went from Cibola to the Grand Canyon in 1540 is in
perfect harmony with the identification of the Hopi villages with Tusayan,
and Zuñi with Cibola. Tobar, in Tusayan, heard of the great
river to the west, and when he returned to the headquarters of Coronado
at Cibola the general dispatched Cardenas to investigate the
truth of the report. Cardenas naturally went to Tusayan where Tobar
had heard the news, and from there took guides who conducted him to
the Grand Canyon. Had the general been in any Hopi town at the
time he sent Tobar, and later Cardenas, it is quite impossible to find
any cluster of ruins which we can identify as Tusayan in the direction
indicated. There can be no doubt that Tusayan was the modern Hopi
country, and with this in mind the question as to which Hopi pueblo
was the one first visited by Tobar is worthy of investigation.
In order to shed what light is possible on this question, I have
examined the account by Castañeda, the letter of Coronado to Mendoza,
and the description in the "Relacion del Suceso," but find it difficult to
determine that point definitely.
In Hakluyt's translation of Coronado's letter, it is stated that the
houses of the "cities" which Tobar was sent to examine were "of
earth," and the "chiefe" of these towns is called "Tucano." As this
letter was written before Coronado had received word from Tobar concerning
his discoveries, naturally we should not expect definite
information concerning the new province. Capt. Juan Jaramillo's
account speaks of "Tucayan" as a province composed of seven towns,
and states that the houses are terraced.
In the "Relacion del Suceso" we likewise find the province called
"Tuzan" (Tusayan), and the author notes the resemblance of the
villages to Cibola, but he distinctly states that the inhabitants cultivated
cotton.
Castañeda's account, which is the most detailed, is that on which I
have relied in my identification of Awatobi as the first Hopi pueblo
seen by the Spaniards.
It seems that Don Pedro de Tobar was dispatched by Coronado to
explore a province called Tusayan which was reported to be twenty-five
leagues from Cibola. He had in his command seventeen horsemen
and one or two foot-soldiers, and was accompanied by Friar Juan
de Padilla. They arrived in the new province after dark and concealed
themselves under the edge of the mesa, so near that they heard the
voices of the Indians in their houses. The natives, however, discovered
them at daylight drawn up in order, and came out to meet them
armed with wooden clubs, bow and arrows, and carrying shields. The
chief drew a line of sacred meal across the trail, and in that way symbolized
that the entrance to their pueblo was closed to the intruders.
During a parley, however, one of the men made a move to cross the line
of meal, and an Indian struck his horse on the bridle. This opened hostilities,
in which the Hopi were worsted, but apparently without loss of
life. The vanquished brought presents of various kinds—cotton cloth,
cornmeal, birds, skins, piñon nuts, and a few turquoises—and finding a
good camping place near their pueblo, Tobar established headquarters
and received homage from all the province. They allowed the Spaniards
to enter their villages and traded with them.
Espejo's reference to Awatobi in 1583 leaves no doubt that the pueblo
was in existence in that year, and while, of course, we can not definitely
say that it was not built between 1540 and 1583, the indications are
that it was not. Hopi traditions assert that it was in existence when
the Spaniards came, and the statement of the legendists whom I have
consulted are definite that the survivors of Sikyatki went to Awatobi
after the overthrow of the former pueblo. It would not appear, however,
that Awatobi was founded prior to Sikyatki, nor is it stated that
the refugees from Sikyatki built Awatobi, which is within the bounds
of possibility, but it seems to be quite generally conceded that the
Sikyatki tragedy antedated the arrival of the first Spaniards.
There can, I think, be no doubt that the Hopi pueblo first entered
by Pedro de Tobar, in 1540, was Awatobi, and that the first conflict of
Spanish soldiers and Hopi warriors, which occurred at that time, took
place on the well-known Zuñi trail in Antelope valley, not far from
Jeditoh or Antelope spring. This pueblo is the nearest village to
Cibola (Zuñi), from which Tobar came, and as he took the Zuñi trail he
would naturally first approach this village, even if the other pueblos on
the rim of this valley were inhabited. It is interesting to consider a few
lines from Castañeda, describing the event of that episode, to see how
closely the site of Awatobi conforms to the narrative. In Castañeda's
account of Tobar's visit we find that the latter with his command
entered Tusayan so secretly that their presence was unknown to the
inhabitants, and they traversed a cultivated plain without being seen,
so that, we are told, they approached the village near enough to hear
the voices of the Indians without being discovered. Moreover, the
Indians, the narrative says, had a habit of descending to their cultivated
fields, which implies that they lived on a mesa top. Awatobi
was situated on a mesa, and the cultivated fields were in exactly the
position indicated. The habit of retiring to their pueblo at night is
still observed, or was to within a few years. Tobar arrived at the edge
of Antelope valley after dark (otherwise he would have been discovered),
crossed the cultivated fields under cover of night, and camped
under the town at the base of the mesa. The soldiers from that point
could readily hear the voices of the villagers above them. Even at the
base of the lofty East Mesa I have often heard the Walpi people talking,
while the words of the town crier are intelligible far out on the plain.
From the configuration of the valley it would not, however, have been
easier for Awatobians to have seen the approaching Spaniards than
for the Walpians; still it was possible for the invaders to conceal their
approach to Walpi in the same way. If, however, the first pueblo
approached was Walpi, and Tobar followed the Zuñi trail, I think he
would have been discovered by the Awatobi people before nightfall if
he entered the cultivated fields early in the evening. It would be
incredible to believe that he wandered from the trail; much more likely
he went directly to Awatobi, the first village en route, and then
encamped until the approach of day before entering the pueblo. At
sunrise the inhabitants, early stirring, detected the presence of the
intruders, and the warriors went down the mesa to meet them. They
had already heard from Cibola of the strange beings, men mounted on
animals which were said to devour enemies.
It may seem strange that the departure of an expedition against Tusayan
was unknown to the Hopi, but the narrative leads us to believe
that such was the fact. The warriors descended to the plain, and their
chief drew a line of sacred meal across the trail to symbolize that the
way to their pueblo was closed; whoever crossed it was an enemy, and
punishment should be meted out to him. This custom is still preserved
in several ceremonials at the present day, as, for instance, in the New-fire
rites in November and in the Flute observance in July. The
priests say that in former times whoever crossed a line of meal drawn
on the trail at that festival was killed, and even now they insist that no
one is allowed to pass a closed trail. The Awatobi warriors probably
warned Tobar and his comrades not to advance, but the symbolic barrier
was not understood by them. The Spaniards were not there to parley
long, and it is probable that their purpose was to engage in a quarrel
with the Indians. Urged on by the priest, Juan de Padilla, "who had
been a soldier in his youth," they charged the Indians and overthrew a
number, driving the others before them. The immediate provocation
for this, according to the historian, was that an Indian struck one of
the horses on the bridle, at which the holy father, losing patience,
exclaimed to his captain, "Why are we here?" which was interpreted as
a sign for the assault.
It must, however, be confessed that if the pueblo of Walpi was the
first discovered an approach by stealth without being seen would
have been easier for Tobar if the village referred to was Walpi then
situated on the Ash-hill terrace, with the East Mesa between it and
the Zuñi trail. To offset this probability, however, is the fact that the
Zuñi trail now runs through Awatobi, or in full view of it and there is
hardly a possibility that Tobar left that trail to avoid Awatobi. He
would naturally visit the first village, and not go out of his way seven
miles beyond it, seeking a more distant pueblo.
The effect of this onslaught on men armed with spears, clubs, and
leather shields can be imagined, and the encounter seems to have discouraged
the Awatobi warriors from renewed resistance. They fled,
but shortly afterward brought presents as a sign of submission, when
Tobar called off his men. Thus was the entry of the Spaniards into
Tusayan marked with bloodshed for a trifling offense. Shortly afterward
Tobar entered the village and received the complete submission
of the people.
The names of the Tusayan pueblos visited by Tobar in this first
entrance are nowhere mentioned in the several accounts which have
come down to us. Forty years later, however, the Spaniards returned
and found the friendly feeling of Awatobi to the visitors had not lapsed.
When Espejo approached the town in 1583, over the same Zuñi trail,
the multitudes with their caciques met him with great joy and poured
maize (sacred meal?) on the ground for the horses to walk upon. This
was symbolic of welcome; they "made" the trail, a ceremony which is
still kept up when entrance to the pueblo is formally offered.
The people, considering their poverty, were generous, and gave
Espejo "hand towels with tassels" at the corners. These were probably
dance kilts and ceremonial blankets, which then, as now, the
Hopi made of cotton.
The pueblo, called "Aguato" in the account of that visit, was without
doubt Awatobi. The name Aguatuybá, mentioned by Oñate, is
also doubtless the same, although, as pointed out to me by Mr Hodge,
"through an error probably of the copyist or printer, the name
Aguatuybá is inadvertently given by Oñate among his list of Hopi
chiefs, while Esperiez is mentioned among the pueblos." In Oñate's list
we recognize Oraibi in "Naybi," and Shuñopovi in "Xumupamí" and
"Comupaví," the most westerly town of the Middle Mesa. "Cuanrabi"
and "Esperiez" are not recognizable as pueblos.
Espejo, therefore, appears to have been the first to mention Awatobi
as "Aguato," which is metamorphosed in Hakluyt into "Zaguato or
"Ahuzto," although evidently Oñate's "Aguatuybá" was intended as
a name of a pueblo.
I have not been able to determine satisfactorily the date of the
*** of the mission building of San Bernardino at Awatobi, but
the name is mentioned as early as 1629. In that year three friars
went to Tusayan and began active efforts to convert the Hopi.
It is recorded that Padre Porras, with Andres Gutierrez, Cristoval
de la Concepcion, and ten soldiers, arrived in Tusayan, "dia del glorioso
San Bernardo (que és el apellido que aora tiene aquel pueblo)," which
leaves no doubt why the mission at Awatobi was so named. Although
an apostate Indian had spread the report, previously to the advent of
these priests in Tusayan, that the Spaniards were coming among them
to burn their pueblos, rob their homes, and devour their children, the
zealous missionaries in 1629 converted many of the chiefs and baptized
their children. The cacique, Don Augustin, who appears to have
been baptized at Awatobi, apparently lived in Walpi or at the Middle
Mesa, and returning to his pueblo, prepared the way for a continuation
of the apostolic work in the villages of the other mesas.
But the missionary labors of Porras came to an untimely end. It is
written that by 1633 he had made great progress in converting the
Hopi, but in that year, probably at Awatobi, he was poisoned. Of
the fate of his two companions and the success of their work little is
known, but it is recorded that the succession of padres was not broken
up to the great rebellion in 1680. Figueroa, who was massacred at
Awatobi in that year, went to Tusayan in 1674 with Aug. Sta. Marie.
Between the death of Porras and the arrival of Figueroa there was an
interval of eleven years, during which time the two comrades of Porras
or Espeleta, who went to Tusayan in 1650, took charge of the spiritual
welfare of the Hopi. Espeleta and Aug. Sta. Marie were killed in 1680 at
San Francisco de Oraibi and Walpi, respectively, and José Trujillo probably
lost his life at Old Shuñopovi at the same time. As there is no good
reason to suppose that Awatobi, one of the most populous Tusayan
pueblos, was neglected by the Spanish missionaries after the death of
Porras in 1633, and as it was the first pueblo encountered on the trail from
Zuñi, doubtless San Bernardino was one of the earliest missions erected
in Tusayan. From 1680 until 1692, the period of independence resulting
from the great Pueblo revolt, there was no priest in Tusayan, nor,
indeed, in all New Mexico. Possibly the mission was repaired between
1692 and 1700, but it is probable that it was built as early as the time
Porras lived in Awatobi. It is explicitly stated that in the destruction
of Awatobi in 1700 no missionaries were killed, although it is recorded
that early in that year Padre Garaycoechea made it a visit.
The disputes between the Jesuits and Franciscans to obtain the
Hopi field for missionary work during the eighteenth century naturally
falls in another chapter of Spanish-Tusayan history. Aside from sporadic
visits to the pueblos, nothing tangible appears to have resulted
from the attempts at conversion in this epoch. True, many apostates
were induced to return to their old homes on the Rio Grande and some
of the Hopi frequently asked for resident priests, making plausible
offers to protect them; but the people as a whole were hostile, and
the mission churches were never rebuilt, nor did the fathers again live
in this isolated province.
In 1692 Awatobi was visited by Don Diego de Vargas, the reconquerer
of New Mexico, who appears to have had no difficulty bringing
to terms the pueblos of Awatobi, Walpi, Mishoñinovi, and
Shuñopovi. He found, however, that Awatobi was "fortified," and the
entrance so narrow that but one man could enter at a time. The
description leads us to conclude that the fortification was the wall at
the eastern end, and the entrance the gateway, the sides of which are
still to be seen. The plaza in which the cross was erected was probably
just north of the walls of the mission.
There would seem to be no doubt that a mission building was standing
at Awatobi before 1680, for Vetancurt, writing about the year
named, states that in the uprising it was burned. At the time of the
visit of Garaycoechea, in the spring of 1700, he found that the mission
had been rebuilt. In this connection it is instructive, as bearing on
the probable cause of the destruction of Awatobi, to find that while
the inhabitants of this pueblo desired to have the mission rehabilitated,
the other Tusayan pueblos were so hostile that the friends of the priest
in Awatobi persuaded him not to attempt to visit the other villages.
This warning was no doubt well advised, and the tragic fate which
befell Awatobi before the close of the year shows that the trouble was
brewing when the padre was there, and possibly Garaycoechea's visit
hastened the catastrophe or intensified the hatred of the other pueblos.
At the time of Garaycoechea's visit he baptized, it is said, 73 persons.
This rite was particularly obnoxious to the Hopi, as indeed to
the other Pueblo Indians, notwithstanding they performed practically
the same ceremony in initiations into their own secret societies. The
Awatobians, however, or at least some of them, allowed this rite of the
Christians, thus intensifying the hatred of the more conservative of
their own village and of the neighboring pueblos. These and other facts
seem to indicate that the real cause of the destruction of Awatobi
was the reception of Christianity by its inhabitants, which the other
villagers regarded as sorcery. The conservative party, led by Tapolo,
opened the gate of the town to the warriors of Walpi and Mishoñinovi,
who slaughtered the liberals, thus effectually rooting out the
new faith from Tusayan, for after that time it never again obtained a
foothold.
The visit of Padre Juan Garaycoechea to Tusayan was at the invitation
of Espeleta, chief of Oraibi, but he went no farther than Awatobi,
where he baptized the 73 Hopi. He then returned to the "governor,"
and arrived at Zuñi in June. According to Bancroft (p. 222), "In the
'Moqui Noticias' ms., 669, it is stated that the other Moquis, angry that
Aguatuvi had received the padres, came and attacked the pueblo, killed
all the men, and carried off all the women and children, leaving the
place for many years deserted." Although I have not been able to consult
the document quoted, this conclusion corresponds so closely with
Hopi tradition that I believe it is practically true, although Bancroft
unfortunately closes the quotation I have made from his account with
the words, "I think this must be an error." Espeleta, the Oraibi chief,
and 20 companions were in Santa Fé in October, 1700, and proposed a
peace in which the Hopi asked for religious toleration, which Governor
Cubero refused. As a final appeal he desired that the fathers should
not permanently reside with them, but should visit one pueblo each
year for six years; but this request was also rejected. Espeleta returned
to Oraibi, and immediately on his appearance an unsuccessful attempt
was made to destroy Awatobi, followed, as recounted in the legend, by
a union with Walpi and Mishoñinovi, by which the liberal-minded
villagers of the Antelope mesa were overthrown. Documentary and
legendary accounts are thus in strict accord regarding the cause of the
destruction.
The meager fragmentary historical evidence that can be adduced shows
that the destruction of Awatobi occurred in the autumn or early winter
of 1700. In May of that year we have the account of the visiting padre,
and in the summer when Espeleta was at Santa Fé, the pueblo was
flourishing. The month of November would have been a favorable one
for the destruction of the town for the reason that during this time the
warriors would all be engaged in secret kiva rites. The legend relates
that the overthrow of the pueblo was at the Naacnaiya, which now
takes place in November.
For many years after its destruction the name of Awatobi was still
retained on maps including the Tusayan province, and there exist several
published references to the place as if still inhabited; but these
appear to be compilations, as no traveler visited the site subsequently
to 1700. It is never referred to in writings of the eighteenth or first
half of the nineteenth centuries, and its site attracted no attention.
The ruins remained unidentified until about 1884, when the late Captain
J. G. Bourke published his book on the "Snake Dance of the Moquis,"
in which he showed that the ruin called by the Navaho Tally-hogan was
the old Awatobi which played such a prominent part in early Tusayan
history.
The ruin was described and figured a few years later by Mr Victor
Mindeleff in his valuable memoir on Cibola and Tusayan architecture.
Bourke's reference is very brief and Mindeleff's plan deficient, as it
includes only a portion of the ruin, namely, the conspicuous mission
walls and adjacent buildings, overlooking entirely the older or western
mounds, which are the most characteristic. In 1892 I published the
first complete ground-plan of the ruins of Awatobi, including both
eastern and western sections. As Mindeleff's plan is defective, his
characterization of the architectural features of the pueblo is consequently
faulty. He says: "The plan suggests that the original pueblo
was built about three sides of a rectangular court, the fourth or southeast
side, later occupied by the mission buildings, being left open or
protected by a low wall." While the eastern portion undoubtedly supports
this conclusion, had he examined the western or main section he
would doubtless have qualified his conclusion (). This portion
was compact, without a rectangular court, and was of pyramidal
form. The eastern section was probably of later construction, and the
mission was originally built outside the main pueblo, although probably
a row of rooms of very ancient date extended along the northern side
opposite the church. As it was customary in Tusayan to isolate the
kivas, these rooms in Awatobi were probably extramural and may have
been situated in this eastern court, but the majority of the people lived
in the western section. The architecture of the mission and adjacent
rooms shows well-marked Spanish influence, which is wholly absent in
the buildings forming the western mounds.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CVII
GROUND PLAN OF AWATOBI
LEGEND OF THE DESTRUCTION OF AWATOBI
The legend of the overthrow of Awatobi is preserved in detail among
the living villagers of Tusayan, and like all stories which have been
transmitted for several generations exist in several variants, differing
in episodes, but coinciding in general outlines. In the absence of contemporary
documentary history, which some time may possibly be
brought to light, the legends are the only available data regarding an
event of great importance in the modern history of Tusayan.
I have obtained the legends from Supela, Shimo, Masiumptiwa, and
Saliko, and the most complete appears to be that of the last mentioned.
The others dilated more on the atrocities which were committed on the
bodies of the unfortunate captives, and the tortures endured before
they were killed. All show traces of modification, incorporation, and
modern invention.
Destruction of Awatobi as related by Saliko
"The chiefs Wiki and Shimo, and others, have told you their stories,
and surely their ancestors were living here at Walpi when Awatobi
was occupied. It was a large village, and many people lived there, and
the village chief was called Tapolo, but he was not at peace with his
people, and there were quarreling and trouble. Owing to this conflict
only a little rain fell, but the land was fertile and fair harvests were
still gathered. The Awatobi men were bad (powako, sorcerers). Sometimes
they went in small bands among the fields of the other villagers
and cudgeled any solitary worker they found. If they overtook any
woman they ravished her, and they waylaid hunting parties, taking the
game, after beating and sometimes killing the hunters. There was
considerable trouble in Awatobi, and Tapolo sent to the Oraibi chief
asking him to bring his people and kill the evil Awatobians. The
Oraibi came and fought with them, and many were killed on both
sides, but the Oraibi were not strong enough to enter the village, and
were compelled to withdraw. On his way back the Oraibi chief stopped
at Walpi and talked with the chiefs there. Said he, 'I can not tell
why Tapolo wants the Oraibi to kill his folks, but we have tried and
have not succeeded very well. Even if we did succeed, what benefit
would come to us who live too far away to occupy the land? You Walpi
people live close to them and have suffered most at their hands; it is
for you to try.' While they were talking Tapolo had also come, and it
was then decided that other chiefs of all the villages should convene at
Walpi to consult. Couriers were sent out, and when all the chiefs had
arrived Tapolo declared that his people had become sorcerers (Christians),
and hence should all be destroyed.
"It was then arranged that in four days large bands from all the
other villages should prepare themselves, and assemble at a spring not
far from Awatobi. A long while before this, when the Spaniards lived
there, they had built a wall on the side of the village that needed protection,
and in this wall was a great, strong door. Tapolo proposed that
the assailants should come before dawn, and he would be at this door
ready to admit them, and under this compact he returned to his village.
During the fourth night after this, as agreed upon, the various bands
assembled at the deep gulch spring, and every man carried, besides his
weapons, a cedar-bark torch and a bundle of greasewood. Just before
dawn they moved silently up to the mesa summit, and, going directly
to the east side of the village, they entered the gate, which opened as
they approached. In one of the courts was a large kiva, and in it were
a number of men engaged in sorcerer's rites. The assailants at once
made for the kiva, and plucking up the ladder, they stood around the
hatchway, shooting arrows down among the entrapped occupants. In
the numerous cooking pits fire had been maintained through the night
for the preparation of food for a feast on the appointed morning, and
from these they lighted their torches. Great numbers of these and the
bundles of greasewood being set on fire, they were cast down the
hatchway, and firewood from stacks upon the house terraces were also
thrown into the kiva. The red peppers for which Awatobi was famous
were hanging in thick clusters along the fronts of the houses, and
these they crushed in their hands and flung upon the blazing fire in the
kiva to further torment their burning occupants. After this, all who
were capable of moving were compelled to travel or drag themselves
until they came to the sand-hills of Mishoñinovi, and there the final
disposition of the prisoners was made.
"My maternal ancestor had recognized a woman chief (Mamzrau
moñwi), and saved her at the place of massacre called Maski, and now
he asked her whether she would be willing to initiate the woman of
Walpi in the rites of the Mamzrau. She complied, and thus the observance
of the ceremonial called the Mamzráuti came to Walpi. I can not
tell how it came to the other villages. This Mamzrau-moñwi had no
children, and hence my maternal ancestor's sister became chief, and
her tiponi (badge of office) came to me. Some of the other Awatobi
women knew how to bring rain, and such of them as were willing to
teach their songs were spared and went to different villages. The
Oraibi chief saved a man who knew how to cause peaches to grow,
and that is why Oraibi has such an abundance of peaches now. The
Mishoñinovi chief saved a prisoner who knew how to make the sweet,
small-ear corn grow, and that is why it is more abundant there than
elsewhere. All the women who knew song prayers and were willing
to teach them were spared, and no children were designedly killed, but
were divided among the villages, most of them going to Mishoñinovi.
The remainder of the prisoners, men and women, were again tortured
and dismembered and left to die on the sand hills, and there their
bones are, and that is the reason the place is called Maschomo (Death-mound).
This is the story of Awatobi told by my old people."
All variants of the legend are in harmony in this particular, that Awatobi
was destroyed by the other Tusayan pueblos, and that Mishoñinovi,
Walpi, and probably Oraibi and Shuñopovi participated in the deed.
A grievance that would unite the other villagers against Awatobi must
have been a great one, indeed, and not a mere dispute about water or
lands. The more I study the real cause, hidden in the term powako,
"wizard" or "sorcerer," the more I am convinced that the progress
Christianity was making in Awatobi, after the reconquest of the Pueblos
in 1692, explains the hostility of the other villagers. The party favoring
the Catholic fathers in Awatobi was increasing, and the other
Tusayan pueblos watched its growth with alarm. They foresaw that
it heralded the return of the hated domination of the priests, associated
in their minds with practical slavery, and they decided on the
tragedy, which was carried out with all the savagery of which their
natures were capable.
They greatly feared the return of the Spanish soldiers, as the epoch
of Spanish rule, mild though it may have been, was held in universal
detestation. Moreover, after the reconquest of the Rio Grande pueblos,
many apostates fled to Tusayan and fanned the fires of hatred against
the priests. Walpi received these malcontents, who came in numbers
a few years later. Among these arrivals were Tanoan warriors and
their families, part of whom were ancestors of the present inhabitants
of Hano.
It was no doubt hoped that the destruction of Awatobi would effectually
root out the growing Christian influence, which it in fact did;
and for fifty years afterward Tusayan successfully resisted all efforts
to convert it. Franciscans from the east and Jesuits from the Gila in
the south strove to get a new hold, but they never succeeded in rebuilding
the missions in this isolated province, which was generally regarded
as independent.
From the scanty data I have been able to collect from historical and
legendary sources, it seems probable that Awatobi was always more
affected by the padres than were the other Tusayan pueblos. This was
the village which was said to have been "converted" by Padre Porras,
whose work, after his death by poison in 1633, was no doubt continued by
his associates and successors. About 1680, as we learn from documentary
accounts, the population of Awatobi was 800, and it was probably
not much smaller in 1700, the time of its destruction.
EVIDENCES OF FIRE IN THE DESTRUCTION
Wherever excavations were conducted in the eastern section of
Awatobi, we could not penetrate far below the surface without encountering
unmistakable evidences of a great conflagration. The effect of
the fire was particularly disastrous in the rooms of the eastern section,
or that part of the pueblo contiguous to the mission. Hardly a single
object was removed from this part of Awatobi that had not been
charred. Many of the beams were completely burned; others were
charred only on their surfaces. The rooms were filled with ashes and
scoriæ, while the walls had been cracked as if by intense heat.
Perhaps the most significant fact in regard to the burning of Awatobi
was seen in some of the houses where the fire seems to have been less
intense. In many chambers of the eastern section, which evidently
were used as granaries, the corn was stacked in piles just as it is today
under many of the living rooms at Walpi, a fact which tends to show
that there was no attempt to pillage the pueblo before its destruction.
The ears of corn in these store-rooms were simply charred, but so well
preserved that entire ears of maize were collected in great numbers. It
may here be mentioned that upon one of the stacks of corn I found during
my excavations for the Hemenway Expedition in 1892, a rusty iron
knife-blade, showing that the owner of the room was acquainted with
objects of Spanish manufacture. This blade is now deposited with the
Hemenway collection in the Peabody Museum at Cambridge.
THE RUINS OF THE MISSION
The mission church of San Bernardino de Awatobi was erected very
early in the history of the Spanish occupancy, and its ruined walls are
the only ones now standing above the surface. This building was constructed
by the padres on a mesa top, while the churches at Walpi and
Shuñopovi were built in the foothills near those pueblos. The mission
at Oraibi likewise stood on a mesa top, so that we must qualify Mindeleff's
statement that "at Tusayan there is no evidence that a church
or mission house ever formed part of the villages on the mesa summits.... These
summits have been extensively occupied only in comparatively
recent time, although one or more churches may have been
built here at an early date as outlooks over the fields in the valley
below."
At the time of the Spanish invasion three of the Hopi villages stood
on the foothills or lower terraces of the mesas on which they now stand,
and the other two, Awatobi and Oraibi, occupied the same sites as
today, on the summits of the mesas.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CVIII
RUINS OF SAN BERNARDINO DE AWATOBI
I believe that at the time of the Spanish discovery of Tusayan by
Pedro de Tobar in 1540, there were only five Tusayan towns—Walpi,
Awatobi, Shuñopovi, Mishoñinovi, and Oraibi. Later, Awatobi was
destroyed, and shortly after 1680 Walpi, the only East Mesa town,
together with Mishoñinovi and Shuñopovi, on the Middle Mesa, were
moved to the elevated sites they now occupy. Oraibi, therefore, is
probably the only Tusayan pueblo, at present inhabited, which occupies
practically the same site that it did in 1540.
In their excavations for the foundations of new houses the present
inhabitants of Oraibi often find, as I am informed by Mr H. R. Voth,
the missionary at that place, vessels or potsherds of ancient Tusayan
ware closely resembling that which is found in the ruins of Sikyatki
and Awatobi.
The mission building at Awatobi, known in the church history of
New Mexico and Arizona as San Bernardo or San Bernardino, was
reputed to be the largest in Tusayan, and its walls are still the best
preserved of any mission structure in that province. This, however,
does not imply that the church structures of Tusayan are well preserved,
for the mission buildings at Walpi have wholly disappeared,
while at Oraibi little more than a pile of stones remains. Of the
Shuñopovi mission of San Bernabe there are no standing walls save
at one end, which are now used as a sheep corral.
The mission of San Bernardino de Awatobi was built on the southern
side of the eastern part of the pueblo on the edge of the cliff, and its
walls are the only ones of Awatobi now standing above ground. From
the situation of these walls, as compared with the oldest part of Awatobi—the
western mounds—I believe that San Bernardino mission was,
when erected, beyond the limits of the pueblo proper—a custom almost
universally followed in erecting pueblo mission churches—necessary in
this instance, since from the compactness of the village there was no
other available site. The same was true of the missions of Oraibi and
Shuñopovi, and probably of Old Walpi. As time passed additional
buildings were erected near it, this eastward extension altering the
original plan of the town, but in no way affecting the configuration of
the older portion.
From its commanding position on the edge of the mesa the mission
walls must have presented an imposing appearance from the plain
below, rising as they did almost continuously with the side of the cliff,
making a conspicuous structure for miles across Antelope valley, from
which its crumbling walls are still visible ().
When compared with the masonry of unmodified pueblo ruins the
walls of the mission may be designated massive, and excavation at
their foundations was very difficult on account of the great amount of
débris which had fallen about them. With the limited force of laborers
at my command the excavations could not be conducted with a great
degree of thoroughness.
In the middle of what I supposed to have been the main church
there was much sand, evidently drift, and in it I sank a trench 10 feet
below the surface without reaching anything which I considered a floor.
We found in excavations at the foundation of the church walls fragments
of glass, several copper nails, a much-corroded iron hook, a copper
bell pivot, and fragments of Spanish pottery. From the character
of these objects alone there is no doubt in my mind of the former existence
of Spanish influence, and the method of construction of the mission
walls and the addition constructed of adobe containing chopped straw,
substantiate this conclusion. Supposing, from the architecture and
orientation of other New Mexican missions, that the altar was at the
western end, opposite the entrance to the church, I sank a trench along
the foundation of the wall on that side, but encountered such a mass
of fallen stone at that point that I found it impossible to make much
progress, and the fact that the floor was more than 10 feet below the
surface of the central depression led me to abandon, as impossible
with my little band of native excavators, the laying bare of the floor
of the church.
Fig. 255—Ground plan of San Bernardino de Awatobi
The ground plan () of the mission resembles that of the
Zuñi church, and is not unlike the plans of the churches in the Rio
Grande pueblos. The tall buttresses, which rise 15 or 20 feet above
the trail up the mesa on the southern corner, are, I believe, remnants
of towers which formerly supported a balcony. During a previous visit
to Tusayan I obtained fragments of the ancient bell, which are now
on exhibition in the Hemenway section of the Peabody Museum at
Cambridge.
The stone walls of the mission were rarely dressed or carefully fitted,
the interstices being filled in with loose rubble laid in adobe. There
was apparently a gallery over the entrance to the building overlooking
many smaller buildings, which evidently were the quarters of the resident
priest. The construction of the walls was apparently a laborious
task, as many of the stones are large and must have been brought a
considerable distance. These stones were laid in adobe, and apparently
were plastered without and within, although little evidence of
the former plastering may now be seen. At the northwestern corner,
however, there still remain well-made adobe walls, the clay having
been intermixed with straw. From the general appearance of these
walls I regard them as of late construction, probably long after the
destruction of the mission.
An examination of the plan of the mission building shows that it
was oriented about north and south, with the entrance toward the latter
direction. Compared with many other pueblo missions, this would seem
to be an exceptional position. In my excavations I naturally sought
the probable position of the entrance and, opposite it, the recess for
the altar. It is evident, from the form of the standing walls, that an
entrance from the east would be blocked by standing walls, and the
axis of the building is north and south. The theory that the door was
at the south has much in its favor, but there are several almost fatal
objections to this conclusion.
If, however, we suppose that the entrance was in the south wall, the
high walls still standing above the trail up the mesa would then recall
the façades of other missions. The rooms east of the largest inclosure,
by this interpretation, would be outbuildings—residence rooms for the
padres—one side of which forms the eastern walls of the church edifice.
The form of the Awatobi church, as indicated by the walls still
standing, is very similar to that of Zuñi, notwithstanding the orientation
appears to be somewhat different.
Excavations failed to reveal any sign of the altar recess at either the
northern or the western end, which is not surprising, since the walls are
so poorly preserved in both these directions. It was, moreover, very
difficult to make a satisfactory examination of the foundations of the
walls at any point on account of the fallen stories, which encumbered
the floor at their bases.
From the appearance of antiquity it seems probable that long before
the mission buildings were erected a ridge of many-storied houses
extended eastward from the pueblo on the northern side of a level space
or court, in which there were, either then or later, ceremonial chambers
or kivas. The southern side of this open space was the site of the mission,
but was then unoccupied. This open space recalls the large court
at Walpi, where the Snake dance occurs, but it was considerably
broader, one side being formed by the structures which rose from the
edge of the mesa. In course of time, however, the mission buildings
were erected on this site, and a wall connecting the ridge of houses on
the north and the outhouses of the mission was made, thus inclosing
the court on all four sides. It was into this inclosure, through a gateway,
the buttresses of which still remain, that the assailants passed on
that eventful night when Awatobi was destroyed.
There is good evidence that a massacre of Awatobians occurred in
the southeastern angle of the eastern part of the pueblo, just east of the
mission. If so, it is probable that many of the unfortunates sought
refuge in the outbuildings of the church. Suspecting that such was the
case, I excavated a considerable space of ground at these places and
found many human skulls and other bones thrown together in confusion.
The earth was literally filled with bones, evidently hastily placed there
or left where the dead fell. These bodies were not buried with pious
care, for there were no fragments of mortuary pottery or other indication
of burial objects. Many of the skulls were broken, some pierced
with sharp implements. While it is true that possibly this may have
been a potter's field, or, from its position east of the mission, a Christian
burial place, as at Zuñi, the evidence from the appearance of the bodies
points to a different conclusion. According to the legends, the hostiles
entered the pueblo through the adjacent gateway; their anger led them
especially against those of the inhabitants who were regarded as powako
or sorcerers, and their first acts of violence would naturally have been
toward those who sought refuge in the buildings adjacent the church.
Near this hated "Singing-house" the slaughter began, soon extending
to the kivas and the whole of the eastern section of the village. There
was no evidence of murderous deeds in the rooms of the western section
of the old pueblo, and the legends agree in relating that most of the
men were in kivas, not far from the mission, when the village was
overthrown. There is no legendary evidence that there were any Spanish
priests in the mission at the time of its destruction, and there is no
record extant of any Spaniards losing their lives at Awatobi at the
time of its destruction, although the fact of the occurrence, according
to Bandelier, was recorded.
The traditional clans which inhabited Awatobi were the Awata
(Bow), Honani (Badger), Piba (Tobacco), and Buli (Butterfly). The
Bow people appear to have been the most important of these, since
their name was applied to the village. Their totemic signatures, in
pictographic form, may still be seen on the sides of the cliff under
Awatobi, and in the ruins was found a fine arrowshaft polisher on
which was an incised drawing of a bow and an arrow, suggesting that
the owner was a member of the Bow phratry. Saliko, the chief of the
woman's society known as the Mamzrautû, insists that this priesthood
was strong in the fated pueblo, and that a knowledge of its mysteries
was brought to Walpi by one of the women who was saved.
It is claimed by the folklorists of the Tataukyamû, a priesthood
which, controls the New-fire ceremonies at Walpi, and is prominent in
the Soyaluña, or the rites of the winter solstice, that the Piba or
Tobacco phratry brought the fetishes of that society to Walpi, and
there are many obscurely known resemblances between the Mamzrauti
and the Wüwütcimti celebrations in Walpi which appear to support
that claim. The Piba phratry is likewise said to have come to Walpi
comparatively late in the history of the village, which fact points the
same way.
Undoubtedly Awatobi received additions to its population from the
south when the pueblos on the Little Colorado were abandoned, and
there are obscure legends which support that belief; but the largest
numbers were recruited from the pueblos in the eastern section of the
country.
THE KIVAS OF AWATOBI
A pueblo of the size of Awatobi, with so many evidences of long
occupancy, would no doubt have several ceremonial chambers or
kivas, but as yet no one has definitely indicated their positions. I
have already called attention to evidences that if they existed they
were probably to be looked for in the open court east of the western
mounds and in the space north of the mission. In all the inhabited
Tusayan pueblos the kivas are separated from the house clusters
and are surrounded by courts or dance plazas. No open spaces
existed in the main or western mounds of Awatobi, and there was
no place there for kivas unless the pueblo was exceptional in having
such structures built among the dwellings, as at Zuñi. A tradition has
survived that Awatobi had regular kivas, partially subterranean, of
rectangular shape, and that they were situated in open courts. This
would indicate that the space east of the oldest part of the ruin may
have been the sites of these chambers. The old priests whom I have
consulted in regard to the probable positions of Awatobi kivas have
invariably pointed out the mounds north of the mission walls in the
eastern section of the ruin as the location of the kivas, and in 1892 I
proved to my satisfaction that these directions were correct.
There is no reason to suppose that the kiva was a necessity in the
ancient performance of the Tusayan ritual, and there are still performed
many ceremonials as secret and as sacred as any others which occur
in rooms used as dwellings or for the storage of corn. Thus, the Flute
ceremony, one of the most complicated in Tusayan, is not, and according
to legends never was, performed in a kiva. On the contrary, the
secret rites of the Flute society are performed in the ancestral Flute
chamber or home of the oldest woman of the Flute clan. Originally, I
believe, the same was true in the case of other ceremonials, and that
the kiva was of comparatively recent introduction into Tusayan.
Speaking of the sacred rooms of Awatobi, Mindeleff says: "No traces
of kivas were visible at the time the ruin was surveyed," but Stephen
is quoted in a legend that "the people of Walpi had partly cleaned
out one of these chambers and used it as a depository for ceremonial
plume-sticks, but the Navaho carried off their sacred deposits, tempted
probably by their market value as ethnologic specimens." It is true
that while from a superficial examination of the Awatobi mounds the
position of the kivas is difficult to locate, a little excavation brings
their walls to light. It is likewise quite probable that the legend
reported by Stephen has a basis in fact, and that the people at Walpi
may have used old shrines in Awatobi, after its destruction, as the
priests of Mishoñinovi do at the present time; but I very much doubt if
the Navaho sold any of the sacred prayer emblems from these fanes. It
is hardly characteristic of these people to barter such objects among
one another, and no specimens from the shrines appear to have made
their way into the numerous collections of traders known to me. There
is, however, archeological evidence revealed by excavations that the
room centrally placed in the court north of the mission contained a
shrine in its floor on the night Awatobi fell.
In 1892, while removing the soil from a depression about the middle of
the eastern court of Awatobi, about 100 feet north of the northern
wall of the mission, I laid bare a room 28 by 14 feet, in which were
found a skull and many other human bones which, from their disposition,
had not been buried with care. The discovery of these skeletons
accorded with the Hopi traditions that this was one of the rooms
in which the men of Awatobi were gathered on the fatal night, and the
inclosure where many died. I was deterred from further excavation
at that place by the horror of my workmen at the desecration of the
chamber. In 1895, however, I determined to continue my earlier
excavations and to trace the course of the walls of adjacent rooms.
The results obtained in this work led to a new phase of the question,
which sheds more light on the character of the rooms in the middle of
the eastern court of Awatobi. Instead of a single room at this point,
there are three rectangular chambers side by side, all of about the
same size (). In the center of the floor of the middle room,
6 feet below the surface, I came upon a cist or stone shrine. As the
workmen approached the floor they encountered a stone slab, horizontally
placed in the pavement of the room. This slab was removed, and
below it was another flat stone which was perforated by a rectangular
hole just large enough to admit the hand and forearm. This second
slab was found to cover a stone box, the sides of which were formed
of stone slabs about 2-1/2 feet square. On the inner faces of the upright
slabs rain-cloud symbols were painted. These symbols were of terrace
form, in different colors outlined with black lines. One of the stones
bore a yellow figure, another a red, and a third white. The color of the
fourth was not determinable, but evidently, from its position relatively
to the others, was once green. This arrangement corresponds with
the present ceremonial assignment of colors to the cardinal points, or
at least the north and south, as at the present time, were yellow and
red, respectively, and presumably the white and green were on the east
and west sides of the cist. The colors are still fairly bright and may
be seen in the restoration of this shrine now in the National Museum.
There was no stone floor to this shrine, but within it were found
fragments of prayer-plumes or pahos painted green, but so decayed
that, when exposed to sunlight, some of them fell into dust. There
were likewise fragments of green carbonate of copper and kaolin, a
yellow ocher, and considerable vegetal matter mixed with the sand.
All these facts tend to the belief that this crypt was an ancient shrine
in the floor of a chamber which may have been a kiva.
The position of this room with a shrine in the middle of the court is
interesting in comparison with that of similar shrines in some of the
modern Hopi pueblos. Shrines occupy the same relative position in
Sichomovi, Hano, Shipaulovi, and elsewhere, and within them sacred
prayer-offerings are still deposited on ceremonial occasions. At Walpi,
in the middle of the plaza, there is a subterranean crypt in which offerings
are often placed, as I have elsewhere described in treating of
certain ceremonies. This shrine is not visible, for a slab of stone which
is placed over it lies on a level with the plaza, and is securely luted in
place with adobe. There are similar subterranean prayer crypts in
other Tusayan villages. They represent the traditional opening, or
sipapu, through which, in Pueblo cosmogony, races crawled to the
surface of the earth from an underworld. In Awatobi also there is a
similar shrine, for the deposit of prayer-offerings, almost in the middle
of a plaza bounded on three sides by the mission, the spur of many-storied
houses, and the wall with a gateway, while the remaining side
was formed by the great communal houses of the western part of the
pueblo.
While we were taking from their ancient resting places the slabs of
stone which formed this Awatobi shrine, the workmen reminded me
how closely it resembled the pahoki used by the katcinas, and when, a
month later, I witnessed the Nimán-katcina ceremony at Walpi, and
accompanied the chief, Intiwa, when he deposited the prayer-sticks in
that shrine, I was again impressed by the similarity of the two, one in a
ruin deserted two centuries ago, the other still used in the performance
of ancient rites, no doubt much older than the overthrow of the great
pueblo of Antelope mesa.
OLD AWATOBI
The western mounds of Awatobi afford satisfactory evidence that
they cover the older rooms of the pueblo, and show by their compact
form that the ancient village in architectural plan was similar to modern
Walpi. They indicate that Awatobi was of pyramidal form, was symmetrical,
three or four stories high, without a central plaza, but probably
penetrated by narrow courts or passages. No great ceremonial
dance could have taken place in the heart of the pueblo, since there
was not sufficient space for its celebration, but it must have occurred
outside the village, probably in the open space to the east, near where
the ruined walls of the mission now stand.
From the nature of the western mounds I found it advantageous to
begin the work of excavation in the steep decline on the southern side,
and to penetrate the mound on the level of its base or the rock formation
which forms its foundation. In this way all the débris could advantageously
be moved and thrown over the side of the mesa. We began
to open the mounds, therefore, on the southern side, making converging
trenches at intervals, working toward their center. We found that these
trenches followed continuous walls connected by cross partitions, forming
rooms, and that these were continued as far as we penetrated.
The evidence is good that these rooms are followed by others which
extend into the deepest part of the mound. We likewise excavated at
intervals over the whole surface of the western area of Awatobi, and
wherever we dug, walls of former rooms, which diminished in altitude
on the northern side, were found. From these excavations I concluded
that if any part of the western mound was higher than the remainder,
it was on the southern side just above the edge of the mesa, and from
that highest point the pueblo diminished in altitude to the north, in
which direction it was continued for some distance in low, single-story
rooms.
ROOMS OF THE WESTERN MOUND
The older or western portion of Awatobi is thus believed to be made
up of a number of high mounds which rise steeply, and for a considerable
height from the southern edge of the cliff, from which it slopes
more gradually to the north and west. On account of this steep declivity
we were able to examine, in vertical section, the arrangement of the
rooms, one above the other (). By beginning excavations on
the rocky foundation and working into the mound, parallel walls were
encountered at intervals as far as we penetrated. From the edge of
the cliff there seemed to extend a series of these parallel walls, which
were united by cross partitions, forming a series of rooms, one back of
another. The deeper we penetrated the mound the higher the walls
were found to be, and this was true of the excavations along the whole
southern side of the elevation (). If, as I suspect, these parallel
walls extend to the heart of the mounds, the greatest elevation of
the former buildings must have been four stories. It would likewise
seem probable that the town was more or less pyramidal, with the
highest point somewhat back from the one- or two-story walls at the
edge of the cliff, a style of architecture still preserved in Walpi. The
loftiest wall, which was followed down to the floor, was 15 feet high,
but as that was measured over 20 feet below the apex of the mound, it
would seem that, from a distance, there would be a wall 30 feet high in
the center of the mound. Even counting 7 feet as the height of each
story we would have four stories above the foundation, and this, I
believe, was the height of the old pueblo. But probably the wall did
not rise to this height at the edge of the mesa, where it could not have
been more than one or two stories high. There is no evidence of the
former existence of an inclosed court of any considerable size between
the buildings and the cliff, although a passage probably skirted the
brink of the precipice, and house ladders may have been placed on
that side for ready access to upper rooms. By a series of platforms or
terraces, which were in fact the roofs of the houses, one mounted to
the upper stories which formed the apex of the pueblo.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CIX
EXCAVATIONS IN THE WESTERN MOUND OF AWATOBI
Fig. 256—Structure of house wall of Awatobi
On the western, northern, and eastern sides the slope is more gradual,
and while there are many obscurely marked house plans visible over
the surface, even quite near the top of the elevation, they are doubtless
the remains of single-story structures. This leads me to suspect that
when Awatobi was built it was reared on a mound of soil or sand, and
not on the solid rock surface of the mesa. The configuration, then,
shows that the pueblo sloped by easy decline to the plain to the north,
but rose more abruptly from the south and west. There are low extramural
mounds to the north, showing that on this side the dwellings
were composed of straggling chambers. The general character of the
rooms on the level slope at the western side of old Awatobi is shown
in the accompanying illustration (). The peculiarity of these
rooms appears by a comparison with the many-story chambers of the
southern declivity of the ruin. Extending the excavations four feet
below the surface we encountered a floor which rested on solid earth,
and there were no signs of walls beneath it. This was without doubt
a single-story house, the roof of which had disappeared. The surrounding
surface of the ground is level, but the tops of adjoining walls
of rooms may readily be traced near by.
The room was rectangular, twice as long as wide, and without passageways
into adjoining chambers. The northern, eastern, and western
walls were unbroken, and there was nothing peculiar in the floor of
these sections; but we found a well-preserved, elevated settle at the
southern side, extending two-thirds of the length of the main wall to a
small side wall, inclosing a square recess, the object of which is
unknown to me.
All walls were smoothly plastered, and the floor was paved with flat
stones set in adobe. The singular inclosure at the southern corner
could not be regarded as a fireplace, for there was no trace of soot upon
its walls. I incline to the belief that it may have served as a closet,
or possibly as a granary. Its arrangement is not unlike that in certain
modern rooms at Walpi.
An examination of the masonry of the rooms of the western mounds
of Awatobi shows that the component stones were in a measure dressed
into shape, which was, as a rule, cubical. In this respect they differ
from the larger stones of which the mission walls were built, for in this
masonry the natural cleavage is utilized for the face of the wall.
The differences between the masonry of the mission and that of the
room in which we found a chief buried were very marked. In the
former, elongated slabs of stone, without pecking or dressing, were
universal, while in the latter the squared stones were laid in courses
and neatly fitted together. The partitions likewise are narrower, being
not more than 6 inches thick.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CX
EXCAVATED ROOM IN THE WESTERN MOUND OF AWATOBI
SMALLER AWATOBI
About an eighth of a mile west of the great mounds of Awatobi there
is a small rectangular ruin, the ground plan of which is well marked,
and in which individual houses are easy to trace. Like its larger neighbor,
it stands on the very edge of the mesa. None of its walls rise above
the surface of the mounds, which, however, are considerably elevated
and readily distinguished for some distance. The pueblo was built in
the form of a rectangle of single-story houses surrounding a plaza.
There was an opening or entrance on the southern side, near which
is a mound, possibly the remains of a kiva. A trail now passes directly
through the ruin and down the mesa side to Jeditoh valley, probably
the pathway by which the ancient inhabitants ascended the cliff. The
Hopi Indians employed by me in excavating Awatobi had no name for
this ruin and were not familiar with its existence before I pointed it out
to them. For want of a better interpretation I have regarded it as a
colony of old Awatobi, possibly of later construction.
Excavations in its mounds revealed no objects of interest, although
fragments of beautiful pottery, related to that found at Awatobi and
Sikyatki, show that it must have been made by people of the older or
best epoch of Tusayan ceramics.
MORTUARY REMAINS
Although it is well known that the ancient inhabitants of the great
houses of the Gila-Salado drainage buried some of their dead within
their dwellings, or in other rooms, and that the same mortuary practice
was observed in ancient Zuñi-Cibola, up to the time of my excavations
this form of burial had never been found in Tusayan. I am now able
to record that the same custom was practiced at Awatobi.
Excavation made in the southeastern declivity of the western mounds
led to a burial chamber in which we found the well-preserved skeleton
of an old man, apparently a priest. The body was laid on the floor,
at full length, and at his head, which pointed southward, had been
placed, not mortuary offerings of food in bowls, but insignia of his
priestly office. Eight small objects of pottery were found on his left side
(, a, b, d, e). Among these was a symmetrical vase of beautiful
red ware (, a) richly decorated with geometric patterns,
and four globular paint pots, each full of pigment of characteristic
color. These paint pots were of black-and-white ware, and contained,
respectively, yellow ocher, sesquioxide of iron, green copper carbonate,
and micaceous hematite (, a, d, e) such as is now called
yayala and used by the Snake priests in the decoration of their faces.
There were also many arrowpoints in an earthen colander, and a ladle
was luted over the mouth of the red vase. My native excavators pronounced
this the grave of a warrior priest. The passageways into this
chamber of death had all been closed, and there were no other mortuary
objects in the room. This was the only instance of intramural interment
which I discovered in the excavations at Awatobi, but a human
bone was found on the floor of another chamber. So far as known the
Awatobi people buried most of their dead outside the town, either in
the foothills at the base of the mesa, or in the adjacent sand-dunes.
The work of excavating the graves at the foot of the mesa was
desultory, as I found no single place where many interments had been
made. Several food vessels were dug up at a grave opened by Kópeli,
the Snake chief. I was not with him when he found the grave, but he
called me to see it soon after its discovery. We took from this excavation
a sandstone fetish of a mountain-lion, a fragment of the bottom
of a basin perforated with holes as if used as a colander. Deposited
in this fragment were many stone arrowheads, several fragments of
green paint, a flat green paho ornamented with figures of dragon-flies
in black. In addition to a single complete prayer-stick there were
fragments of many others too much broken to be identified. One of
these was declared by Kópeli to be a chief's paho. The grave in which
these objects were found was situated about halfway down the side of
the mesa to the southward of the highest mounds of the western
division of the pueblo.
Here and there along the base of all the foothills south of Awatobi
are evidences of former burials, and complete bowls, dippers, and vases
were unearthed (, b, c). The soil is covered with fragments
of pottery, and in places, where the water has washed through them,
exposing a vertical section of the ground, it was found that the fragments
of pottery extended through the soil sometimes to a depth of
fifty feet below the surface. There was evidence, however, that this
soil had been transported more or less by rain water, which often
courses down the sides of the mesa in impetuous torrents.
Human bones and mortuary vessels were found south of the mission
near the trail, at the foot of the mesa. In a single grave, a foot
below the surface, there were two piles of food bowls, each pile containing
six vessels, all broken.
The cemetery northwest of Awatobi, where the soil is sandy and easy
to excavate, had been searched by others, and many beautiful objects
of pottery taken from it. This burial place yielded many bowls (, ) and jars, as well as several interesting pahos similar to
those from Sikyatki, which I shall later describe but which have never
before been reported from Awatobi. It was found that one of these
prayer-sticks was laid over the heart of the deceased, and as the skeleton
was in a sitting posture, with the hand on the breast, the prayer-stick
may thus have been held at the time of burial. Our success
in finding places of interment on all sides of Sikyatki, irrespective of
direction, leads me to suspect that further investigation of the sand-dunes
north of Awatobi will reveal graves at that point.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXI
VASE AND MUGS FROM THE WESTERN MOUNDS OF AWATOBI
I have already called attention to the great abundance of charred
corn found in the rooms north of the mission. Renewed work in this
quarter revealed still greater quantities of this corn stacked in piles,
sometimes filling the entire side of a room. Evidently, as I have elsewhere
shown, the row of rooms at this part of the ruin were burned
with all their contents. The corn was not removed from the granaries,
as it would have been if the place had been gradually abandoned.
When an Indian burns stored corn in such quantities as were found at
Awatobi we can not believe he was bent on pillage, and it is an
instructive fact that thus far no stacked corn has been found in the
western or most ancient section of Awatobi.
SHRINES
Although Awatobi was destroyed almost two centuries ago, the
shrines of the old pueblo were used for many years afterward, and are
even now frequented by some of the Mishoñinovi priests. In one of
these ancient depositories two wooden figurines sat in state up to within
a few years ago.
This shrine lies below the ruins of the mission, among the bowlders
on the side of the cliff, about fifty feet from the edge of the mesa, and
is formed in an eroded cavity in the side of a bowlder of unusual size.
A rude wall had been built before this recess, which opened to the
east, and apparently the orifice was closed with logs, which have now
fallen in. The present appearance of this shrine is shown in the
accompanying illustration ().
In former times two wooden idols, called the Alosaka, were kept in
this crypt, in much the same manner as the Dawn Maid is now sealed
up by the Walpians, when not used in the New-fire ceremony, as I have
described in my account of Naacnaiya. Mr Thomas V. Keam, not
knowing that the Awatobi idols were still used in the Mishoñinovi
ritual, had removed them to his residence, but when this was known a
large number of priests begged him to return them, saying that they
were still used in religious exercises. With that consideration which
he has always shown to the Indians, Mr Keam allowed the priests to
take the images of Alosaka. The figurines were this time carried to
Mishoñinovi, the priests sprinkling a line of meal along the trail over
which they carried them. The two idols have not been seen by white
people since that time, and are now, no doubt, in some hidden crypt
near the Mishoñinovi village.
There is a shrine of simple character, near the ruins of smaller Awatobi,
which bears evidence of antiquity (). It consisted, in
1892, of a circle of small stones in which were two large water-worn
stones and a fragment of petrified wood. There was no evidence that
it had lately been used.
Fig. 257—Alosaka shrine at Awatobi
On the extreme western point of the mesa, at the very edge of the
cliff, there was also a simple shrine (). Judging from its
general appearance, this, likewise, had not been used in modern times,
but there were several old prayer-sticks not far away.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXII
PAINT POTS, BOWL, AND DIPPER FROM AWATOBI
At the foot of the mesa, below the point last mentioned, however,
there is a shrine (), the earth of which contained hundreds
of prayer-sticks, in all stages of decay, while some of them had been
placed there only a few days before my visit. This shrine, I was told,
is still used by the Mishoñinovi priests in their sacred observances.
Among other forms of prayer offerings there were many small wooden
cylinders with radiating
sticks connected
with yarn, the symbolic
prayer offering
for squashes. In former
times Antelope
valley was the garden
spot of Tusayan, and
from what we know of
the antiquity of the
cultivation of squashes in the Southwest, there is little doubt that they
were cultivated by the Awatobians, and that similar offerings were
made by the ancient farmers
for a good crop of these vegetables.
Fig. 258—Shrine at Awatobi
Fig. 259—Shrine at Awatobi
POTTERY
The mounds of Awatobi are
entirely covered with fragments
of pottery of all the
various kinds and colors
known to ancient Tusayan.
There were found coiled and
indented ware, coarse undecorated
vessels, fine yellow and smooth ware with black-and-white and red
decorations. There is no special kind of pottery peculiar to Awatobi,
but it shares
with the other
Tusayan ruins
all types, save
a few fragments
of black
glazed ware,
which occur
elsewhere.
Fig. 260—Shrine at Awatobi
It is highly
probable that
the few specimens
of black-and-white
ware
found in this
ruin were not
manufactured
in the village, and the red ware probably came from settlements to the
south, on the Little Colorado. These colors are in part due to the
character of the paste which was used, and the clay most often selected
by Awatobi potters made a fine yellow vessel. The material from
which most of the vessels were manufactured came, no doubt, from a
bank near the ruin, where there is good evidence that it was formerly
quarried.
Three coarse clay objects, such as might have been used for roof
drains, were found. The use of these objects, possibly indicated by their
resemblance, is not, however, perfectly clear. Their capacity would not
be equal to the torrents of rain which, no doubt, often fell on the housetops
of Awatobi, and they can hardly be identified as spouts of large
bowls, since they are attached to a circular disk with smooth edges. In
want of a satisfactory explanation I have provisionally regarded them
as water spouts, but whether they are from ancient vessels or from the
roofs of houses I am in much doubt.
One of the most instructive fragments of pottery taken from the
ruins is that of a coarse clay vessel, evidently a part of a flat basin or
saucer. The rim of this vessel is punctured with numerous holes,
the intervals between which are not greater than the diameter of the
perforations.
Several platter-like vessels with similar holes about their rims have
been taken from other ruins of Jeditoh valley and mesa, the holes
being regarded as having been made as a means of suspension. Near
a sacred spring called Kawaika, not far from Jeditoh, near Awatobi,
a large number of beautiful vessels with similar holes in their rims
were excavated by Mr T. V. Keam, and later passed into the collections
of the Hemenway Expedition, now installed at Cambridge. They
are of all kinds of ware, widely different in shape, the number of marginal
perforations varying greatly. As they were found in large numbers
near a spring they are regarded as sacrificial vessels, in which food
or sacred meal was deposited as an offering to some water deity. The
handle of a mug (, f) from Awatobi, so closely resembles the
handles of certain drinking cups taken from the cliff-houses of San Juan
valley that it should be specially mentioned. There is in the handle
of this mug a T-shape opening quite similar in form to the peculiar
doorways of certain cliff-dwellings. The mug is made of the finest
white ware, decorated with black lines arranged in geometric patterns.
So close is its likeness in form and texture to cliff-house pottery that
the two may be regarded as identical. Moreover, it is not impossible
that the object may have been brought to Tusayan from Tségi canyon,
in the cliff-houses of which Hopi clans lived while Awatobi was in its
prime, and, indeed, possibly after the tragedy of 1700. The few fragments
of Tségi canyon pottery known to me have strong resemblances
to ancient Hopi ware, although the black-and-white variety predominates.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXIII
POTTERY FROM INTRAMURAL BURIAL AT AWATOBI
The collection of pottery from Awatobi is, comparatively speaking,
small, but it shows many interesting forms. Awatobi pottery may be
classed under the same groups as other old Tusayan ceramics, but most
of the specimens collected belong to the yellow, black-and-white, and
red varieties. It resembles that of Sikyatki, but bears little likeness to
modern ware in texture or symbolism. One is impressed by the close
resemblance between the Awatobi pottery and that from the ruins of
the Little Colorado and Zuñi, which no doubt is explained, in part, by
the identity in the constituents of the potter's clay near Awatobi with
that in more southerly regions.
Evidences of Spanish influence may be traced on certain objects of
pottery from Awatobi, especially on those obtained from the eastern
mounds of the ruin. In most essentials, however, the Awatobi ware
resembles that of the neighboring ruins, and is characteristically
Tusayan.
The differentiation in modern Cibolan and Tusayan symbolism is
much greater than that of the ancient pottery from the same provinces,
a fact which is believed to point to a similarity, possibly identity, of
culture in ancient times. With this thought in mind, it would be highly
instructive to study the ancient ruins of the Rio Grande region, as
unfortunately no large collections of archeological objects from that part
of the Southwest have been made.
The majority of the bowls from Awatobi are decorated in geometric
patterns and a few have animal or human figures. The symbols, as
well as the pottery itself, can not be distinguished from those of Sikyatki.
Fragments of glazed ware are not unknown at Awatobi, but so far as
recorded, entire specimens have never been obtained from the latter
ruin.
In order that the character of the geometric designs on Awatobi
pottery may be better understood, two plates are introduced to illustrate
their modifications in connection with my discussion of the geometric
forms figured on Sikyatki ware. The figures on these bowls
(, ), with one or two exceptions, need no special
description in addition to what is said of Sikyatki geometric designs,
which they closely resemble.
The cross-shape figure (, b) may profitably be studied in
connection with the account of the modification of Sikyatki sun symbols.
Evidences of the use of a white pigment as a slip were found on
one or two fragments of fine pottery from Awatobi, but no decoration
of this kind was observed on the Sikyatki vessels. The red ware is
the same as that found in ancient Cibola, while one or two fragments
of glossy black recall the type common to modern Santa Clara.
Two bird-shape vessels, one made of black-and-white ware, the other
red with black-and-white decoration, were found at Awatobi. Large
masses of clay suited to the potter's art were not uncommonly found
in the corners of the rooms or in the niches in their walls. Some of
these masses are of fine paste, the others coarse with grains of sand.
The former variety was used in making the finest Tusayan ceramics;
the latter was employed in modeling cooking pots and other vessels of
ruder finish.
Several flute-shape objects of clay, with flaring extremities, were
found on the surface of the mounds of Awatobi, and one was taken
from a Sikyatki grave. The use of these objects is unknown to me.
Among the fragments of dippers from Awatobi are several with
perforations in the bottom, irregularly arranged or in geometric form,
as that of a cross. These colanders were rare at Sikyatki, but I find
nothing in them to betray Spanish influence. Handled dippers or
mugs have been found so often by me in the prehistoric ruins of our
Southwest that I can not accept the dictum that the mug form was not
prehistoric, and the conclusion is legitimate that the Tusayan Indians
were familiar with mugs when the Spaniards came among them. The
handles of the dippers or ladles are single or double, solid or hollow,
simply turned up at one end or terminating with the head of an animal.
The upper side of the ladle handle may be grooved or convex. No
ladle handle decorated with an image of a "mud-head" or clown priest,
so common on modern ladles, was found either at Awatobi or Sikyatki.
Rudely made imitations in miniature of all kinds of pottery, especially
of ladles, were common. These are regarded as votive offerings,
from the fact that they were found usually in the graves of children,
and were apparently used as playthings before they were buried.
A common decoration on the handles of ladles is a series of short
parallel lines arranged in alternating longitudinal and transverse zones.
This form of decoration of ladle handles I have observed on similar
vessels from the Casas Grandes of Chihuahua, and it reappears on pottery
in all the ruins I have studied between Mexico and Tusayan. In
the exhibit of the Mexican Government at Madrid in 1892-93 a fine
collection of ancient pottery from Oaxaca was shown, and I have drawings
of one of these ladles with the same parallel marks on the handle
that are found on Pueblo ware from the Gila-Salado, the Cibola, and
the Tusayan regions.
The only fragment of pottery from Awatobi or Sikyatki with designs
which could be identified with any modern picture of a katcina was
found, as might be expected, in the former ruin. This small fragment
is instructive, in that it indicates the existence of the katcina cult in
Tusayan before 1700; but the rarity of the figures of these supernatural
beings is very suggestive. The fragment in question is of ancient
ware, resembling the so-called orange type of pottery, and is apparently
a part of the neck of a vase. The figure represents Wupamo, the
Great-cloud katcina, and is marked like the doll of the same as it
appears in the Powamû or February celebration at Walpi.
The associates of the katcinas are the so-called "mud-heads" or
clowns, an order of priests as widely distributed as the Pueblo area. In
Tusayan villages they are called the Tcukuwympkia, and are variously
personated. As they belong especially to the katcina cult, which is
naturally supposed to have been in vogue at Awatobi, I was greatly
interested in the finding of a fragment representing a grotesque head
which reminded me of a glutton of the division of the Tcukuwympkia
called Tcuckutû. While there may be some doubt of the validity of my
identification, yet, taken in connection with the fragment of a vase with
the face of Wupamo, I think there is no doubt that the katcina cult was
practiced at Awatobi.
STONE IMPLEMENTS
Comparatively few stone implements, such as mauls, hammers, axes,
and spearpoints, were found; but some of those unearthed from the
mounds are finely finished, being regular in form and highly polished.
There were many spherical stones, resembling those still sometimes used
in Tusayan on important occasions as badges of authority. These stones
were tied in a buckskin bag, which was attached to a stick and used
as a warclub. Many of the axes were grooved for hafting; one of
the specimens was doubly grooved and had two cutting edges. By
far the largest number were blunt at one pole and sharpened at the
opposite end. A single highly polished specimen (, f)
resembles a type very common in the Gila Salado ruins.
Arrowheads, some of finely chipped obsidian, were common, being
frequently found in numbers in certain mortuary bowls. Three or four
specimens of other kinds of implements fashioned from this volcanic
glass were picked up on the surface of the mounds.
Metates, or flat stones for grinding corn, were dug up in several
houses; they were in some instances much worn, and were eagerly
sought by the Indian women who visited our camp. These specimens
differ in no respect from similar mealing stones still used at Walpi
and other modern Tusayan pueblos. Many were made of very coarse
stone for use in hulling corn preparatory to grinding; others were of
finer texture, and both kinds were accompanied by the corresponding
mano or muller held in the hand in grinding meal.
The modern Hopi often use as seats in their kivas cubical blocks
of stone with depressions in two opposite sides which serve as handholds
by which they are carried from place to place. Two of these
stones, about a cubic foot in size, were taken out of the chamber
which I have supposed to be the Awatobi kiva. In modern Tusayan
these seats are commonly made of soft sandstone, and are so few in
number that we can hardly regard them as common. They are often
used to support the uprights of altars when they are erected, and I
have seen priests grind pigments in the depressions. Incidentally, it
may be said that I have never seen priests use chairs in any kiva celebration;
nor do they have boxes to sit upon. During the droning of
the tedious songs they have nothing under them except a folded
blanket or sheepskin.
Excavations in the Awatobi rooms revealed several interesting shallow
mortars used for grinding pigments, but no one of these is comparable
in finish with that shown in the accompanying illustration
(, a). This object is made of a hard stone in the form of a
perfect parallelopipedon with slightly rounded faces. The depression
is shallow, and when found there was a discoloration of pigment upon
its surface.
In almost every house that bore evidence of former occupancy, beautifully
made mullers and metates were exhumed. These were ordinarily
in place in the corner of the chamber, and were much worn, as if by
constant use. In one grave there was found a metate reversed over a
skeleton, probably that of a woman—although the bones were so disintegrated
that the determination of the sex of the individual was impossible.
Several of these metates were taken by Indian women, who
prized them so highly that they loaded the stones on burros and carried
them ten miles to Walpi, where they are now applied to the same purpose
for which they were used over two centuries ago.
On the surface of the mesa, beyond the extension of the ground plan
of the ruin, there are many depressions worn in the rocks where the
Awatobi women formerly whetted their grinding stones, doubtless in
the manner practiced by the modern villagers of Tusayan. These
depressions are especially numerous near the edge of the cliff, between
the eastern and western sections of the ruin.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXIV
BONE IMPLEMENTS FROM AWATOBI AND SIKYATKI
BONE OBJECTS
A large and varied collection of bone implements was gathered at
Awatobi, and a few additional specimens were exhumed from Sikyatki.
It is worthy of note that, as a rule, bone implements are more common
in houses than in graves; and since the Awatobi excavations were conducted
mostly in living rooms, while those at Sikyatki were largely
in the cemeteries, the bone implements from the former pueblo far
outnumber those from the latter.
The collection consists of awls, bodkins, needles, whistles, and tubes
made of the bones of birds and quadrupeds. The two animals which
contributed more than others to these objects were the turkey and the
rabbit, although there were fragments of the horns and shin-bones of
the antelope or deer. Several of these specimens were blackened by
fire, and one was stained with green pigment. There was also evidence
of an attempt at ornamenting the implements by incised lines, while
one was bound with string. Bones of animals which had served for
food were very common in all the excavations at Awatobi, especially
near the floors of the houses. With the exception of a number of
large bones of a bear, found in one of the houses in the northern range
of the eastern section, these bones were not carefully collected.
gives a general idea of some of the forms of worked
bone which were obtained. Figure a shows an awl, for the handle of
which one of the trochanters was used, the point at the opposite end
being very sharp; b and c are similar objects, but slighter, and more
carefully worked; d is a flattened bone implement perforated with two
holes, and may have been used as a needle. There are similar implements
in the collection, but with a single terminal perforation. Other
forms of bone awls are shown in e, f, g, and j.
There are a number of bone objects the use of which is problematical.
One of the best of these is a section of the tibia of a bird, cut longitudinally,
convex on the side represented in , h, and concave
on the opposite side. When found this bone fragment was tied to a
second similar section by a string (remnants of which can be seen in
the figure), thus forming a short tube. The use of this object is not
known to me, nor were any satisfactory suggestions made by the
Indians whom I consulted in relation to it. This does not apply, however,
to the object illustrated in , i, which was declared by
several Hopi to be a bird whistle, similar to that used in ceremonials
connected with medicine making.
The manner in which a bone whistle is used in imitation of a bird's
call has been noticed by me in the accounts of several ceremonials, and
I will therefore quote the description of its use in the Nimankatcina
at Walpi.
Then followed an interval of song and accompanying rattle, at the termination of
which Intiwa's associate took the bird whistle (tatükpi) and blew three times into
the liquid, making a noise not unlike that produced by a toy bird whistle. This
was repeated four times, accompanied by song and rattle. He first inserted the
bone whistle on the north side, then on the other cardinal points in turn. The
monotonous song and rattle then ceased, and Intiwa sprinkled corn pollen on the
ears of corn in the water, and upon the line of pahos.
The object of the whistle is to call the summer birds which are
associated with planting and harvesting. The whistle figures in many
rites, especially in those connected with the making of medicine or
charm liquid.
MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS
Ornaments in the Form of Birds and Shells
In the excavations, as well as on the surface of the mounds at Awatobi,
were found many imitations of marine shells made of clay, often
painted red and ranging from the size of half a dollar to that of the
thumb nail (, j-m). On the convex surface of these objects
parallel lines are etched, and they are pierced at the valves for suspension.
I have never found them suspended from the neck of a skeleton,
although their general appearance indicates that they were used as
ornaments. Similarly made clay images of birds (, g, h, i)
with extended wings were also found, and of these there are several
different forms in the collection. A small perforated *** at the breast
served for attachment. In the absence of any better explanation of
these objects, I have regarded them as gorgets, or pendants, for personal
decoration.
In the Awatobi collections there are several small disks made apparently
of pipe clay, which also were probably used as ornaments. These
are very smooth and wonderfully regular in shape—in one case with a
perforation near the rim. Turquois and shell beads were found in considerable
numbers in the excavations at Awatobi, but, as they are similar
to those from Sikyatki, I have reserved a discussion of them for
following pages. A few fragments of shell armlets and wristlets were
also exhumed. These were made generally of the Pacific coast Pectunculus,
so common in the ruins of the Little Colorado.
Clay Bell
Copper bells are said to be used in the secret ceremonials of the modern
Tusayan villages, and in certain of the ceremonial foot races metal
bells of great age and antique pattern are sometimes tied about the
waists of the runners. Small copper hawk bells, found in southern
Arizonian ruins, are identical in form and make with those used by the
ancient Nahuatl people. So far as the study of the antiquities of the
ruins of Tusayan immediately about the inhabited towns has gone, we
have no record of the finding of copper bells of any great age. It was,
therefore, with considerable interest that I exhumed from one of the
rooms of the westernmost or oldest section of Awatobi a clay bell () made in exact imitation of one of the copper bells that have
been reported from several southern ruins (, a). While
it may be said that it would be more decisive evidence of the prehistoric
character of this object if Awatobi had not been under Spanish influence
for over a century, still, from the position where it was dug up and
its resemblance to metal bells which are undoubtedly prehistoric, there
seems to be little reason to question its age. As with the imitation of
marine shells in clay, it is probable that in this
bell we have a facsimile of a metal bell with
which the ancient Tusayan people were undoubtedly
familiar.
Fig. 261—Clay Bell from Awatobi (natural size)
Textile Fabrics
In the very earliest accounts which we have
of Tusayan the Hopi are said to raise cotton and
to weave it into mantles. These mantles, or
"towels" as they were styled by Espejo, were,
according to Castañeda, ornamented with embroidery,
and had tassels at the corners. In
early times garments were made of the fiber of
the maguey, and of feathers and rabbit skins.
Fabrics made of animal fiber are mentioned by Friar Marcos de Niza,
and he was told that the inhabitants of Totonteac obtained the
material from which they were made from animals as large as the
greyhounds which the father had with him. The historical references
which can be mentioned to prove that the Tusayan people, when they
were first visited, knew how to spin and weave are numerous, and
need not be quoted here. That the people of Awatobi made cotton
fabrics there is no doubt, for it is distinctly stated by early visitors
that they were acquainted with the art of weaving, and some of the
presents made to the first Spanish explorers were of native cotton.
The archeological evidence supports the historical in this particular,
and several fragments of cloth were found in our excavations in the western
mounds of the village. These fragments were of cotton and agave
fiber, of cotton alone, and in one instance of the hair of some unknown
animal. No signs of the famous rabbit-skin blankets were seen, and
from the perishable nature of the material of which they were made it
would be strange if any traces had been discovered. At Sikyatki a small
textile fragment made of feathers was found in one of the burial vases,
but no feather garments or even fragments of the same were unearthed
at Awatobi.
A woven rope of agave fiber and many charred strings of the same
material were found in a niche in the wall of a house in the eastern
section, and from the same room there was taken a string, over a yard
long, made of human hair. It was suggested to me by one of the Hopi
that this string was part of the coiffure of an Awatobi maid, and that
it was probably used to tie up her hair in whorls above the ears, as is
still the Hopi custom.
The whole number of specimens of textile fabrics found at Awatobi
was small, and their character disappointing for study, for the conditions
of burial in the soil are not so good for their preservation as in the
dry caves or cliff houses, from which beautifully preserved cloth, made
at a contemporary period, has been taken.
Prayer-sticks—Pigments
Among the most significant mortuary objects used by the ancient
Tusayan people may be mentioned the so-called prayer-sticks or pahos.
These were found in several graves, placed on the breast, in the hand,
or at the side of the person interred, and have a variety of form, as
shown in the accompanying illustrations (, ). As
I shall discuss the forms and meaning of prayer-sticks in my account
of Sikyatki, where a much larger number were found, I will simply
mention a few of the more striking varieties from Awatobi.
One of the most instructive of these objects is flat in shape, painted
green, and decorated with figures of a dragon-fly. As this insect is a
symbol of rain, its occurrence on mortuary objects is in harmony with
the Hopi conception of the dead which will later be explained.
Pahos, in the form of flat slats with a notched extension at one end
were common, but generally were poorly preserved. The prayer-sticks
from the shrine in the middle of the rooms in the plaza of the eastern
section crumbled into fragments when exposed to the air, but they were
apparently small, painted green, and decorated with black spots. On
several of the prayer-sticks the impressions of the string and feathers
that were formerly attached are still readily seen. It is probable that
the solution of a carbonate of copper, with which the green pahos were
so colored, contributed to the preservation of the wood of which they
had been manufactured.
The only pigments detected on the prayer-sticks are black, red, and
green, and traces of red are found also on the inner surface of a stone
implement from a grave at the base of the mesa. All the pigments used
by the modern Tusayan Indians were found in the intramural burial
already described. My Hopi workmen urged me to give them small fragments
of these paints, regarding them efficacious in their ceremonials.
Objects Showing Spanish Influence
We would naturally expect to find many objects of Caucasian origin
in the ruins of a pueblo which had been under Spanish influence for a
century. I have already spoken of certain architectural features in
the eastern part of Awatobi which may be traced to the influence of
the Spanish missionaries, and of small objects there were several different
kinds which show the same thing. The old iron knife-blade already
mentioned as having been found among the corn in a storage chamber in
the northern row of houses was not the only metallic object found. Not
far from the mission there were unearthed many corroded iron nails, a
small hook of the same metal, a piece of cast copper, and a fragment of
what appeared to be a portion of a bell. There were several pieces of
glass, the surfaces of which had become ground by the sand which had
beaten upon them during the years in which they had been exposed.
There was found also a fragment of a green glazed cup, which was
undoubtedly of Spanish or Mexican make, and sherds of white china
similar to that sold today by the traders. These latter specimens were,
as a rule, found on the surface of the ground.
It will therefore appear that the archeology of Awatobi supports the
documentary evidence that the pueblo was under Spanish influence for
some time, and the fact that all the above-mentioned objects were taken
on or in the eastern mounds emphasizes the conclusion that this section
of the town was the part directly under Spanish influences. Nothing
of Spanish manufacture was found in the rooms of the western mounds,
but from this negative evidence there is no reason to suspect that this
section of Awatobi was not inhabited contemporaneously with that in
the vicinity of the mission.
The Ruins of Sikyatki
TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE PUEBLO
Very vague ideas are current regarding the character of Hopi culture
prior to Tobar's visit to Tusayan in 1540, and with the exception
of the most meager information nothing concerning it has come down
to us from early historical references in the sixteenth century. It is
therefore interesting to record all possible information in regard to
these people prior to the period mentioned, and this must be done
mainly through archeology.
Although there are many Tusayan ruins which we have every reason
to believe are older than the time of Coronado, no archeologist has
gathered from them the evidences bearing on prehistoric Tusayan culture
which they will undoubtedly yield. Large and beautiful collections
of pottery ascribed to Tusayan ruins have shown the excellent
artistic taste of the ancient potters of this region, indicating that in
the ceramic art they were far in advance of their descendants. But
these collections have failed to teach, the lesson they might have taught,
from the fact that data concerning the objects composing them are so
indefinite. Very little care had been taken to label these collections
accurately or to collect any specimens but those which were strikingly
beautiful or commercially valuable. It was therefore with the hope of
giving a more precise and comprehensive character to our knowledge
of Tusayan antiquities that I wished to excavate one of the ruins of
this province which was undoubtedly prehistoric. Conditions were
favorable for success at the mounds called by the Indians Sikyatki.
These ruins are situated near the modern Tusayan pueblos of East
Mesa, from which I could hire workmen, and not far from Keam's Canyon,
which could be made a base of supplies. The existing legends
bearing on these ruins, although obscure, are sufficiently definite for
all practical purposes.
I find no mention of Sikyatki in early historical documents, nor can
the name be even remotely identified with any which has been given to
a Tusayan pueblo. My knowledge of the mounds which mark the site
of this ancient village dates back to 1892, when I visited them with
one of the old men of Walpi, who then and there narrated the legend
of its destruction by the Walpians previously to the advent of the
Spaniards. I was at that time impressed by the extent of the mounds,
and prepared a rough sketch of the ground plan of the former houses,
but from lack of means was unable to conduct any systematic excavation
of the ruin.
Comparatively nothing concerning the ruin of Sikyatki has been
published, although its existence had been known for several years
previously to my visit. In his brief account Mr Victor Mindeleff
speaks of it as two prominent knolls, "about 400 yards apart," the
summits of which are covered with house walls. He also found portions
of walls on intervening hummocks, but gives no plan of the ruin.
The name, Sikyatki, is referred to the color of the sandstone of which
the walls were built. He found some of the rooms were constructed of
small stones, dressed by rubbing, and laid in mud. The largest chamber
was stated to be 9-1/2 by 4-1/2 feet, and it was considered that many of
the houses were "built in excavated places around the rocky summits
of the knolls." Mr Mindeleff identified the former inhabitants with the
ancestors of the Kokop people, and mentioned the more important
details of their legend concerning the destruction of the village.
We can rely on the statement that Sikyatki was inhabited by the
Kokop or Firewood people of Tusayan, who were so named because
they obtained fire from wood by the use of drills. These people are
represented today at Walpi by Katci, whose totem is a picture of
Masauwû, the God of Fire. It is said that the home of the Firewood
people before they built Sikyatki was at Tebuñki, or Fire-house, a round
ruin northeastward from Keam's canyon. They were late arrivals
in Tusayan, coming at least after the Flute people, and probably before
the Honani or Badger people, who brought, I believe, the katcina cult.
Although we can not definitely assert that this cultus was unknown at
Sikyatki, it is significant that in the ruins no ornamental vessel was
found with a figure of a katcina mask, although these figures occur on
modern bowls. The original home of the Kokop people is not known,
but indefinite legends ascribe their origin to Rio Grande valley. They
are reputed to have had kindred in Antelope valley and at the Fire-house,
above alluded to, near Eighteen-mile spring.
The ruin of Fire-house, one of the pueblos where the Kokop people
are reputed to have lived before they built Sikyatki, is situated on the
periphery of Tusayan. It is built of massive stones and differs from
all other ruins in that province in that it is circular in form. The round
type of ruin is, however, to be seen in the two conical mounds on the
mesa above Sikyatki, which was connected in some way with the inhabitants
who formerly lived at its base.
The reason the Kokop people left Fire-house is not certain, but it is
said that they came in conflict with Bear clans who were entering the
province from the east. Certain it is that if the Kokop people once
inhabited Fire-house they must have been joined by other clans when
they lived at Sikyatki, for the mounds of this pueblo indicate a village
much larger than the round ruin on the brink of the mesa northeast of
Keam's canyon. The general ground plan of the ruin indicates an
inclosed court with surrounding tiers of houses, suggesting the eastern
type of pueblo architecture.
The traditional knowledge of the destruction of Sikyatki is very
limited among the present Hopi, but the best folklorists all claim that
it was destroyed by warriors from Walpi and possibly from Middle
Mesa. Awatobi seems not to have taken part in the tragedy, while
Hano and Sichomovi did not exist when the catastrophe took place.
The cause of the destruction of Sikyatki is not clearly known, and
probably was hardly commensurate with the result. Its proximity to
Walpi may have led to disputes over the boundaries of fields or the
ownership of the scanty water supply. The people who lived there
were intruders and belonged to clans not represented in Walpi, which
in all probability kept hostility alive. The early Tusayan peoples
did not readily assimilate, but quarreled with one another even when
sorely oppressed by common enemies.
There is current in Walpi a romantic story connected with the overthrow
of Sikyatki. It is said that a son of a prominent chief, disguised
as a katcina, offered a prayer-stick to a maiden, and as she received it
he cut her throat with a stone knife. He is said to have escaped to the
mesa top and to have made his way along its edge to his own town,
taunting his pursuers. It is also related that the Walpians fell upon
the village of Sikyatki to avenge this bloody deed, but it is much more
likely that there was ill feeling between the two villages for other
reasons, probably disputes about farm limits or the control of the
water supply, inflamed by other difficulties. The inhabitants of the two
pueblos came into Tusayan from different directions, and as they may
have spoken different languages and thus have failed to understand
each other, they may have been mutually regarded as interlopers.
Petty quarrels no doubt ripened into altercations, which probably led
to bloodshed. The forays of the Apache from the south and the Ute
from the north, which began at a later period, should naturally have
led to a defensive alliance; but in those early days confederation was
not dreamed of and the feeling between the two pueblos culminated in
the destruction of Sikyatki. This was apparently the result of a
quarrel between two pueblos of East Mesa, or at least there is no intimation
that the other pueblos took prominent part in it. It is said
that after the destruction some of those who escaped fled to Oraibi,
which would imply that the Walpi and Oraibi peoples, even at that early
date, were not on very friendly terms. If, however, the statement
that Oraibi was then a distinct pueblo be true, it in a way affords a
suggestion of the approximate age of this village.
There was apparently a more or less intimate connection between the
inhabitants of old Sikyatki and those of Awatobi, but whether or not
it indicates that the latter was founded by the refugees from the former
I have not been able definitely to make out. All my informants agree
that on the destruction of Sikyatki some of its people fled to Awatobi,
but no one has yet stated that the Kokop people were represented in
the latter pueblo. The distinctive clans of the pueblo of Antelope
mesa are not mentioned as living in Sikyatki, and yet the two pueblos
are said to have been kindred. The indications are that the inhabitants
of both came from the east—possibly were intruders, which may have
been the cause of the hostility entertained by both toward the Walpians.
The problem is too complex to be solved with our present limited
knowledge in this direction, and archeology seems not to afford very
satisfactory evidence one way or the other. We may never know
whether the Sikyatki refugees founded Awatobi or simply fled to that
pueblo for protection.
There appears to be no good evidence that Sikyatki was destroyed
by fire, nor would it seem that it was gradually abandoned. The larger
beams of the houses have disappeared from many rooms, evidently
having been appropriated in building or enlarging other pueblos.
There is nothing to show that any considerable massacre of the
people took place when the village was destroyed, in which respect it
differs considerably from Awatobi. There is little doubt that many
Sikyatki women were appropriated by the Walpians, and in support of
this it is stated that the Kokop people of the present Walpi are the
descendants of the people of that clan who dwelt at Sikyatki. This
conclusion is further substantiated by the statements of one of the
oldest members of the Kokop phratry who frequently visited me while
the excavations were in progress.
The destruction of Sikyatki and its consequent abandonment doubtless
occurred before the Spaniards obtained a foothold in the country.
The aged Hopi folklorists insist that such is the case, and the excavations
did not reveal any evidence to the contrary. If we add to the
negative testimony that Sikyatki is not mentioned in any of the early
writings, and that no fragment of metal, glass, or Spanish glazed pottery
has been taken from it, we appear to have substantial proof of its
prehistoric character.
In the early times when Sikyatki was a flourishing pueblo, Walpi
was still a small settlement on the terrace of the mesa just below the
present town that bears its name. Two ruins are pointed out as the
sites of Old Walpi, one to the northward of the modern town, and a
second more to the westward. The former is called at present the Ash-heap
house or pueblo, the latter Kisakobi. It is said that the people
whose ancestors formed the nucleus of the more northerly town moved
from there to Kisakobi on account of the cold weather, for it was too
much in the shadow of the mesa. Its general appearance would indicate
it to be older than the more westerly ruin, higher up on the
mesa. It was a pueblo of some size, and was situated on the edge
of the terrace. The refuse from the settlement was thrown over the
edge of the decline, where it accumulated in great quantities. This
débris contains many fragments of characteristic pottery, similar to
that from Sikyatki, and would well repay systematic investigation.
No walls of the old town rise more than a few feet above the surface,
for most of the stones have long ago been used in rebuilding the pueblo
on other sites. Kisakobi was situated higher up on the mesa, and
bears every appearance of being more modern than the ruin below.
Its site may readily be seen from the road to Keam's canyon, on the terrace-like
prolongation of the mesa. Some of the walls are still erect,
and the house visible for a great distance is part of the old pueblo.
This, I believe, was the site of Walpi at the time the Spaniards visited
Tusayan, and I have found here a fragment of pottery which I believe
is of Spanish origin. The ancient pueblo crowned the ridge of the terrace
which narrows here to 30 or 40 feet, so that ancient Walpi was an
elongated pueblo, with narrow passageways and no rectangular court.
I should judge, however, that the pueblo was not inhabited for a great
period, but was moved to its present site after a few generations of occupancy.
The Ash-hill village was inhabited contemporaneously with
Sikyatki, but Kisakobi was of later construction. Neither Sichomovi
nor Hano was in existence when Sikyatki was in its prime, nor, indeed,
at the time of its abandonment. In 1782 Morfi spoke of Sichomovi
as a pueblo recently founded, with but fifteen families. Hano, although
older, was certainly not established before 1700.
The assertions of all Hopi traditionists that Sikyatki is a prehistoric
ruin, as well as the scientific evidence looking the same way, are
most important facts in considering the weight of deductions in regard
to the character of prehistoric Tusayan culture.
Although we have no means of knowing how long a period has
elapsed since the occupancy and abandonment of Sikyatki, we are
reasonably sure that objects taken from it are purely aboriginal in
character and antedate the inception of European influence. It is certain,
however, that the Sikyatki people lived long enough in that
pueblo to develop a ceramic art essentially peculiar to Tusayan.
NOMENCLATURE
The commonly accepted definition of Sikyatki is "yellow house"
(sikya, yellow; ki, house). One of the most reliable chiefs of Walpi,
however, called my attention to the fact that the hills in the locality
were more or less parallel, and that there might be a relationship
between the parallel valleys and the name. The application of the term
"yellow" would not seem to be very appropriate so far as it is distinctive
of the general color of the pueblo. The neighboring spring,
however, contains water which after standing some time has a yellowish
tinge, and it was not unusual to name pueblos from the color of
the adjacent water or from some peculiarity of the spring, which was
one of the most potent factors in the determination of the site of a
village. Although the name may also refer to a cardinal point, a
method of nomenclature followed in some regions of the Southwest, if
such were the case in regard to Sikyatki it would be exceptional in
Tusayan.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXV
SIKYATKI MOUNDS FROM THE KANELBA TRAIL
FORMER INHABITANTS OF SIKYATKI
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 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; 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.
GENERAL FEATURES
The ruin of Sikyatki (, ) lies about three miles east of
the recent settlement of Tanoan families at Isba or Coyote spring,
near the beginning of the trail to Hano. Its site is in full view from
the road extending from the last-mentioned settlement to Keam's
canyon, and lies among the hills just below the two pyramidal elevations
called Küküchomo, which are visible for a much greater distance.
When seen from this road the mounds of Sikyatki are observed to be
elevated at least 300 feet above the adjacent cultivated plain, but at
the ruin itself this elevation is scarcely appreciable, so gradual is the
southerly decline to the arroyo which drains the plain. The ruin is
situated among foothills a few hundred yards from the base of the
mesa, and in the depression between it and the mesa there is a stretch
of sand in which grow peach trees and a few stunted cedars. At this
point, likewise, there is a spring, now feeble in its flow from the
gradually drifting sand, yet sufficient to afford a trickling stream by
means of which an enterprising native, named Tcino, irrigates a small
garden of melons and onions. On all sides of the ruin there are barren
stretches of sand relieved in some places by stunted trees and scanty
vegetation similar to that of the adjacent plains. The soil in the plaza
of the ruin is cultivated, yielding a fair crop of squashes, but is useless
for corn or beans.
Here and there about the ruins stand great jagged bowlders, relieving
what would otherwise be a monotonous waste of sand. One of
these stony outcrops forms what I have called the "acropolis" of
Sikyatki, which will presently be described. On the eastern side the
drifting sand has so filled in around the elevation on which the ruin
stands that the ascent is gradual, and the same drift extends to the
rim of the mesa, affording access to the summit that otherwise would
necessitate difficult climbing. Along the ridge of this great drift there
runs a trail which passes over the mesa top to a beautiful spring, on
the other side, called Kanelba.
The highest point of the ruin as seen from the plain is the rocky
eminence rising at the western edge, familiarly known among the
members of my party as the "acropolis." As one approaches the ruin
from a deep gulch on the west, the acropolis appears quite lofty, and a
visitor would hardly suspect that it marks the culminating point of a
ruin, so similar does it appear to surrounding hills of like geologic
character where no vestiges of former house-walls appear.
The spring from which the inhabitants of the old pueblo obtained
their water supply lies between the ruin and the foot of the mesa,
nearer the latter. The water is yellow in color, especially after it has
remained undisturbed for some time, and the quantity is very limited.
It trickles out of a bed of clay in several places and forms a pool from
which it is drawn to irrigate a small garden and a grove of peach trees.
It is said that when Sikyatki was in its prime this spring was larger
than at present, and I am sure that a little labor spent in digging out
the accumulation of sand would make the water more wholesome
and probably sufficiently abundant for the needs of a considerable
population.
The nearest spring of potable water available for our excavation
camp at Sikyatki was Kanelba, or Sheep spring, one of the best sources
of water supply in Tusayan. The word Kanelba, containing a Spanish
element, must have replaced a Hopi name, for it is hardly to be supposed
that this spring was not known before sheep were brought into
the country. There is a legend that formerly the site of this spring was
dry, when an ancient priest, who had deposited his tiponi, or chieftain's
badge, at the place, caused the water to flow from the ground; at present
however the water rushes from a hole as large as the arm in the
face of the rock, as well as from several minor openings. It is situated
on the opposite side of the mesa from Sikyatki, a couple of miles
northeastward from the ruin.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXVI
GROUND PLAN OF SIKYATKI
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 *** 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. 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, while in the alternate
years it is visited by the Flute men.
The present appearance of Sikyatki () 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
() 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, 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,
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 () 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. 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.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXVII
EXCAVATED ROOMS ON THE ACROPOLIS OF SIKYATKI
The longer axis of the ruin is about north and south; the greatest
elevation is approximately 50 feet. Rocks outcrop only at one place,
the remainder of the ruin being covered with rubble, sand, stones, and
fragments of pottery. The mounds are not devoid of vegetation, for
sagebrush, cacti, and other desert genera grow quite profusely over
their surface; but they are wholly barren of trees or large bushes, and
except in the plaza the ruin area is uncultivated. As previously stated,
Sikyatki is situated about 250 or 300 feet above the plain, and when
approached from Keam's canyon appears to be about halfway up the
mesa height. On several adjacent elevations evidences of former fires,
or places where pottery was burned, were found, and one has not to go
far to discover narrow seams of an impure lignite. Here and there are
considerable deposits of selenite, which, as pointed out by Sitgreaves in
his report on the exploration of the Little Colorado, looks like frost
exuding from the ground in early spring.
THE ACROPOLIS
During the limited time devoted to the excavation of Sikyatki it was
impossible, in a ruin so large, to remove the soil covering any considerable
number of rooms. The excavations at different points over
such a considerable area as that covered by the mounds would have
been more or less desultory and unsatisfactory, but a limited section
carefully opened would be much more instructive and typical. While,
therefore, the majority of the Indian workmen were kept employed at
the cemeteries, Kopeli, the Snake chief, a man in whom I have great
confidence, was assigned to the excavation of a series of rooms at the
highest point of the ruin, previously referred to as the acropolis ().
Although his work in these chambers did not yield such rich
results as the others, so far as the number of objects was concerned,
he succeeded in uncovering a number of rooms to their floors, and
unearthed many interesting objects of clay and stone. A brief description
of these excavations will show the nature of the work at that
point.
The acropolis, or highest point of Sikyatki, is a prominent rocky elevation
at the western angle, and overlooks the entire ruin. On the side
toward the western cemetery it rises quite abruptly, but the ascent is
more gradual from the other sides. The surface of this elevation, on
which the houses stood, is of rock, and originally was as destitute of
soil as the plaza of Walpi. This surface supported a double series
of rooms, and the highest point is a bare, rocky projection.
From the rooms of the acropolis there was a series of chambers,
probably terraced, sloping to the modern gardens now occupying
the old plaza, and the broken walls of these rooms still protrude from
the surface in many places ). When the excavations
on the acropolis were begun, no traces of the biserial rows of rooms
were detected, although the remains of the walls were traceable. The
surface was strewn with fragments of pottery and other evidences of
former occupancy.
On leveling the ground and throwing off the surface stones, it was
found that the narrow ridge which formed the top of the acropolis
was occupied by a double line of well-built chambers which show every
evidence of having been living rooms. The walls were constructed of
squared stones set in adobe, with the inner surface neatly plastered.
Many of the rooms communicated by means of passageways with adjacent
chambers, some of them being provided with niches and shelves.
The average height of the standing walls revealed by excavation, as
indicated by the distance of the floor below the surface of the soil, was
about 5 feet.
Fig. 262—The acropolis of Sikyatki
The accompanying illustration () shows a ground plan
of nine of these rooms, which, for purposes of reference, are lettered
a to l. A description of each, it is hoped, will give an idea of a typical
room of Sikyatki. Room a is rectangular in shape, 5 feet 3 inches by
6 feet 8 inches, and is 5 feet 8 inches deep. It has two depressions
in the floor at the southeastern corner, and there is a small niche in the
side wall above them. Some good specimens of mural plastering,
much blackened by soot, are found on the eastern wall. Room a has no
passageway into room b, but it opens into the adjoining room c by an
opening in the wall 3 feet 4 inches wide, with a threshold 9 inches
high.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXVIII
PLAN OF EXCAVATED ROOMS ON THE ACROPOLIS OF SIKYATKI
(Dimensions in feet and inches)
The shape of room b is more irregular. It is 8 feet 1 inch long by 4
feet 5 inches wide, and the floor is 5 feet 2 inches below the surface.
In one corner there is a raised triangular platform 2 feet 7 inches above
the floor. A large cooking pot, blackened with soot, was found in one
corner of this room, and near it was a circular depression in the floor
17 inches in diameter, evidently a fireplace.
Room c is smaller than either of the preceding, and is the only one
with two passageways into adjoining chambers. Remains of wooden
beams in a fair state of preservation were found on the floors of rooms
c and b, but they were not charred, as is so often the case, nor were
there any ashes except in the supposed fireplace.
Room d is larger than those already mentioned, being 7 feet 8 inches
by 5 feet, and connects with room c by means of a passageway. Rooms
e and f communicate with each other by an opening 16 inches wide.
We found the floors of these rooms 4 feet below the surface. The
length of room e is 8 feet.
Room f is 6 feet 8 inches long and of the same width as e. The three
chambers g, h, and i are each 6 feet 9 inches wide, but of varying width.
Room g is 5 feet 2 inches, h is 8 feet 6 inches, and i, the smallest of all,
only a foot wide. These three rooms have no intercommunication.
The evidence of former fires in some of these rooms, afforded by soot
on the walls and ashes in the depressions identified as old fireplaces, is
most important. In one or two places I broke off a fragment of the
plastering and found it to be composed of many strata of alternating
black and adobe color, indicating successive plasterings of the room.
Apparently when the surface wall became blackened by smoke it was
renewed by a fresh layer or wash of adobe in the manner followed in
renovating the kiva walls today.
An examination of the dimensions of the rooms of the acropolis will
show that, while small, they are about the average size of the chambers
in most other southwestern ruins. They are, however, much smaller
than the rooms of the modern pueblo of Walpi or those of the cliff ruins
in the Red-rock region, elsewhere described. Evidently the roof was
2 or 3 feet higher than the top of the present walls, and the absence of
external passageways would seem to indicate that entrance was through
the roof. The narrow chamber, i, is no smaller than some of those which
were excavated at Awatobi, but unless it was a storage bin or dark
closet for ceremonial paraphernalia its function is not known to me.
The mural plastering was especially well done in rooms g and h, a section
thereof showing many successive thin strata of soot and clay,
implying long occupancy. No chimneys were found, the smoke, as is
the case with that from kiva fires today, doubtless finding an exit
through the hatchway in the roof.
MODERN GARDENS
The whole surface of the ancient plaza of Sikyatki is occupied by
rectangular gardens outlined by rows of stones. These are of modern
construction and are cultivated by an enterprising Hopi who, as
previously mentioned, has erected a habitable dwelling on one of the
western mounds from the stones of the old ruin. These gardens are
planted yearly with melons and squashes, and stones forming the outlines
serve as wind-breaks to protect the growing plants from drifting
sand. The plotting of the plan of these gardens was made in 1891,
when a somewhat larger part of the plaza was under cultivation than
in 1895.
There is a grove of dwarf peach trees in the sands between the
northern side of the ruin and the mesa along the run through which
sometimes trickles a little stream from the spring. These trees belong
to an inhabitant of Sichomovi named Tcino, who, it is claimed, is a
descendant of the ancient Sikyatkians. The trees were of course
planted there since the fall of the village, on land claimed by the Kokop
phratry by virtue of their descent from the same phratral organization
of the ancient pueblo. The spring shows no evidence of having been
walled up, but apparently has been filled in by drifting sand since the
time that it formed the sole water supply of the neighboring pueblo.
It still preserves the yellow color mentioned in traditions of the place.
THE CEMETERIES
By far the largest number of objects found at Sikyatki were gathered
from the cemeteries outside the ruin, and were therefore mortuary
in character. It would seem that the people buried their dead a short
distance beyond the walls, at the three cardinal points. The first of
these cemeteries was found in the dune between the ruin and the
peach trees below the spring, and from its relative position from the
pueblo has been designated the northern cemetery. The cemetery
proper lies on the edge of the sandy tract, and was first detected by
the finding of the long-bones of a human skeleton projecting from the
soil. The position of individual graves was indicated usually by small,
oblong piles of stones; but, as this was not an invariable sign, it was
deemed advisable to extend long trenches across the lower part of the
dune. As a rule, the deeper the excavations the more numerous and
elaborate were the objects revealed. Most of the skeletons were in a
poor state of preservation, but several could have been saved had we
the proper means at our disposal to care for them.
No evidence of cremation of the dead was found, either at Awatobi
or Sikyatki, nor have I yet detected any reference to this custom among
the modern Hopi Indians. They have, however, a strange concept of
the purification of the breath-body, or shade of the dead, by fire, which,
although I have always regarded it as due to the teaching of Christian
missionaries, may be aboriginal in character. This account of the judgment
of the dead is as follows:
There are two roads from the grave to the Below. One of these is a
straight way connected with the path of the sun into the Underworld.
There is a branch trail which divides from this straight way, passing
from fires to a lake or ocean (patübha). At the fork of the road sits
Tokonaka, and when the breath-body comes to this place this chief
looks it over and, if satisfied, he says "Üm-pac lo-la-mai, ta ai," "You
are very good; go on." Then the breath-body passes along the straight
way to the far west, to the early Sipapû, the Underworld from which it
came, the home of Müiyinwû. Another breath-body comes to the fork
in the road, and the chief says, "You are bad," and he conducts it along
the crooked path to the place of the first fire pit, where sits a second
chief, Tokonaka, who throws the bad breath-body into the fire, and
after a time it emerges purified, for it was not wholly bad. The chief
says, "You are good now," and carries it back to the first chief, who
accepts the breath-body and sends it along the straight road to the
west.
If, on emerging from the first fire, the soul is still unpurified, or not
sufficiently so to be accepted, it is taken to the second fire pit and cast
into it. If it emerges from this thoroughly purified, in the opinion of
the judge, it is immediately transformed into a ho-ho-ya-üh, or prayer-beetle.
All the beetles we now see in the valleys or among the mesas
were once evil Hopi. If, on coming out of the second fire pit, the breath-body
is still considered bad by the chief, he takes it to the third fire,
and, if there be no evil in it when it emerges from this pit, it is metamorphosed
into an ant, but if unpurified by these three fires—that is,
if the chief still finds evil left in the breath-body—he takes it to a fourth
fire and again casts it into the flames, where it is utterly consumed, the
only residue being soot on the side of the pit.
I have not recorded this as a universal or an aboriginal belief among
the Hopi, but rather to show certain current ideas which may have
been brought to Tusayan by missionaries or others. The details of the
purification of the evil soul are characteristic.
The western cemetery of Sikyatki is situated among the hillocks
covered with surface rubble below a house occupied in summer by a
Hopi and his family. From the nature of the soil the excavation of
this cemetery was very difficult, although the mortuary objects were
more numerous. Repeated attempts to make the Indians work in a
systematic manner failed, partly on account of the hard soil and partly
from other reasons. Although the lower we went the more numerous
and beautiful were the objects exhumed, the Indians soon tired of
deep digging, preferring to confine their work to within two or three
feet of the surface. At many places we found graves under and
between the huge bowlders, which are numerous in this cemetery.
The southern cemetery lies between the outer edge of the ruin on
that side and the decline to the plain, a few hundred feet from the
southern row of houses. Two conspicuous bowlders mark the site of
most of the excavations in that direction. The mortuary objects from
this cemetery are not inferior in character or number to those from
the other burial places. All attempts to discover a cemetery on the
eastern side of the pueblo failed, although a single food basin was
brought to the camp by an Indian who claimed he had dug it out of the
deep sand on the eastern side of the ruins. Another bowl was found
in the sand drift near the trail over the mesa to Kanelba, but careful
investigation failed to reveal any systematic deposit of mortuary vessels
east of the ruin.
The method of excavation pursued in the cemeteries was not so
scientific as I had wished, but it was the only practicable one to be
followed with native workmen. Having found the location of the
graves by means of small prospecting holes sunk at random, the workmen
were aligned and directed to excavate a single long, deep trench,
removing all the earth as they advanced. It was with great difficulty
that the Indians were taught the importance of excavating to a sufficient
depth, and even to the end of the work they refused to be taught
not to burrow. In their enthusiasm to get the buried treasures they
worked very well so long as objects were found, but became at once
discouraged when relics were not so readily forthcoming and went off
prospecting in other places when our backs were turned. A shout that
anyone had discovered a new grave in the trench was a signal for the
others to stop work, gather around the place, light cigarettes, and
watch me or my collaborators dig out the specimens with knives. This
we always insisted on doing, for the reason that in their haste the
Indians at first often broke fragile pottery after they had discovered it,
and in spite of all precautions several fine jars and bowls were thus
badly damaged by them. It is therefore not too much to say that most
of the vessels which are now entire were dug out of the impacted sand
by Mr Hodge or myself.
No rule could be formulated in regard to the place where the pottery
would occur, and often the first indication of its presence was the
stroke of a shovel on the fragile edge of a vase or bowl. Having once
found a skeleton, or discolored sand which indicated the former presence
of human remains, the probability that burial objects were near by
was almost a certainty, although in several instances even these signs
failed.
A considerable number of the pottery objects had been broken when
the soil and stones were thrown on the corpse at interment. So many
were entire, however, that I do not believe any considerable number
were purposely broken at that time, and none were found with holes
made in them to "kill" or otherwise destroy their utility.
No evidences of cremation—no charred bones of man or animal in
or near the mortuary vessels—were found. From the character of the
objects obtained from neighboring graves, rich and poor were apparently
buried side by side in the same soil. Absolutely no evidence of
Spanish influence was encountered in all the excavations at Sikyatki—no
trace of metal, glass, or other object of Caucasian manufacture such
as I have mentioned as having been taken from the ruins of Awatobi—thus
confirming the native tradition that the catastrophe of Sikyatki
antedated the middle of the sixteenth century, when the first Spaniards
entered the country.
It is remarkable that in Sikyatki we found no fragments of basketry
or cloth, the fame of which among the Pueblo Indians was known to
Coronado before he left Mexico. That the people of Sikyatki wore cotton
kilts no one can doubt, but these fabrics, if they were buried with
the dead, had long since decayed. Specimens of strings and ropes of
yucca, which were comparatively abundant at Awatobi, were not found
at Sikyatki; yet their absence by no means proves that they were not
used, for the marks of the strings used to bind feathers to the mortuary
pahos, on the green paint with which the wood was covered, may
still be readily seen.
The insight into ancient beliefs and practices afforded by the numerous
objects found at Sikyatki is very instructive, and while it shows
the antiquity of some of the modern symbols, it betrays a still more
important group of conventionalized figures, the meaning of which may
always remain in doubt. This is particularly true of the decoration
on many specimens of the large collection of highly ornamented pottery
found in the Sikyatki cemeteries.
If we consider the typical designs on modern Hopi pottery and compare
them with the ancient, as illustrated by the collections from
Awatobi and Sikyatki, it is noted, in the first place, how different they
are, and secondly, how much better executed the ancient objects are
than the modern. Nor is it always clear how the modern symbols are
derived from the ancient, so widely do they depart from them in all
their essential characters.
POTTERY
Characteristics—Mortuary Pottery
The pottery exhumed from the burial places of Sikyatki falls in the
divisions known as—
I—Coiled and indented ware.
II—Smooth undecorated ware.
III—Polished decorated ware.
a. Yellow.
b. Red.
c. Black-and-white.
By far the largest number of ancient pottery objects from this locality
belong to the yellow-ware group in the above classification. This is the
characteristic pottery of Tusayan, although coiled and indented ware
is well represented in the collection. The few pieces of red ware are
different from that found in the ruins of the Little Colorado, while the
black-and-white pottery closely resembles the archaic ware of northern
cliff houses. Although the Sikyatki pottery bears resemblance to that
of Awatobi, it can be distinguished from it without difficulty. The
paste of both is of the finest character and was most carefully prepared.
Some of the ancient specimens are much superior to those at present
made, and are acknowledged by the finest potters of East Mesa to be
beyond their power of ceramic production. The coloration is generally
in red, brown, yellow, and black. Decorative treatment by spattering
is common in the food basins, and this was no doubt performed, Chinese
fashion, by means of the mouth. The same method is still employed by
the Hopi priests in painting their masks.
The Sikyatki collection of pottery shows little or no duplication in
decorative design, and every ornamented food basin bears practically
different symbols. The decoration of the food basins is mainly on
the interior, but there is almost invariably a geometrical design of
some kind on the outside, near the rim. The ladles, likewise, are ornamented
on their interior, and their handles also are generally decorated.
When the specimens were removed from the graves their colors,
as a rule, were apparently as well preserved as at the time of their
burial; nor, indeed, do they appear to have faded since their deposit in
the National Museum.
The best examples of ceramic art from the graves of Sikyatki, in
texture, finish, and decoration, are, in my judgment, superior to any
pottery made by ancient or modern Indians north of Mexico. Indeed,
in these respects the old Tusayan pottery will bear favorable comparison
even with Central American ware. It is far superior to the rude
pottery of the eastern pueblos, and is also considerably better than that
of the great villages of the Gila and Salado. Among the Hopi themselves
the ceramic art has degenerated, as the few remaining potters
confess. These objects can hardly be looked upon as products of a
savage people destitute of artistic feeling, but of a race which has developed
in this line of work, through the plane of savagery, to a high stage
of barbarism. While, as a whole, we can hardly regard the modern Hopi
as a degenerate people with a more cultured ancestry, certainly the entire
Pueblo culture in the Southwest, judged by the character of their pottery
manufacture, has greatly deteriorated since the middle of the
sixteenth century.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXIX
COILED AND INDENTED POTTERY FROM SIKYATKI
Coiled and Indented Ware
The rudest type of pottery from Sikyatki has been classed as coiled
and indented ware. It is coarse in texture, not polished, and usually
not decorated. Although the outer surface of the pottery of this class
is rough, the general form of the ware is not less symmetrical than
that of the finer vessels. The objects belonging to this group are
mostly jars and moccasin-shape vessels, there being no bowls of this
type. As a rule, the vessels are blackened with soot, although some of
the specimens are light-brown in color. The former variety were
undoubtedly once used in cooking; the latter apparently for containing
water or food. In the accompanying illustration (, a) is
shown one of the best specimens of indented ware, the pits forming an
equatorial zone about the vessel. All traces of the coil of clay with
which the jar was built up have been obliterated save on the bottom.
The vessel is symmetrical and the indentations regular, as if made with
a pointed stone, bone, or stick.
In another form of coarse pottery (, b) the rim merges into
two ears or rudimentary handles on opposite sides. Traces of the
original coiling are readily observable on the sides of this vessel.
Another illustration (, c) shows an amphora or jar with
diametrically opposite handles extending from the rim to the side of
the bowl. The surface of this rude jar is rough and without decoration,
but the form is regular and symmetrical. In another amphora
(, d) the opposite handles appear below the neck of the
vessel; they are broader and apparently more serviceable.
The jar shown in , e, has two ear-like extensions or projections
from the neck of the jar, which are perforated for suspension.
This vessel is decorated with an incised zigzag line, which surrounds
it just above its equator. This is a fair example of ornamented rough
ware.
Several of the vessels made of coarse clay mixed with sand, the
grains of which make the surface very rough, are of slipper or moccasin
shape. These are covered with soot or blackened by fire, indicating
their former use as cooking pots. By adopting this form the ancients
were practically enabled to use the principle of the dutch-oven, the
coals being piled about the vessels containing the food to be cooked
much more advantageously than in the vase-like forms.
The variations in slipper-shape cooking pots are few and simple. The
blind end is sometimes of globular form, as in the example illustrated in
, a, and sometimes pointed as in figures b and c of the same
plate. One of the specimens of this type has a handle on the rim and
another has a flaring lip. Slipper-form vessels are always of coarse
ware for the obvious reason that, being somewhat more porous, they are
more readily heated than polished utensils. They are not decorated for
equally obvious reasons.
Smooth Undecorated Ware
There are many specimens of undecorated ware of all shapes and
sizes, a type of which is shown in , d. These include food
bowls, saucers, ladles, and jars, and were taken from many graves.
These utensils differ from the coarse-ware vessels not only in the character
of the clay from which they are made, but also in their superficial
polish, which, in some instances, is as fine as that of vessels with
painted designs. Several very good spoons of half-gourd shape were
found, and there are many undecorated food bowls and vases. The
first attempts at ornamentation appear to have been a simple spattering
of the surface with liquid pigment or a drawing of simple encircling
bands. In one instance (, d) a blackening of the surface by
exposure to smoke was detected, but no superficial gloss, as in the
Santa Clara ware, was noted.
Polished Decorated Ware
By far the greater number of specimens of mortuary pottery from
Sikyatki are highly polished and decorated with more or less complicated
designs. Of these there are at least three different groups,
based on the color of the ware. Most of the vessels are light yellow or
of cream color; the next group in point of color is the red ware, the
few remaining specimens being white with black decorations in geometric
patterns. These types naturally fall into divisions consisting of
vases, jars, bowls, square boxes, cups, ladles, and spoons.
In the group called vases (, ) many varieties are
found; some of these are double, with an equatorial constriction;
others are rounded below, flat above, with an elevated neck and a
recurved lip. It is noteworthy that these jars or vases are destitute
of handles, and that their decoration is always confined to the equatorial
and upper sections about the opening. In the specimens of this
group which were found at Sikyatki there is no basal rim and no
depression on the pole opposite the opening. No decoration is found
on the interior of the vases, although in several instances the inside
of the lip bears lines or markings of various kinds. The opening is
always circular, sometimes small, often large; the neck of a vessel
is occasionally missing, although the specimens bear evidence of use
after having been thus broken. In one or two instances the equatorial
constriction is so deep that the jar is practically double; in other
cases the constriction is so shallow that it is hardly perceptible (, a, b). The size varies from a simple globular vessel not larger
than a walnut to a jar of considerable size. Many show marks of
previous use; others are as fresh as if made but yesterday.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXX
SAUCERS AND SLIPPER BOWLS FROM SIKYATKI
One of the most fragile of all the globular vessels is a specimen of
very thin black-and-white ware, perforated near the rim for suspension
(). This form, although rare at Sikyatki, is represented
by several specimens, and in mode of decoration is very similar
to the cliff-house pottery. From its scarcity in Tusayan I am inclined
to believe that this and related specimens were not made of clay
found in the immediate vicinity of Sikyatki, but that the vessels were
brought to the ancient pueblo from distant places. As at least some
of the cliff houses were doubtless inhabited contemporaneously with
and long after the destruction of Sikyatki, I do not hesitate to say that
the potters of that pueblo were familiar with the cliff-dweller type of
pottery and acquainted with the technic which gave the black-and-white
ware its distinctive colors.
By far the largest number of specimens of smooth decorated pottery
from Sikyatki graves are food bowls or basins, evidently the dishes in
which food was placed on the floor before the members of a family at
their meals. As the mortuary offerings were intended as food for the
deceased it is quite natural that this form of pottery should far outnumber
any and all the others. In no instance do the food bowls exhibit
marks of smoke blackening, an indication that they had not been used
in the cooking of food, but merely as receptacles of the same.
The beautiful decoration of these vessels speaks highly for the artistic
taste of the Sikyatki women, and a feast in which they were used must
have been a delight to the native eye so far as dishes were concerned.
When filled with food, however, much of the decoration of the bowls
must have been concealed, a condition avoided in the mode of ornamentation
adopted by modern Tusayan potters; but there is no doubt
that when not in use the decoration of the vessels was effectually
exhibited in their arrangement on the floor or convenient shelves.
The forms of these food bowls are hemispherical, gracefully rounded
below, and always without an attached ring of clay on which to stand
to prevent rocking. Their rims are seldom flaring, but sometimes have
a slight constriction, and while the rims of the majority are perfectly
circular, oblong variations are not wanting. Many of the bowls are
of saucer shape, with almost vertical sides and flat bases; several are
double, with rounded or flat base.
The surface, inside and out, is polished to a fine gloss, and when
exteriorly decorated, the design is generally limited to one side just
below the rim, which is often ornamented with double or triple parallel
lines, drawn in equidistant, quaternary, and other forms. Most of the
bowls show signs of former use, either wear on the inner surface or on
the base where they rested on the floor in former feasts.
These mortuary vessels were discovered generally at one side of the
chest or neck of the person whose remains they were intended to accompany,
and a single specimen was found inverted over the head of the
deceased. The number of vessels in each grave was not constant, and
as many as ten were found with one skeleton, while in other graves only
one or two were found. In one instance a nest of six of these basins, one
inside another, was exhumed. While many of these mortuary offerings
were broken and others chipped, there were still a large number as perfect
as when made. Some of the bowls had been mended before burial,
as holes drilled on each side of a crack clearly indicate. Fragments of
various vessels, which evidently had been broken before they were
thrown into the graves, were common.
There is a general similarity in the artistic decoration of bowls found
in the same grave, as if they were made by the same potter; and persons
of distinction, as shown by other mortuary objects, were, as a rule, more
honored than some of their kindred in the character and number of
pottery objects deposited with their remains. There were also a
number of skeletons without ceramic offerings of any kind.
In one or two interments two or more small jars were found placed
inside of a food bowl, and in many instances votive offerings, like turquois,
beads, stones, and arrowpoints, had been deposited with the
dead. The bowls likewise contained, in some instances, prayer-sticks
and other objects, which will later be described.
One of the most interesting modifications in the form of the rim of
one of these food bowls is shown in , e, which illustrates a
variation from the circular shape, forming a kind of handle or support
for the thumb in lifting the vessel. The utility of this projection in
handling a bowl of hot food is apparent. This form of vessel is very
rare, it being the only one of its kind in the collection.
A considerable number of cups were found at Sikyatki; these vary
in size and shape from a flat-bottom saucer like specimen to a mug-shape
variety, always with a single handle (). Many of
these resemble small bowls with rounded sides, but there are others in
which the sides are vertical, and still others the sides of which incline
at an angle to the flattened base.
The handles of these cups are generally smooth, and in one instance
adorned with a figure in relief. The rims of these dippers are never
flaring, either inward or outward. As a rule they are decorated on the
exterior; indeed there is only one instance of interior decoration. The
handles of the dippers are generally attached at both ends, but sometimes
the handle is free at the end near the body of the utensil and
attached at the tip. These handles are usually flat, but sometimes
they are round, and often are decorated. Traces of imitations of the
braiding of two coils of clay are seen in a single specimen.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXXI
DECORATED POTTERY FROM SIKYATKI
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXXII
DECORATED POTTERY FROM SIKYATKI
Small and large ladles, with long handles, occurred in large numbers
in Sikyatki graves, but there was little variation among them except in
the forms of their handles. Many of these utensils were much worn by
use, especially on the rim opposite the attachment of the handle, and
in some specimens the handle itself had evidently been broken and
the end rounded off by rubbing long before it was placed in the grave.
From the comparatively solid character of the bowls of these dippers
they were rarely fractured, and were commonly found to contain smaller
mortuary objects, such as paint, arrowheads, or polishing stones.
The ladles, unlike most of the cups, are generally decorated on the
interior as well as on the exterior. Their handles vary in size and shape,
are usually hollow, and sometimes are perforated at the end. In certain
specimens the extremity is prolonged into a pointed, recurved tip,
and sometimes is coiled in a spiral. A groove in the upper surface of
one example is an unusual variation, and a right-angle bend of the tip
is a unique feature of another specimen. The Sikyatki potters, like
their modern descendants, sometimes ornamented the tip of a single
handle with the head of an animal and painted the upper surface of
the shaft with alternate parallel bars, zigzags, terraces, and frets.
Several spoons or scoops of earthenware, which evidently had been
used in much the same way as similar objects in the modern pueblos,
were found. Some of these have the shape of a half gourd—a natural
object which no doubt furnished the pattern. These spoons, as a rule,
were not decorated, but on a single specimen bars and parallel lines
may be detected. In the innovations of modern times pewter spoons
serve the same purpose, and their form is sometimes imitated in earthenware.
More often, in modern and probably also in ancient usage, a roll
of paper-bread or piki served the same purpose, being dipped into the
stew and then eaten with the fingers. Possibly the Sikyatkian drank
from the hollow handle of a gourd ladle, as is frequently done in Walpi
today, but he generally slaked his thirst by means of a clay substitute.
Several box-like articles of pottery of both cream and red ware were
found in the Sikyatki graves, some of them having handles, others
being without them (). They are ornamented on the exterior
and on the rim, and the handle, when not lacking, is attached to the
longer side of the rectangular vessel. Not a single bowl was found
with a terraced rim, a feature so common in the medicine bowls of
Tusayan at the present time.
In addition to the various forms of pottery which have been mentioned,
there are also pieces made in the form of birds, one of the most
typical of which is figured in , c. In these objects the
wings are represented by elevations in the form of ridges on the sides,
and the tail and head by prolongations, which unfortunately were
broken off.
Toys or miniature reproductions of all the above-mentioned ceramic
specimens occurred in several graves. These are often very roughly
made, and in some cases contained pigments of different colors. The
finding of a few fragments of clay in the form of animal heads, and one
or two rude images of quadrupeds, would seem to indicate that sometimes
such objects were likewise deposited with the dead. A clay
object resembling the flaring end of a flageolet and ornamented with a
zigzag decoration is unique in the collections from Sikyatki, although
in the western cemetery there was found a fragment of an earthenware
tube, possibly a part of a flute.
In order to show more clearly the association of mortuary objects in
single graves a few examples of the grouping of these deposits will be
given.
In a grave in the western cemetery the following specimens were
found: 1, ladle; 2, paint grinder; 3, paint slab; 4, arrowpoints; 5,
fragments of a marine shell (Pectunculus); 6, pipe, with fragments of a
second pipe, and 7, red paint (sesquioxide of iron).
In the grave which contained the square medicine bowl shown in
, a, a ladle containing food was also unearthed.
The bowl decorated with a picture of a girl's head was associated
with fragments of another bowl and four ladles.
Another single grave contained four large and small cooking pots
and a broken metate.
In a grave 8 feet below the surface in the western cemetery we
found: 1, decorated food vessel; 2, black shoe-shape cooking pot resting
in a food bowl and containing a small rude ladle; 3, coarse
undecorated basin.
A typical assemblage of mortuary objects comprised: 1, small decorated
bowl containing polishing stones; 2, miniature cooking pot blackened
by soot; 3, two small food bowls.
In modern Hopi burials the food bowls with the food for the dead
are not buried with the deceased, but are placed on the mound of soil
and stones which covers the remains. From the position of the mortuary
pottery as regards the skeletons in the Sikyatki interments, it is
probable that this custom is of modern origin. Whether in former
times food bowls were placed on the burial mounds as well as in the
grave I am not able to say. The number of food bowls in ancient
graves exceeds those placed on modern burials.
The Sikyatki dead were apparently wrapped in coarse fabrics,
possibly matting.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXXIII
DECORATED POTTERY FROM SIKYATKI
PALEOGRAPHY OF THE POTTERY
General Features
The pottery from Sikyatki is especially rich in picture writing, and
imperfect as these designs are as a means of transmitting a knowledge
of manners, customs, and religious conceptions, they can be interpreted
with good results.
One of the most important lessons drawn from the pottery is to be
had from a study of the symbols used in its decoration, as indicative
of current beliefs and practices when it was made. The ancient inhabitants
of Sikyatki have left no written records, for, unlike the more
cultured people of Central America, they had no codices; but they
have left on their old mortuary pottery a large body of picture writings
or paleography which reveals many instructive phases of their former
culture. The decipherment of these symbols is in part made possible
by the aid of a knowledge of modern survivals, and when interpreted
rightly they open a view of ancient Tusayan myths, and in some cases
of prehistoric practices.
Students of Pueblo mythology and ritual are accumulating a considerable
body of literature bearing on modern beliefs and practices.
This is believed to be the right method of determining their aboriginal
status, and is therefore necessary as a basis of our knowledge of their
customs and beliefs. It is reasonable to suppose that what is now
practiced in Pueblo ritual contains more or less of what has survived
from prehistoric times, but from Taos to Tusayan there is no pueblo
which does not show modifications in mythology and ritual due to
European contact. Modern Pueblo life resembles the ancient, but is
not a facsimile of it, and until we have rightly measured the effects of
incorporated elements, we are more or less inexact in our estimation
of the character of prehistoric culture. The vein of similarity in the
old and the new can be used in an interpretation of ancient paleography,
but we overstep natural limitations if by so doing we ascribe
to prehistoric culture every concept which we find current among the
modern survivors. To show how much the paleography of Tusayan
has changed since Sikyatki was destroyed, I need only say that most
of the characteristic figures of deities which are used today in the
decoration of pottery are not found on the Sikyatki ware. Perhaps
the most common figures on modern food bowls is the head of a mythologic
being, the Corn-maid, Calako-mana, but this picture, or any which
resembles it, is not found on the bowls from Sikyatki. A knowledge
of the cult of the Corn-maid possibly came into Tusayan, through
foreign influences, after the fall of Sikyatki, and there is no doubt that
the picture decoration of modern Tusayan pottery, made within a league
of Sikyatki, is so different from the ancient that it indicates a modification
of the culture of the Hopi in historic times, and implies how
deceptive it may be to present modern beliefs and practices as facsimiles
of ancient culture.
The main subjects chosen by the native women for the decoration of
their pottery are symbolic, and the most abundant objects which bear
these decorations are food bowls and water vases. Many mythic concepts
are depicted, among which may be mentioned the Plumed Snake,
various birds, reptiles, frogs, tadpoles, and insects. Plants or leaves
are seldom employed as decorative motives, but the flower is sometimes
used. The feather was perhaps the most common object utilized,
and it may likewise be said the most highly conventionalized.
An examination of the decorations of modern food basins used in the
villages of East Mesa shows that the mythologic personages most commonly
chosen for the ornamentation of their interiors are the Corn or
Germ goddesses. These assume a number of forms, yet all are reducible
to one type, although known by very different names, as Hewüqti,
"Old Woman," Kokle, and the like.
Figures of reptiles, birds, the antelope, and like animals do not occur
on any of the food bowls from the large collection of modern Tusayan
pottery which I have studied, and as these figures are well represented
in the decorations on Sikyatki food bowls, we may suppose their use
has been abandoned or replaced by figures of the Corn-maids. This
fact, like so many others drawn from a study of the Tusayan ritual, indicates
that the cult of the Corn-maids is more vigorous today than it
was when Sikyatki was in its prime.
Many pictures of masks on modern Tusayan bowls are identified as
Tacab or Navaho katcinas. Their symbolism is well characterized by
chevrons on the cheeks or curved markings for eyes. None of these
figures, however, have yet been found on ancient Tusayan ceramics.
Taken in connection with facts adduced by Hodge indicative of a recent
advent of this vigorous Athapascan tribe into Tusayan, it would seem
that the use of the Tacab katcina pictures was of recent date, and is
therefore not to be expected on the prehistoric pottery of the age of that
found in Sikyatki.
In the decoration of ancient pottery I find no trace of figures of
the clown-priests, or tcukuwympkiya, who are so prominent in modern
Tusayan katcina celebrations. These personages, especially the Tatcukti,
often called by a corruption of the Zuñi name Kóyimse (Kóyomä***),
are very common on modern bowls, especially at the extremities
of ladles or smaller objects of pottery.
Many handles of ladles made at Hano in late times are modeled in
the form of the Paiakyamu, a glutton priesthood peculiar to that
Tanoan pueblo. From the data at hand we may legitimately conclude
that the conception of the clown-priest is modern in Tusayan, so far as
the ornamentation of pottery is concerned.
The large collections of so-called modern Hopi pottery in our museums
is modified Tanoan ware, made in Tusayan. Most of the component
specimens were made by Hano potters, who painted upon them figures
of katcinas, a cult which they and their kindred introduced.
Several of the food bowls had evidently cracked during their firing
or while in use, and had been mended before they were buried in the
graves. This repairing was accomplished either by filling the crack
with gum or by boring a hole on each side of the fracture for tying.
In one specimen of black-and-white ware a perfectly round hole was
made in the bottom, as if purposely to destroy the usefulness of the
bowl before burial. This hole had been covered inside with a rounded
disk of old pottery, neatly ground on the edge. It was not observed
that any considerable number of mortuary pottery objects were
"killed" before burial, although a large number were chipped on the
edges. It is a great wonder that any of these fragile objects were
found entire, the stones and soil covering the corpse evidently having
been thrown into the grave without regard to care.
The majority of the ancient symbols are incomprehensible to the
present Hopi priests whom I have been able to consult, although they
are ready to suggest many interpretations, sometimes widely divergent.
The only reasonable method that can be pursued in determining the
meaning of the conventional signs with which the modern Tusayan
Indians are unfamiliar seems, therefore, to be a comparative one. This
method I have attempted to follow so far as possible.
There is a closer similarity between the symbolism of the Sikyatki
pottery and that of the Awatobi ware than there is between the
ceramics of either of these two pueblos and that of Walpi, and the
same likewise may be said of the other Tusayan ruins so far as known.
It is desirable, however, that excavations be made at the site of Old
Walpi in order to determine, if possible, how widely different the
ceramics of that village are from the towns whose ruins were studied
in 1895. There are certain practical difficulties in regard to work at
Old Walpi, one of the greatest of which is its proximity to modern
burial places and shrines still used. Moreover, it is probable—indeed,
quite certain—that most of the portable objects were carried from the
abandoned pueblo to the present village when the latter was founded;
but the old cemeteries of Walpi contain many ancient mortuary bowls
which, when exhumed, will doubtless contribute a most interesting
chapter to the history of modern Tusayan decorative art.
One of the largest, and, so far as form goes, one of the most unique
vessels, is shown in , b. This was not exhumed from
Sikyatki, but was said to have been found in the vicinity of that ruin.
While the ware is very old, I do not believe it is ancient, and it is introduced
in order to show how cleverly ancient patterns maybe simulated
by more modern potters. The sole way in which modern imitations of
ancient vessels may be distinguished is by the peculiar crackled or crazed
surface which the former always has. This is due, I believe, to the method
of firing and the unequal contraction or expansion of the slip employed.
All modern imitations are covered with a white slip which, after firing,
becomes crackled, a characteristic unknown to ancient ware. The most
expert modern potter at East Mesa is Nampéo, a Tanoan woman who
is a thorough artist in her line of work. Finding a better market for
ancient than for modern ware, she cleverly copies old decorations, and
imitates the Sikyatki ware almost perfectly. She knows where the
Sikyatki potters obtained their clay, and uses it in her work. Almost
any Hopi who has a bowl to sell will say that it is ancient, and care
must always be exercised in accepting such claims.
An examination of the ornamentation of the jar above referred to
shows a series of birds drawn in the fashion common to early pottery
decoration. This has led me to place this large vessel among the old
ware, although the character of the pottery is different from that of
the best examples found at Sikyatki. I believe this vessel was exhumed
from a ruin of more modern date than Sikyatki. The woman who sold
it to me has farming interests near Awatobi, which leads me to conjecture
that she or possibly one of her ancestors found it at or near that
ruin. She admitted that it had been in the possession of her family
for some time, but that the story she had heard concerning it attributed
its origin to Sikyatki.
Human Figures
Very few figures of men or women are found on the pottery, and
these are confined to the interior of food basins (). They
are ordinarily very roughly drawn, apparently with less care and with
much less detail than are the figures of animals. From their character
I am led to the belief that the drawing of human figures on pottery
was a late development in Tusayan art, and postdates the use of
animal figures on their earthenware. There are, however, a few decorations
in which human figures appear, and these afford an interesting
although meager contribution to our knowledge of ancient Tusayan art
and custom.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXXIV
DECORATED POTTERY FROM SIKYATKI
As is well known, the Hopi maidens wear their hair in two whorls,
one over each ear, and that on their marriage it is tied in two coils
falling on the breast. The whorl is arranged on a U-shape stick called
a gñela; it is commonly done up by a sister, the mother, or some
friend of the maiden, and is stiffened with an oil pressed from squash
seeds. The curved stick is then withdrawn and the two puffs held in
place by a string tightly wound between them and the head. The
habit of dressing the hair in whorls is adopted after certain puberty
ceremonials, which have elsewhere been described. When on betrothal
a Hopi maid takes her gifts of finely ground cornmeal to the house of
her future mother-in-law, her hair is dressed in this fashion for the last
time, because on her return she is attacked by the women of the pueblo,
drawn hither and thither, her hair torn down, and her body smeared
with dirt. If her gifts are accepted she immediately becomes the wife
of her lover, and her hair is thenceforth dressed in the fashion common
to matrons.
The symbolic meaning of the whorls of hair worn by the maidens is
said to be the squash-flower, or, perhaps more accurately speaking, the
potential power of fructification. There is legendary and other evidence
that this custom is very ancient among the Tusayan Indians, and the
data obtainable from their ritual point the same way. In the personification
of ancestral "breath-bodies," or spirits by men, called katcinas,
the female performers are termed katcina-manas (katcina-virgins), and
it is their custom to wear the hair in the characteristic coiffure of
maidens. In the personification of the Corn-maid by symbolic figures,
such as graven images, pictures, and the like, in secret rites, the style
of coiffure worn by the maidens is common, as I have elsewhere shown
in the descriptions of the ceremonials known as the Flute, Lalakonti,
Mamzrauti, Palülükoñti, and others. The same symbol is found in
images used as dolls of Calako-mana, the equivalent, as the others, of
the same Corn-maid. From the nature of these images there can
hardly be a doubt of the great antiquity of this practice, and that it
has been brought down, through their ritual, to the present day. This
style of hair dressing was mentioned by the early Spanish explorers,
and is represented in pictographs of ancient date; but if all these evidences
of its antiquity are insufficient the testimony afforded by the
pictures on certain food-basins from Sikyatki leaves no doubt on this
point.
, b, represents a food-basin, on the inside of which is
drawn, in brown, the head and shoulders of a woman. On either side
the hair is done up in coils which bear some likeness to the whorls
worn by the present Hopi maidens. It must be borne in mind, however,
that similar coils are sometimes made after ceremonial head-washing,
and certain other rites, when the hair is tied with corn husks.
The face is painted reddish, and the ears have square pendants similar
to the turquois mosaics worn by Hopi women at the present day.
Although there is other evidence than this of the use of square ear-pendants,
set with mosaic, among the ancient people—and traditions
point the same way—this figure of the head of a woman from Sikyatki
leaves no doubt of the existence of this form of ornament in that
ancient pueblo.
However indecisive the last-mentioned picture may be in regard to
the coiffure of the ancient Sikyatki women, , a, affords
still more conclusive evidence. This picture represents a woman of
remarkable form which, from likenesses to figures at present made in
sand on an altar in the Lalakonti ceremony, I have no hesitation in
ascribing to the Corn-maid. The head has the two whorls of hair very
similar to those made in that rite on the picture of the Goddess of
Germs, and the square body is likewise paralleled in the same figure.
The peculiar form is employed to represent the outstretched blanket, a
style of art which is common in Mayan codices. On each lower corner
representations of feathered strings, called in the modern ritual
nakwákwoci, are appended. The figure is represented as kneeling,
and the four parallel lines are possibly comparable with the prayer-sticks
placed in the belt of the Germ goddess on the Lalakonti altar.
In her left hand (which, among the Hopi, is the ceremonial hand or
that in which sacred objects are always carried) she holds an ear of
corn, symbolic of germs, of which she is the deity. The many coincidences
between this figure and that used in the ceremonials of the
September moon, called Lalakonti, would seem to show that in both
instances it was intended to represent the same mythic being.
There is, however, another aspect of this question which is of interest.
In modern times there is a survival among the Hopi of the custom
of decorating the inside of a food basin with a figure of the
Corn-maid, and this is, therefore, a direct inheritance of ancient methods
represented by the specimen under consideration. A large majority
of modern food bowls are ornamented with an elaborate figure of Calako-mana,
the Corn-maid, very elaborately worked out, but still retaining
the essential symbolism figured in the Sikyatki bowl.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXXV
FLAT DIPPERS AND MEDICINE BOX FROM SIKYATKI
While one of the two figures shown in , e, is valuable as
affording additional and corroborative evidence of the character of the
ancient coiffure of the women, its main interest is of a somewhat different
kind. Two figures are rudely drawn on the inside of the basin,
one of which represents a woman, the other, judging from the character
of the posterior extremity of the body, a reptilian conception in which a
single foreleg is depicted, and the tail is articulated at the end, recalling
a rattlesnake. Upon the head is a single feather; the two eyes are
represented on one side of the head, and the line of the alimentary tract
is roughly drawn. The figure is represented as standing before that of
the woman.
With these few lines the potter no doubt intended to depict one of
those many legends, still current, of the cultus hero and heroine of her
particular family or priesthood. Supposing the reptilian figure to be a
totemic one, our minds naturally recall the legend of the Snake-hero
and the Corn-mist-maid whom he brought from a mythic land to dwell
with his people.
The peculiar hairdress is likewise represented in the figures on the
food basin illustrated in , c, which represent a man and
a woman. Although the figures are partly obliterated, it can easily be
deciphered that the latter figure wears a garment similar to the kwaca
or dark-blue blanket for which Tusayan is still famous, and that this
blanket was bound by a girdle, the ends of which hang from the
woman's left hip. While the figure of the man is likewise indistinct
(the vessel evidently having been long in use), the nature of the act in
which he is engaged is not left in doubt.
Among the numerous deities of the modern Hopi Olympus there is
one called Kokopeli, often represented in wooden dolls and clay
images. From the obscurity of the symbolism, these dolls are never
figured in works on Tusayan images. The figure in , d,
bears a resemblance to Kokopeli. It represents a man with arms raised
in the act of dancing, and the head is destitute of hair as if covered
by one of the peculiar helmets, used by the clowns in modern ceremonials.
As many of the acts of these priests may be regarded as
obscene from our point of view, it is not improbable that this figure
may represent an ancient member of this archaic priesthood.
The three human figures on the food basin illustrated in , f, are highly instructive as showing the antiquity of a curious
and revolting practice almost extinct in Tusayan.
As an accompaniment of certain religious ceremonials among the
Pueblo and the Navaho Indians, it was customary for certain priests
to insert sticks into the esophagus. These sticks are still used to some
extent and may be obtained by the collector. The ceremony of stick-swallowing
has led to serious results, so that now in the decline of this
cult a deceptive method is often adopted.
In Tusayan the stick-swallowing ceremony has been practically
abandoned at the East Mesa, but I have been informed by reliable persons
that it has not wholly been given up at Oraibi. The illustration
above referred to indicates its former existence in Sikyatki. The middle
figure represents the stick-swallower forcing the stick down his
esophagus, while a second figure holds before him an unknown object.
The principal performer is held by a third figure, an attendant, who
stands behind him. This instructive pictograph thus illustrates the
antiquity of this custom in Tusayan, and would seem to indicate that it
was once a part of the Pueblo ritual. It is possible that the Navaho,
who have a similar practice, derived it from the Pueblos, but there are
not enough data at hand to demonstrate this beyond question.
Regarding the pose of the three figures in this picture, I have been
reminded by Dr Walter Hough of the performers who carry the ***
of cornstalks in the Antelope dance. In this interpretation we have
the "carrier," "hugger," and possibly an Antelope priest with the
unknown object in his hand. This interpretation appears more likely
to be a correct one than that which I have suggested; and yet Kopeli,
the Snake chief, declares that the Snake family was not represented at
Sikyatki. Possibly a dance similar to the Antelope performance on the
eighth day of the Snake dance may have been celebrated at that pueblo,
and the discovery of a rattlesnake's rattle in a Sikyatki grave is yet to
be explained.
One of the most prominent of all the deities in the modern Tusayan
Olympus is the cultus-hero called Püükoñhoya, the Little War God.
Hopi mythology teems with legends of this god and his deeds in killing
monsters and aiding the people in many ways. He is reputed to
have been one of twins, children of the Sun and a maid by parthenogenetic
conception. His adventures are told with many variants and
he reappears with many aliases.
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SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXXVI
DOUBLE-LOBE VASES FROM SIKYATKI
The symbolism of Püükoñhoya at the present day consists of parallel
marks on the face or body, and when personated by a man the figure
is always represented as carrying weapons of war, such as a bow and
arrows. Images of the same hero are used in ceremonies, and are
sometimes found as household gods or penates, which are fed as if
human beings. A fragment of pottery represented in the accompanying
illustration (), shows enough of the head of a personage
to indicate that Püükoñhoya was intended, for it bears on the cheek
the two parallel marks symbolic of that deity, while in his hands he
holds a bow and a jointed arrow as if shooting an unknown animal.
All of these features are in harmony with the identification of the
figure with that of the cultus-hero mentioned, and seem to indicate the
truth of the current legend that as a mythologic conception he is of
great antiquity in Tusayan.
Fig. 263—War god shooting an animal. (Fragment
of food bowl.)
In this connection it may be instructive to call attention to two figures
on a food bowl collected by Mr H. R. Voth from a ruin near Oraibi.
It represents a man and a woman, the former with two horns, a crescent
on the forehead, and holding in
his outstretched hand a staff.
The woman has a curious gorget,
similar to some which I have
found in ruins near Tusayan,
and a belt like those still worn
by Pueblo Indians. This smaller
figure likewise has a crescent
on its face and three strange
appendages on each side of the
head.
Another food basin in Mr
Voth's collection is also instructive,
and is different in its
decoration from any which I
have found. The character of
the ware is ancient, but the figure is decidedly modern. If, however,
it should prove to be an ancient vessel it would carry back to the time
of its manufacture the existence of the katcina cult in Tusayan, no
actual proof of the existence of which, at a time when Sikyatki was in
its prime, has yet been discovered.
The three figures represent Hahaiwüqti, Hewüqti, and Natacka
exactly as these supernatural beings are now personated at Walpi in
the Powamû, as described and figured in a former memoir.
It is unfortunate that the antiquity of this specimen, suggestive as
it is, must be regarded as doubtful, for it was not exhumed from the
ruin by an archeologist, and the exact locality in which it was found
is not known.
The Human Hand
Excepting the figure of the maid's head above described, the human
hand, for some unknown reason, is the only part of the body chosen by
the ancient Hopi for representation in the decoration of their pottery.
Among the present Tusayan Indians the human hand is rarely used,
but oftentimes the beams of the kivas are marked by the girls who have
plastered them with impressions of their muddy hands, and there is a
katcina mask which has a hand painted in white on the face. As in
the case of the decoration of all similar sacred paraphernalia, there is
a legend which accounts for the origin of the katcina with the imprint
of the hand on its mask. The following tale, collected by the late
A. M. Stephen, from whose manuscript I quote, is interesting in this
connection:
"The figure of a hand with extended fingers is very common, in the
vicinity of ruins, as a rock etching, and is also frequently seen
daubed on the rocks with colored pigments or white clay. These are
vestiges of a test formerly practiced by the young men who aspired for
admission to the fraternity of the Calako. The Calako is a trinity of
two women and a man from whom the Hopi obtained the first corn, and
of whom the following legend is told:
"In the early days, before houses were built, the earth was devastated
by a whirlwind. There was then neither springs nor streams, although
water was so near the surface that it could be found by pulling up
a tuft of grass. The people had but little food, however, and they
besought Masauwûh to help them, but he could not.
"There came a little old man, a dwarf, who said that he had two
sisters who were the wives of Calako, and it might be well to petition
them. So they prepared an altar, every man making a paho, and these
were set in the ground so as to encircle a sand hillock, for this occurred
before houses were known.
"Masauwûh's brother came and told them that when Calako came to
the earth's surface wherever he placed his foot a deep chasm was made;
then they brought to the altar a huge rock, on which Calako might
stand, and they set it between the two pahos placed for his wives.
"Then the people got their rattles and stood around the altar, each
man in front of his own paho; but they stood in silence, for they knew
no song with which to invoke this strange god. They stood there for a
long while, for they were afraid to begin the ceremonies until a young
lad, selecting the largest rattle, began to shake it and sing. Presently
a sound like rushing water was heard, but no water was seen; a sound
also like great winds, but the air was perfectly still, and it was seen
that the rock was pierced with a great hole through the center. The
people were frightened and ran away, all save the young lad who had
sung the invocation.
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UNUSUAL FORMS OF VASES FROM SIKYATKI
"The lad soon afterward rejoined them, and they saw that his back
was cut and bleeding and covered with splinters of yucca and willow.
The flagellation, he told them, had been administered by Calako, who
told him that he must endure this laceration before he could look upon
the beings he had invoked; that only to those who passed through his
ordeals could Calako become visible; and, as the lad had braved the
test so well, he should thenceforth be chief of the Calako altar. The
lad could not describe Calako, but said that his two wives were exceedingly
beautiful and arrayed with all manner of fine garments. They
wore great headdresses of clouds and every kind of corn which they
were to give to the Hopi to plant for food. There were white, red, yellow,
blue, black, blue-and-white speckled, and red-and-yellow speckled
corn, and a seeded grass (kwapi).
"The lad returned to the altar and shook his rattle over the hole in
the rock, and from its interior Calako conversed with him and gave him
instructions. In accordance with these he gathered all the Hopi youths
and brought them to the rock, that Calako might select certain of them
to be his priests. The first test was that of putting their hands in the
mud and impressing them upon the rock. Only those were chosen as
novices the imprints of whose hands had dried on the instant.
"The selected youths then moved within the altar and underwent
the test of flagellation. Calako lashed them with yucca and willow.
Those who made no outcry were told to remain in the altar, to abstain
from salt and flesh for ten days, when Calako would return and instruct
them concerning the rites to be performed when they sought his aid.
"Calako and his two wives appeared at the appointed time, and after
many ceremonials gave to each of the initiated five grains of each of the
different kinds of corn. The Hopi women had been instructed to place
baskets woven of grass at the foot of the rock, and in these Calako's
wives placed the seeds of squashes, melons, beans, and all the other
vegetables which the Hopi have since possessed.
"Calako and his wives, after announcing that they would again
return, took off their masks and garments, and laying them on the rock
disappeared within it.
"Some time after this, when the initiated were assembled in the altar,
the Great Plumed Snake appeared to them and said that Calako could
not return unless one of them was brave enough to take the mask and
garments down into the hole and give them to him. They were all
afraid, but the oldest man of the Hopi took them down and was deputed
to return and represent Calako.
"Shortly afterward Masauwûh stole the paraphernalia, and with his
two brothers masqueraded as Calako and his wives. This led the Hopi
into great trouble, and they incurred the wrath of Muiyinwûh, who
withered all their grain and corn.
"One of the Hopi finally discovered that the supposed Calako carried
a cedar bough in his hand, when it should have been willow; then they
knew that it was Masauwûh who had been misleading them.
"The boy hero one day found Masauwûh asleep, and so regained
possession of the mask. Muiyinwûh then withdrew his punishments
and sent Palülükoñ (the Plumed Snake) to tell the Hopi that Calako
would never return to them, but that the boy hero should wear his
mask and represent him, and his festival should be celebrated when
they had a proper number of novices to be initiated."
Several food basins from Sikyatki have a human hand depicted upon
them, and in one of these both hands are represented. On the most
perfect of these hand figures (, c) a wristlet is well represented,
with two triangular figures, which impart to it an unusual
form. From between the index and second finger there arises a triangular
appendage, which joins a graceful curve, extending on one side
to the base of the thumb and continued on the other side to the arm.
The whole inside of the basin, except the figure of the hand and its
appendage, is decorated with spattering, and on the outside there is
a second figure, evidently a hand or the paw of some animal. This
external decoration also has a triangular figure in which are two terraces,
recalling rain-cloud symbols.
One of the most interesting representations of the human hand ()
is found on the exterior of a beautiful bowl. The four fingers and
the thumb are shown with representations of nails, a unique feature
in such decorations. From between the index finger and the next, or
rather from the tip of the former, arises an appendage comparable with
that before mentioned, but of much simpler form. The palm of the
hand is crossed by a number of parallel lines, which recall a custom of
using the palm lines in measuring ceremonial prayer sticks, as I have
described in a memoir on the Snake dance. In place of the arm this
hand has many parallel lines, the three medial ones being continued
far beyond the others, as shown in the figure.
Quadrupeds
Figures of quadrupeds are sparingly used in the decoration of food
bowls or basins, but the collection shows several fine specimens on which
appear some of the mammalia with which the Hopi are familiar. Most
of these are so well drawn that there appears to be no question as to
their identification.
One of the most instructive of these figures is shown in ,
a, which is much worn, and indistinct in detail, although from what
can be traced it was probably intended to represent a mythic creature
known as the Giant Elk. The head bears two branched horns, drawn
without perspective, and the neck has a number of short parallel
marks similar to those occurring on the figure of an antelope on the
walls of one of the kivas at Walpi. The hoofs are bifid, and from a
short stunted tail there arises a curved line which encircles the whole
figure, connecting a series of round spots and terminating in a triangular
figure with three parallel lines representing feathers. Perhaps
the strangest of all appendages to this animal is at the tail, which is
forked, recalling the tail of certain birds. Its meaning is unknown
to me.
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MEDICINE BOX AND PIGMENT POTS FROM SIKYATKI
There can be no doubt that the delineator sought to represent in
this figure one of the numerous horned Cervidæ with which the ancient
Hopi were familiar, but the drawing is so incomplete that to choose
between the antelope, deer, and elk seems impossible. It may be
mentioned, however, that the Horn people are reputed to have been
early arrivals in Tusayan, and it is not improbable that representatives
of the Horn clans lived in Sikyatki
previous to its overthrow.
Two faintly drawn animals, evidently
intended for quadrupeds,
appear on the interior of the food
bowl shown in , b. These
are interesting from the method in
which they were drawn. They are
not outlined with defined lines, but
are of the original color of the bowl,
and appear as two ghost-like figures
surrounded by a dense spattering
of red spots, similar in technic to the
figure of the human hand. I am
unable to identify these animals, but
provisionally refer them to the rabbit.
They have no distinctive symbolism,
however, and are destitute
of the characteristic spots which
members of the Rabbit clan now invariably place on their totemic
signatures.
Fig. 264—Mountain sheep
The animal design on the bowl illustrated in , c, probably
represents a rabbit or hare, quite well drawn in profile, with a feathered
appendage from the head. Behind it is the ordinary symbol of the
dragon-fly. Several crosses are found in an opposite hemisphere, separated
from that occupied by the two animal pictures by a series of
geometric figures ornamented with crooks and other designs.
The interior of the food bowl shown in , d, as well as the
inner sides of the two ladles represented in , b, d, are decorated
with peculiar figures which suggest the porcupine. The body
is crescentic and covered with spines, and only a single leg, with claws,
is represented. It is worthy of mention that so many of these animal
forms have only one leg, representative, no doubt, of a single pair, and
that many of these have plantigrade paws like those of the bear and
badger. The appendages to the head in this figure remind one of
those of certain forms regarded as reptiles, with which this may be
identical.
Fig. 265—Mountain lion
In another decoration we have what is apparently the same animal
furnished with both fore and hind legs, the tail curving upward like
that of a cottontail rabbit, which it resembles in other particulars as
well. This figure also hangs by a band from a geometric design
formed of two crescents and bearing four parallel marks representing
feathers. The single crescent depicted on the inside of the ladle
shown in , b, is believed to represent the same conception,
or the moon; and in this connection the very close phonetic resemblance
between the Hopi name for moon and that for the mammal
may be mentioned. In the decoration last described the same crescentic
figure is elaborated into its zoömorphic equivalent.
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DESIGNS ON FOOD BOWLS FROM SIKYATKI
An enumeration of the pictographic representations of mammalia
includes the beautiful food bowl shown in , e, which is made
of fine clay spattered with brown pigment. This design (reproduced
in ) represents probably some ruminant, as the mountain
sheep or possibly the antelope, both of which gave names to clans
said to have resided at Sikyatki. The hoofs are characteristic, and
the markings on the back suggest a fawn or spotted deer. There is a
close similarity between the design below this animal and that of the
exterior decorations of certain vases and square medicine bowls.
Among the pictures of quadrupedal animals depicted on ancient
food bowls there is none more striking than that illustrated in , f, which has been identified as the mountain lion. While this
identification is more or less problematical, it is highly possible. The
claws of the forelegs () are evidently those of one of the
carnivora of the cat family, of which the mountain lion is the most
prominent in Tusayan. The anterior part of the body is spotted; the
posterior and the hind legs are black. The snout bears little resemblance
to that of the puma.
The entire inner surface of the bowl, save a central circle in which
the head, fore-limbs, and anterior part of the body are represented, is
decorated by spattering. Within this spattered area there are highly
interesting figures, prominent among which is a squatting figure of a
man, with the hand raised to the mouth and holding a ceremonial cigarette,
as if engaged in smoking. The seven patches in black might
well be regarded as either footprints or leaves, four of which appear
to be attached to the band inclosing the central area. In the intervals
between three of these there are branched bodies representing plants
or bushes.
Reptiles
Snakes and other reptilian forms were represented by the ancient potters
in the decoration of food bowls, and it is remarkable how closely
some of these correspond in symbolism with conceptions still current
in Tusayan. Of all reptilian monsters the worship of which forms a
prominent element in Hopi ritual, that of the Great Plumed Snake is
perhaps the most important. Effigies of this monster exist in all the
larger Hopi villages, and they are used in at least two great rites—the
Soyaluña in December and the Palülükonti in March, as I have
already described. The symbolic markings and appendages of the
Plumed Snake effigy are distinctive, and are found in all modern representations
of this mystic being. While several pictographs of
snakes are found on Sikyatki pottery, there is not a single instance in
which these modern markings appear; consequently there is considerable
doubt in regard to the identification of many of the Sikyatki
serpents with modern mythologic representatives.
Fig. 266—Plumed serpent
In questioning the priests in regard to the derivation of the Plumed
Serpent cult in Tusayan, I have found that they declare that this
cultus was brought into Tusayan from a mythic land in the south,
called Palatkwabi, and that the effigies and fetiches pertaining to it
were introduced by the Patki or Water-house people. From good evidence,
I suspect that the arrival of this phratry was comparatively
late in Tusayan history, and it is possible that Sikyatki was destroyed
before their advent, for in all the legends which I have been able to
gather no one ascribes to Sikyatki any clan belonging to the phratries
which are said to have migrated from the far south. I believe
we must look toward the east, whence the ancestors of the Kokop or
Firewood people are reputed to have come, for the origin of the symbolic
markings of the snakes represented on Sikyatki ceramics. Figures
of apodal reptiles, with feathers represented on their heads, occur in
Sikyatki pictography, although there is no resemblance in the markings
of their bodies to those of modern pictures. One of the most striking
of these occurs on the inside of the food basin shown in , a. It represents a serpent with curved body, the tail being
connected with the head, like an ancient symbol of eternity. The body
() is destitute of any distinctive markings, but is covered
with a crosshatching of black lines. The head bears two triangular
markings, which are regarded as feather symbols. The position of
the eyes would seem to indicate that the top of the head is represented,
but this conclusion is not borne out by comparative studies,
for it was often the custom of ancient Tusayan potters, like other primitive
artists, to represent both eyes on one side of the head.
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FOOD BOWLS WITH FIGURES OF QUADRUPEDS FROM SIKYATKI
The zigzag line occupying the position of the tongue and terminating
in a triangle is a lightning symbol, with which the serpent is still
associated. While striving not to strain the symbolism of this figure,
it is suggested that the three curved marks on the lower and upper
jaws represent fangs. It is highly probable that conceptions not
greatly unlike those which cluster about the Great Plumed Serpent
were associated with this mythic snake, the figure of which is devoid
of some of the most essential elements of modern symbolism.
While from the worn character of the middle of the food bowl illustrated
in , b, it is not possible to discover whether the
animal was apodal or not from the crosshatching of the body and the
resemblance of the appendages of the head to those of the figure last
considered, it appears probable that this pictograph likewise was
intended to represent a snake of mystic character. Like the previous
figure, this also is coiled, with the tail near the head, its body crosshatched,
and with two triangular appendages to the head. There is,
however, but one eye, and the two jaws are elongated and provided
with teeth, as in the case of certain reptiles.
The similarity of the head and its appendages to the snake figure last
described would lead me to regard the figure shown in , c,
as representing a like animal, but the latter picture is more elaborately
worked out in details, and one of the legs is well represented. I have
shown in the discussion of a former figure how the decorator, recognizing
the existence of two eyes, represented them both on one side of the
head of a profile figure, although only one is visible, and we see in this
picture () a somewhat similar tendency, which is very common
in modern Tusayan figures of animals. The breath line is drawn
from the extremity of the snout halfway down the length of the body.
In modern pictography a representation of the heart is often depicted
at the blind extremity of this line, as if, in fact, there was a connection
with this organ and the tubes through which the breath passes. In the
Sikyatki pottery, however, I find only this one specimen of drawing
in which an attempt to represent internal organs is made.
The tail of this singular picture of a reptile is highly conventionalized,
bearing appendages of unknown import, but recalling feathers,
while on the back are other appendages which might be compared with
wings. Both of these we might expect, considering the association of
bird and serpent in the Hopi conception of the Plumed Snake.
Exact identifications of these pictures with the animals by which
the Hopi are or were surrounded, is, of course, impossible, for they are
not realistic representations, but symbolic figures of mythic beings
unknown save to the imagination of the primitive mythologist.
Fig. 267—Unknown reptile
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ORNAMENTED LADLES FROM SIKYATKI
Fig. 268—Unknown reptile
A similar reptile is pictured on the food bowl shown in , d,
in which design, however, there are important modifications, the most
striking of which are: (1) The animal () has both fore and
hind legs represented; (2) the head is round; (3) the mouth is provided
with teeth; and (4) there are four instead of two feather appendages
on the head, two of which are much longer than the others. Were it
not that ears are not represented in reptiles, one would be tempted to
regard the smaller appendages as representations of these organs.
Their similarity to the row of spines on the back and the existence of
spines on the head of the "horned toad" suggests this reptile, with
which both ancient and modern Hopi are very familiar. On a fragment
of a vessel found at Awatobi there is depicted the head of a reptile
evidently identical with this, since the drawing is an almost perfect
reproduction. There is a like figure, also from Sikyatki, in the collection
of pottery made at that ruin by Dr Miller, of Prescott, the
year following my work there. The most elaborate of all the pictures
of reptiles found on ancient Tusayan pottery is shown in , e,
in which the symbolism is complicated and the details carefully worked
out. A few of these symbols I am able to decipher; others elude present
analysis. There is no doubt as to the meaning of the appendage
to the head (), for it well portrays an elaborate feathered
headdress on which the markings that distinguish tail-feathers, three
in number, are prominent. The extension of the snout is without
homologue elsewhere in Hopi pictography, and, while decorative in
part, is likewise highly conventionalized. On the body semicircular
rain cloud symbols and markings similar to those of the bodies of certain
birds are distinguishable. The feet likewise are more avian than
reptilian, but of a form quite unusual in structure. It is interesting to
note the similarity in the carved line with six sets of parallel bars to
the band surrounding the figure of the human hand shown in , c. In attempting to identify the pictograph on the bowl reproduced
in , a, there is little to guide me, and the nearest I
can come to its significance is to ascribe it to a reptile of some kind.
Highly symbolic, greatly conventionalized as this figure is, there is
practically nothing on which to base the absolute identification of the
figure save the serrated appendage to the body and the leg, which
resembles that of the lizard as it is sometimes drawn. The two eyes
indicate that the enlargement in which these were placed is the head,
and the extended curved snout a beak. All else is incomprehensible
to me, and my identification is therefore provisional and largely
speculative.
Fig. 269—Unknown reptile
I wish, however, in leaving the description of this beautiful bowl, to
invite attention to the brilliancy and the characteristics of the coloring,
which differ from the majority of the decorated ware from Sikyatki.
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FOOD BOWLS WITH FIGURES OF REPTILES FROM SIKYATKI
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BOWLS AND DIPPERS WITH FIGURES OF TADPOLES, BIRDS, ETC. FROM SIKYATKI
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FOOD BOWLS WITH FIGURES OF SUN, BUTTERFLY, AND FLOWER FROM SIKYATKI
Among the fragments of pottery found in the Sikyatki graves there
was one which, had it been entire, would doubtless have thrown considerable
light on ancient pictography. This fragment has depicted
upon it portions of the body and the whole head and neck of a reptilian
animal. We find on that part of the body which is represented,
three parallel marks which recall those on the modern pictures of the
Great Plumed Serpent. On the back there were apparently the representations
of wings, a feather of which is shown above the head. The
head likewise bears a crest of three feathers, and there are three reptilian
like toes. Whether this represents a reptile or a bird it is impossible
for me to say, but enough has already been recorded to indicate
how close the symbolism of these two groups sometimes is in ancient
pictography. It would almost appear as if the profound anatomical
discovery of the close kinship of birds and reptiles was unconsciously
recognized by a people destitute of the rudiments of the knowledge of
morphology.
Tadpoles
Among the inhabitants of an arid region, where rain-making forms a
dominant element in their ritual, water animals are eagerly adopted as
symbols. Among these the tadpole occupies a foremost position. The
figures of this batrachian are very simple, and are among the most
common of those used on ceremonial paraphernalia in Tusayan at the
present time. In none of these is anything more than a globular head
and a zigzag tail represented, and, as in nature, these are colored black.
The tadpole appears on several pieces of painted pottery from Sikyatki,
one of the best of which is the food bowl illustrated in , a.
The design represents a number of these aquatic animals drawn in line
across the diameter of the inner surface of the bowl, while on each side
there is a row of rectangular blocks representing rain clouds. These
blocks are separated from the tadpole figures by crescentic lines, and
above them are short parallel lines recalling the symbol of falling rain.
One of the most beautiful forms of ladles from Sikyatki is figured in
, b, a specimen in which the art of decoration by spattering
is effectively displayed. The interior of the bowl of this dipper is
divided by parallel lines into two zones, in each of which two tadpoles
are represented. The handle is pointed at the end and is decorated.
This specimen is considered one of the best from Sikyatki.
The rudely drawn picture on the bowl figured in , f,
would be identified as a frog, save for the presence of a tail which
would seem to refer it to the lizard kind. But in the evolution of the
tadpole into the frog a tailed stage persists in the metamorphosis
after the legs develop. In modern pictures of the frog with which
I am familiar, this batrachian is always represented dorsally or ventrally
with the legs outstretched, while in the lizards, as we have seen,
a lateral view is always adopted. As the sole picture found on ancient
pottery where the former method is employed, this fact may be of value
in the identification of this rude outline as a frog rather than as a true
reptile.
Butterflies or Moths
One of the most characteristic modern decorations employed by the
Hopi, especially as a symbol of fecundity, is the butterfly or moth. It
is a constant device on the beautiful white or cotton blankets woven
by the men as wedding gifts, where it is embroidered on the margin
in the forms of triangles or even in more realistic patterns. This
symbol is a simple triangle, which becomes quite realistic when
a line is drawn bisecting one of the angles. This double triangle
is not only a constant symbol on wedding blankets, but also is found
on the dadoes of houses, resembling in design the arrangement of
tiles in the Alhambra and other Moorish buildings. This custom of
decorating the walls of a building with triangles placed at intervals on
the upper edge of a
dado is a feature of
cliff-house kivas, as
shown in Nordenskiöld's
beautiful
memoir on the cliff
villages of Mesa
Verde. While an
isosceles triangle
represents the simplest
form of the butterfly
symbol, and
is common on ancient pottery, a few vessels from Sikyatki show a
much more realistic figure. In , f, is shown a moth
with extended proboscis and articulated antennæ, and in d of the same
plate another form, with the proboscis inserted in a flower, is given.
As an associate with summer, the butterfly is regarded as a beneficent
being aside from its fecundity, and one of the ancient Hopi clans
regarded it as their totem. Perhaps the most striking, and I may say
the most inexplicable, use of the symbol of the butterfly is the so-called
Hokona or Butterfly *** slab used in the Antelope ceremonies of the
Snake dance at Walpi, where it is associated with the tadpole water
symbol.
Fig. 270—Outline of , b
The most beautiful of all the butterfly designs are the six figures on
the vase reproduced in , b. From the number of these pictures
it would seem that they bore some relationship to the six world-quarters—north,
west, south, east, zenith, and nadir. The vase has a
flattened shoulder, and the six butterfly figures are represented as
flying toward the orifice. These insect figures closely resemble one
another, and are divided into two groups readily distinguished by the
symbolism of the heads. Three have each a cross with a single dot in
each quadrant, and each of the other three has a dotted head without
the cross. These two kinds alternate with each other, and the former
probably indicate females, since the same symbols on the heads of the
snakes in the sand picture of the Antelope altar in the Snake dance
are used to designate the female.
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VASES WITH FIGURES OF BUTTERFLIES FROM SIKYATKI
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VASES WITH FIGURES OF BIRDS AND FEATHERS FROM SIKYATKI
Two antennæ and a double curved proboscis are indicated in all the
figures of butterflies on the vase under consideration. The zones above
and below are both cut by a "line of life," the opening through which
is situated on opposite equatorial poles in the upper and under rim.
Fig. 271—Butterfly design on upper surface of , b
The rectangular figures associated with the butterflies on this elaborately
decorated vase are of two patterns alternating with each other.
The rectangles forming one of these patterns incloses three vertical
feathers, with a triangle on the right side and a crook on the left.
The remaining three rectangles also have three feathers, but they are
arranged longitudinally on the surface of the vase.
The elaborate decoration of the zone outside the six butterflies is
made up of feathers arranged in three clusters of three each, alternating
with key patterns, crosshatched crooks, triangles, and frets.
The wealth of ornament on this part of the vase is noteworthy, and
its interpretation very baffling. This vase may well be considered the
most elaborately decorated in the whole collection from Sikyatki.
There are several figures of butterflies, like those shown in , a, in which the modifications of wings and body have proceeded
still further, and the only features which refer them to insects are the
jointed antennæ. The passage from this highly conventionalized
design into a triangular figure is not very great. There are still others
where the head, with attached appendages, arises not from an angle of a
triangle, but from the middle of one side. This gives us a very common
form of butterfly symbol, which is found, variously modified, on
many ancient vessels. In such designs there is commonly a row of
dots on each side, which may be represented by a sinuous line, a series
of triangles, bars, or parallel bars.
The design reproduced in , d, represents a moth or
butterfly associated with a flower, and several star symbols. It is
evidently similar to that figured in a of the same plate, and has
representations of antennæ and extended proboscis, the latter organ
placed as if extracting honey from the flower. The conventional flower
is likewise shown in e of this plate. The two crescentic designs in , a, are regarded as butterflies.
The jar illustrated in , b, is ornamented with highly conventionalized
figures on four sides, and is the only one taken from the
Sikyatki cemeteries in which the designs are limited to the equatorial
surface. The most striking figure, which is likewise found on the base
of the paint saucer shown in , f, is a diamond-shape design
with a triangle at each corner (). The pictures drawn on
alternating quadrants have very different forms, which are difficult to
classify, and I have therefore provisionally associated this beautiful
vessel with those bearing the butterfly and the triangle. The form of
this vessel closely approaches that of the graceful cooking pots made
of coiled and coarse indented ware, but the vessel was evidently not
used for cooking purposes, as it bears no marks of soot.
Dragon-flies
Among the most constant designs used in the decoration of Sikyatki
pottery are figures of the dragon-fly. These decorations consist of a
line, sometimes enlarged into a bulb at one end, with two parallel
bars drawn at right angles across the end, below the enlargement.
Like the tadpole, the dragon-fly is a symbol of water, and with it are
associated many legends connected with the miraculous sprouting of
corn in early times. It is a constant symbol on modern ceremonial
paraphernalia, as masks, tablets, and pahos, and it occurs also on
several ancient vessels (, b; , a), where it always has
the same simple linear form, with few essential modifications.
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SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXXXVII
VESSELS WITH FIGURES OF HUMAN HAND, BIRDS, TURTLE, ETC. FROM SIKYATKI
The symbols of four dragon-flies are well shown on the rim of the
square box represented in , a. This box, which was probably
for charm liquid, or possibly for feathers used in ceremonials, is
unique in form and is one of the most beautiful specimens from the
Sikyatki cemeteries. It is elaborately decorated on the four sides with
rain-cloud and other symbols, and is painted in colors which retain
their original brilliancy. The interior is not decorated.
The four dragon-flies on the rim of this object are placed in such a
way as to represent insects flying about the box in a dextral circuit,
or with the heads turned to the right. This position indicates a
ceremonial circuit, which is exceptional among the Tusayan people,
although common in Navaho ceremonies. In the sand picture of the
Snake society, for instance, where four snakes are represented in a
border surrounding a mountain lion, these reptiles are represented as
crawling about the picture from right to left. This sequence is prescribed
in Tusayan ceremonials, and has elsewhere been designated by
me as the sinistral circuit, or a circuit with the center on the left hand.
The circuit used by the decorator of this box is dextral or sunwise.
Several rectangular receptacles of earthenware, some with handles and
others without them, were obtained in the excavations at Sikyatki.
The variations in their forms may be seen in , a, c, and
, f. These are regarded as medicine bowls, and are supposed to
have been used in ancient ceremonials where asperging was performed.
In many Tusayan ceremonials square medicine bowls, some of them
without handles, are still used, but a more common and evidently more
modern variety are round and have handles. The rim of these modern
sacred vessels commonly bears, in its four quadrants, terraced elevations
representing rain-clouds of the cardinal points, and the outer
surface of the bowl is decorated with the same symbols, accompanied
with tadpole or dragon-fly designs.
One of the best figures of the dragon-fly is seen on the saucer shown
in , f. The exterior of this vessel is decorated with four
rectangular terraced rain-cloud symbols, one in each quadrant, and
within each there are three well-drawn figures of the dragon-fly. The
curved line below represents a rainbow. The terrace form of rain-cloud
symbol is very ancient in Tusayan and antedates the well-known
semicircular symbol which was introduced into the country by
the Patki people. It is still preserved in the form of tablets worn on
the head and in sand paintings and various other decorations on altars
and religious paraphernalia.
Birds
The bird and the feather far exceed all other motives in the decoration
of ancient Tusayan pottery, and the former design was probably
the first animal figure employed for that purpose when the art passed
out of the stage where simple geometric designs were used exclusively.
A somewhat similar predominance is found in the part which the bird
and the feather play in the modern Hopi ceremonial system. As one
of the oldest elements in the decoration of Tusayan ceramics, figures of
birds have in many instances become highly conventionalized; so
much so, in fact, that their avian form has been lost, and it is one
of the most instructive problems in the study of Hopi decoration
to trace the modifications of these designs from the realistic to the more
conventionalized. The large series of food bowls from Sikyatki afford
abundant material for that purpose, and it may incidentally be said
that by this study I have been able to interpret the meaning of certain
decorations on Sikyatki bowls of which the best Hopi traditionalists
are ignorant. In order to show the method of reasoning in this case
I have taken a series illustrating the general form of an unknown bird.
There can be no reasonable doubt that the decoration of the food
basin shown in , a, represents a bird, and analogy would
indicate that it is the picture of some mythologic personage. It has a
round head (), to which is attached a headdress, which we
shall later show is a highly modified feather ornament. On each side
of the body from the region of the neck there arise organs which are
undoubtedly wings, with feathers continued into arrowpoints. The
details of these wings are very carefully and, I may add, prescriptively
worked out, so that almost every line, curve, or zigzag is important.
The tail is composed of three large feathers, which project beyond two
triangular extensions, marking the end of the body.
The technic of this figure is exceedingly complicated and the colors
very beautiful. Although this bowl was quite badly broken when
exhumed, it has been so cleverly mended by Mr Henry Walther that no
part of the symbolism is lost.
While it is quite apparent that this figure represents a bird, and
while this identification is confirmed by Hopi testimony, it is far from
a realistic picture of any known bird with which the ancients could
have been familiar. It is highly conventionalized and idealized with
significant symbolism, which is highly suggestive.
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FOOD BOWLS WITH FIGURES OF BIRDS FROM SIKYATKI
Bearing in mind the picture of this bird, we pass to a second form
(, a), in which we can trace the same parts without
difficulty. On a round head is placed a feathered headdress. The
different parts of the outstretched wings are readily homologized even
in details in the two figures. There are, for instance, two terminal
wing feathers in each wing; the appendages to the shoulder exist in
both, and the lateral spurs, exteriorly and interiorly, are represented
with slight modifications.
Fig. 272—Man-eagle
The body is ornamented in the same way in both figures. It is continued
posteriorly on each side into triangular extensions, and the
same is true of its anterior, which in one figure has three curved
lines, and in the other a simple crook. There are three tail-feathers in
each figure. I believe there can be no doubt that both these designs
represent the same idea, and that a mythologic bird was intended in
each instance.
The step in conventionalism from the last-mentioned figure of a bird
to the next (, a) is even greater than in the former. The head
in this picture is square or rectangular, and the wings likewise simple,
ending in three incurved triangles without appendages. The tail has
five feathers instead of three, in which, however, the same symbolic
markings which distinguish tail-feathers are indicated.
The conventionalized wings of this figure are repeated again and
again in ancient Tusayan pottery decorations, as one may see by an
examination of the various birds shown in the plates. In many instances,
however, all the other parts of the bird are lost and nothing
but the triangular feathers remain; but as these have the same form,
whatever organs are missing, the presumption is that their meaning
has not changed.
In passing to the figure of the bird shown in , b, we
find features homologous with those already considered, but also detect
considerable modification. The head is elongated, tipped with three
parallel lines, but decorated with markings similar to those of the preceding
figure. The outstretched wings have a crescentic form, on the
anterior horn of which are round spots with parallel lines arising from
them. This is a favorite figure in pottery decoration, and is found very
abundantly on the exterior of food bowls; it represents highly conventionalized
feathers, and should be so interpreted wherever found. The
figure of the body of the bird depicted is simple, and the tail is continued
into three tail-feathers, as is ordinarily the case in highly
conventionalized bird figures.
The most instructive of all the appendages to the body are the club-shape
bodies, one on each side, rising from the point of union of the
wings and the breast. These are spatulate in form, with a terraced
terminal marking. They, like other appendages, represent feathers,
but that peculiar kind which is found under the wing is called the
breath feather. This feather is still used in certain ceremonials, and is
tied to certain prayer offerings. Its ancient symbolism is very clearly
indicated in this picture, and is markedly different from that of either
the wing or tail feathers, which have a totally different ceremonial use
at the present time.
For convenience of comparison, a number of pictures which undoubtedly
refer to different birds in ancient interpretations will be grouped
in a single series.
, d, represents a figure of a bird showing great relative
modification of organs when compared with those previously discussed.
The head is very much broadened, but the semicircular markings, which
occur also on the heads of previously described bird figures, are well
drawn. The wings are mere curved appendages, destitute of feather
symbols, but are provided with lateral spurs and have knobs at their
bases. The body is rectangular; the tail-feathers are numerous, with
well-marked symbolism. Perhaps the most striking appendages to the
body are the two well-defined extensions of parts of the body itself,
which, although represented in other pictures of birds, nowhere reach
such relatively large size.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXXXIX
FOOD BOWLS WITH FIGURES OF BIRDS FROM SIKYATKI
The figure of a bird shown in , c, is similar in many
respects to that last described. The semicircular markings on the head
of the former are here replaced by triangles, but both are symbolic of
rain-clouds. The wings are curved projections, without any suggestion
of feathers or basal spurs and knobs. The tail-feathers show nothing
exceptional, and the body is bounded posteriorly by triangular
extensions, as in figures of birds already described.
The representation of the bird in , e, has a triangular
body continued into two points on the posterior end, between which
the tail-feathers are situated. The body is covered with terraced and
triangular designs, and the head is rectangular in form. On each side
of the bird figure there is a symbol of a flower, possibly the sunflower
or an aster.
In the figures of birds already considered the relative sizes of the
heads and bodies are not overdrawn, but in the picture of a bird on
the food bowl shown in , f, the head is very much enlarged.
It bears a well-marked terraced rain-cloud symbol above triangles of
the same meaning. The wings are represented as diminutive appendages,
each consisting of two feathers. The body has a triangular extension
on each side, and the tail is composed of two comparatively short
rectangular feathers. The figure itself could hardly be identified as
a representation of a bird were it not for the correspondence, part for
part, with figures which are undoubtedly those of birds or flying animals.
A more highly conventionalized figure of a bird than any thus far
described is painted on the food bowl reproduced in , b. The
head is represented by a terraced figure similar to those which appear
as decorations on some of the other vessels; the wings are simply
extended crescents, the tips of which are connected by a band which
encircles the body and tail; the body is continued at the posterior
end into two triangular appendages, between which is a tail, the
feathers of which are not differentiated. On each side of the body, in
the space inclosed by the band connecting the tips of the wings, a figure
of a dragon-fly appears.
The figure on the food bowl illustrated in , c, may also
be reduced to a conventionalized bird symbol. The two pointed objects
on the lower rim represent tail-feathers, and the triangular appendages,
one on each side above them, the body, as in the designs which have
already been described. Above the triangles is a rectangular figure
with terraced rain-cloud emblems, a constant feature on the body and
head of the bird, and on each side, near the rim of the bowl, occur
the primary feathers of the wings. The cross, so frequently associated
with designs representing birds, is replaced by the triple intersecting
lines in the remaining area. The resemblance of this figure to those
already considered is clearly evident after a little study.
The decoration on the food basin presented in , a, is
interesting in the study of the evolution of bird designs into conventional
forms. In this figure those parts which are identified as homologues
of the wings extend wholly across the interior of the food bowl,
and have the forms of triangles with smaller triangular spurs at their
bases. The wings are extended at right angles to the axis of the body,
and taper uniformly to the rim of the bowl. The smaller spurs near the
union of the wings and body represent the posterior part of the latter,
and between them are the tail-feathers, their number being indicated by
three triangles.
There is no representation of a head, although the terraced rain-cloud
figure is drawn on the anterior of the body between the wings.
The reduction of the triangular wings of the last figure to a simple
band drawn diametrically across the inner surface of the bowl is accomplished
in the design shown in , b. At intervals along
this line there are arranged groups of blocks, three in each group,
representing stars, as will later be shown. The semicircular head has
lost all appendages and is reduced to a rain-cloud symbol. The posterior
angles of the body are much prolonged, and the tail still bears
the markings representing three tail-feathers.
The association of a cross with the bird figure is both appropriate
and common; its modified form in this decoration is not exceptional,
but why it is appended to the wings is not wholly clear. We shall see
its reappearance on other bowls decorated with more highly conventionalized
bird figures.
In the peculiar decoration used in the treatment of the food bowl
shown in , c, we have almost a return to geometric
figures in a conventional representation of a bird. In this case the
semblance to wings is wholly lost in the line drawn diametrically across
the interior of the bowl. On one side of it there are many crosses
representing stars, and on the other the body and tail of a bird. The
posterior triangular extensions of the former are continued to a bounding
line of the bowl, and no attempt is made to represent feathers in the
tail. The rectangular figure, with serrated lower edge and inclosed
terraced figures, finds, however, a homologue in the heads and bodies
of most of the representations of birds which have been described.
This gradual reduction in semblance to a bird has gone still further
in the figure represented in , d, where the posterior end
of the body is represented by two spurs, and the tail by three feathers,
the triangular rain-clouds still persisting in the rectangular body.
In fact, it can hardly be seen how a more conventionalized figure of
a bird were possible did we not find in e of the same plate this reduction
still greater. Here the tail is represented by three parallel lines, the
posterior of the body by two dentate appendages, and the body itself
by a square.
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SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXL
FIGURES OF BIRDS FROM SIKYATKI
In , c, we have a similar conventional bird symbol where
two birds, instead of one, are represented. In both these instances it
would appear that the diametric band, originally homologous to wings,
had lost its former significance.
It must also be pointed out that there is a close likeness between
some of these so-called conventionalized figures of birds and those of
moths or butterflies. If, for instance, they are compared with the figures
of the six designs of the upper surface of the vase shown in , b, we note especially this resemblance. While, therefore, it can
hardly be said there is absolute proof that these highly conventionalized
figures always represent birds, we may, I think, be sure that
either the bird or the moth or butterfly is generally intended.
There are several modifications of these highly conventionalized figures
of birds which may be mentioned, one of the most interesting of
which is figured in , f. In this representation the two
posterior triangular extensions of the body are modified into graceful
curves, and the tail-feathers are simply parallel lines. The figure in
this instance is little more than a trifid appendage to a broad band
across the inner surface of the food bowl. In addition to this highly
conventionalized bird figure, however, there are two crosses which represent
stars. In this decoration all resemblance to a bird is lost, and
it is only by following the reduction of parts that one is able to identify
this geometric design with the more elaborate pictures of mythic birds.
When questioned in regard to the meaning of this symbol, the best
informed Hopi priests had no suggestion to offer.
In all the figures of birds thus far considered, the head, with one or
two exceptions, is represented or indicated by symbolic markings.
In that which decorates the vessel shown in , a, we find a
new modification; the wings, instead of being attenuated into a diametric
line or band, are in this case curved to form a loose spiral.
Between them is the figure of a body and the three tail-feathers, while
the triangular extensions which generally indicate the posterior of the
body are simply two rounded knobs at the point of union of the wings
and tail. There is no indication of a head.
The modifications in the figure of the bird shown in the last mentioned
pictograph, and the highly conventionalized forms which the wings and
other parts assume, give me confidence to venture an interpretation of
a strange figure shown in , a. This picture I regard as a
representation of a bird, and I do so for the following resemblances to
figures already studied. The head of the bird, as has been shown, is
often replaced by a terraced rain-cloud symbol. Such a figure occurs in
the pictograph under consideration, where it occupies the position of the
head. On either side of what might be regarded as a body we find, at
the anterior end, two curved appendages which so closely resemble
similarly placed bodies in the pictograph last discussed that they are
regarded as representations of wings. These extensions at the posterior
end of the body are readily comparable with prolongations in that
part on which we have already commented. The tail, although different
from that in figures of birds thus far discussed, has many points
of resemblance to them. The two circles, one on each side of the bird
figure, are important additions which are treated in following pages.
From the study of the conventionalized forms of birds which I have
outlined above it is possible to venture the suggestion that the star-shape
figure shown in , b, may be referred to the same group,
but in this specimen we appear to have duplication, or a representation
of the bird symbol repeated in both semicircles of the interior of the
bowl. Examining one of these we readily detect the two tail-feathers
in the middle, with the triangular end of the body on each side. The
lateral appendages duplicated on each side correspond with the band
across the middle of the bowl in other specimens, and represent highly
conventionalized wings. The middle of this compound figure is decorated
with a cross, and in each quadrant there is a row of the same
emblems, equidistant from one another.
It would be but a short step from this figure to the ancient sun
symbol with which the eagle and other raptorial birds are intimately
associated. The figure represented in , c, is a symbolic
bird in which the different parts are directly comparable with the other
bird pictographs already described. One may easily detect in it the
two wings, the semicircular rain-cloud figures, and the three tail-feathers.
As in the picture last considered, we see the two circles, each
with a concentric smaller circle, one on each side of the mythic bird
represented. Similar circular figures are likewise found in the zone
surrounding the centrally placed bird picture.
In the food bowl illustrated in , b, we find the two circles
shown, and between them a rectangular pictograph the meaning of
which is not clear. The only suggestion which I have in regard to the
significance of this object is that it is an example of substitution—the
substitution of a prayer offering to the mythic bird represented in
the other bowls for a figure of the bird itself. This interpretation,
however, is highly speculative, and should be accepted only with limitations.
I have sometimes thought that the prayer-stick or paho may
originally have represented a bird, and the use of it is an instance of
the substitution of a symbolic effigy of a bird, a direct survival of
the time when a bird was sacrificed to the deity addressed.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXLI
FOOD BOWLS WITH FIGURES OF BIRDS AND FEATHERS FROM SIKYATKI
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXLII
VASES, BOWL, AND LADLE, WITH FIGURES OF FEATHERS, FROM SIKYATKI
The studies of the conventional bird figures which are developed in
the preceding pages make it possible to interpret one of the two
pictures on the food bowl represented in , while the realistic
character of the smaller figure leaves no question that we can rightly
identify this also as a bird. In the larger figure the wings are of unequal
size and are tipped with appendages of a more or less decorative
nature. The posterior part of the body is formed of two triangular
extensions, to which feathers are suspended, and the tail is composed
of three large pointed feathers. The head bears the terraced rain-cloud
designs almost universal in pictographs of birds.
It is hardly necessary for me to indicate the head, body, wings, and
legs of the smaller figure, for they are evidently avian, while the character
of the beak would indicate that a parrot or raptorial genus was
intended. The same beak is found in the decoration of a vase with a
bird design, which will later be considered.
From an examination of the various figures of birds on the Sikyatki
pottery, and an analysis of the appendages to the wings, body, and
legs, it is possible to determine the symbolic markings characteristic
of two different kinds of feathers, the large wing or tail feathers and
the so-called breath or body feathers. There is therefore no hesitation,
when we find an object of pottery ornamented with these symbols, in
interpreting them as feathers. Such a bowl is that shown in , c, in which we find a curved line to which are appended three
breast feathers. This curved band from which they hang may take
the form of a circle with two pendent feathers as in , d.
In the design on the bowl figured in , e, tail-feathers hang
from a curved band, at each extremity of which is a square design in
which the cross is represented. It has been suggested that this represents
the feathered rainbow, a peculiar conception of both the Pueblo
and the Navaho Indians. The design appearing on the small food bowl
represented in , f, is no doubt connected in some way with
that last mentioned, although the likeness between the appendages to
the ring and feathers is remote. It is one of those conventionalized
pictures, the interpretation of which, with the scanty data at hand,
must be largely theoretical.
Figures of feathers are most important features in the decoration of
ancient Sikyatki pottery, and their many modifications may readily be
seen by an examination of the plates. In modern Tusayan ceremonials
the feather is appended to almost all the different objects used in
worship; it is essential in the structure of the tiponi or badge of the
chief, without which no elaborate ceremony can be performed or altar
erected; it adorns the images on the altars, decorates the heads of
participants, is prescribed for the prayer-sticks, and is always appended
to aspergills, rattles, and whistles.
In the performance of certain ceremonials water from sacred springs
is used, and this water, sometimes brought from great distances, is
kept in small gourd or clay vases, around the necks of which a string
with attached feathers is tied. Such a vase is the so-called patne which
has been described in a memoir on the Snake ceremonies at Walpi.
The artistic tendency of the ancient people of Sikyatki apparently
exhibited itself in painting these feathers on the outside of similar
small vases. , a, shows one of these vessels, decorated with
an elaborate design with four breath-feathers suspended from the equator.
(See also .) On the vases shown in , b, c, are
found figures of tail-feathers arranged in two groups on opposite sides
of the rim or orifice. One of these groups has eight, the other seven,
figures of these feathers, and on the two remaining quadrants are the
star emblems so constantly seen in pottery decorated with bird figures.
The upper surface of the vase () shows a similar arrangement,
although the feathers here are conventionalized into triangular
dentations, seven on
one side and three on
the other, individual
dentations alternating
with rectangular designs
which suggest
rain-clouds. This vase
(, a, b) is
also striking in having
a well-drawn figure of
a bird in profile, the
head, wings, tail, and
legs suggesting a parrot.
The zone of decoration
of this vessel,
which surrounds the
rows of feathers, is strikingly complicated, and comprises rain-cloud,
feather, and other designs.
Fig. 273—Pendent feather ornaments on a vase.
In a discussion of the significance of the design on the food bowl
represented in , a, b, I have shown ample reason for regarding
it a figure of a highly conventionalized bird. On the upper surface
of the vase (, a, b) are four similar designs, representing
birds of the four cardinal points, one on each quadrant. The wings are
represented by triangular extensions, destitute of appendages but with
a rounded body at their point of juncture with the trunk. Each bird
has four tail-feathers and rain-cloud symbols on the anterior end of the
body. As is the case with the figures on the food basins, there are
crosses representing stars near the extended wings. A broad band
connects all these birds, and terraced rain-cloud symbols, six in number
and arranged in pairs, fill the peripheral sections between them.
This vase, although broken, is one of the most beautiful and instructive
in the rich collection of Sikyatki ceramics.
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SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXLIII
VASE WITH FIGURES OF BIRDS FROM SIKYATKI
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SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXLIV
VASE WITH FIGURES OF BIRDS FROM SIKYATKI
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VASES WITH FIGURES OF BIRDS FROM SIKYATKI
Fig. 274—Upper surface of vase with bird decoration
I have not ventured, in the consideration of the manifold pictures of
birds on ancient pottery, to offer an interpretation of their probable
generic identification. There is no doubt, however, that they represent
mythic conceptions, and are emblematic of birds which figured conspicuously
in the ancient Hopi Olympus. The modern legends of
Tusayan are replete with references to such bird-like beings which play
important rôles and which bear evidence of archaic origins. There is,
however, one fragment of a food bowl which is adorned with a pictograph
so realistic and so true to modern legends of a harpy that I have
not hesitated to affix to it the name current in modern Tusayan folklore.
This fragment is shown in .
Fig. 275—Kwataka eating an animal
According to modern folklore there once lived in the sky a winged
being called Kwataka, or Man-eagle, who sorely troubled the ancients.
He was ultimately slain by their War god, the legends of which have
elsewhere been published. There is a pictograph of this monster near
Walpi, and pictures of him, as he exists in modern conceptions, have
been drawn for me by the priests. These agree so closely with the pictograph
and with the representation on the potsherd from Sikyatki, that
I regard it well-nigh proven that they represent the same personage.
The head is round and bears two feathers, while the star emblem
appears in the eye. The wing and the stump of a tail are well represented,
while the leg has three talons, which can only be those of this
monster. He holds in his grasp some animal form which he is represented
as eating. Across the body is a kilt, or ancient blanket, with
four diagonal figures which are said to represent flint arrowheads.
It is a remarkable fact that these latter symbols are practically the
same as those used by Nahuatl people for obsidian arrow- or spearpoints.
In Hopi lore Kwataka wore a garment of arrowpoints, or,
according to some legends, a flint garment, and his wings are said to
have been composed of feathers of the same material.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXLVI
BOWLS AND POTSHERD WITH FIGURES OF BIRDS FROM SIKYATKI
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
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FOOD BOWLS WITH FIGURES OF BIRDS, FROM SIKYATKI
From the pose of the figure and the various details of its symbolism
there can be little doubt that the ancient Sikyatki artists intended to
represent this monster, of which the modern Hopi rarely speak, and
then only in awe. Probably several other bird figures likewise represent
Kwataka, but in none of these do the symbols conform so closely
to legends of this monster which are still repeated in the Tusayan villages.
The home of Kwataka is reputed to be in the sky, and consequently
figures of him are commonly associated with star and cloud
emblems; he is a god of luck or chance, hence it is not exceptional to
find figures of gaming implements in certain elaborate figures of this
monster.
By far the most beautiful of the many food bowls from Sikyatki, and,
I believe, the finest piece of prehistoric aboriginal pottery from the
United States, is that figured in , d. This remarkable
object, found with others in the sands of the necropolis of this pueblo,
several feet below the surface, is decorated with a highly conventional
figure of a bird in profile, but so modified that it is difficult to determine
the different parts. The four appendages to the left represent the
tail; the two knobs at the right the head, but the remaining parts are
not comprehensible. The delicacy of the detailed crosshatching on
the body is astonishing, considering that it was drawn freehand and
without pattern. The coloring is bright and the surface glossy.
The curved band from which this strange figure hangs is divided into
sections by perpendicular incised lines, which are connected by zigzag
diagonals. The signification of the figure in the upper part of the
bowl is unknown. While this vessel is unique in the character of its
decoration, there are others of equal fineness but less perfect in design.
Competent students of ceramics have greatly admired this specimen,
and so fresh are the colors that some have found it difficult to believe
it of ancient aboriginal manufacture. The specimen itself, now on
exhibition in the National Museum, gives a better idea of its excellence
than any figure which could be made. This specimen, like all the
others, is in exactly the same condition as when exhumed, save that it
has been wiped with a moist cloth to clean the traces of food from its
inner surface. All the pottery found in the same grave is of the finest
character, and although no two specimens are alike in decoration, their
general resemblances point to the same maker. This fact has been
noticed in several instances, although there were many exceptional
cases where the coarsest and most rudely painted vessels were associated
with the finest and most elaborately decorated ware.
The ladle illustrated in , e, is one of the most beautiful in
the collection. It is decorated with a picture of an unknown animal
with a single feather on the head. The eyes are double and the snout
continued into a long stick or tube, on which the animal stands. While
the appendage to the head is undoubtedly a feather and the animal
recalls a bird, I am in doubt as to its true identification. The star
emblems on the handle of the ladle are in harmony with known pictures
of birds.
The feather decoration on the broken ladle shown in , f, is
of more than usual interest, although it is not wholly comprehensible.
The representations include rain-cloud symbols, birds, feathers, and
falling rain. The medially placed design, with four parallel lines arising
from a round spot, is interpreted as a feather design, and the two
triangular figures, one on each side, are believed to represent birds.
The design on the food bowl depicted in , e, is obscure,
but in it feather and star symbols predominate. On the inside of the
ladle shown in , c, there is a rectangular design with a
conventionalized bird at each angle.
The reduction of the figure of a bird
to head, body, and two or more tail-feathers
occurs very constantly in
decorations, and in many instances
nothing remains save a crook with
appended parallel lines representing
feathers. Examples of this kind occur
on several vessels, of which that
shown in , a, is an
example.
Fig. 276—Decoration on the bottom of , f
There are many pictures of birds
and feathers where the design has
become so conventionalized that it is
very difficult to recognize the intention
of the decorator. , f, shows one of these in which the
feather motive is prominent and an approximation to a bird form
evident. The wings are shown with a symmetric arrangement on the
sides of the tail, while the latter member has the three feathers which
form so constant a feature in many bird symbols. In b of the same
plate there is shown a more elaborated bird figure, also highly modified,
yet preserving many of the parts which have been identified in
the design last described.
The beautiful design shown in , e, represents a large
breath feather with triangular appendages on the sides, recalling the
posterior end of the body of the bird figures above discussed.
The interior of the saucer illustrated in , f, is decorated
with feather symbols and four triangles. The remaining figures of
this plate have already been considered.
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FOOD BOWLS WITH SYMBOLS OF FEATHERS FROM SIKYATKI
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FOOD BOWLS WITH SYMBOLS OF FEATHERS FROM SIKYATKI
The figures on the vessel shown in are so arranged that
there can be little question of their homologies, and from comparisons
it is clear that they should all be regarded as representations of birds.
There appears no necessity of discussing figures a and b of the plate
in this interpretation. In figure c the center of the design becomes
circular, recalling certain sun symbols, and the tail-feathers are readily
recognized on one side. I am by no means sure, however, that the
lateral terraced appendages at the opposite pole are representations of
wings, but such an interpretation can not be regarded as a forced one.
Figure d shows the three tail-feathers, lateral appendages suggestive
of wings, and a square body with the usual decorations of the body
and head of a bird. The design shown in figure f suggests in many
ways a sun-bird, and is comparable with those previously studied and
illustrated. There is no question of the homologues of tail, head, and
wings. The meridional band across the bowl is similar to those
already discussed, and its relationship to the head and tail of the bird
identical. This design is interpreted as that of one of the numerous
birds associated with the sun. The crescentic extension above what
is apparently the head occurs in many bird figures and may represent
a beak.
Many food bowls from Sikyatki are ornamented on their interior with
highly conventionalized figures, generally of curved form, in which the
feather is predominant. Many of these are shown in
to , inclusive, and in studying them I have found it very difficult
to interpret the symbolism, although the figures of feathers are easy to
find in many of them. While my attempt at decipherment is not
regarded as final, it is hoped that it may at least reveal the important
place which the feather plays in Tusayan ceramic decoration.
, a, shows the spiral ornament worn down to its lowest
terms, with no hint of the feather appendage, but its likeness in outline
to those designs where the feather occurs leads me to introduce it in
connection with those in which the feather is more prominent. Figure
b of the same plate represents a spiral figure with a bird form at the
inner end, and a bundle of tail-feathers at the outer extremity. On this
design there is likewise a figure of the dragon-fly and several unknown
emblems. Figure c has at one extremity a trifid appendage, recalling
a feather ornament on the head of a bird shown in , a.
Figure d has no conventionalized feather decoration, but the curved
line terminates with a triangle. Its signification is unknown to me.
For several reasons the design in e reminds me of a bird; it is accompanied
by three crosses, which are almost invariably found in connection
with bird figures, and at the inner end there is attached a breath
feather. This end of the figure is supposed to be the head, as will
appear by later comparative studies. The bird form is masked in f,
but the feather designs are prominent. This bowl is exceptional in
having an encircling band broken at two points, one of the components
of which is red, the other black.
Feather designs are conspicuous in , a, b, in the former
of which curved incised lines are successfully used. In c, however, is
found the best example of the use of incised work as an aid in pottery
decoration, for in this specimen there are semicircles, and rings with
four triangles, straight lines, and circles. The symbolism of the whole
figure has eluded analysis. Figure d has no feather symbols, but e
may later be reduced to a circle with feathers. The only symbols in
the design shown in f which are at all recognizable are the two zigzag
figures which may have been intended to represent snakes, lightning,
or tadpoles.
When the design in , a, is compared with the beautiful bowl
shown in , d, a treatment of somewhat similar nature is
found. It is believed that both represent birds drawn in profile; the
four bands (a) are tail-feathers, while the rectangle represents the body
and the curved appendage a part of the head. From a similarity
to modern figures of a turkey feather, it is possible that the triangle at
the end of the curved appendage is the feather of this bird. An examination
of b leads to the conclusion that the inner end of the spiral
represents a bird's head. Two eyes are represented therein, and from
it feathers are appended. The parallel marks on the body are suggestive
of similar decorations on the figure of the Plumed Snake painted
on the kilts of the Snake priests of Walpi. The star emblems are constant
accompaniments of bird designs. Figure c has, in addition to
the spiral, the star symbols and what appears to be a flower. The design
shown in d is so exceptional that it is here represented with the
circular forms. It will be seen that there are well-marked feathers in
its composition. Figure f is made up of several bird forms, feathers,
rectangles, and triangles, combined in a complicated design, the parts
of which may readily be interpreted in the light of what has already
been recorded.
The significance of the spiral in the design on , a, is unknown.
It is found in several pictures, in some of which it appears to have
avian relationship. Figure b of the same plate is a square terraced
design appended to the median line, on which symbolic stars are
depicted. As in many bird figures, a star is found on the opposite
semicircle. There is a remote likeness between this figure and that of
the head of the bird shown in , d. , c, is a compound
figure, with four feathers arranged in two pairs at right angles to a
median band. The triangular figure associated with them is sometimes
found in symbols of the sun. Figure d is undoubtedly a bird symbol,
as may be seen by a comparison of it with the bird figures shown
in , a-f. There are two tail-feathers, two outstretched
wings, and a head which is rectangular, with terraced designs. The
cross is triple, and occupies the opposite segment, which is finely spattered
with pigment. This trifid cross represents a game played by the
Hopi with reeds and is depicted on many objects of pottery. As representations
of it sometimes accompany those of birds I am led to interpret
the figure (, c) as that of a bird, which it somewhat resembles.
The two designs shown in , e, f, are believed to be
decorative, or, if symbolic, they have been so worn by the constant use
of the vessel that it is impossible to determine their meaning by
comparative methods. Both of these figures show the "line of life" in
a somewhat better way than any yet considered.
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FIGURES OF BIRDS AND FEATHERS FROM SIKYATKI
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FIGURES OF BIRDS AND FEATHERS FROM SIKYATKI
In , a, is shown a compound figure of doubtful significance,
made up of a series of crescents, triangles, and spirals, which, in c, are
more compactly joined together, and accompanied by three parallel
lines crossing three other lines. The curved figure shown in b represents
three feathers; a large one on each side, inclosing a medially
smaller member. In d is shown the spiral bird form with appended
feathers, triangles, and terraced figures. Figure f of this plate is
decorated with a design which bears many resemblances to a flower,
the peripheral appendages resembling bracts of a sunflower. A somewhat
similar design is painted on the side of the helmets of some
katcina dancers, where the bracts or petals are colored in sequence,
with the pigments corresponding to the six directions—north, west,
south, east, above, and below. In the decoration on the ancient
Sikyatki bowl we find seven peripheral bracts, one of which is speckled.
The six groups of stamens(?) are represented between the triangular
bracts.
The designs shown in to , inclusive, still preserve
the spiral form with attached feathers, some of them being greatly
conventionalized or differentiated. In the first of these plates (figure b)
is represented a bird form with triangular head with four feathers
arranged in fan shape. These feathers are different from any which
I have been able to find attached to the bodies of birds, and are thus
identified from morphological rather than from other reasons.
The body of the conventionalized bird is decorated with terraced
figures, spirals, flowers, and other designs arranged in a highly complicated
manner. From a bar connecting the spiral with the encircling
line there arises a tuft of feathers. Figure a of the same plate is characterized
by a medially placed triangle and a graceful pendant from
which hangs seven feathers. In this instance these structures take the
form of triangles and pairs of lines. The relation of these structures
to feathers would appear highly speculative, but they have been so
interpreted for the following reason: If we compare them with the
appendages represented in the design on the vase shown in cxliii, b,
we find them the same in number, form, and arrangement; the triangles
in the design on this vase are directly comparable with the figures in
, b, in the same position, which are undoubtedly feathers, as
has been shown in the discussion of this figure. Consequently, although
the triangles on the pendant in , a, appear at first glance to
have no relation to the prescribed feather symbol, morphology shows
their true interpretation. The reduction of the wing feather to a simple
triangular figure is likewise shown in several other pictures on food
vessels, notably in the figure, undoubtedly of a bird, represented in
, a.
In the two figures forming are found simple bird symbols
and feather designs very much conventionalized. The same is true of
the two figures given in .
The vessels illustrated in , a, b, are decorated with designs
of unknown meaning, save that the latter recalls the modification of
the feather into long triangular forms. On the outer surface this bowl
has a row of tadpoles encircling it in a sinistral direction, or with the
center of the bowl on the left. The design of figure c shows a bird's
head in profile, with a crest of feathers and with the two eyes on one
side of the head and a necklace. The triangular figure bears the symbolism
of the turkey feather, as at present designated in Tusayan altar
paraphernalia. As with other bird figures, there is a representation in
red of the triple star.
Figure d is the only specimen of a vessel in the conventional form of
a bird which was found at Sikyatki; it evidently formerly had a handle.
The vessel itself is globular, and the form of the bird is intensified by
the designs on its surface. The bird's head is turned to the observer,
and the row of triangles represent wing feathers. The signification of
the designs on e and f is unknown to me.
Figures e and f of are avian decorations, reduced in the
case of the former to geometric forms. The triangular figure is a
marked feature in the latter design.
The designs represented in are aberrant bird forms. Of
these a and b are the simplest and c one of the most complicated.
Figure d is interpreted as a double bird, or twins with a common head
and tails pointing in opposite directions. Figure e shows a bird in profile
with one wing, furnished with triangular feathers, extended. There
is some doubt about the identification of f as a bird, but there is no
question that the wing, tail, and breath feathers are represented in it.
Of the last mentioned there are three, shown by the notch, colored
black at their extremities.
Vegetal Designs
Inasmuch as they so readily lend themselves as a motive of decoration,
it is remarkable that the ancient Hopi seem to have used plants
and their various organs so sparingly in their pottery painting. Elsewhere,
especially among modern Pueblos, this is not the case, and
while plants, flowers, and leaves are not among the common designs
on modern Tusayan ware, they are often employed. It would appear
that the corn plant or fruit would be found among other designs,
especially as corn plays a highly symbolic part in mythic conceptions,
but we fail to find it used as a decoration on any ancient vessel.
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FOOD BOWLS WITH BIRD, FEATHER, AND FLOWER SYMBOLS FROM SIKYATKI
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FOOD BOWLS WITH FIGURES OF BIRDS AND FEATHERS FROM SIKYATKI
In a figure previously described, a flower, evidently an aster or sunflower,
appears with a butterfly, and in the bowl shown in
, e, we have a similar design. This figure evidently represents
the sunflower, the seeds of which were ground and eaten in ancient
times. The plant apparently is represented as growing from the earth
and is surrounded by a broad band of red in rudely circular form.
The totem of the earth today among the Hopi is a circle; possibly it
was the same among the ancients, in which case the horizon may have
been represented by the red encircling band, which is accompanied by
the crook and the emblem of rain. The petals are represented by a
row of dots and no leaves are shown. From the kinship of the ancient
accolents of Sikyatki with the Flute people, it is to be expected that
in their designs figures of asters or sunflowers would appear, for these
plants play a not inconspicuous rôle in the ritual of this society which
has survived to modern times.
The Sun
Sun worship plays a most important part in modern Tusayan ritual,
and the symbol of the sun in modern pictography can not be mistaken
for any other. It is a circle with radiating feathers on the periphery
and ordinarily with four lines arranged in quaternary groups. The
face of the sun is indicated by triangles on the forehead, two slits for
eyes, and a double triangle for the mouth. This symbol, however, is
not always used as that of the sun, for in the Oraibi Powalawû there
is an altar in which a sand picture of the sun has the form of a four-pointed
star. The former of these sun symbols is not found on Sikyatki
pottery, but there is one picture which closely resembles the latter.
This occurs on the bowl illustrated in , c. The main design
is a four-pointed star, alternating with crosses and surrounded by a
zone in which are rectangular blocks. While the identification may
be fanciful, its resemblances are highly suggestive. The existence of a
double triangle adjacent to this figure on the same bowl, and its likeness
to the modern mouth-design of sun pictures, appears to be more
than a coincidence, and is so regarded in this identification.
In the design shown in , a, one of the elaborate ancient
sun figures is represented. As in modern symbols, the tail-feathers of
the periphery of the disk are arranged in the four quadrants, and in
addition there are appended to the same points curved figures which
recall the objects, identified as stringed feathers, attached to the blanket
of the maid (, a). The design on the disk is different
from that of any sun emblem known to me, and escapes my interpretation.
I have used the distribution of the feathers on the four quadrants
as an indication that this figure is a sun symbol, although it
must be confessed this evidence is not so strong as might be wished.
The triangles at the sides of two feathers indicate that a tail-feather is
intended, and for the correlated facts supporting this conclusion the
reader is referred to the description of the vessels shown in .
It would appear that there is even more probability that the picture
on the bowl illustrated in , b, is a sun symbol. It represents
a disk with tail and wing feathers arranged on the periphery in
four groups. This recalls the sun emblems used in Tusayan at the
present time, although the face of the sun is not represented on this
specimen. There is a still closer approximation to the modern symbol
of the sun on a bowl in a private collection from Sikyatki.
In , c, the sun's disk is represented with the four clusters
of feathers replaced by the extremities of the bodies of four birds, the
tail-feathers, for some unknown reason, being omitted. The design
on the disk is highly symbolic, and the only modern sun symbol found
in it are the triangles, which form the mouth of the face of the sun in
modern Hopi symbolism.
One of the most aberrant pictures of the sun, which I think can be
identified with probability, is shown in the design on the specimen
illustrated in , b. The reasons which have led me to this
identification may briefly be stated as follows:
Among the many supernaturals with which modern Hopi mythology
is replete is one called Calako-taka, or the male Calako. In legends
he is the husband of the two Corn-maids of like name. The ceremonials
connected with this being occur in Sichomovi in July, when four
giant personifications enter the village as have been described in a former
memoir. The heads of these giants are provided with two curved
horns, between which is a crest of eagle tail-feathers.
Two of these giants, under another name, but with the same symbolism,
are depicted on the altars of the katcinas at Walpi and Mishoñinovi,
where they represent the sun. A chief personifying the same
supernatural flogs children when they are initiated into the knowledge
of the katcinas.
The figure on the bowl under discussion has many points of resemblance
to the symbolism of this personage as depicted on the altars
mentioned. The head has two horns, one on each side, with a crest,
apparently of feathers, between them. The eyes and mouth are represented,
and on the body there is a four-pointed cross. The meaning
of the remaining appendages is unknown, but the likenesses to
Calako-taka symbolism are noteworthy and important. The figure on
the food bowl illustrated in , c, is likewise regarded as
a sun emblem. The disk is represented by a ring in the center, to which
feathers are appended. The triangle, which is still a sun symbol, is
shown below a band across the bowl. This band is decorated with
highly conventionalized feathers.
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FOOD BOWLS WITH FIGURES OF BIRDS AND FEATHERS FROM SIKYATKI
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FOOD BOWLS WITH FIGURES OF BIRDS AND FEATHERS FROM SIKYATKI
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FOOD BOWLS WITH FIGURES OF BIRDS AND FEATHERS FROM SIKYATKI
It may be added that in this figure we have probably the most aberrant
sun-symbol yet recognized, and on that account there is a possibility
that the validity of my identification is more or less doubtful.
The three designs shown in , c, d, e, evidently belong in
association with sun or star symbols, but it is hardly legitimate to
definitely declare that such an interpretation can be demonstrated.
The modern Tusayan Indians declare that the equal-arm cross is a
symbol of the "Heart of the Sky" god, which, from my studies of the
effigies of this personage on various altars, I have good reason to
identify with the lightning.
Geometric Figures
INTERPRETATION OF THE FIGURES
Most of the pottery from Sikyatki is ornamented with geometric
designs and linear figures, the import of many of which are unknown.
Two extreme views are current in regard to the significance of these
designs. To one school everything is symbolic of something or some
religious conception; to the other the majority are meaningless save as
decorations. I find the middle path the more conservative, and while
regarding many of the designs as highly conventionalized symbols,
believe that there are also many where the decorator had no thought
of symbolism. I have ventured an explanation of a few of the former.
Terraced figures are among the most common rectangular elements in
Pueblo ceramic decorations. These designs bear so close a likeness to
the modern rain-cloud symbol that they probably may all be referred
to this category. Their arrangement on a bowl or jar is often of such
a nature as to impart very different patterns. Thus terraced figures
placed in opposition to each other may leave zigzag spaces suggesting
lightning, but such forms can hardly be regarded as designed for
symbols.
Rectangular patterns () are more ancient in the
evolution of designs on Tusayan pottery than curved geometric figures,
and far outnumber them in the most ancient specimens; but there has
been no epoch in the development reaching to modern times when they
have been superseded. While there are many specimens of Sikyatki
pottery of the type decorated with geometric figures, which bear ornamentations
of simple and complex terraced forms, the majority placed in
this type are not reducible to stepped or terraced designs, but are
modified straight lines, bars, crosshatching, and the like. In older
Pueblo pottery the relative proportion of terraced figures is even less,
which would appear to indicate that basket-ware patterns were
secondary rather than primary decorative forms.
By far the largest element in ancient Tusayan pottery decoration
must be regarded as simple geometric lines, triangles, spirals, curves,
crosshatching, and the like, some of which are no doubt symbolic,
others purely decorative (). In the evolution of design I
am inclined to believe that this was the simplest form, and I find it the
most constant in the oldest ware. Rectangular figures are regarded as
older than circular figures, and they possibly preceded the latter in
evolution, but in many instances both are forms of reversion, highly
conventionalized representations of more elaborate figures. Circles
and crosses are sometimes combined, the former modified into a wavy
line surrounding the latter, as in , c, d, where there is a suggestion
(d) of a sun emblem.
CROSSES
A large number of food bowls are decorated with simple or elaborate
crosses, stars, and like patterns. Simple crosses with arms of equal
length appear on the vessels shown in , c, d. There are
many similar crosses, subordinate to the main design, in various bowls,
especially those decorated with figures of birds and sky deities.
, a, exhibits a cruciform design, to the extremities of three
arms of which bird figures are attached. In this design there are likewise
two sunflower symbols. The modified cross figure in b of the
same plate, like that just mentioned, suggests a swastica, but fails to
be one, and unless the complicated design in figure c may be so interpreted,
no swastica was found at Sikyatki or Awatobi. , d,
shows another form of cross, two arms of which are modified into
triangles.
On the opening of the great ceremony called Powamû or "Bean-planting,"
which occurs in February in the modern Tusayan villages,
there occurs a ceremony about a sand picture of the sun which is
called Powalawû. The object of this rite is the fructification of all
seeds known to the Hopi. The sand picture of the sun which is made
at that time is in its essentials identical with the design on the food
bowl illustrated in , c; consequently it is possible that this
star emblem represents the sun, and the occurrence of the eight triangles
in the rim, replaced in the modern altar by four concentric bands
of differently colored sands, adds weight to this conclusion. The twin
triangles outside the main figure are identical with those in the mouth
of modern sun emblems. These same twin triangles are arranged in
lines which cross at right angles in , d, but from their resemblance
to figure b they possibly have a different meaning.
The most complicated of all the star-shape figures, like the simplest,
takes us to sun emblems, and it seems probable that there is a relationship
between the two. , f, represents four bundles of
feathers arranged in quadrants about a rectangular center. These
feathers vary in form and arrangement, and the angles between them
are occupied by horn-shape bodies, two of which have highly complicated
extremities recalling conventionalized birds.
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FIGURES OF BIRDS AND FEATHERS FROM SIKYATKI
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A large number of crosses are represented in , d, in which
the remaining semicircle is filled with a tessellated pattern. A spiral
line with round spots at intervals adorns the specimen shown in , a. Parallel lines with similar spots appear on the vessel illustrated
in , e, and a network of the same is shown in f of the
same plate. , b, represents a compound star.
While simple swasticas are not found on any of the Sikyatki pottery,
modified and compound forms are well represented. There are several
specimens of figures of the Maltese cross, and one closely approximating
the Saint Andrew's cross. It is scarcely necessary to say that the
presence of the various kinds of crosses do not necessarily indicate the
influence of Semitic or *** races, for I have already shown that
even cross-shape prayer-sticks were in use among the Pueblos when
Coronado first visited them.
TERRACED FIGURES
Among the most common of all geometric designs on ancient Tusayan
pottery none excel in variety or number those which I place in the
above group. They form the major part of all decoration, and there is
hardly a score of ornamented vessels in which they can not be detected.
In a typical form they appear as stepped designs, rectangular figures
with diagonals continuous, or as triangular designs with steps represented
along their sides.
While it is probable that in some instances these figures are simply
decorative, with no attempt at symbolism, in other cases without doubt
they symbolize rain-clouds, and the same figures are still used with similar
intent in modern ceremonial paraphernalia—altars, mask-tablets,
and the like. Decorative modifications of this figure were no doubt
adopted by artistic potters, thus giving varieties where the essential
meaning has been much obscured or lost.
THE CROOK
Among the forms of geometric designs on ancient Tusayan pottery
there are many jars, bowls, and other objects on which a crook, variously
modified, is the essential type. This figure is so constant that it
must have had a symbolic as well as a decorative meaning. The crook
plays an important part in the modern ritual, and is prominent on
many Tusayan altars. Around the sand picture of the rain-cloud, for
example, we find a row of wooden rods with curved ends, and in the
public Snake dance these are carried by participants called the Antelopes.
A crook in the form of a staff to which an ear of corn and several
feathers are attached is borne by katcinas or masked participants
in certain rain dances. It is held in the hand by a personage who flogs
the children when they are initiated into certain religious societies.
Many other instances might be mentioned in which this crozier-like
object is carried by important personages. While it is not entirely
clear to me that in all instances this crook is a badge of authority, in
some cases it undoubtedly represents the standing of the bearer.
There are, likewise, prayer offerings in the form of crooks, and even
common forms of prayer-sticks have miniature curved sticks attached
to them.
Some of the warrior societies are said to make offerings in the form
of a crook, and a stick of similar form is associated with the gods of
war. There is little doubt that some of the crook-form decorations on
ancient vessels may have been used as symbols with the same intent as
the sticks referred to above. The majority of the figures of this shape
elude interpretation. Many of them have probably no definite meaning,
but are simply an effective motive of decoration.
In some instances the figure of the crook on old pottery is a symbol
of a prayer offering of a warrior society, made in the form of an
ancient weapon, allied to a bow.
THE GERMINATIVE SYMBOL
The ordinary symbol of germination, a median projection with lateral
extensions at the base (, e), occurs among the figures on this
ancient pottery. In its simplest form, a median line with a triangle on
each side attached to one end, it is a *** emblem. When this median
line becomes oval, and the triangles elongated and curved at the ends,
it represents the ordinary squash symbol, also used as an emblem of
fertility.
The triangle is also an emblem of germination and of fecundity—the
female, as the previously mentioned principle represents the male. The
geometric designs on the ancient Sikyatki ware abundantly illustrate
both these forms.
BROKEN LINES
In examining the simple encircling bands of many of the food bowls,
jars, and other ceramic objects, it will be noticed that they are not
continuous, but that there is a break at one point, and this break is
usually limited to one point in all the specimens. Various explanations
of the meaning of this failure to complete the band have been
suggested, and it is a remarkable fact that it is one of the most widely
extended characteristics of ancient pottery decoration in the whole
Pueblo area, including the Salado and Gila basins. While in the
specimens from Sikyatki the break is simple and confined to one
point, in those from other regions we find two or three similar failures
in the continuity of encircling lines, and in some instances the lines at
the point of separation are modified into spirals, terraces, and other
forms of geometric figures. In the more complex figures we find the
most intricate variations, which depart so widely from the simple forms
that their resemblances are somewhat difficult to follow. A brief consideration
of these modifications may aid toward an understanding of
the character of certain geometric ornamental motives.
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CROSS AND RELATED DESIGNS FROM SIKYATKI
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CROSS AND OTHER SYMBOLS FROM SIKYATKI
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STAR, SUN, AND RELATED SYMBOLS FROM SIKYATKI
If any of the interlocking spirals on bowls or vases are traced, it
is found that they do not join at the center of the figure. The same
is true when these spirals become frets. There is always a break in
the network which they form. This break is comparable with the
hiatus on encircling bands and probably admits of the same interpretation.
In a simple form this motive appears as two crescents or two
key patterns with the ends overlapping. This simple ornament, called
the friendship sign, is commonly used in the decoration of the bodies
of katcinas, and has been likened to the interlocking of fingers or
hands of the participants in certain dances, the fingers half retracted
with inner surfaces approximated, the palms of the hands facing in
opposite directions and the wrists at opposite points. If the points be
extended into an elaborate key pattern or curved into extended spirals,
a complicated figure is produced in which the separation is less conspicuous
although always present.
The same points may be modified into terraced figures, the separation
then appearing as a zigzag line drawn across the figure, or they
may have interlocking dentate or serrate prolongations imparting a
variety of forms to the interval between them. In order to trace out
these modifications it would be necessary to specify each individual
case, but I think that is unnecessary. In other words, the broken line
appears to be a characteristic not only of simple encircling bands, but
also of all geometric figures in which highly complicated designs extend
about the periphery of a utensil.
Decorations on the Exterior of Food Bowls
The decorations on the exterior of the ancient food bowls are in most
instances very characteristic and sometimes artistic. Generally they
reproduce patterns which are found on the outside of vases and jars
and sometimes have a distant relationship to the designs in the interior
of the bowl upon which they occur. Usually these external decorations
are found only on one side, and in that respect they differ from the
modern food bowls, in which nothing similar to them appears.
The characteristics of the external decorations of food bowls are symbolic,
mostly geometric, square or rectangular, triangular or stepped
figures; curved lines and spirals rarely if ever occur, and human or
animal figures are unknown in this position in Sikyatki pottery; the
geometric figures can be reduced to a few patterns of marked simplicity.
It is apparent that I can best discuss the variety of geometric designs
by considering these external decorations of food vessels at length.
From the fact that they are limited to one side, the
design is less complicated by repetition and seems
practically the same as the more typical forms. It
is rarely that two of these designs are found to be
exactly the same, and as there appears to be no duplication
a classification of them is difficult. Each potter
seems to have decorated her ware without regard
to the work of her contemporaries, using simple designs
but combining them in original ways. Hence the
great variety found even in the grave of the same
woman, whose handiwork was buried with her. As,
however, the art of the potter degenerated, as it has in later times, the
patterns became more alike, so that modern Tusayan decorated earthenware
has little variety in ornamentation and no originality in design.
Every potter uses the same figures.
Fig. 277—Oblique parallel line decoration
Fig. 278—Parallel lines fused at one point
Fig. 279—Parallel lines with zigzag arrangement
The simplest form of decoration on the exterior of a food bowl is a
band encircling it. This line may be complete or it may be broken at
one point. The next more complicated geometric decoration is a double
or multiple band, which, however, does not occur in any of the specimens
from Sikyatki. The breaking up of this multiple band into parallel
bars is shown in . These bars generally have a quadruple
arrangement, and are horizontal, vertical, or, as in the illustration, inclined
at an angle. They are often found on the lips of the bowls and
in a similar position on jars, dippers, and vases. The parallel lines
shown in are seven in number, and do not encircle the bowl.
They are joined by a broad connecting band near one extremity. The
number of parallel bands in this decoration is highly suggestive.
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Four parallel bands encircle the bowl shown in , but they
are so modified in their course as to form a number of trapezoidal
figures placed with alternating sides parallel. This interesting
pattern is found only on one vessel.
The use of simple parallel bars, arranged at equal intervals
on the outside of food bowls, is not confined to these
vessels, for they occur on the margin of vases, cups, and
dippers. They likewise occur on ladle handles, where they
are arranged in alternate transverse and longitudinal
clusters.
Fig. 280—Parallel lines connected by middle bar.
The combination of two vertical bands connected by a
horizontal band, forming the letter H, is an ornamental design frequently
occurring on the finest Hopi ware. shows such an H form,
which is ordinarily repeated four times about the bowl.
Fig. 281—Parallel lines of different width; serrate margin
The interval between the parallel bands around the vessel may be
very much reduced in size, and some of the bands may be of different
width, or otherwise modified. Such a deviation is seen in ,
which has three bands, one of which is broad with straight edges, the
other with serrate margin and hook-like appendages.
Fig. 282—Parallel lines of different width; median serrate
Fig. 283—Parallel lines of different width; marginal serrate
In eight bands are shown, the marginal broad with edges
entire, and the median pair serrated, the long teeth fitting each other
in such a way as to impart a zigzag effect to the space which separates
them. The remaining four lines, two on each side, appear as black
bands on a white ground. It will be noticed that an attempt was made
to relieve the monotony of the middle band of figure 282 by the introduction
of a white line in zigzag form. A similar result was accomplished
in the design shown in by rectangles and dots.
Fig. 284—Parallel lines and triangles
The modification of the multiple bands in has produced a
very different decorative form. This design is composed of five bands,
the marginal on each side serrate, and the middle band relatively very
broad, with diagonals, each containing four round dots regularly
arranged. In there are many parallel, noncontinuous bands
of different breadth, arranged in groups separated by triangles with
sides parallel, and the whole united by bounding lines. This is the
most complicated form of design where straight lines only are used.
Fig. 285—Line with alternate triangles
We have thus far considered modifications brought about by fusion
and other changes in simple parallel lines. They may be confined to
one side of the food bowl, may repeat each other at intervals, or surround
the whole vessel. Ordinarily, however, they are confined to one
side of the bowls from Sikyatki.
Fig. 286—Single line with alternate spurs
Fig. 287—Single line with hourglass figures
Returning to the single encircling band, it is found, in ,
broken up into alternating equilateral triangles, each pair united at
their right angles. This modification is carried still further in ,
where the triangles on each side of the single line are prolonged
into oblique spurs, the pairs separated a short distance from each
other. In there is shown still another arrangement of these
triangular decorations, the pairs forming hourglass-shape figures connected
by an encircling line passing through their points of junction.
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Fig. 288—Single line with triangles
Fig. 289—Single line with alternate triangles and ovals
Fig. 290—Triangles and quadrilaterals
Fig. 291—Triangle with spurs
In the double triangles, one on each side of the encircling
band, are so placed that their line of separation is lost, and a single
triangle replaces the pair. These are connected by the line surrounding
the bowl and there is a dot at the smallest angle. In there
is a similar design, except that alternating with each triangle, which
bears more decoration than that shown in figure 288, there are hourglass
figures composed of ovals and triangles. The dots at the apex
of that design are replaced by short parallel lines of varying width.
The triangles and ovals last considered are arranged symmetrically in
relation to a simple band. By a reduction in the intervening spaces
these triangles may be brought together and the line disappears. I
have found no specimen of design illustrating the simplest form of the
resultant motive, but that shown in is a new combination
comparable with it.
The simple triangular decorative design reaches a high degree of
complication in , where a connecting line is absent, and two
triangles having their smallest angles facing each other are separated
by a lozenge shape figure made up of many parallel lines placed obliquely
to the axis of the design. The central part is composed of seven
parallel lines, the marginal of which, on two opposite sides, is minutely
dentate. The median band is very broad and is relieved by two wavy
white lines. The axis of the design on each side is continued into two
triangular spurs, rising from a rectangle in the middle of each triangle.
This complicated design is the highest development reached by the use
of simple triangles. In , however, we have a simpler form of
triangular decoration, in which no element other than the rectangle is
employed. In the chaste decoration seen in the use of the
rectangle is shown combined with the triangle on a simple encircling
band. This design is reducible to that shown in figure 290, but is simpler,
yet not less effective. In there is an aberrant form of design
in which the triangle is used in combination with parallel and oblique
bands. This form, while one of the simplest in its elements, is effective
and characteristic. The triangle predominates in , but the
details are worked out in rectangular patterns, producing the terraced
designs so common in all Pueblo decorations. Rectangular figures
are more commonly used than the triangular in the decoration of the
exterior of the bowls, and their many combinations are often very
perplexing to analyze.
Fig. 292—Rectangle with single line
Fig. 293—Double triangle; multiple lines
Fig. 294—Double triangle; terraced edges
Fig. 295—Single line; closed fret
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Fig. 296—Single line; open fret
Fig. 297—Single line; broken fret
Fig. 298—Single line; parts displaced
In , starting with the simple encircling band, it is found
divided into alternating rectangles. The line is continuous, and hence
one side of each rectangle is not complete. Both this design and its
modification in consist of an unbroken line of equal breadth
throughout. In the latter figure, however, the openings in the sides
are larger or the approach to a straight line closer. The forms are
strictly rectangular, with no additional elements. introduces
an important modification of the rectangular motive, consisting
of a succession of lines broken at intervals, but when joined are always
arranged at right angles.
Fig. 299—Open fret; attachment displaced
Fig. 300—Simple rectangular design
Possibly the least complex form of rectangular ornamentation, next
to a simple bar or square, is the combination shown in , a type
in which many changes are made in interior as well as in exterior decorations
of Pueblo ware. One of these is shown in , where the
figure about the vessel is continuous. An analysis of the elements in
shows squares united at their angles, like the last, but that
in addition to parallel bands connecting adjacent figures there are two
marginal lines uniting the series. Each of the inner parallel lines is
bound to a marginal on the opposite side by a band at right angles to
it. The marginal lines are unbroken through the length of the figure.
Like the last, this motive also may be regarded as developed from a
single line.
Fig. 301—Rectangular reversed S-form
Fig. 302—Rectangular S-form with crooks
and are even simpler than the design shown in ,
with appended square key patterns, all preserving rectangular
forms and destitute of all others. They are of S-form, and differ more
especially in the character of their appendages.
Fig. 303—Rectangular S-form with triangles
Fig. 304—Rectangular S-form with terraced triangles
While the same rectangular idea predominates in , it is
worked out with the introduction of triangles and quadrilateral designs.
This fairly compound pattern, however, is still classified among rectangular
forms. A combination of rectangular and triangular geometric
designs, in which, however, the former predominate, is shown in ,
which can readily be reduced to certain of those forms already mentioned.
The triangles appear to be subordinated to the rectangles, and
even they are fringed on their longer sides with terraced forms. It may
be said that there are but two elements involved, the rectangle and the
triangle.
Fig. 305—S-form with interdigitating spurs
The decoration in consists of rectangular and triangular
figures, the latter so closely approximated as to leave zigzag lines in
white. These lines are simply highly modified breaks in bands which
join in other designs, and lead by comparison to the so-called "line of
life" which many of these figures illustrate.
Fig. 306—Square with rectangles and parallel lines
Fig. 307—Rectangles, triangles, stars, and feathers
The distinctive feature of is the square, with rectangular
designs appended to diagonally opposite angles and small triangles at
intermediate corners. These designs have a distant resemblance to
figures later referred to as highly conventionalized birds, although
they may be merely simple geometrical patterns which have lost their
symbolic meaning.
Fig. 308—Crook, feathers, and parallel lines
shows a complicated design, introducing at least two
elements in addition to rectangles and triangles. One of these is a
curved crook etched on a black ground. In no other exterior decoration
have curved lines been found except in the form of circles, and it
is worthy of note how large a proportion of the figures are drawn in
straight lines. The circular figures with three parallel lines extending
from them are found so constantly in exterior decorations, and are so
strikingly like some of the figures elsewhere discussed, that I have ventured
a suggestion in regard to their meaning. I believe they represent
feathers, because the tail-feathers of certain birds are symbolized in
that manner, and their number corresponds with those generally
depicted in the highly conventionalized tails of birds. With this
thought in mind, it may be interesting to compare the two projections,
one on each side of the three tail-feathers of this figure, with the
extremity of the body of a bird shown in , e. On the supposition
that a bird figure was intended in this design, it is interesting also
to note the rectangular decorations of the body and the association with
stars made of three blocks in several bird figures, as already described.
It is instructive also to note the fact that the figure of a maid represented
in , a, has two of the round designs with appended
parallel lines hanging to her garment, and four parallel marks drawn
from her blanket. It is still customary in Hopi ceremonials to tie
feathers to the garments of those who personate certain mythic beings,
and it is possible that such was also the custom at Sikyatki. If so, it
affords additional evidence that the parallel lines are representations of
feathers.
Fig. 309—Crooks and feathers
Fig. 310—Rectangle, triangles, and feathers
Fig. 311—Terraced crook, triangle, and feathers
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In a number of these parallel lines are represented, and
the general character of the design is rectangular. In is
shown a combination of rectangular and triangular figures with three
tapering points and circles with lines at their tips radiating instead of
parallel. Another modification is shown in in which the
triangle predominates, and evidently represents one-half of
a similar device with modifications.
Fig. 312—Double key
Fig. 313—Triangular terrace
One of the most common designs on ancient pottery is the stepped
figure, a rectangular ornamentation, modifications of which are shown
in figures 312-314. This is a very common design on the interior of
food vessels, where it is commonly interpreted as a rain-cloud symbol.
Fig. 314—Crook, serrate end
Of all patterns on ancient Tusayan ware, that of the terrace figures
most closely resemble the geometrical ornamentation of cliff-house pottery,
and there seems every reason to suppose that this form of design
admits of a like interpretation. The evolution of this pattern from
plaited basketry has been ably discussed by Holmes and Nordenskiöld,
whose works have already been quoted in this memoir. The terraced
forms from the exterior of food bowls here considered are highly
aberrent; they may be forms of survivals, motives of decoration which
have persisted from very early times. Whatever the origin of the
stepped figure in Pueblo art was, it is well to remember, as shown by
Holmes, that it is "impossible to show that any particular design of the
highly constituted kind was desired through a certain identifiable series
of progressive steps."
Fig. 315—Key pattern; rectangle and triangles
Fig. 316—Rectangle and crook
For some unknown reason the majority of the simple designs on the
exterior of food bowls from Tusayan are rectangular, triangular, or
linear in their character. Many can be reduced to simple or multiple
lines. Others were suggested by plaited ware.
Fig. 317—Crook and tail feathers
In is found one of the simplest of rectangular designs, a
simple band, key pattern in form, at one end, with a reentrant square
depression at the opposite extremity. In is an equally
simple terrace pattern with stepped figures at the ends and in the
middle. These forms are common decorative elements on the exterior
of jars and vases, where they occur in many combinations, all of which
are reducible to these types. The simplest form of the key pattern is
shown in , and in there is a second modification
of the same design a little more complicated. This becomes somewhat
changed in , not only by the modifications of the two extremities,
but also by the addition of a median geometric figure.
Fig. 318—Rectangle, triangle, and serrate spurs
Fig. 319—W-pattern; terminal crooks
Fig. 320—W-pattern; terminal rectangles
The design in is rectangular, showing a key pattern at one
end, with two long feathers at the opposite extremity. The five bodies
on the same end of the figure are unique and comparable with conventionalized
star emblems. The series of designs in the upper left-hand
end of this figure are unlike any which have yet been found on the
exterior of food bowls, but are similar to designs which have elsewhere
been interpreted as feathers. On the hypothesis that these two parts
of the figure are tail-feathers, we find in the crook the analogue of the
head of a bird. Thus the designs on the equator of the vase (, a), which are birds, have the same crook for the head, and two
simple tail-feathers, rudely drawn but comparable with the two in .
The five dentate bodies on the lower left-hand end of the figure
also tell in favor of the avian character of the design, for the following
reason: These bodies are often found accompanying figures of conventionalized
birds (, , and others). They are regarded
as modified crosses of equal arms, which are all but universally present
in combinations with birds and feathers (, a, b; , a), from
the fact that in a line of crosses depicted on a bowl one of the crosses
is replaced by a design of similar character. The arms of the cross are
represented; their intersection is left in white. The interpretation of
as a highly conventionalized bird design is also in accord
with the same interpretation of a number of similar, although less complicated,
figures which appear with crosses. Thus the three arms of
, a, have highly conventionalized bird symbols attached to
their extremities. In the cross figure shown in , d, we find
four bird figures with short, stumpy tail-feathers. These highly conventionalized
birds, with the head in the form of a crook and the tail-feathers
as parallel lines, are illustrated on many pottery objects,
nowhere better, however, than in those shown in , a, and
, e. may be compared with .
Fig. 321—W-pattern; terminal terraces and crooks.
Fig. 322—W-pattern; terminal spurs
Numerous modifications of a key pattern, often assuming a double
triangular form, but with rectangular elements, are found on the exterior
of many food bowls. These are variations of a pattern the simplest
form of which is shown in . Resolving this figure into
two parts by drawing a median line, we find the arrangement is bilaterally
symmetrical, the two sides exactly corresponding. Each side
consists of a simple key pattern with the shank inclined to the rim of
the bowl and a bird emblem at its junction with the other member.
In there is a greater development of this pattern by an
elaboration of the key, which is continued in a line resembling a
square spiral. There are also dentations on a section of the edge of
the lines.
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In there is a still further development of the same design
and a lack of symmetry on the two sides. The square spirals are
replaced on the left by three stepped figures, and white spaces with
parallel lines are introduced in the arms of a W-shape figure.
Fig. 323—W-pattern; bird form
In the same design is again somewhat changed by modification
of the spirals into three triangles rimmed on one side with a
row of dots, which are also found on the outer lines surrounding the
lower part of the design.
Fig. 324—W-pattern; median triangle
In the same W shape design is preserved, but the space
in the lower reentrant angle is occupied by a symmetrical figure
resembling two tail-feathers and the extremity of the body of a bird.
When this figure is compared with the design on , a, resemblances
are found in the two lateral appendages or wings. The star
emblem is also present in the design. The median figure in that design
which I have compared to the tail of a bird is replaced in by
a triangular ornament. The two wings are not symmetrical, but no
new decorative element is introduced. It, however, will be noticed that
there is a want of symmetry on the two sides of a vertical line in the
figure last mentioned. The right-hand upper side is continued into
five pointed projections, which fail on the left-hand side. There is likewise
a difference in the arrangement of the terraced figures in the two
parts. The sides of the median triangles are formed of alternating black
and white blocks, and the quadrate figure which it incloses is etched
with a diagonal and cross.
Fig. 325—Double triangle; two breath feathers
Fig. 326—Double triangle; median trapezoid
The decoration in consists of two triangles side by side,
each having marginal serrations, and a median square key pattern.
One side of these triangles is continued into a line from which hang
two breath feathers, while the other end of the same line ends in a
round dot with four radiating, straight lines. The triangles recall the
butterfly symbol, the key pattern representing the head.
Fig. 327—Double triangle; median rectangle
Fig. 328—Double compound triangle; median rectangle
In there is a still more aberrant form of the W-shape
design. The wings are folded, ending in triangles, and prolonged at
their angles into projections to which are appended round dots with
three parallel lines. The median portion, or that in the reentrant
angle of the W, is a four-sided figure in which the triangle predominates
with notched edges. shows the same design with
the median portion replaced by a rectangle, and in which the key
pattern has wholly disappeared from the wings. In there
are still greater modifications, but the symmetry about a median axis
remains. The ends of the wings instead of being folded are expanded,
and the three triangles formerly inclosed are now free and extended.
The simple median rectangle is ornamented with a terrace pattern on
its lower angles.
Fig. 329—Double triangle; median triangle
Fig. 330—Double compound triangle
shows a design in which the extended triangles are even
more regular and simple, with triangular terraced figures on their
inner edge. The median figure is a triangle instead of a rectangle.
Fig. 331—Double rectangle; median rectangle
shows the same design with modification in the position
of the median figure, and a slight curvature in two of its sides.
Fig. 332—Double rectangle; median triangle
Fig. 333—Double triangle with crooks
Somewhat similar designs, readily reduced to the same type as the
last three or four which have been mentioned, are shown in and .
The resemblances are so close that I need not refer to
them in detail. The W form is wholly lost, and there is no resemblance
to a bird, even in its most highly conventionalized forms. The median
design in consists of a rectangle and two triangles so arranged
as to leave a rectangular white space between them. In the
median triangle is crossed by parallel and vertical zigzag lines.
Fig. 334—W-shape figure; single line with feathers
In the design represented in there are two triangular figures,
one on each side of a median line, in relation to which they are
symmetrical. Each triangle has a simple key pattern in the middle,
and the line from which they appear to hang is blocked off with alternating
black and white rectangles. At either extremity of this line
there is a circular dot from which extend four parallel lines.
Fig. 335—Compound rectangle, triangles, and feathers
A somewhat simpler form of the same design is found in ,
showing a straight line above terminating with dots, from which extend
parallel lines, and two triangular figures below, symmetrically placed
in reference to an hypothetical upright line between them.
Fig. 336—Double triangle
bears a similarity to the last mentioned only so far as the
lower half of the design is concerned. The upper part is not symmetrical,
but no new decorative element is introduced. Triangles, frets,
and terraced figures are inserted between two parallel lines which terminate
in round dots with parallel lines.
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Fig. 337—Double triangle and feathers
The design in is likewise unsymmetrical, but it has two
lateral triangles with incurved terrace and dentate patterns. The
same general form is exhibited in , with the introduction of
two pointed appendages facing the hypothetical middle line. From
the general form of these pointed designs, each of which is double,
they have been interpreted as feathers. They closely resemble the tail-feathers
of bird figures on several bowls in the collection, as will be seen
in several of the illustrations.
Fig. 338—Twin triangles
Fig. 339—Triangle with terraced appendages
Fig. 340—Mosaic pattern
is composed of two triangular designs fused at the greatest
angles. The regularity of these triangles is broken by a square space
at the fusion. At each of the acute angles of the two triangles there
are circular designs with radiating lines, a common motive on the
exterior of food bowls. Although no new elements appear in figure
338, with the exception of bracket marks, one on each side of a circle,
the arrangement of the two parts symmetrically about a line parallel
with the rim of the bowl imparts to the design a unique form. The
motive in is reducible to triangular and rectangular forms,
and while exceptional as to their arrangement, no new decorative feature
is introduced.
The specimen represented in has as its decorative elements,
rectangles, triangles, parallel lines, and birds' tails, to which
may be added star and crosshatch motives. It is therefore the most
complicated of all the exterior decorations which have thus far been
considered. There is no symmetry in the arrangement of figures about
a central axis, but rather a repetition of similar designs.
Fig. 341—Rectangles, stars, crooks, and parallel lines
The use of crosshatching is very common on the most ancient Pueblo
ware, and is very common in designs on cliff-house pottery. This style
of decoration is only sparingly used on Sikyatki ware. The crosshatching
is provisionally interpreted as a mosaic pattern, and reminds one
of those beautiful forms of turquois mosaic on shell, bone, or wood
found in ancient pueblos, and best known in modern times in the square
ear pendants of Hopi women. is one of the few designs
having terraced figures with short parallel lines depending from them.
These figures vividly recall the rain-cloud symbol with falling rain represented
by the parallel lines. is a perfectly symmetrical
design with figures of stars, rectangles, and parallel lines. It may be
compared with that shown in in order to demonstrate how
wide the difference in design may become by the absence of symmetrical
relationship. It has been shown in some of the previous motives
that the crook sometimes represents a bird's head, and parallel lines
appended to it the tail-feathers. Possibly the same interpretation may
be given to these designs in the following figures, and the presence of
stars adjacent to them lends weight to this hypothesis.
Fig. 342—Continuous crooks
Fig. 343—Rectangular terrace pattern
An indefinite repetition of the same pattern of rectangular design is
shown in . This highly decorative motive may be varied
indefinitely by extension or concentration, and while it is modified in
that manner in many of the decorations of vases, it is not so changed
on the exterior of food bowls.
There are a number of forms which I am unable to classify with the
foregoing, none of which show any new decorative design. All possible
changes have been made in them without abandoning the elemental
ornamental motives already considered. The tendency to step or terrace
patterns predominates, as exemplified in simple form in .
In there is a different arrangement of the same terrace
pattern, and the design is helped out with parallel bands of different
length at the ends of a rectangular figure. A variation in the depth
of color of these lines adds to the effectiveness of the design. This
style of ornamentation is successfully used in the designs represented
in and , in the body of which a crescentic figure in the
black serves to add variety to a design otherwise monotonous. The
two appendages to the right of figure 346 are interpreted as feathers,
although their depart forms widely from that usually assumed by these
designs. The terraced patterns are replaced by dentate margins in
this figure, and there is a successful use of most of the rectangular and
triangular designs.
Fig. 344—Terrace pattern with parallel lines
Fig. 345—Terrace pattern
Fig. 346—Triangular pattern with feathers
In the specimens represented in and marginal dentations
are used. I have called the design referred to an S-form, which,
however, owing to its elongation is somewhat masked. The oblique
bar in the middle of the figure represents the body of the letter, the
two extremities taking the forms of triangles.
Fig. 347—S-pattern
Fig. 348—Triangular and terrace figures
So far as decorative elements are concerned the design in
can be compared with some of those preceding, but it differs from them
in combination. The motive in is not unlike the ornamentation
of certain oriental vases, except from the presence of the terraced
figures. In there are two designs separated by an inclined
break the edge of which is dentate. This figure is introduced to show
the method of treatment of alternating triangles of varying depth of
color and the breaks in the marginal bands or "lines of life." One of
the simplest combinations of triangular and rectangular figures is
shown in , proving how effectually the original design may
be obscured by concentration.
Fig. 349—Crook, terrace, and parallel lines
Fig. 350—Triangles, squares, and terraces
In the foregoing descriptions I have endeavored to demonstrate that,
notwithstanding the great variety of designs considered, the types
used are very limited in number. The geometrical forms are rarely
curved lines, and it may be said that spirals, which appear so constantly
on pottery from other (and possibly equally ancient or older) pueblos
than Sikyatki, are absent in the external decorations of specimens
found in the ruins of the latter village.
Every student of ancient and modern Pueblo pottery has been
impressed by the predominance of terraced figures in its ornamentation,
and the meaning of these terraces has elsewhere been spoken of
at some length. It would, I believe, be going too far to say that these
step designs always represent clouds, as in some instances they are
produced by such an arrangement of rectangular figures that no other
forms could result.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CLXVIII
GEOMETRIC ORNAMENTATION FROM AWATOBI
Fig. 351—Bifurcated rectangular design
Fig. 352—Lines of life and triangles
Fig. 353—Infolded triangles
The material at hand adds nothing new to the theory of the evolution
of the terraced ornament from basketry or textile productions, so
ably discussed by Holmes, Nordenskiöld, and others. When the Sikyatki
potters decorated their ware the ornamentation of pottery had
reached a high development, and figures both simple and complicated
were used contemporaneously. While, therefore, we can so arrange
them as to make a series, tracing modifications from simple to complex
designs, thus forming a supposed line of evolution, it is evident that
there is no proof that the simplest figures are the oldest. The great
number of terraced figures and their use in the representation of
animals seem to me to indicate that they antedate all others, and I see
no reason why they should not have been derived from basketry patterns.
We must, however, look to pottery with decorations less highly
developed for evidence bearing on this point. The Sikyatki artists had
advanced beyond simple geometric figures, and had so highly modified
these that it is impossible to determine the primitive form.
As I have shown elsewhere, the human hand is used as a decorative
element in the ornamentation of the interior of several food bowls. It
is likewise in one instance chosen to adorn the exterior. It is the only
part of the human limbs thus used. shows the hand with
marks on the palm probably intended to represent the lines which are
used in the measurement of the length of pahos or prayer-sticks. From
between the index and the middle finger rises a line which recalls that
spoken of in the account of the hand on the interior of the food bowl
shown in .
Fig. 354—Human hand
The limb of an animal with a paw, or possibly a human arm and hand,
appears as a decoration on the outside of another food bowl, where it is
combined with the ever-constant stepped figure, as shown in .
Fig. 355—Animal paw, limb, and triangle
PIGMENTS
The ancient Sikyatki people were accustomed to deposit in their
mortuary vessels fragments of minerals or ground oxides and carbonates,
of different colors, used as paints. It thus appears evident that
these substances were highly prized in ancient as in modern times, and
it may be mentioned that the present native priests regard the pigments
found in the graves as so particularly efficacious in coloring their ceremonial
paraphernalia that they begged me to give them fragments for
that purpose. The green color, which was the most common, is an
impure carbonate of copper, the same as that with which pahos are
painted for ceremonial use today. Several shallow, saucer-like vessels
contained yellow ocher, and others sesquioxide of iron, which afforded
both the ancients and the moderns the red pigment called cuta, an
especial favorite of the warrior societies. The inner surface of some of
the bowls is stained with the pigments which they had formerly contained,
and it was not uncommon to find several small paint pots
deposited in a single grave. The white used was an impure kaolin,
which was found both in masses and in powdered form, and there were
unearthed several disks of this material which had been cut into definite
shape as if for a special purpose.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CLXIX
ARROWSHAFT SMOOTHERS, SELENITE, AND SYMBOLIC CORN FROM SIKYATKI
One of these disks or circular plates () was found on the head
of a skeleton. The rim is rounded, and the opposite faces are concave,
with a perforation in the middle. Other forms of this worked kaolin
are spherical, oblong, or lamellar, sometimes more or less decorated on
the outer surface, as shown in , e. Another, shown in
f, of the same plate, is cylindrical, and other fragments of irregular
shapes were found. A pigment made of micaceous hematite was found
in one of the Sikyatki paint jars. This material is still used as coloring
matter by the Tusayan Indians, by whom it is called yayala, and
is highly prized by the members of the warrior societies.
Fig. 356—Kaolin disk (natural size)
STONE OBJECTS
Almost every grave at Sikyatki contained stone objects which were
found either in the bowls or in the soil in the immediate neighborhood
of the skeletons. Some of these implements are pecked or chipped,
others are smooth—pebbles apparently chosen for their botryoidal
shape, polished surface, or fancied resemblance to some animal or other
form.
Many of the smooth stones were probably simply polishing stones,
used by the women in rubbing pottery to a gloss before it was fired.
Others were charm stones such as are still employed in making medicine,
as elsewhere described. There were still other stones which,
from their resemblance to animals, may have been personal fetishes.
Among the unusual forms of stones found in this association is a
quartz crystal. As I have shown in describing several ceremonies still
observed, a quartz crystal is used to deflect a ray of sunlight into
the medicine bowl, and is placed in the center of a sand picture of
the sun in certain rites called Powalawû; the crystal is also used in
divining, and for other purposes, and is highly prized by modern
Tusayan priests.
A botryoidal fragment of hematite found in a grave reminds me that in
the so-called Antelope rock at Walpi, around which the Snake dancers
biennially carry reptiles in their mouths, there is in one side a niche in
which is placed a much larger mass of that material, to which prayers
are addressed on certain ceremonial occasions, and upon which sacred
meal and prayer emblems are placed.
One or two mortuary bowls contained fragments of stalactites apparently
from the Grand canyon of the Colorado or from some other
locality where water is or has been abundant.
The loose shaly deposit which underlies the Tusayan mesas contains
many cephalopod fossils, a collection of which was made in former
years and deposited in the National Museum. Among these the most
beautiful are small cephalopods called by the Hopi, koaitcoko. Among
the many sacred objects in the tiponi baskets of the Lalakonti society,
as described in my account of the unwrapping of that fetish, there
was a specimen of this ammonite; that the shell was preserved in this
sacred bundle is sufficient proof that it is highly venerated. As a
natural object with a definite form it is regarded as a fetish which is
looked upon with reverence by the knowing ones and pronounced bad
by the uninitiated. The occurrence of this fossil in one of the mortuary
bowls is in harmony with the same idea and shows that it was regarded
in a similar light by the ancient occupants of Sikyatki.
But the resemblance of these and other stones to animal fossils is
not always so remote as in the instances above mentioned. There was
in one grave a single large fetish of a mountain lion, made of sandstone
(, b, c), in which legs, ears, tail, and eyes are represented,
and the mouth still retains the red pigment with which it was
colored, although there was no sign of paint on other parts of the
body. This fetish is very similar to the one found at Awatobi, and is
identical in form with those made by the Hopi at the present time.
It was customary to bury in Sikyatki graves plates or fragments of
selenite or mica, some of which are perforated as if for suspension,
while others are in plain sheets (, c).
Among the stone implements used as mortuary offerings which were
found in the cemeteries, was one made of the same fine lithographic
limestone as the so-called tcamahia (, g) which occur on the
Antelope altar in the Snake ceremonies. The exceptional character of
this fragment is instructive, and its resemblance to the finely polished
stone hoes found in other ruins is very suggestive.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CLXX
CORN GRINDER FROM SIKYATKI
There were found many disk-shape stones, pecked on the periphery
as if used in grinding pigment or in bruising seeds, and spheroidal
stones with a facet worn at one pole as if used for the same or a similar
purpose (, b, c). A few stone axes and hatchets were also
taken from the graves; most of these are rude specimens of stone
working, although one of them can hardly be excelled in any other collection.
Many arrowpoints were found, but these are in no respect
peculiar. They are made of many different kinds of stone, but those
of obsidian are the most numerous. They were generally found in
numbers, sometimes in bowls. Evidently they had not been attached
to shafts when buried, for no sign of the reeds remained. Arrowheads
sewed into a bandoleer are still worn as insignia of rank by warriors,
and it is probable that such was also true in the past, so that on interment
these arrowpoints might have been placed in the mortuary basin
deposited by the side of the warrior, as indicative of his standing or
rank, and the bandoleer or leather strap to which they were attached
decayed during its long burial in the earth. Spearpoints of much
coarser make and larger in size than the arrowheads were also found
in the graves, and a rare knife, made of chalcedony, showed that the
ancient, like the modern Hopi, prized a sharp cutting instrument.
Among the many large stones picked up on the mounds of Sikyatki
there was one the use of which has long puzzled me. This is a rough
stone, not worked save in an equatorial groove. The object is too heavy
to have been carried about, except with the utmost difficulty, and the
probability of the former existence of a handle is out of the question.
It has been suggested that this and similar but larger grooved stones
might have been used as tethers for some domesticated animal, as the
eagle or the turkey, which is about the only explanation I can suggest.
Both of these creatures, and (if we may trust early accounts) a quadruped
about the size of a dog, were domesticated by the ancient Pueblo
people, but I have found no survival of tethering in use today. Eagles,
however, are tied by the legs and not confined in corrals as at Zuñi,
while sheep are kept in stone inclosures. It is probable that this latter
custom came with the introduction of sheep, and that these stones were
weights to which the Sikyatki people tied by the legs the eagles and
turkeys, the feathers of which play an important part in their sacred
observances.
Certain small rectangular slabs of stone have been found, with a
groove extending across one surface diagonally from one angle to
another (, a, b.) These are generally called arrowshaft polishers,
and were used to rub down the surface of arrowshafts or prayer-sticks.
Several of these polishers were taken from Sikyatki graves,
and one or two were of such regular form that considerable care must
have been used in their manufacture. A specimen from Awatobi is
decorated with a bow and an arrow scratched on one side, and one
of dark basaltic rock evidently came from a distance. A number of
metates and mullers were found in the graves at Sikyatki. One of the
best of the latter is shown in . These stones are of different
degrees of fineness, and vary from simple triangular slabs of fine sandstone
to very coarse lava. The specimen figured has depressions on
the sides to facilitate handling.
Perhaps the most significant of all the worked stones found in the
Sikyatki cemeteries were the flat slabs the edges of which near the
surface of the soil marked the presence of the graves. These slabs
may be termed headstones, but they have a far different meaning from
those that bear the name of the deceased with which we are most
familiar, for when they have any marking on their faces, it is not a
totem of the dead, but a symbol of the rain-cloud, which is connected
with ancestor worship.
One of the best of these mortuary slabs has its edge cut in such a
way as to give it a terraced outline, and on one face a similar terrace
is drawn in black pigment. These figures are symbols of rain-clouds,
and the interpretation of the use of this design in graves is as follows:
The dead, according to current Tusayan thought, become rain-cloud
gods, or powerful intercessors with those deities which cause or send
the rains. Hence, the religious society to which the deceased belonged,
and the members of the clan who survive, place in the mortuary bowls,
or in the left hand of their friend, the paho or prayer emblem for rain;
hence, also, in prayers at interment they address the breath body of
the dead as a katcina, or rain god. These katcinas, as divinized ancestors,
are supposed to return to the villages and receive prayers for rain.
In strict accord with this conception the rain-cloud symbol is placed, in
some instances, on the slab of rock in the graves of the dead at Sikyatki.
It proves to me that the cult of ancestor worship, and the conception
that the dead have power to bring needed rain, were recognized
in Sikyatki when the pueblo was in its prime. One of these slabs is
perforated by a small hole, an important fact, but one for which I have
only a fanciful explanation, namely, to allow the escape of the breath
body. Elsewhere I have found many instances of perforated mortuary
stone slabs, which will be considered in a report of my excavations in
1896.
OBSIDIAN
Many fragments of obsidian, varying in size, are found strewn over
the surface of the majority of ancient ruins in Tusayan, and the quantity
of this material on some mounds indicates its abundance in those
early habitations. This material must have been highly prized for
knives, arrowpoints, and weapons of various kinds, as several of the
graves contained large fragments of it, some more or less chipped,
others in natural forms. The fact of its being deemed worthy of deposit
in the graves of the Sikyatkians would indicate that it was greatly
esteemed. I know of no natural deposit of obsidian near Sikyatki or
in the province of Tusayan, so that the probability is that these fragments
had been brought a considerable distance before they were buried
in the earth that now covers the dead of the ancient pueblos.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CLXXI
STONE IMPLEMENTS FROM PALATKI, AWATOBI, AND SIKYATKI
NECKLACES, GORGETS, AND OTHER ORNAMENTS
The Sikyatki people buried their dead adorned with necklaces and
other ornaments as when living. The materials most highly prized for
necklaces were turquois and shell which were fashioned into beads,
some of which were finely made. These necklaces did not differ from
those now worn, and the shells employed were mostly marine varieties
of the genus Pectunculus. The turquois beads are often as finely cut as
any now worn, and their presence in the graves led to the only serious
trouble which I had with my native workmen, as they undoubtedly
appropriated many which were found. Some of these turquois beads are
simply flat fragments, perforated at one end, others are well formed.
Many skeletons had a single turquois near the mastoid process of the
skull, showing that they had been worn as ear pendants. On the neck
of one skeleton we found a necklace of many strands, composed of segments
of the leg bones of the turkey, stained green. There were other
specimens of necklaces made of turkey bones, which were smoothly
finished and apparently had not been stained.
Necklaces of perforated cedar berries were likewise found, some of
them still hanging about the necks of the dead, and in one instance, a
small saucer like vessel (, d) was filled with beads of this kind,
as if the necklace had thus been deposited in the grave as a votive
offering.
For gorgets the Sikyatki people apparently prized slabs of lignite
(, d) and plates of selenite. It was likewise customary to
make small clay imitations of birds and shells for this and for other
ornamental purposes; these, for the most part, however, were not found
in the graves, but were picked up on the surface or in the débris within
the rooms.
The three forms imitating birds shown in , g, h, i, are
rude in character, and one of them is crossed by a black line from
which depend parallel lines, representing falling rain; all of these
specimens have a perforated knot on the under side for suspension, as
shown in the figure between them.
The forms of imitations of shells, in clay, of which examples are shown
in , j, k, l, are rude in character; they are often painted
with longitudinal or vertical black lines, and have a single or double
perforation for suspension. The shell imitated is probably the young
Pectunculus, a Pacific-coast mollusk, with which the ancient Hopi were
familiar.
TOBACCO PIPES
I have elsewhere mentioned that every modern Tusayan ceremony
opens and closes with a ceremonial smoke, and it is apparent that pipes
were highly prized by the ancient Sikyatkians.
The form of pipe used in most ceremonials today has a bowl with its
axis at right angles to the stem, but so far as I have studied ancient
Pueblo pipes this form appears to be a modern innovation. To determine
the probable ancient form of pipe, as indicated by the ritual, I
will invite attention to one of the most archaic portions of the ceremonies
about the altar of the Antelope priesthood, at the time of the
Snake dance at Walpi:
"The songs then ceased, and Wí-ki sent Ká-tci to bring him a light.
Ká-tci went out, and soon returned with a burning corncob, while all
sat silently awaiting Wí-ki's preparation for the great Ó-mow-ûh smoke,
which was one of the most sacred acts performed by the Antelope
priests in these ceremonials.
"The wu-kó-tco-ño is a huge, stemless pipe, which has a large opening
in the blunt end, and a smaller one in the pointed. It is five
inches long, one inch in diameter at the large aperture, and its greatest
circumference is seven and a half inches. The pipe is made of
some black material, possibly stone, and as far as could be seen was
not ornamented. The bowl had previously been filled with leaves
carefully gathered from such places as are designated by tradition.
In the subsequent smokes the ashes, "dottle," were saved, being
placed in a small depression in the floor, but were not again put in the
pipe.
"Wí-ki took the live ember from Ká-tci and placed it in the large
opening of the pipe, on the leaves which filled its cavity. He then
knelt down and placed the pipe between the two tí-po-nis, so that the
pointed end rested on the head of the large fetish, between the ears.
Every one remained silent, and Wí-ki blew several dense clouds of
smoke upon the sand altar, one after another, so that the picture was
concealed. The smoke was made by blowing through the pipe, the fire
being placed in the bowl next the mouth, and the whole larger end of
the pipe was taken into the mouth at each exhalation.
"At the San Juan pueblo, near Santa Fé, where I stopped on my
way to Tusayan, I purchased a ceremonial headdress upon which several
spruce twigs were tied. Wí-ki received some fragments of these
with gratitude, and they formed one of the ingredients which were
smoked in the great ó-mow-ûh pipe. The scent of the mixture was
very fragrant, and filled the room, like incense. The production of this
great smoke-cloud, which is supposed to rise to the sky, and later
bring the rain, ended the first series of eight songs.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CLXXII
PAINT GRINDER, FETISH, KAOLIN DISKS, AND LIGNITE FROM SIKYATKI
"Immediately after this event, Há-ha-we filled one of the small-stemmed
pipes lying near the fireplace with native tobacco, and after
lighting it puffed smoke on the altar. He passed the pipe to Wí-ki,
holding it near the floor, bowl foremost, as he did so, and exchanging
the customary terms of relationship. Wí-ki then blew dense clouds of
smoke over the two tí-po-nis and on the sand picture. Há-ha-we, meanwhile,
lit a second pipe, and passed it to Kó-pe-li, the Snake chief, who
enjoyed it in silence, indiscriminately puffing smoke on the altar, to the
cardinal points, and in other directions. Kó-pe-li later gave his pipe to
Ká-kap-ti, who sat at his right, and Wí-ki passed his to Na-syuñ-'we-ve,
who, after smoking, handed the pipe to Kwá-a, who in turn passed it
to Ká-tci, by whom it was given to Há-ha-we. Ká-tci, the last priest
to receive it before it was returned to the pipe-lighter, smoked for a
long time, and repeatedly puffed clouds of smoke upon the sand picture.
Meanwhile Ká-kap-ti had handed his pipe to Há-ha-we, both
exchanging terms of relationship and carefully observing the accompanying
ceremonial etiquette. Há-ha-we, as was his unvarying custom,
carefully cleaned the two pipes, and laid them on the floor by the
side of the fireplace."
The form of pipe used in the above ceremony is typical of ancient
Pueblo pipes, several of which were found at Sikyatki. One of these,
much smaller than the ó-mow-ûh pipe, was made of lava, and bore
evidence of use before burial. It is evident, however, that these
straight pipes were not always smoked as above described. The most
interesting pipes found at Sikyatki were more elongated than that
above mentioned and were made of clay. Their forms are shown in
, b, c, d, f. One of these (b) is very smooth, almost glazed,
and enlarged into two lateral wings near the mouth end, which is perforated
with a small hole. The cavity at the opposite end is large
enough to hold sufficient for a good smoke, and shows evidence of
former use. The whole median region of the exterior is formed by a
collar incised with lines, as if formerly wrapped with fiber. In some of
the modern ceremonials, as that of the Bear-Puma dramatization in the
Snake dance, a reed cigarette is used, ancient forms of which have been
found in sacrificial caves, and there seems no doubt that this pipe is
simply a clay form of those reeds. The markings on the collar would
by this interpretation indicate the former existence of a small fabric
wrapped about it. The two pipes shown, in , b, f, are
tubular in shape, highly polished, and on one of them (f) we see
scratches representing the same feature as the collar of b, and probably
made with the same intent.
The fragment of a pipe shown in , d, is interesting in
the same connection. The end of this pipe is broken, but the stem is
intact, and on two sides of the bowl there are elevations covered with
crosshatching. The pipe is of clay and has a rough external surface.
It is improbable that these pipes were always smoked as the wu-kó-tco-ño
of the Snake ceremony, but the smaller end was placed to the
mouth, and smoke taken into the mouth and exhaled. It is customary
in ceremonials now practiced, to wind a wisp of yucca about the stem
of a short pipe, that it may not become too hot to hold in the hand.
This may be a possible explanation of the
scratches on the sides of the ancient tube pipes
from Sikyatki.
PRAYER-STICKS
One of the most important objects made in
the secret ceremonials of the modern Pueblos
is sacrificial in nature, and is called a paho
or "water wood," which is used as an offering
to the gods (). These pahos
are made of a prescribed wood, of length
determined by tradition, and to them are tied
appendages of symbolic meaning. They are
consecrated by songs, about an altar, upon
which they are laid, and afterward deposited
in certain shrines by a special courier.
Fig. 357—Mortuary prayer-stick (natural size)
In modern times the forms of these pahos
differ very greatly, the shape depending on
the society which makes them, the god addressed,
and the purpose for which they are
used, as understood by the initiated. Among
many other uses they are sometimes mortuary
in character, and are deposited in the graves
of chiefs, as offerings either to the God of
Death, or to other deities, to whom they may
be presented by the shade or breath body of
the deceased. This use of pahos is of ancient
origin in Tusayan, as shown by the excavations
at Sikyatki, where they were found in
mortuary bowls or vases deposited by the relatives
or surviving members of the sacerdotal
societies to which the deceased had belonged.
This pre-Spanish custom in Tusayan was
discovered in my excavations at Awatobi, but
the prayer-sticks from that place were fragmentary
as compared with the almost perfect
pahos from Sikyatki. These pahos are of many
forms; some of them are of considerable size,
and the majority are of distinctive forms
(). There are also
many fragments, the former shapes of
which could not be determined. When it is
considered that these wooden objects with
their neat carvings were fashioned with stone implements, the high
character of the work is very remarkable. They show, in several
instances, the imprint of attached strings and feathers, portions of
which still remain; also, in one instance, fragments of a pine needle.
They are painted with green and black mineral pigments, the former
of which had undoubtedly done much to preserve the soft wood of
which they were manufactured. As at the present day, cottonwood
and willow were the favorite prescribed woods for pahos, and some of
the best were made of pine. The forms of these ancient prayer offerings,
as mentioned hereafter, differ somewhat from those of modern
make, although in certain instances there is a significant resemblance
between the two kinds.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CLXXIII
PIPES, BELL, AND CLAY BIRDS AND SHELLS FROM AWATOBI AND SIKYATKI
One of the most striking instances of resemblance between the old
and the new is the likeness of some of these ancient pahos to those now
made by the Flute society, and if this resemblance is more than a
coincidence, the conclusion that the present flute paho is a survival of
the ancient form may be accepted. As adding weight to this theory it
may be mentioned that traditionally the Flute people claim to be the
ancient people of Tusayan, and possibly contemporaries, in that
province, with the ancient inhabitants of Sikyatki. There is likewise
a most suggestive resemblance between these pahos and certain similar
sticks from cliff dwellings, and it is a belief, which I can not yet
demonstrate as true, that kindred people, or the same sacerdotal societies
represented in cliff houses and in Sikyatki, manufactured ceremonial
prayer offerings which are identical in design. , a,
represents a double stick paho, which closely resembles the prayer offering
of the modern Flute society. The two rods were found together
and originally had been attached, as indicated by the arrangement of
the impression of the string midway of their length. The stick of the
left has a facet cut on one side, upon which originally three dots were
depicted to represent the eyes and the mouth. This member of the
paho was the female; the remaining stick was the male. There are
two deep grooves, or ferules, cut midway of their length, a distinctive
characteristic of the modern flute paho. Both components are painted
green, as is still customary in prayer-sticks of this fraternity. The
pahos shown in b, c, and d, are likewise ascribed to the same society,
and differ from the first only in length. They represent female sticks
of double flute pahos. The length of these prayer-sticks varies on
different ceremonial days, and is determined by the distance of the
shrines for which they are intended. The unit of measurement is the
length of certain joints of the finger, and the space between the tip of
longest digit to certain creases in the palm of the hand. The length of
the ancient Sikyatki pahos, ascribed to the Flute society, follows the
same rule.
, e, f, have the same ferules referred to in the description
above, but are of greater diameter. They are unlike any modern
paho except in this particular. In g is depicted a still larger prayer-stick,
with two serrate incisions on each side of the continuation of the
flattened facet.
Specimens h to m are forms of pahos which I can not identify. They
are painted green, generally with black tips, round, flattened, and of
small size. Figure n is a part of a paho which closely resembles prayer-sticks
found in the cliff houses of Mesa Verde and San Juan valley of
northern New Mexico.
Numerous specimens of a peculiar razor-shape paho were found, two
of which are shown in , o, s. The paho shown in figure d
is flat on one side and rounded on the other, narrowing at one end,
where it was probably continued in a shaft, and a hole is punctured at
the opposite extremity, as if for suspension. It is barely possible that
this may have been a whizzer or bull-roarer, such as are used at the
present day to imitate the wind, and commonly carried by the performer
in a public dance who personifies the warrior. Figure t differs
from the ordinary flute paho in having five constrictions in the upper
part, and in being continued into a very long shank.
The best preserved of all the pahos from the Sikyatki graves are
represented in u and v, both of which were found in the same mortuary
bowl. They are painted with a thick layer of green pigment, and have
shafts, which are blackened and placed in opposite directions in the
two figures. Their general form may be seen at a glance. The lower
surface of the object shown in u is perfectly flat, and the part represented
at the upper end is evidently broken off. This is likewise true
of both extremities of the object shown in v; it is also probable that
it had originally a serrated end, comparable with that shown in c. A
similar terraced extremity survives in the corn paho carried by the so-called
Flute girls in the biennial celebrations of the Flute ceremonies
in the modern Tusayan pueblos.
I refer the paho to the second group of sacrifices mentioned by Tylor,
that of homage, "a doctrine that the gist of sacrifice is rather in the
worshiper giving something precious to himself than in the deity
receiving benefit. This may be called the abnegation theory, and its
origin may be fairly explained by considering it as derived from the
original gift theory."
While it is probably true that the Hopi barters his paho with the
idea of receiving in return some desired gift, the main element is probably
homage, but there is involved in it the third and highest element
of sacrifice, abnegation. It is a sacrifice by symbolism, a part for the
whole.
On this theory the query naturally is, what does a paho represent?
While it is difficult to answer this question, I think a plausible suggestion
can be made. It is a sacrifice by symbolic methods of that
which the Hopi most prize, corn or its meal.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CLXXIV
PAHOS OR PRAYER-STICKS FROM SIKYATKI
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY——
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CLXXV
PAHOS OR PRAYER-STICKS FROM SIKYATKI
In a simple prayer the sacrifice is a pinch of meal thrown on the
fetish or toward it. This is an individual method of prayer, and
the pinch of meal, his prayer bearer, the sacrifice.
When a society made its prayers this meal, symbolic of a gift of
corn, is tied in a packet and attached to two sticks, one male, the other
female, with prescribed herbs and feathers. Here we have the ordinary
prayer-stick, varying in details but essentially the same, a sacrifice to
the gods appropriately designated by prescribed accessories.
Frequently this packet of meal may be replaced by a picture of an
ear of corn drawn on a flat slat, the so-called "corn paho" of the Flute
maidens, or we may have an ear of corn tied to the wooden slat. In
the Mamzrau ceremony the women carry these painted slats in their
hands, as I have elsewhere described. It appears as if, in all these
instances, there exists a sacrificial object, a symbolic offering of corn
or meal.
The constant appearance of the feather on the paho has suggested
an interpretation of the prayer-plumes as symbolic sacrifices of birds
on the theory of a part for the whole; we know that among the Nahua
sacrifices of birds were common in many ceremonials. The idea of
animal sacrifice, and, if we judge from legends, of human sacrifice, was
not an unknown conception among the Pueblos. While it is possible
that the omnipresence of the feather on the prayer-sticks may admit of
that interpretation, to which it must be confessed the male and the
female components in double pahos lend some evidence, I believe the
main object was, as above stated, an offering of meal, which constituted
the special wealth of an agricultural people.
MARINE SHELLS AND OTHER OBJECTS
The excavations at Sikyatki did not reveal a large number of marine
shells, although some of the more common genera used in the ancient
pueblos were found.
There were several fragments of Pectunculus cut into the form of
wristlets, like those from the ruins on the Little Colorado which I have
described. Two beautiful specimens of Oliva angulata, truncated at
each pole, which occurred in one of the mortuary bowls, and a few conical
rattles, made of the spires of Conus, were taken from the graves;
there were also a few fragments of an unknown Haliotis. All of the
above genera are common to the Pacific, and no doubt were obtained by
barter or brought by migratory clans to Tusayan from the far south.
One of the most interesting objects in Sikyatki food basins from the
necropolis was a comparatively well preserved rattle of a rattlesnake.
The Walpi Snake chief, who was employed by me when this was found
and was present at the time it was removed from the earth, declared
that, according to the legends, there were no Snake people living at
Sikyatki when it was destroyed, but the discovery of the snake rattle
shows that the rattler was not without reverence there, even if not in
the house of his friends, and some other explanation may be suggested
to account for this discovery. There are evidences that the ancient
Hopi, like certain Yuman tribes, wore a snake's rattle as an ornament
for the neck, in which case the rattle found in the Sikyatki food basin
may have been simply a votive offering, and in no way connected with
ceremonial symbolism.
Among many other mortuary offerings was one which was particularly
suggestive. This specimen represented in , e, is made
of unbaked clay, and has a reticulated surface, as if once incrusted
with foreign objects. The Hopi who were at work for me declared
that this incrustation had been composed of seeds, and that the pits
over the surface of the clay cone were evidence of their former existence.
They identified this object as a "corn mound," and reminded me that
a similar object is now used in the Powamu, Lalakonti, and certain other
ceremonies. I have elsewhere mentioned the clay corn mound incrusted
with seeds of various kinds in a description of the altar of the last-mentioned
ceremony. These corn mountains (ká-ü-tü'-kwi) are made in
the November ceremony called the Nā-ác-nai-ya, as described in my
account of those rites from which I quote—
"The Tá-tau-kya-mû were very busy in their kib-va. Every member
was shelling corn of the different colors as if on a wager. Each man
made a figure of moist clay, about four or five inches across the base.
Some of these were in the form of two mammæ, and there were also
many wedge and cone forms, in all of which were embedded corn kernels,
forming the cloud and other of the simpler conventional figures
in different colors, but the whole surface was studded as full as possible
with the kernels. Each man brought down his own pó-o-tas
(tray), on which he sprinkled prayer-meal, and set his ká-ü-tü'-kwi (corn
mountain) upon it. He also placed ears of corn on the tray."
These corn mountains were carried by the Tá-tau-kya-mû priesthood
during an interesting ceremony which I have thus described:
"The whole line then passed slowly along the front of the village
sideways, facing the north, and singing, and all the women came out
and helped themselves to the clay molds and the ears of corn borne
by the Tá-tau-kya-mû, bestowing many thanks upon the priests."
The fragment of polished stone shown in , d, is perforated
near the edge for suspension, and was found near the aural orifice of a
skull, apparently indicating that it had been used as a pendant. With
this object, many rude arrowpoints, concretions of stone, and the kaolin
disk mentioned above were also found. Small round disks of pottery,
with a median perforation, were not common, although sometimes
present. They are identified as parts of primitive drills.
No object made of metal was found at Sikyatki, nor is there any evidence
that the ancient people of that pueblo ever saw the Spaniards or
used any implement of their manufacture. While negative evidence
can hardly be regarded as a safe guide to follow, so far as knowledge of
copper is concerned, it is possible that the people of ancient Tusayan
pueblos, in their trading expeditions to southern Arizona, may have
met races who owned small copper bells and trinkets of metal. I can
hardly believe, however, that the Tusayan Indians were familiar with
the art of tempering copper, and even if objects showing this treatment
shall be found hereafter in the ruins of this province it will have to be
proved that they were made in that region, and not brought from the
far south.
No glazed pottery showing Spanish influence was found at Sikyatki,
but there can hardly be a doubt that the art of glazing pottery was
practiced by the ancestors of the Tusayan people. The modern potters
of the East Mesa never glaze their pottery, and no fragment of glazed
ware was obtained from the necropolis of Sikyatki.
PERISHABLE CONTENTS OF MORTUARY FOOD BOWLS
It is the habit of the modern Tusayan Indians to deposit food of
various kinds on the graves of their dead. The basins used for that
purpose are heaped up with paper-bread, stews, and various delicacies
for the breath-body of the deceased. Naturally from its exposed position
much of this food is devoured by animals or disappears in other
ways. There appears excellent evidence, however, that the mortuary
food offerings of the ancient Sikyatkians were deposited with the body
and covered with soil and sometimes stones.
The lapse of time since these burials took place has of course caused
the destruction of the perishable food substances, which are found to be
simple where any sign of their former presence remains. Thin films
of interlacing rootlets often formed a delicate network over the whole
inner surface of the bowl. Certain of the contents of these basins in
the shape of seeds still remain; but these seeds have not germinated,
possibly on account of previous high temperatures to which they have
been submitted. A considerable quantity of these contents of mortuary
bowls were collected and submitted to an expert, the result of
whose examination is set forth in the accompanying letter:
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Botony,
Washington, D. C., March 25, 1896.
Dear Dr Fewkes: Having made a cursory examination of the samples of supposed
vegetable material sent by you day before yesterday, collected at Sikyatki,
Arizona, in supposed prehistoric burial places, I have the following preliminary
report to make:
No. 156247. A green resinous substance. I am unable to say whether or not this
is of vegetable origin.
No. 156248. A mass of fibrous material intermixed with sand, the fibers consisting
in part of slender roots, in part of the hair of some animal.
No. 156249. This consists of a mixture of seed with a small amount of sand present.
The seeds are, in about the relative order of their abundance, (a) a leguminous
shiny seed of a dirty olive color, possibly of the genus Parosela (usually known as
Dalea); (b) the black seed shells, flat on one side and almost invariably broken, of
a plant apparently belonging to the family Malvaceae; (c) large, flat, nearly black
achenia, possibly of a Coreopsis, bordered with a narrow-toothed wing; (d) the thin
lenticular utricles of a Carex; (e) the minute black, bluntly trihedral seeds of some
plant of the family Polygonaceae, probably an Eriogonum. The majority of these seeds
have a coating of fine sand, as if their surface had originally been viscous; (f) a
dried chrysalis bearing a slight resemblance to a seed.
No. 156250. This bottle contains the same material as No. 156249, except that no
larvæ are found, but a large, plump, brownish, lenticular seed 4 mm. in diameter,
doubtless the seed of a Croton.
No. 156251. A thin fragment of matter consisting of minute roots of plants partially
intermixed on one surface with sand.
No. 156252. This consists almost wholly of plant rootlets and contains a very
slight amount of sand.
No. 156254. This consists of pieces of rotten wood through which had grown the
rootlets of plants. The wood, upon a microscopical examination, is shown to be that
of some dicotyledonous tree of a very loose and light texture. The plant rootlets in
most cases followed the large ducts that run lengthwise through the pieces of wood
and take up the greater part of the space.
No. 156255. The mass contained in this bottle is made up of (a) grains, contained
in their glumes or husks, of some grass, probably Oryzopsis membranacea; (b) what
appears to be the minute spherical spore cases of some microscopical fungus. The
spore cases have a wall with a shiny brown covering, or apparently with this covering
worn off and exhibiting an interior white shell. Within this is a very large
number of spherical spore-like bodies of a uniform size; (c) a few plant rootlets.
No. 156256. The material in this bottle is similar to that in 156255 except that the
amount of rootlets is greater, the grass seeds are of a darker color, seemingly somewhat
more disorganized, and somewhat more slender in form, and that the spore
cases seem to be entirely wanting.
No. 156257. The material in this bottle is similar to that in No. 156249, containing
the seeds numbered a, b, c, and d mentioned under that number, besides a greater
amount of plant rootlets and some fragments of corncob.
No. 156258. This consists almost entirely of plant rootlets and sand.
No. 156259. This consists chiefly of the leaves of some coniferous tree, either an
Abies or a Pseudotsuga.
All the seeds with the exception of those of the leguminous plant are dead and
their seed-coats rotten. The leguminous seeds are still hard and will be subjected
to a germination test.
For a specific and positive identification of these seeds it will be necessary either
for a botanist to visit the region from which they came or to have at his disposal a
complete collection of the plants of the vicinity. Under such conditions he could
by process of exclusion identify the seeds with an amount of labor almost infinitely
less than would be required in their identification by other means.
Very sincerely yours,
Frederick V. Coville, Botanist.
FOOTNOTES
See "The Prehistoric Culture of Tusayan," American Anthropologist, May, 1896. "Two Ruins
Recently Discovered in the Red Rock Country, Arizona," ibid., August, 1896. "The Cliff Villages of
the Red Rock Country, and the Tusayan Ruins, Sikyatki and Awatobi, Arizona," Smithsonian Report
for 1895.
The reader's attention is called to the fact that this report is not intended to cover all the ruins
in the section of Arizona through which the expedition passed; it is simply a description of those
which were examined, with a brief mention of such others as would aid in a general comprehension
of the subject. The ruins on the Little Colorado, near Winslow, Arizona, will be considered in a
monograph to follow the present, which will be a report on the field work in 1896. If a series of
monographs somewhat of this nature, but more comprehensive, recording explorations during many
years in several different sections, were available, we would have sufficient material for a comprehensive
treatment of southwestern archeology.
It may be borne in mind that several other clans besides the Patki claim to have lived long ago
in the region southward from modern Tusayan. Among these may be mentioned the Patuñ (Squash)
and the Tawa (Sun) people who played an important part in the early colonization of Middle Mesa.
Report upon the Indian Tribes, Pacific Railroad Survey, vol. iii, pt. iii, p. 14, Washington, 1856.
The cavate dwellings of the Rio Verde were first described by Dr E. A. Mearns. Although it has
sometimes been supposed that Coronado followed the trail along Verde valley, and then over the
Mogollones to Rio Colorado Chiquito, Bandelier has conclusively shown a more easterly route.
See mention of cliff houses in Walnut canyon in the Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology.
The kinship of Cliff dwellers and Pueblos was long ago recognized by ethnologists, both from
resemblances of skulls, the character of architecture, and archeological objects found in each class
of dwellings. It is only in later years, however, that the argument from similar ceremonial paraphernalia
has been adduced, owing to an increase of our knowledge of this side of Pueblo life. See
Bessels, Bull. U. S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, vol. ii, 1876; Hoffman,
Report on Chaco Cranium, ibid., 1877, p. 457. Holmes, in 1878, says: "The ancient peoples of the San
Juan country were doubtless the ancestors of the present Pueblo tribes of New Mexico and Arizona."
See, likewise, Cushing, Nordenskiöld, and later writers regarding the kinship of Cliff villagers
and Pueblos.
Report of the Director of the Bureau of American Ethnology for the year ending June 30, 1894;
Smithsonian Report, 1894.
The ruins in Chaves Pass, 110 miles south of Oraibi, will be considered in the report of the expedition
of 1896, when extensive excavations were made at this point. About midway between the
Chaves Pass ruins and those of Beaver creek, in Verde valley, there are other ruins, as at Rattlesnake
Tanks, and as a well-marked trail passes by these former habitations and connects the Verde series
with those of Chaves Pass, it is possible that early migrations may have followed this course. There
is also a trail from Homolobi and the Colorado Chiquito ruins through Chaves Pass into Tonto Basin.
Smithsonian Report, 1883; Report of Major Powell, Director of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 57 et
seq. Explorations in the Southwest, ibid., 1886, p. 52 et seq.
Report of an Expedition down the Zuñi and Colorado rivers; Washington, 1853.
Smithsonian Report, 1883, Report of the Director of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 62: "Pending
the arrival of goods at Moki, Mr Cushing returned across the country to Zuñi for the purpose of
observing more minutely than on former occasions the annual sun ceremonials. En route he discovered
two ruins, apparently before unvisited. One of these was the outlying structure of K'n'-i-K'él,
called by the Navajos Zïnni-jin'ne and by the Zuñis He'-sho'ta pathl-tâĭe, both, according to Zuñi tradition,
belonging to the Thlé-e-tâ-kwe, the name given to the traditional northwestern migration
of the Bear, Crane, Frog, Deer, Yellow-wood, and other gentes of the ancestral pueblos."
The reduplicated syllable recalls Hopi methods of forming their plural, but is not characteristic of
them, and the word Totonteac has a Hopi sound. The supposed derivation of Tonto from Spanish
tonto, "fool," is mentioned, elsewhere. The so-called Tonto Apache was probably an intruder, the
cause of the desertion of the "basin" by the housebuilders. The question whether Totonteac is the
same as Tusayan or Tuchano is yet to be satisfactorily answered. The map makers of the sixteenth
century regarded them as different places, and notwithstanding Totonteac was reported to be "a hotte
lake" in the middle of the previous century, it held its place on maps into the seventeenth century.
It is always on or near a river flowing into the Gulf of California.
Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology.
Mr Mindeleff's descriptions deal with the same cluster of cavate ruins here described, but are
more specially devoted to the more southern section of them, not considering, if I understand him,
the northern row here described. I had also made extensive studies of the rooms figured by him
previously to the publication of his article, but as my notes on these rooms are anticipated by his
excellent memoir I have not considered the rooms described by him, but limited my account to brief
mention of a neighboring row of chambers not described in his report.
Journal of American Ethnology and Archæology, vol. ii, No. 1. All the Tusayan kivas with which
I am familiar have this raised spectator's part at one end. The altars are always erected at the
opposite end of the room, in which is likewise the hole in the floor called the sipapû, symbolic of
the traditional opening through which races emerged to the earth's surface from an underworld.
Banquettes exist in some Tusayan kivas; in others, however, they are wanting. The raised platform
in dwelling rooms is commonly a sleeping place, above which blankets are hung and, in some
instances, corn is stored. A small opening in the step often admits light to an otherwise dark granary
below the floor. In no instance, however, are there more than one such platform, and that commonly
partakes of the nature of another room, although seldom separated from the other chamber by
a partition.
Counting from the point of the cliff shown in . The positions of the rooms are indicated
by the row of entrances.
It was from this region that the individual chambers, described by Mindeleff, were chosen.
Mr Mindeleff, in his valuable memoir, has so completely described the cavate dwellings of the
Rio Grande and San Juan regions that their discussion in this account would be superfluous.
See Mindeleff, Cliff Ruins of Canyon de Chelly, American Anthropologist, April, 1895. The suggestion
that cliff outlooks were farming shelters in some instances is doubtless true, but I should
hesitate giving this use a predominance over outlooks for security. In times of danger, naturally
the agriculturist seeks a high or commanding position for a wide outlook; but to watch his crops he
must camp among them.
Ancient Dwellings of the Rio Verde Valley, Dr E. A. Mearns; Popular Science Monthly, vol.
xxvii. Mindeleff, Aboriginal Remains in Verde Valley; Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau
of Ethnology.
Since the above lines were written Mr C. F. Lummis, who has made many well-known contributions
to the ethnology and archeology of the Pueblo area, has published in Land of Sunshine (Los
Angeles, 1895), a beautiful photographic illustration and an important description of this unique place.
Miscellaneous Ethnographic Observations on Indians inhabiting Nevada, California, and Arizona,
Tenth Annual Report of the Hayden Survey, p. 478; Washington, 1878.
The cliff houses of Bloody Basin I have not examined, but I suspect they are of the same type as
the so-called Montezuma Castle, or Casa Montezuma, on the right bank of Beaver creek. The latter
is referred to the cliff-house class, but it differs considerably from the ruins of the Red-rocks, on
account of the character of the cavern in which it is built (see ).
Fortified hilltops occur in many places in Arizona and are likewise found in the Mexican states of
Sonora and Chihuahua, where they are known as trincheras. They are regarded as places of refuge
of former inhabitants of the country, contemporaneous with ancient pueblos and cliff houses.
This pinnacle is visible for miles, and is one of many prominences in the surrounding country.
Unfortunately this region is so imperfectly surveyed that only approximations of distances are possible
in this account, and the maps known to me are too meager in detail to fairly illustrate the distribution
of these buttes.
In certain cavate houses on Oak creek we find these caverns in two tiers, one above the other, and
the hill above is capped by a well-preserved building. In one of these we find the entrance to the
cavern walled in, with the exception of a T-shape doorway and a small window. This chamber shows
a connecting link between the type of true cavate dwellings and that of cliff-houses.
The absence of kivas in the ruins of the Verde has been commented on by Mindeleff, and has
likewise been found to be characteristic of the cliff houses on the upper courses of the other tributaries
of Gila and Salado rivers. The round kiva appears to be confined to the middle and eastern
ruins of the pueblo area, and are very numerous in the ruins of San Juan valley.
See "Tusayan Totemic Signatures," American Anthropologist, Washington, January, 1897.
An exhaustive report on the ruins near Winslow, at the Sunset Crossing of the Little Colorado,
will later be published. These ruins were the sites of my operations in the summer of 1896, and
from them a very large collection of prehistoric objects was taken. The report will consider also the
ruins at Chaves Pass, on the trail of migration used by the Hopi in prehistoric times in their visits,
for barter and other purposes, to the Gila-Salado watershed.
Possibly the Shoshonean elements in Hopi linguistics are due to the Snake peoples, the early colonists
who came from the north, where they may have been in contact with Paiute or other divisions
of the Shoshonean stock. The consanguinity of this phratry may have been close to that of the Shoshonean
tribes, as that of the Patki was to the Piman, or the Asa to the Tanoan. The present Hopi
are a composite people, and it is yet to be demonstrated which stock predominates in them.
A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola; Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology, 1886-87.
This account was copied from a copy made by the eminent scholar, A. F. Bandelier, for the archives
of the Hemenway Expedition, now at the Peabody Museum, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Hano or "Tewa."
Sichomovi. In the manuscript report by Don José Cortez, who wrote of the northern provinces
of Mexico, where he lived in 1799, Sichomovi is mentioned as a nameless village between Tanos (Hano)
and Gualpi (Walpi), settled by colonists from the latter pueblo. One of the first references to this
village by name was in a report by Indian Agent Calhoun (1850), where it is called Chemovi.
Mishoñinovi.
Shipaulovi.
Shuñopovi.
In 1896 I collected over a hundred beautiful specimens from this cemetery.
There lived in Walpi, years ago, an old woman, who related to a priest, who repeated the story to
the writer, that when a little girl she remembered seeing the Payüpki people pass along the valley
under Walpi when they returned to the Rio Grande. Her story is quite probable, for the lives of two
aged persons could readily bridge the interval between that event and our own time.
"La Mission de N. Sra. de las Dolores de Zandia de Indios Teguas á Moqui."
See J. F. Meline, Two Thousand Miles on Horseback, 1867. Sandia, according to Bancroft, is
not mentioned by Menchero in 1744, but Bonilla gave it a population of 400 Indians in 1749. In 1742
two friars visited Tusayan, and, it is said, brought out 441 apostate Tiguas, who were later settled in
the old pueblo of Sandia. Considering, then, that Sandia was resettled in 1748, six years after this
visit, and that the numbers so closely coincide, we have good evidence that Payüpki, in Tusayan,
was abandoned about 1742. It is probable, from known evidence, that this pueblo was built somewhere
between 1680 and 1690; so that the whole period of its occupancy was not far from fifty years.
Mindeleff mentions two other sites of Old Walpi—a mound near Wala, and one in the plain between
Mishoñinovi and Walpi; but neither of these is large, although claimed as former sites of the
early clans which later built the town on the terrace of East Mesa below Walpi. I have regarded
Küchaptüvela as the ancient Walpi, but have no doubt that the Hopi emigrants had several temporary
dwellings before they settled there.
Sometimes called Nüsaki, a corruption of "Missa ki," Mass House, Mission. One of the beams of the
old mission at Nüsaki or Kisakobi is in the roof of Pauwatiwa's house in the highest range of rooms
of Walpi. This beam is nicely squared, and bears marks indicative of carving. There are also large
planks in one of the kivas which were also probably from the church building, although no one has
stated that they are. Pauwatiwa, however, declares that a legend has been handed down in his family
that the above-mentioned rafter came from the mission.
Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, January 2, 1895, p. 441.
Thus in Castañeda's account we are told: "Farther off [near Cia?] was another large village where
we found in the courtyards a great number of stone balls of the size of a leather bag, containing one
arroba. They seem to have been cast with the aid of machines, and to have been employed in the
destruction of the village." It is needless for me to say that I find no knowledge of such a machine
in Tusayan!
The ceremonials attending to burial of the eagle, whose plumes are used in secret rites, have never
been described, and nothing is known of the rites about the Eagle shrine at Tukinobi.
Recent Archeologic Find in Arizona, American Anthropologist, Washington, July, 1893.
For a previous description see the Preliminary Account, Smithsonian Report for 1895; also "Awatobi:
An Archeological Verification of a Tusayan Legend," American Anthropologist, Washington,
October, 1893.
This important ceremony celebrates the departure from the pueblos of ancestral gods called
katcinas, and is one of the most popular in the ritual.
Pacheco-Cardenas, Colleccion de Documentos Inéditos, xv, 122, 182.
Voyages, iii, pp. 463, 470, 1600; reprint 1810.
Pacheco-Cardenas, Documentos Inéditos, op. cit., xvi, 139.
Menologio Franciscano, 275; Teatro Mexicano, iii, 321.
San Bernardino de Ahuatobi (Vetancurt, 1680); San Bernardo de Aguatuvi (Vargas, 1692). I find
that the mission at Walpi was also mentioned by Vargas as dedicated to San Bernardino. The church
at Oraibi was San Francisco de Oraybe and San Miguel. The mission at Shuñopovi was called San
Bartolomé, San Bernardo, and San Bernabe.
This article was in type too early for a review of Dellenbaugh's identification of Cibola with a
more southeasterly locality. His arguments bear some plausibility, but they are by no means decisive.
An exact translation by Winship of the copy of Castañeda in the Lenox Library was published in
the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau.
"At evening the chiefs asked that notices be written for them warning all white people to keep
away from the mesa tomorrow, and these were set up by the night patrols in cleft wands on all the
principal trails. At daybreak on the following morning the principal trails leading from the four
cardinal points were 'closed' by sprinkling meal across them and laying on each a whitened elk
horn. Anawita told the observer that in former times if any reckless person had the temerity to
venture within this proscribed limit the Kwakwantû inevitably put him to death by decapitation
and dismemberment." ("Naacnaiya," Journal of American Folk-lore, vol. v, p. 201.) This appears
to be the same way in which the Awatobians "closed" the trail to Tobar.
When the Flute people approach Walpi, as is biennially dramatized at the present time, "an assemblage
of people there (at the entrance to the village) meet them, and just back of a line of meal drawn
across the trail stood Winuta and Hoñyi," also two girls and a boy. After these Flute people are
challenged and sing their songs the trail is opened, viz: "Alosaka drew the end of his moñkohu along
the line of meal, and Winuta rubbed off the remainder from the trail with his foot." "Walpi Flute
Observance," Journal of American Folk-lore, vol. vii, p. 19.
This custom of sprinkling the trail with sacred meal is one of the most common in the Tusayan
ritual. The gods approach and leave the pueblos along such lines, and no doubt the Awatobians
regarded the horses of Espejo as supernatural beings and threw meal on the trail before them with
the same thought in mind that they now sprinkle the trails with meal in all the great ceremonials
in which personators of the gods approach the villages.
According to the reprint of 1891. In the reprint of 1810 it appears as "Ahuato." I would suggest
that possibly the error in giving the name of a pueblo to a chief may have arisen not from the copyist
or printer, but from inability of the Spaniards and Hopi to understand each other. If you ask a Hopi
Indian his name, nine times out of ten he will not tell you, and an interlocutor for a party of natives
will almost invariably name the pueblos from which his comrades came.
This was possibly the expedition which P. Fr. Antonio (Alonzo?) made among the Hopi in 1628;
however that may be, there is good evidence that Porras, after many difficulties, baptized several
chiefs in 1629.
Segunda Relacion de la grandiosa conversion que ha avido en el Nuevo Mexico. Embiada por el Padre
Estevā de Perea, etc, 1633.
An earlier rumor was that the horses were anthropophagous.
As Vargas appears not to have entered Oraibi at this time he may have found it too hostile.
Whether Frasquillo had yet arrived with his Tanos people and their *** is doubtful. The story of
the migration to Tusayan of the Tanos under Frasquillo, the assassin of Fray Simón de Jesus, and
the establishment there of a "kingdom" over which he ruled as king for thirty years, is a most interesting
episode in Tusayan history. Many Tanos people arrived in several bands among the Hopi
about 1700, but which of them were led by Frasquillo is not known to me.
"El templo acabo en llamas." At this time Awatobi was said to have 800 inhabitants.
At the present time one of the most bitter complaints which the Hopi have against the Spaniards
is that they forcibly baptized the children of their people during the detested occupancy by the conquerors.
Naacnaiya and Wüwütcimti are the elaborate and abbreviated New-fire ceremonies now observed
by four religious warrior societies, known as the Tataukyamû, Wüwütcimtû, Aaltû and Kwakwantû.
Both of these ceremonials, as now observed at Walpi, have elsewhere been described.
Obiit 1892. Shimo was chief of the Flute Society and "Governor" of Walpi.
Oldest woman of the Snake clan; mother of Kopeli, the Snake chief of Walpi; chief priestess of
the Mamzráuti ceremony.
Vetancurt, Chronica, says that Aguatobi (Awatobi) had 800 inhabitants and was converted by
Padre Francisco de Porras. In 1630 Benavides speaks of the Mokis as being rapidly converted. It
would appear, if we rely on Vetancurt's figures, that Awatobi was not one of the largest villages of
Tusayan in early times, for he ascribes 1,200 to Walpi and 14,000 to Oraibi. The estimate of the population
of Awatobi was doubtless nearer the truth than that of the other pueblos, and I greatly doubt
if Oraibi ever had 14,000 people. Probably 1,400 would be more nearly correct.
Architecture of Cibola and Tusayan, p. 225.
There are two fragments, one of which is large enough to show the size of the bell, which was
made either in Mexico or in Spain. The smaller fragment was used for many years as a paint-grinder
by a Walpi Indian priest.
See his Final Report, p. 372.
The only Awatobi name I know is that of a chief, Tapolo, which is not borne by any Hopi of my
acquaintance (see page 603).
This explains the fact that the ruins in Tusayan, as a rule, have no signs of kivas, and the same
appears to be true of the ruins of the pueblos on the Little Colorado and the Verde, in Tonto Basin,
and other more southerly regions.
See Journal of American Ethnology and Archæology, vol. ii.
"Las casas son de tres altos"—Segunda Relacion, p. 580.
So far as our limited knowledge of the older ruins of Tusayan goes, we find that their inhabitants
must have been as far removed from rude Shohonean nomads as their descendants are today. The
settlement at the early site of Walpi is reported to have been made in very early times, some legends
stating that it occurred at a period when the people were limited to one family—the Snake. The fragments
of pottery which I have found in the mounds of that ancient habitation are as fine and as
characteristic of Tusayan as that of Sikyatki or Awatobi. It is inferior to none in the whole pueblo
area, and betrays long sedentary life of its makers before it was manufactured.
Journal of American Folk-lore, vol. v, No. xviii, 1892.
There is a rude sketch of these two idols of Alosaka in the archives of the Hemenway Expedition.
They represent figurines about 4 feet tall, with two horns on the head not unlike those of the Tewan
clowns or gluttons called Paiakyamû. As so little is known of the Mishoñinovi ritual, the rites in
which they are used are at present inexplicable.
See the ear-ornament of the mask shown in plate cviii, of the Fifteenth Annual Report.
Similar "spouts" were found by Mindeleff at Awatobi, and a like use of them is suggested in his
valuable memoir.
The Keresan people are called by the same name, Kawaika, which, as hitherto explained, is specially
applied to the modern pueblo of Laguna.
The Asa people who came to Tusayan from the Rio Grande claim to have lived for a few generations
in Tubka or Tségi (Chelly) canyon.
The pottery of ancient Cibola is practically identical with that of the ruined pueblos of the Colorado
Chiquito, near Winslow, Arizona.
The specimens labeled "New Mexico" and "Arizona" are too vaguely classified to be of any
service in this consideration. It is suggested that collectors carefully label their specimens with the
exact locality in which they are found, giving care to their association and, when mortuary, to their
position in the graves in relation to the skeletons.
I am informed by Mr F. W. Hodge that similar fragments were found by the Hemenway Expedition
in 1888 in the prehistoric ruins of the Salado.
The head is round, with lateral appendages. The face is divided into two quadrants above, with
chin blackened, and marked with zigzag lines, which are lacking in modern pictures. In the left
hand the figure holds a rattle. The body is wanting, but the breast is decorated with rectangles.
A single metate of lava or malpais was excavated at Awatobi. This object must have had a long
journey before it reached the village, since none of the material from which it was made is found
within many miles of the ruin.
There are many fine pictographs, some of which are evidently ancient, on the cliffs of the Awatobi
mesa. These are in no respect characteristic, and among them I have seen the awata (bow),
honani (badger's paw), tcüa (snake), and omowûh (rain-cloud). On the side of the precipitous wall of
the mesa south of the western mounds there is a row of small hemispherical depressions or pits, with a
groove or line on one side. There is likewise, not far from this point, a realistic figure of a ***,
not very unlike the asha symbols on Thunder mountain, near Zuñi.
Journal of American Ethnology and Archæology, vol. ii, No. 1, p. 77.
In the expedition of 1896 there were found a large number of shell ornaments, which will be
described in a forthcoming report of the operations during that year. See the preliminary account
in the article "Pacific Coast Shells in Tusayan Ruins," American Anthropologist, December, 1896.
One of these bells was found in a grave at Chaves Pass during the field work of 1896.
Bells made of clay are not rare in modern Tusayan villages, and while their form is different from
that of the Awatobi specimen, and the size larger, there seems no reason to doubt the antiquity of the
specimen from the ruin of Antelope mesa.
Many of the specimens in the well-known Keam collection, now in the Tusayan room of the Peabody
Museum at Cambridge, are undoubtedly from Sikyatki, and still more are from Awatobi. Since
the beginning of my excavations at Sikyatki it has come to be a custom for the Hopi potters to dispose
of, as Sikyatki ware, to unsuspecting white visitors, some of their modern objects of pottery.
These fraudulent pieces are often very cleverly made.
Architecture of Tusayan and Cibola, op. cit., pp. 20, 21.
These rooms I failed to find. One of the rocky knolls may be that called by me the "acropolis."
The second knoll I cannot identify, unless it is the elevation in continuation of the same side toward
the east. Possibly he confounded the ruin of Küküchomo with that of Sikyatki.
The legends of the origin of Oraibi are imperfectly known, but it has been stated that the pueblo
was founded by people from Old Shuñopovi. It seems much more likely, however, that our knowledge
is too incomplete to accept this conclusion without more extended observations. The composition of
the present inhabitants indicates amalgamation from several quarters, and neighboring ruins should
be studied with this thought in mind.
It is distinctly stated that the Tanoan families whose descendants now inhabit Hano were not in
Tusayan when Awatobi fell. To be sure they may have been sojourning in some valley east of the
province, which, however, is not likely, since they were "invited" to East Mesa for the specific purpose
of aiding the Hopi against northern nomads. Much probability attaches to a suggestion that
they belonged to the emigrants mentioned by contemporary historians as leaving the Rio Grande on
account of the unsettled condition of the country after the great rebellion of 1680.
The succession of priests is through the clan of the mother, so that commonly, as in the case of
Katci, the nephew takes the place of the uncle at his death. Some instances, however, have come to
my knowledge where, the clan having become extinct, a son has been elevated to the position made
vacant by the death of a priest. The Kokop people at Walpi are vigorous, numbering 21 members
if we include the Coyote and Wolf clans, the last mentioned of which may be descendants of
the former inhabitants of Küküchomo, the twin ruins on the mesa above Sikyatki.
In this census I have used also the apparently conservative statement of Vetancurt that there
were 800 people in Awatobi at the end of the seventeenth century.
Kanel = Spanish carnero, sheep; ba = water, spring.
Wipo spring, a few miles northward from the eastern end of the mesa, would be an excellent site
for a Government school. It is sufficiently convenient to the pueblos, has an abundant supply of
potable water at all seasons, and cultivable fields in the neighborhood.
The boy who brought our drinking water from Kanelba could not be prevailed upon to visit it on
the day of the snake hunt to the east in 1895, on the ground that no one not a member of the society
should be seen there or take water from it at that time. This is probably a phase of the taboo of all
work in the world-quarter in which the snake hunts occur, when the Snake priests are engaged in
capturing these reptilian "elder brothers."
Tcino lives at Sichomovi, and in the Snake dance at Walpi formerly took the part of the old man
who calls out the words, "Awahaia," etc. at the kisi, before the reptiles are carried about the plaza.
These words are Keresan, and Tcino performed this part on account of his kinship. He owns the
grove of peach trees because they are on land of his ancestors, a fact confirmatory of the belief that
the people of Sikyatki came from the Rio Grande.
Nasyuñweve, who died a few years ago, formerly made the prayer-stick to Masauwûh, the Fire or
Death god. This he did as one of the senior members of the Kokop or Firewood people, otherwise
known as the Fire people, because they made fire with the fire-drill. On his death his place in the
kiva was taken by Katci. Nasyuñweve was Intiwa's chief assistant in the Walpi katcinas, and wore
the mask of Eototo in the ceremonials of the Niman. All this is significant, and coincides with the
theory that katcinas are incorporated in the Tusayan ritual, that Eototo is their form of Masauwûh,
and that he is a god of fire, growth, and death, like his dreaded equivalent.
The Hano people call the Hopi Koco or Koso; the Santa Clara (also Tewa) people call them Khoso,
according to Hodge.
The replastering of kivas at Walpi takes place during the Powamu, an elaborate katcina celebration.
I have noticed that in this renovation of the kivas one corner, as a rule, is left unplastered,
but have elicited no satisfactory explanation of this apparent oversight, which, no doubt, has significance.
Someone, perhaps overimaginative, suggested to me that the unplastered corner was the
same as the break in encircling lines on ancient pottery.
I was aided in making this plan by the late J. G. Owens, my former assistant in the field work of
the Hemenway Expedition. It was prepared with a few simple instruments, and is not claimed to
be accurate in all particulars.
The existence of these peach trees near Sikyatki suggests, of course, an abandonment of the neighboring
pueblo in historic times, but I hardly think it outweighs other stronger proofs of antiquity.
The position of the cemeteries in ancient Tusayan ruins is by no means uniform. They are
rarely situated far from the houses, and are sometimes just outside the walls. While the dead were
seldom carried far from the village, a sandy locality was generally chosen and a grave excavated a
few feet deep. Usually a few stones were placed on the surface of the ground over the burial place,
evidently to protect the remains from prowling beasts.
The excavations at Homolobi in 1896 revealed two beautiful cups with braided handles and one
where the clay strands are twisted.
The modern potters commonly adorn the ends of ladle handles with heads of different mythologic
beings in their pantheon. The ***-head priest-clowns are favorite personages to represent, although
even the Corn-maid and different katcinas are also sometimes chosen for this purpose. The heads of
various animals are likewise frequently found, some in artistic positions, others less so.
The clay ladles with perforated handles with which the modern Hopi sometimes drink are
believed to be of late origin in Tusayan.
The oldest medicine bowls now in use ordinarily have handles and a terraced rim, but there are one
or two important exceptions. In this connection it may be mentioned that, unlike the Zuñi, the Hopi
never use a clay bowl with a basket-like handle for sacred meal, but always carry the meal in basket
trays. This the priests claim is a very old practice, and so far as my observations go is confirmed
by archeological evidence. The bowl with a basket-form handle is not found either in ancient or
modern Tusayan.
Symbolism rather than realism was the controlling element of archaic decoration. Thus, while
objects of beauty, like flowers and leaves, were rarely depicted, and human forms are most absurd
caricatures, most careful attention was given to minute details of symbolism, or idealized animals
unknown to the naturalist.
Certainly no more appropriate design could be chosen for the decoration of the inside of a food
vessel than the head of the Corn-maid, and from our ideas of taste none less so than that of a lizard
or bird. The freshness and absence of wear of many of the specimens of Sikyatki mortuary pottery
raises the question whether they were ever in domestic use. Many evidently were thus employed, as
the evidences of wear plainly indicate, but possibly some of the vessels were made for mortuary
purposes, either at the time of the decease of a relative or at an earlier period.
The figure shown in , was probably intended to represent the Corn-maid, or an
Earth goddess of the Sikyatki pantheon. Although it differs widely in drawing from figures of
Calako-mana on modern bowls, it bears a startling resemblance to the figure of the Germ goddess
which appears on certain Tusayan altars.
Hopi legends recount how certain clans, especially those of Tanoan origin, lived in Tségi canyon
and intermarried with the Navaho so extensively that it is said they temporarily forgot their own
language. From this source may have sprung the numerous so-called Navaho katcinas, and the
reciprocal influence on the Navaho cults was even greater.
These priests wear a close-fitting skullcap, with two long, banded horns made of leather, to the end
of which corn husks are tied. For an extended description see Journal of American Ethnology and
Archæology, vol. ii, No. 1, page 11.
The rarity of human figures on such kinds of pottery as are found in the oldest ruins would appear
to indicate that decorations of this kind were a late development. No specimen of black-and-white
ware on which pictures of human beings are present has yet been figured. The sequence of evolution
in designs is believed to be (1) geometrical figures, (2) birds, (3) other animals, (4) human beings.
In some of the figurines used in connection with modern Hopi altars these whorls are represented
by small wheels made of sticks radiating from a common juncture and connected by woolen yarn.
The natives of Cibola, according to Castañeda, "gather their hair over the two ears, making a frame
which looks like an old-fashioned headdress." The Tusayan Pueblo maidens are the only Indians
who now dress their hair in this way, although the custom is still kept up by men in certain sacred
dances at Zuñi. The country women in Salamanca, Spain, do their hair up in two flat coils, one on
each side of the forehead, a custom which Castañeda may have had in mind when he compared the
Pueblo coiffure to an "old-fashioned headdress."
American Anthropologist, April, 1892.
Troano and Cortesiano codices.
A nakwákwoci is an individual prayer-string, and consists of one or more prescribed feathers tied
to a cotton string. These prayer emblems are made in great numbers in every Tusayan ceremony.
The evidence afforded by this bowl would seem to show that the cult of the Corn-maid was a part
of the mythology and ritual of Sikyatki. The elaborate figures of the rain-cloud, which are so prominent
in representations of the Corn-maid on modern plaques, bowls, and dolls, are not found in the
Sikyatki picture.
The reason for my belief that this is a breath feather will be shown under the discussion of feather
and bird pictures.
For the outline of this legend see Journal of American Ethnology and Archæology, vol. iv. The maid
is there called the Tcüa-mana or Snake-maid, a sacerdotal society name for the Germ goddess. The
same personage is alluded to under many different names, depending on the society, but they are all
believed to refer to the same mythic concept.
The attitude of the male and female here depicted was not regarded as obscene; on the contrary,
to the ancient Sikyatki mind the picture had a deep religious meaning. In Hopi ideas the male is a
symbol of active generative power, the female of passive reproduction, and representations of these
two form essential elements of the ancient pictorial and graven art of that people.
The doll of Kokopeli has along, bird-like beak, generally a rosette on the side of the head, a hump
on the back, and an enormous ***. It is a *** deity, and appears in certain ceremonials which
need not here be described. During the excavations at Sikyatki one of the Indians called my attention
to a large Dipteran insect which he called "Kokopeli."
The practice still exists at Zuñi, I am told, and there is no sign of its becoming extinct. It is said
that old Naiutci, the chief of the Priesthood of the Bow, was permanently injured during one of
these performances. (Since the above lines were written I have excavated from one of the ruins on
the Little Colorado a specimen of one of these objects used by ancient stick-swallowers. It is made
of bone, and its use was explained to me by a reliable informant familiar with the practices of Oraibi
and other villagers. It is my intention to figure and describe this ancient object in the account of the
explorations of 1896.)
"Tusayan Katcinas," Fifteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1893-94, Washington,
1897. Hewüqti is also called Soyokmana, a Keresan-Hopi name meaning the Natacka-maid. The
Keresan (Sia) Skoyo are cannibal giants, according to Mrs Stevenson, an admirable definition of the
Hopi Natackas.
The celebration occurs in the modern Tusayan pueblos in the Powamû where the representative of
Calako flogs the children. Calako's picture is found on the Powamû altars of several of the villages
of the Hopi.
Figures of the human hand have been found on the walls of cliff houses. These were apparently
made in somewhat the same way as that on the above bowl, the hand being placed on the surface and
pigment spattered about it. See "The Cliff Ruins of Canyon de Chelly," by Cosmos Mindeleff; Sixteenth
Annual Report, 1894-95.
Muryi, mole or gopher; muriyawû, moon. There maybe some Hopi legend connecting the gopher
with the moon, but thus far it has eluded my studies, and I can at present do no more than call attention
to what appears to be an interesting etymological coincidence.
This form of mouth I have found in pictures of quadrupeds, birds, and insects, and is believed to
be conventionalized. Of a somewhat similar structure are the mouths of the Natacka monsters
which appear in the Walpi Powamû ceremony. See the memoir on "Tusayan Katcinas," in the
Fifteenth Annual Report.
Figures of the tadpole and frog are often found on modern medicine bowls in Tusayan. The
snake, so common on Zuñi ceremonial pottery, has not been seen by me on a single object of earthenware
in use in modern Hopi ritual.
Journal of American Ethnology and Archæology, vol. iv.
Although made of beautiful yellow ware, it shows at one point marks of having been overheated
in firing, as is often the case with larger vases and jars.
One of the best examples of the rectangular or ancient type of medicine bowl is used in the celebration
of the Snake dance at Oraibi, where it stands on the rear margin of the altar of the Antelope
priesthood of that pueblo.
One of the best of these is that of the Humis-katcina, but good examples occur on the dolls of the
Calakomanas. The Lakone maid, however, wears a coronet of circular rain-cloud symbols, which
corresponds with traditions which recount that this form was introduced by the southern clans or
the Patki people.
In the evolution of ornament among the Hopi, as among most primitive peoples where new designs
have replaced the old, the meaning of the ancient symbols has been lost. Consequently we are forced
to adopt comparative methods to decipher them. If, for instance, on a fragment of ancient pottery we
find the figure of a bird in which the wing or tail feathers have a certain characteristic symbol form,
we are justified, when we find the same symbolic design on another fragment where the rest of the
bird is wanting, in considering the figure that of a wing or tail feather. So when the prescribed
figure of the feather has been replaced by another form it is not surprising to find it incomprehensible
to modern shamans. The comparative ethnologist may in this way learn the meanings of symbols
to which the modern Hopi priest can furnish no clue.
In an examination of many figures of ancient vessels where this peculiar design occurs it will be
found that in all instances they represent feathers, although the remainder of the bird is not to be
found. The same may also be said of the design which represents the tail-feathers. This way of
representing feathers is not without modern survival, for it may still be seen in many dolls of mystic
personages who are reputed to have worn feathered garments.
At the present time the circle is the totemic signature of the Earth people, representing the horizon,
but it has likewise various other meanings. With certain appendages it is the disk of the sun—and
there are ceremonial paraphernalia, as annulets, placed on sand pictures or tied to helmets, which
may be represented by a simple ring. The meaning of these circles in the bowl referred to above is
not clear to me, nor is my series of pictographs sufficiently extensive to enable a discovery of its significance
by comparative methods. A ring of meal sometimes drawn on the floor of a kiva is called
a "house," and a little imagination would easily identify these with the mythic houses of the sky-bird,
but this interpretation is at present only fanciful.
The paho is probably a substitution of a sacrifice of corn or meal given as homage to the god
addressed.
Journal of American Ethnology and Archæology, vol. iv. These water gourds figure conspicuously
in many ceremonies of the Tusayan ritual. The two girls personating the Corn-maids carry them in
the Flute observance, and each of the Antelope priests at Oraibi bears one of these in the Antelope or
Corn dance.
"A few Tusayan Pictographs;" American Anthropologist, Washington, January, 1892.
A beautiful example of this kind was found at Homolobi in the summer of 1896.
In this connection the reader is referred to the story, already told in former pages of this memoir,
concerning the flogging of the youth by the husband of the two women who brought the Hopi the
seeds of corn. It may be mentioned as corroboratory evidence that Calako-taka represents a supernatural
sun-bird, that the Tataukyamû priests carry a shield with Tunwup (Calako-taka) upon it in the
Soyaluña. These priests, as shown by the etymology of their name, are associated with the sun. In
the Sun drama, or Calako ceremony, in July, Calako-takas are personated, and at Zuñi the Shalako
is a great winter sun ceremony.
American Anthropologist, April, 1895, p. 133. As these cross-shape pahos which are now made in
Tusayan are attributed to the Kawaika or Keres group of Indians, and as they were seen at the Keresan
pueblo of Acoma in 1540, it is probable that they are derivative among the Hopi; but simple cross
decorations on ancient pottery were probably autochthonous.
In dolls of the Corn-maids this germinative symbol is often found made of wood and mounted on
an elaborate tablet representing rain-clouds.
Many similarities might be mentioned between the terraced figures used in decoration in Old
Mexico and in ancient Tusayan pottery, but I will refer to but a single instance, that of the stuccoed
walls of Mitla, Oaxaca, and Teotitlan del Valle. Many designs from these ruins are gathered together
for comparative purposes by that eminent Mexicanist, Dr E. Seler, in his beautiful memoir on
Mitla (Wandmalereien von Mitla, plate x). In this plate exact counterparts of many geometric
patterns on Sikyatki pottery appear, and even the broken spiral is beautifully represented. There
are key patterns and terraced figures in stucco on monuments of Central America identical with the
figures on pottery from Sikyatki.
This pillar, so conspicuous in all photographs of Walpi, is commonly called the Snake rock.
American Anthropologist, April, 1892.
I failed to find out how the Hopi regard fossils.
These objects were eagerly sought by the Hopi women who visited the camps at Awatobi and
Sikyatki.
The tubular form of pipe was almost universal in the pueblo area, and I have deposited in the
National Museum pipes of this kind from several ruins in the Rio Grande valley.
Journal of American Ethnology and Archæology, vol. iv, pp. 31, 32, 33.
This form of pipe occurs over the whole pueblo area.
Ancient cigarette reeds, found in sacrificial caves, have a small fragment of woven fabric tied
about them.
The so-called "implements of wood" figured by Nordenskiöld ("The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa
Verde," plate xlii) are identical with some of the pahos from Sikyatki, and are undoubtedly prayer-sticks.
Primitive Culture, vol. ii, p. 396.
Journal of American Ethnology and Archæology, Vol. ii, p. 131.
American Anthropologist, July, 1892.
As stated in former pages, there is some paleographic evidence looking in that direction.
Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. v, no. xviii, p. 213.
Op. cit., p. 214.
They failed to germinate.
APPENDIX
The following list introduces the numbers by which the specimens
illustrated in this memoir are designated in the catalog of the United
States National Museum. Each specimen is also marked with a field
catalog number, the locality in which it was found, and the name of the
collector:
Plate . a, 155895; b, 155897; c, 155898; d, 155896; e, 155900; f, 155916.
. a, 155875; b, 155996; c, 155902; d, 155996; e, 155997.
. a, 155992; b, 155913; c, 155991; d, 155994; e, 155993.
. a-g, 156018; h, 156131; i, 156091; j, 156018.
. a, 155806; b, 155841; c, 155832; d, 155678; e, 155820; f, 155838.
. a, 155867; b, 155866; c, 155871; d, 155856; e, 155861; f, 155460.
. a, 155694; b, 155698; c, 155719.
. a, 155702; b, 155684; c, 155688.
. a, 155711; b, 155703; c, 155707; d, 155673.
. a, 155674; b, 155683.
. a, 155750; b, 155753; c, 155751; d, 155752; e, 155749; f, 155747.
. a, 155700; b, 155682.
. a, 155718; b, 155714; c, 155723; d, 155691.
. a, 155745; b, 155744; c, 155746; d, 155735; e, 155734; f, 155733; g, 155736.
. a, 155467; b, 155462; c, 155463; d, 155464; e, 155466; f, 155465.
. a, 155474; b, 155475; c, 155477; d, 155484; e, 155473; f, 155476.
. a, 155758; b, 155773; c, 155768; d, 155771; e, 155546; f 155764.
. a, 155482; b, 155483; c, 155481; d, 155480; e, 155479; f, 155485.
. a, 155614; b, 155757; c, 155502; d, 155772; e, 155758; f, 155781.
. a, 155570; b, 155597; c, 155567; d, 155507; e, 155575; f, 155505.
. a, 155692; b, 155681.
. a, 155687; b, 155737; c, 155695.
. a, 155488; b, 155450; c, 155468; d, 155732; e, 155776; f, 155740.
. a, 155498; b, 155490; c, 155492; d, 155500; e, 155499; f, 155494.
. a, 155524; b, 155528; c, 155491; d, 155523; e, 155527; f, 155522.
. a, 155529; b, 155489; c, 155540; d, 155541; e, 155606; f, 155410.
. a, 155501; b, 155503; c, 155509; d, 155511; e, 155510; f, 155512.
. a, 155712; b, 155693; c, 155756; d, 155636; e, 155697.
. a, b, 155690.
. a, b, 155689.
. a, 155717; b, 155696.
. a, 155538; b, 155508; c, 155802; d, 155537; e, 155487; f, 155653.
. a, 155493; b, 155497; c, 155602; d, 155504; e, 155608; f, 155495.
. a, 155556; b, 155408; c, 155545; d, 155548; e, 155544; f, 155542.
. a, 155554; b, 155549; c, 155573; d, 155607; e, 155572; f, 155581.
. a, 155565; b, 155519; c, 155518; d, 155569; e, 155551; f, 155574.
. a, 155535; b, 155532; c, 155539; d, 155526; e, 155613; f, 155615.
. a, 155555; b, 155547; c, 155571; d, 155553; e, 155536; f, 155521.
. a, 155558; b, 155564.
. a, 155560; b, 155568.
. a, 155543; b, 155557.
. a, 155562; b, 155561; c, 155562; d, 155796; e, 155601; f, 155588.
. a, 155531; b, 155530; c, 155525; d, 155585; e, 155563; f, 155552.
. a, 155628; b, 155742; c, 155632; d, 155633; e, 155587; f, 155634.
. a, 155583; b, 155598; c, 155516; d, 155629; e, 155590; f, 155520.
. a, 155577; b, 155576; c, 155622; d, 155594; e, 155647; f, 155654.
. a, 155642; b, 155506; c, 155517; d, 155472; e, 155589; f, 155600.
. a, 155637; b, 155618; c, 155643; d, 155621; e, 155534; f, 155533.
. a, 155611; b, 155612.
. a, 155610; b, 155609.
. a, 155593; b, 155592.
. a, 155641; b, 155616; c, 155617; d, 155619; e, 155584; f, 155640.
. a, 155877; b, 155878; c, 155892; d, 155882; e, 155890; f, 155881.
. a, 155876; b, 155891; c, 155884; d, 155914; e, 155940; f, 155880.
. a, 156095; b, 156098; c, 156175; d, 156174; e, 156154; f, 156065.
. a, b, 156227.
. a, 156270; b, c, 156303; e, 156199; f, 156043.
. a, 156042; b, 156169; c, 156169; d, 156170; e, 156184; f, 156164.
. a, 155999; b, 155154; c, 156128; d, 156131; e, f, 1561?0; g, 156010; h-l, 156130.
. a, 156191; b, c, 156183; d, 156185; e-g, 156183; h-j, 156194; k, 156180; l, m, 156191; n, 156182.
. o, 156188; p, 156185; q, 156191; r, 156186; s, 156180; t, 156188; u, 156181; v, 156179; w, 156187.
INDEX
Acropolis of Sikyatki , ,
Adobe plastering in cavate houses
[Adobe], see , .
Agave fiber used in Tusayan ,
Aguato, an Awatobi synonym
Aguatobi, an Awatobi synonym
Aguatuví, an Awatobi synonym
Aguatuya, an Awatobi synonym
Aguatuybá, an Awatobi synonym
Aguitobi, an Awatobi synonym
Ahuato, an Awatobi synonym
Ahuatobi, an Awatobi synonym
Ahuatu, an Awatobi synonym
Ahuatuyba, an Awatobi synonym
Ah-wat-tenna an Awatobi synonym
Alosaka idols in Awatobi shrine
Anawita, traditional information given by
Ancestor worship at Sikyatki
Antelope valley, see .
Apache depredation in Tusayan
[Apache], late appearance of, at Tusayan
[Apache] occupancy of Verde ruins , ,
[Apache] pictographs in Verde valley , , ,
Aquatasi, an Awatobi synonym
Aquatubi, an Awatobi synonym
Archeological expedition to Arizona, 1895
Arizona, archeological expedition to, 1895
[Arizona], see .
Arrowhead kilt worn by man-eagle
Arrowheads from Awatobi ,
[Arrowheads] in Sikyatki graves ,
Arrowshaft polishers from Awatobi ,
[Arrowshaft polishers] in Sikyatki graves
Art remains in Palatki and Honanki
Asa people join the Hopi
[Asa people], migration of
[Asa people] settle at Sichomovi
Ash-heap pueblo, former site of Walpi
Atabi-hogandi, an Awatobi synonym
Aua-tu-ui, an Awatobi synonym
A-wa-te-u, an Awatobi synonym
Awatobi and Sikyatki pottery compared
[Awatobi], arrowshaft polishers from ,
[Awatobi], etymology of
[Awatobi], legend of destruction of
[Awatobi], population of
[Awatobi], reasons for excavating
[Awatobi] ruin discussed
[Awatobi] ruin examined
[Awatobi], settlement of Sikyatki people at
[Awatobi] settled by Küküchomo and Sikyatki people
[Awatobi] visited in 1540
Awatûbi, an Awatobi synonym
Á-wat-u-i, an Awatobi synonym
Awls, bone, from Awatobi
Axes, stone, in Sikyatki graves ,
[Axes] from Awatobi
Badger people settle Sichomovi
Baer, Erwin, with archeological expedition in 1895
Bancroft, H. H., on destruction of Awatobi
Bandelier, A. F., Cibola identified by
[Bandelier, A. F.], on record of Awatobi destruction
Baptism opposed by the Hopi
Basins, see .
Basketry found in Honanki
[Basketry] not found at Sikyatki
Bat-house, ruin of the
Beads from Awatobi
[Beads] in Sikyatki graves
Beams of mission in Walpi houses
[Beams] of Palatki ruin
Bean-planting ceremony of the Hopi
Bear clans, early arrival of, at Tusayan
Bell, clay, from Awatobi
[Bell], copper fragments of, from Awatobi ,
[Bell] used in Hopi ceremony
Berries in Sikyatki graves
Bessels, Emil, on affinity of cliff-dwellers and pueblos
Bickford, F. D., on cliff houses in Walnut canyon
Bird figures on Hopi pottery
[Bird] figures on Sikyatki pottery , ,
[Bird] ornaments from Awatobi
[Bird] ornaments in Sikyatki graves
[Bird] vessels from Awatobi
Bloody Basin, cliff houses of
Bodkins, bone, from Awatobi
Bone beads from Honanki
[Bone beads] in Sikyatki graves
Bone objects from Awatobi ,
[Bone objects], from Honanki
Bonilla, —, on Sandia population in 1749
Bourke, J. G., identifies Tally-hogan with Awatobi
Bowls, Sikyatki, decorations on
[Bowls], see .
Boxes, earthenware, from Sikyatki
Bracelets from Awatobi
Butterfly figures on Sikyatki pottery. ,
[Butterfly] symbol on Hopi pottery
Calako in Hopi mythology
[Calako] katcina, origin of
Campbell, Geo., cliff houses discovered by
Camp Verde, ruins near
Cardenas, G. L., visits Tusayan in 1540
Cardinal points in Hopi ceremony , ,
Casa Grande ascribed to the Hopi
Casa Grandes, pottery from
Casa Montezuma, see .
Casteñeda, P. de, account of Tusayan
[Casteñeda, P. de] on Cibola hair-dressing
[Casteñeda, P. de] on early pueblo warfare
[Casteñeda, P. de] on Hopi fabrics
[Casteñeda, P. de] on pueblo kivas in 1540
[Casteñeda, P. de] on visit to Tusayan in 1540 ,
Cavate dwellings, function of
[Cavate dwellings] in Verde valley discussed ,
Cemeteries of Sikyatki
Cemetery of Awatobi ,
Ceremonial circuit of the Hopi
Chairs tabooed in Hopi kivas
Charm stones from Sikyatki
Chavero, A., on Nahuatl water symbol
Chaves pass, ruins at ,
Chelly canyon, cliff houses in
[Chelly canyon], see .
Chimneys, absence of, at Sikyatki
Chukubi, ruin of, discussed
Cibola, identification of
[Cibola], see .
Cigarettes of reeds in sacrificial caves
[Cigarettes] in Hopi ceremony
Cinder cones, ruins in
Circular ruins absent in southern pueblo area
Cist in Awatobi kiva
[Cist] in cavate lodges
[Cist] near cavate houses
Clans formerly occupying Sikyatki
[Clans] of Awatobi
[Clans] of Küküchomo and Sikyatki ,
Cliff dwellers defined
Cliff houses, age of, in Red-rocks
[Cliff houses] and pueblos similar
[Cliff houses] formerly occupied by Hopi
[Cliff houses], human hand figures on
[Cliff houses] in Walnut canyon
[Cliff houses] of the Red-rocks ,
[Cliff houses] of Verde valley classified
Cliff Palace and Honanki compared
Cliff's Ranch, pictographs near
Cloud, see .
Clown-priest figures on Hopi pottery
Colander fragments from Tusayan ruins
Comupaví identified with Shuñopovi
Concepcion, Cristoval de la, at founding of Awatobi mission
Copper found in Awatobi , ,
[Copper] bells in Arizona ruins ,
[Copper] unknown to ancient Tusayan
Corn attached to prayer-sticks
[Corn] found in Awatobi ,
[Corn] found in Honanki
[Corn], Hopi symbolism of
[Corn] in Hopi ceremony
[Corn], sweet, introduced in Mishoñinovi
Corn-maid dolls of the Hopi
[Corn-maid] figures of the Hopi
[Corn-maid] figures on Hopi pottery , ,
Corn mound, symbolic
Corn pollen in Hopi ceremony
Cornado, F. V. de, route of
Cosmogony of the Hopi , ,
Cotton cultivated by the Hopi ,
[Cotton] fabrics in Verde ruins
[Cotton] garments of the Hopi
Coville, F. V., on identification of ancient food remains
Cremation not practiced at Sikyatki
Crooks in Tusayan ritual
[Crooks] on Sikyatki pottery , ,
Cross figure allied to sun symbol
[Cross] on Sikyatki pottery
Crystal, see .
Cuanrabi mentioned by Oñate
Cups from Sikyatki described
[Cups], see .
Cushing, F. H., on affinity of cliff dwellers and pueblos
[Cushing, F. H.], on southern origin of Zuñi clans
[Cushing, F. H.], ruins visited by
Decoration of Awatobi pottery ,
[Decoration] of Honanki pottery ,
[Decoration] of ladle handles
[Decoration] of pottery by spattering , , ,
[Decoration] of Sikyatki pottery , , ,
Dellenbaugh, F. S., on identification of Cibola
Dippers from Awatobi described
[Dippers], see .
Dolls, Corn-maid, of the Hopi
Domestic animals of the Hopi
Doorways of cavate houses ,
Dragonfly symbolic of rain
[Dragonfly] symbol on pottery ,
Drill balances from Sikyatki graves
Eagle plumes in Hopi rites
Eagle shrine at Tukinobi
Eagles kept by the Hopi
East mesa, ruins at ,
Espejo, Antonio, Awatobi referred to by ,
[Espejo, Antonio], Awatobi visited by
[Espejo, Antonio], on Hopi fabrics
[Espejo, Antonio], visits Tusayan in 1583
Espeleta, an Oraibi chief
[Espeleta], visits Santa Fé ,
Espeleta, José, killed at Oraibi
Esperiez mentioned by Oñate
Estufa, see .
Fabrics, see .
Feather fabrics from Sikyatki
[Feather] symbols on Hopi pottery
[Feather] symbols on Sikyatki pottery , , , ,
Feathered strings represented on pottery
Feathers on prayer-sticks
Fetish, mountain lion, from Awatobi
[Fetish], mountain lion, from Sikyatki
[Fetish], personal, from Sikyatki
Fewkes, J. W., on archeological expedition to Arizona, 1895
Figueroa, José, killed at Awatobi
Fire, Hopi purification by
[Fire], see .
Fire-house, ancient occupancy of
[Fire-house] ruin of Tusayan ,
Fireplaces in cavate dwellings
Firewood people at Sikyatki , , ,
[Firewood people] of Tusayan
Flagstaff, cliff houses near
Flower figure on Hopi pottery
[Flower figure] on Sikyatki pottery ,
Flowers, see .
Flute ceremony not performed in kiva ,
[Flute ceremony], trails closed during
Flute-like objects from Awatobi
[Flute-like objects] from Sikyatki
Flute society, prayer-sticks of the
Food remains in mortuary vessels
Fossils used in Hopi ceremony
Frasquillo, flight of Tanoan refugees under ,
Frog figures on Sikyatki pottery
[Frog] figures on Tusayan bowls
Garaycoechea, Juan, Awatobi visited by
[Garaycoechea, Juan], missionary labors of
Gardens, modern, at Sikyatki
Genesis, see .
Geometric figures on Sikyatki pottery
Germinative symbol on Sikyatki pottery
Goddard, S., with archeological expedition in 1895
God of Death of the Hopi
Goode, G. Brown, acknowledgments to
Gorgets in Sikyatki graves
Gutierrez, Andres, at founding of Awatobi mission
Hair, human, woven by the Hopi
Hairdressing of the Hopi ,
Hance's ranch, pictograph bowlder near
Hand figures on Sikyatki pottery ,
Hano compared with Walpi
[Hano] in 1782
[Hano], when established
Havasupai, cliff dwellings occupied by
Heart represented in animal figures
Hematite fetish from Sikyatki
Hemenway, Mary, Kawaika pottery purchased by
Hé-shóta-pathl-tâĭe, Zuñi name of Kintiel
Hodge, F. W., acknowledgments to
[Hodge, F. W.] on colander fragments from Salado ruins
[Hodge, F. W.] on recent advent of the Navaho
[Hodge, F. W.], Sikyatki excavation aided by
Hodge, Mrs M. W., acknowledgments to
Hoffman, W. J., on ruins at Montezuma Well
Holbrook, ruins near
Holguin, Capt., Payüpki attacked by
Holmes, W. H., on evolution of pottery designs , ,
Homolobi, location of
Honanki, art remains found at
[Honanki], origin of name ,
[Honanki], discovery of ruin of ,
[Honanki] ruin discussed
Hopi, abandonment of villages by
[Hopi] and Verde ruins compared
[Hopi], early migrations of clans of
[Hopi] knowledge of Montezuma Well
[Hopi] pictographic score
[Hopi] pueblos in 1782
[Hopi] request removal to Tonto basin
[Hopi] ruins, distribution of
[Hopi], southern origin of part of
Horn clans at Sikyatki
Horn-house, ruin of
Horses, how regarded by ancient Hopi ,
Hough, W., pottery figure interpreted by
Howell, E., cliff houses discovered by
Human figures on Sikyatki pottery
Human remains in Awatobi ruins , ,
[Human remains], see .
Idol, see , , .
Insect figures on Sikyatki pottery
Irrigation represented in pictography
[Irrigation] ditches in Verde valley
Jacob's Well described
Jakwaina, farm of, at Sikyatki
Jaramillo, Juan, on "Tucayan"
Jars, see .
Jeditoh valley, ruins in , ,
Judd, James S., acknowledgments to
Kachinba ruin described
Katci, a Hopi folklorist
[Katci], farm of, at Sikyatki
Katcina cult in Tusayan ,
[Katcina] defined ,
[Katcina] figures on Hopi pottery , ,
Kawaika, application of name
[Kawaika], pottery from
[Kawaika], ruins at
Keam, T. V., excavations by, at Kawaika
[Keam, T. V.], idols removed and returned by
Keam's canyon, ruins in
Kinnazinde, ruin of
Kintiel ascribed to the Zuñi ,
[Kintiel], location of
Kisakobi, former site of Walpi
[Kisakobi] ruins described
[Kisakobi], settlement of
Kishyuba, a Hopi ruin
Kisi and cavate house compared
Kiva-like remains at Honanki
Kivas, absence of, in Sikyatki
[Kivas], absence of, in southern cliff houses
[Kivas], ceremonial replastering of
[Kivas], distribution of ,
[Kivas] of Awatobi
[Kivas], platforms characteristic of
[Kivas], round, evolution of
K'n'-i-K'él, see .
Kokopeli, a Hopi deity
Kopeli, services of, at Sikyatki ,
Kóyimse of the Hopi
Küchaptüvela, former site of Walpi
[Küchaptüvela] ruin described
Küküchomo ruins described
Kwataka, a Hopi monster
Ladles from Awatobi described
[Ladles] from Sikyatki described
[Ladles], see .
Langley, S. P., acknowledgments to
Lelo, farm of, at Sikyatki
Leroux, A., Verde ruins discovered by
Lightning symbol on Hopi pottery
Lignite deposits near Sikyatki
[Lignite] gorgets in Sikyatki graves
Lines, broken, on Sikyatki pottery
Lummis, C. F., on Montezuma Well ruins
Mamzráuti ceremony introduced at Walpi
Man-eagle, a Hopi monster
[Man-eagle] on Sikyatki pottery
Marie, Aug. Sta., an Awatobi missionary
Masauwûh in Hopi mythology
[Masauwûh], see .
Masiumptiwa, Awatobi legend repeated by
Masonry of Awatobi
[Masonry] of Honanki
[Masonry] of Palatki
[Masonry] of Sikyatki
Meal, sacred, trail closed with ,
Meal sacrifice by the Hopi
Mearns, E. A., on Verde valley ruins , ,
Medicine bowls of the Hopi
Medicine bowls of the Zuñi and Hopi
Meline, J. F., on settlement of Sandia
Mescal in Verde valley caves
Metal not found at Honanki
[Metal] not found at Sikyatki ,
Metates found in Awatobi ,
[Metates] found in Honanki
[Metates] found in Sikyatki graves
Mica, see .
Middle mesa, ruins at ,
Migration of Hopi clans
Miller, Dr, pottery collected by
Mindeleff, Cosmos, Homolobi ruins examined by
[Mindeleff, Cosmos], on absence of kivas in Verde ruins
[Mindeleff, Cosmos], on cavate houses
[Mindeleff, Cosmos], on function of cavate lodges
[Mindeleff, Cosmos], on origin of circular kivas
[Mindeleff, Cosmos], on similarity of cliff dwellings and pueblos
[Mindeleff, Cosmos], on Verde valley ruins
Mindeleff, Victor, Awatobi described by
[Mindeleff, Victor], groundplan of Chukubi by
[Mindeleff, Victor], groundplan of Mishiptonga by
[Mindeleff, Victor], on Awatobi kivas
[Mindeleff, Victor], on distribution of Tusayan ruins
[Mindeleff, Victor], on former sites of Walpi
[Mindeleff, Victor], on Horn-house and Bat-house
[Mindeleff, Victor], on origin of circular kivas
[Mindeleff, Victor], Shitaimovi mentioned by
[Mindeleff, Victor], Sikyatki described by
Mishiptonga, ruin of
Mishoñinovi in 1782
Mishoñinovi, Old, discussed
Mission, ruins of, at Awatobi
[Mission], when established at Awatobi
Missions among the Hopi
Moki, see .
Montezuma Castle and Honanki compared
[Montezuma Castle] on Beaver creek
Montezuma Well, ruins at ,
Mooney, James, cited on Kawaika pottery
Morfi, Juan A., on Hopi pueblos in 1782
[Morfi, Juan A.], on settlement of Sandia
Mortars found in Awatobi
Mortuary customs of the Hopi ,
[Mortuary] objects in Sikyatki graves ,
[Mortuary] remains in Awatobi
[Mortuary] slabs from Sikyatki
[Mortuary] vessels, food remains in
Moth figures on Sikyatki pottery
Mountain-lion fetish from Sikyatki
[Mountain-lion] figure on pottery
[Mountain-lion] in Hopi mythology
Mountain-sheep figure on pottery ,
Müyinwû, a Hopi deity ,
Myth, see , .
Mythic origin of Kanelba
[Mythic] personages on pottery
Nahuatl and Hopi pictographs compared
Naiutci injured by stick swallowing
Nakwákwoci defined
Nampéo, a Hopi potter
Nasyuñweve, a Hopi folklorist ,
Navaho and Hopi intermarriage
[Navaho] ceremonial circuit
[Navaho] depredations in Tusayan
[Navaho] in Antelope valley ,
[Navaho] katcinas on Hopi pottery
[Navaho], late appearance of, in Tusayan
[Navaho] name of Awatobi
[Navaho], recent advent of, in New Mexico
[Navaho], shrine robbed by
Naybi identified with Oraibi
Necklaces in Sikyatki graves
Needles, bone, from Awatobi
New-fire ceremonies of the Hopi ,
New Mexico, see .
Niel, J. A., on Tanoan migration to Tusayan ,
Nimankatcina of the Hopi
Niza, Marcos de, on Totonteac fabrics
Nomenclature of Awatobi
[Nomenclature] of Sikyatki
Nordenskiöld, G., on affinity of cliff dwellers and pueblos
[Nordenskiöld, G.], on evolution of pottery design ,
[Nordenskiöld, G.], cited on Mesa Verde villages , ,
[Nordenskiöld, G.], on origin of round kivas
[Nordenskiöld, G.], on platforms in Mesa Verde kivas
[Nordenskiöld, G.], prayer-sticks found by
Nüshaki, etymology of ,
Oak creek, ruins on ,
Obsidian objects from Sikyatki
Offerings by Indian excavators
Oñate, Juan de, Awatobi visited by ,
Openings in Honanki walls
[Openings], see .
Oraibi, age of
[Oraibi] in 1782
[Oraibi] legendary origin of
[Oraibi], site of
Orientation of Awatobi mission
Ornaments in Sikyatki graves
Otermin, Ant., attempted reconquest by
Owens, J. G., acknowledgments to
Padilla, Juan, visits Tusayan in 1540
Paho, see .
Paiakyamu figures on Hopi pottery
Paint, see .
Palatki, art remains found at
[Palatki], population of
[Palatki] ruins discovered ,
[Palatki] ruins described
Palatkwabi, a traditional land of the Hopi , , ,
Paleography, see .
Passageways in cavate dwellings
[Passageways] in Honanki
Patki people, early migrations of the
[Patki people], southern origin of the ,
Patuñ phratry, southern origin of
Payüpki, a ruin in Tusayan ,
[Payüpki], possible origin of
Peaches cultivated near Sikyatki
[Peaches] introduced in Oraibi
[Peaches] of the Hopi
*** representations among the Hopi
Pictographs at Honanki ,
[Pictographs] at Palatki ruin
[Pictographs] in Verde valley
[Pictographs] near Montezuma Well
[Pictographs] near Schürmann's ranch
[Pictographs] of Awatobi totems
[Pictographs] on Awatobi cliffs
[Pictographs], see .
Pigment found at Awatobi
[Pigment] found at Sikyatki ,
[Pigment] how applied by the Hopi
[Pigment] used on prayer-sticks
Pipes in Sikyatki graves
Plastering on Awatobi walls
[Plastering] of Honanki ruin
[Plastering] of Palatki ruin
[Plastering] of Sikyatki rooms ,
Platforms in cavate dwellings
[Platforms] in Honanki
Plumed snake cult in Tusayan ,
[Plumed snake] figures on Hopi kilts
[Plumed snake] figure on pottery ,
[Plumed snake] in Hopi mythology
Polishing stones from Sikyatki
Population of Awatobi
[Population] of Honanki
Porcupine figure on pottery
Porras, Padre, missionary labors of , , ,
Pottery decoration of the Hopi
[Pottery] from ancient Walpi
[Pottery] from Awatobi
[Pottery] from Honanki classified
[Pottery] from Payüpki
[Pottery] from Shuñopovi and Mishoñinovi
[Pottery] from Sikyatki discussed
[Pottery] from Verde and Colorado Chiquito compared
[Pottery], mortuary, from Awatobi
[Pottery], mortuary, from Kawaika
[Pottery], mortuary, from Sikyatki
[Pottery] of ancient Tusayan
Powamû ceremony of the Hopi
Powell, J. W., ruins found by
Prayer-sticks, cross-shape, of Keres origin
[Prayer-sticks] from Awatobi , ,
[Prayer-sticks] from Honanki
[Prayer-sticks] from Sikyatki ,
[Prayer-sticks] in Hopi ceremony
[Prayer-sticks], prescribed length of
[Prayer-sticks], significance of ,
Prayer-strings of the Hopi
Priests, Hopi, succession of
Pueblo Grande, see .
Pueblo Indians descended from cliff dwellers ,
[Pueblo Indians] ruins, of Verde valley classified
[Pueblo Indians] and cliff dwellings similar
Quadruped figures on Sikyatki pottery
Quartz crystal from Sikyatki
Rabbit figure on Sikyatki pottery ,
Rabbit-skin robes of Tusayan
Rain symbol on bird ornaments
Rainbow symbols on Sikyatki pottery
Raincloud symbol of the Hopi
[Raincloud symbol] on Awatobi cist
[Raincloud symbol] on gravestones
[Raincloud symbol] on Hopi pottery
[Raincloud symbol] on Sikyatki pottery ,
Rattlesnake Tanks, ruins at
Red rocks, cliff houses of the
Reptile figures on pottery ,
Ruins of East Mesa discussed
[Ruins] of Tusayan
[Ruins], see , , , , etc.
Sacrifice among the Hopi
[Sacrifice], see .
Saint Johns, ruins near
Saliko, Awatobi legend repeated by
[Saliko] on the Awatobi Mamzráutu
San Bernabe, mission name of Shuñopovi
San Bernardo, mission name of Awatobi , ,
Sandals found in Honanki
Sandia, Hopi name for
[Sandia] settled by Tanoan people from Tusayan
San Juan, headdress from
Schürmann, —, acknowledgments to
[Schürmann], ruins near ranch of
Seats, stone, in Awatobi ruins
Seeds in mortuary vessels
Selenite deposits near Sikyatki
[Selenite] in Sikyatki graves ,
Seler, E., Mexican designs gathered by
Serpent, plumed, of the Hopi ,
Shalako, see .
Shell beads from Honanki
[Shell] bracelet from Honanki
[Shell] from Sikyatki graves
[Shell] ornaments from Awatobi
[Shell] ornaments in Sikyatki graves
Shimo, Awatobi legend repeated by
Shipaulovi in 1782
Shitaimovi, ruin of
Shrines at Awatobi described
[Shrines] at Walpi
[Shrines] near Tukinobi
[Shrines] robbed by Navaho
[Shrines] unearthed at Awatobi
[Shrines] of the Hopi
Shuñopovi in 1782
[Shuñopovi], Old, discussed
Sichomovi compared with Walpi
[Sichomovi], Tewa name for
[Sichomovi], when established ,
Sikyatki and Awatobi pottery compared ,
[Sikyatki] and modern Hopi pottery compared
[Sikyatki], destruction of
[Sikyatki], etymology of
[Sikyatki] inhabitants settle at Awatobi
[Sikyatki] people harrassed by Walpians
[Sikyatki], prehistoric character of ,
[Sikyatki] ruins described
[Sikyatki], reasons for excavating
[Sikyatki] ruins examined
Sites of Tusayan pueblos
Sitgreaves, L., on ruins near San Francisco mountains ,
[Sitgreaves, L.], cited on selenite deposits
Slipper-form vessels from Sikyatki
Smoking in Hopi ceremony
Snake represented on pottery ,
[Snake], see .
Snake hunt, taboo of work during
Snake people, absence of, at Sikyatki
[Snake people], early arrival of, at Tusayan
[Snake people], northern origin of
[Snake people] settle at Walpi
Snake-rattle in Sikyatki grave
[Snake-rattle] used for ornament
Sorcery, Awatobi men accused of
Spanish objects found at Awatobi , ,
[Spanish objects] unknown to early Tusayan
Spattering, pottery decorated by , , ,
Spoons from Sikyatki described
[Spoons], see .
Squash indigenous to the southwest
[Squash] flower, symbolism of the
Squaw mountain, cavate dwellings near
Stalactites in Sikyatki graves
Star figures on Sikyatki pottery ,
[Star] symbol on Hopi pottery
[Star] symbols on Sikyatki pottery ,
Stephen, A. M., on Awatobi kivas
[Stephen, A. M.], on Horn-house and Bat-house
[Stephen, A. M.], on Mishiptonga ruin
[Stephen, A. M.], on occupancy of Küküchomo
[Stephen, A. M.], on origin of certain katcina
Stevenson, James, ruins discovered by
Stevenson, M. C., on Keresan cannibal giants
Stick swallowing by the Hopi
Stone implements from Awatobi
[Stone implements] from Honanki
[Stone implements] from Sikyatki
Sun figure in Powamû ceremony
Sunflower symbols on Sikyatki pottery
Sun symbol, cross allied to
[Sun symbol] on Sikyatki pottery
Sun worship of the Hopi
Supela, Awatobi legend repeated by
Swastika figures on Sikyatki pottery
Taboo of work during snake hunt
Tadpole figures on Sikyatki pottery ,
Talla-hogan, meaning of
[Talla-hogan], Navaho name of Awatobi
Tanoan migration to Tusayan , ,
Tapolo, an Awatobi chief ,
Tataukyamû, a Hopi priesthood
Tatcukti, a Hopi clown-priest
Tawa (sun) phratry, southern origin of
Tcino, garden of, at Sikyatki , ,
Terraced figures of Mexico and Tusayan
[Terraced figures] on Sikyatki pottery ,
Tewa people occupy Payüpki
[Tewa people], progressiveness of, in Tusayan
Textile fabrics from Awatobi
[Textile fabrics], absence of, at Sikyatki
[Textile fabrics] found in Honanki ,
[Textile fabrics], Sikyatki dead wrapped with
Tinder tube from Honanki ,
Tobacco, see .
Tobacco phratry in Awatobi
Tobar, Pedro, visits Tusayan in 1540 , , ,
Tonto, origin of term
Tonto Basin, ruins in
Totonaka, a Hopi deity
Totonteac identified with Tusayan
[Totonteac], suggested origin of
Toys of pottery from Sikyatki
Trails ceremonially closed
Trincheras defined
[Trincheras] in Red-rock country ,
Trujillo, José, probably killed at Shuñopovi
Tsêgi canyon and Tusayan pottery compared
[Tsêgi canyon] formerly occupied by Hopi clans
[Tsêgi canyon], see .
Tubes, bone, from Awatobi
Tucano, name applied to Tusayan
Tucayan, name applied to Tusayan
Tukinobi, ruin of, described
Turquois beads found at Honanki
[Turquois] mosaics of the Hopi
[Turquois] objects in Sikyatki graves ,
Tusayan, application of term
[Tusayan] identified with Hopi villages
[Tusayan] ruins discussed
[Tusayan] towns in 1540
[Tusayan], see .
Tuzan, name applied to Tusayan
Tylor, E. B., cited on primitive sacrifice
Ute depredations in Tusayan
[Ute], late appearance of, at Tusayan
Vargas, Diego de, Awatobi visited by
[Vargas, Diego de], Tusayan conquered by
Vases, see .
Vegetal designs on Hopi pottery
Verde valley and Tusayan ruins compared
[Verde valley], archeology of
[Verde valley] ruins discussed ,
Vetancurt, A. de, Awatobi mentioned by
[Vetancurt, A. de], on destruction of Awatobi mission
Voth, H. R., decorated bowl collected by
[Voth, H. R.], on ancient pottery found at Oraibi
Walls of Honanki described
[Walls] of Palatki ruin
[Walls], see .
Walnut canyon, cliff houses in
Walpi, ancient, pottery of
[Walpi] compared with other villages
[Walpi], former sites of ,
[Walpi], gradual desertion of
[Walpi] in 1540
[Walpi] in 1782
[Walpi], origin of name
[Walpi], southern origin of clans of
Walther, Henry, pottery repaired by
War god symbolism on Hopi pottery
Water used in Hopi ceremony
Water-house people of Tusayan
[Water-house people], see .
Water supply of Sikyatki ,
Weapons of ancient Tusayan ,
Whistles, bone, from Awatobi
[Whistles] used in Hopi ceremonies
Winship, G. P., acknowledgments to
[Winship, G. P.], Castañeda's narrative translated by
Wipo spring in Tusayan
Wood in Palatki ruin
[Wood], method of working, at Honanki
[Wood], remains of, at Honanki ,
[Wood], objects of, from Honanki
Wood's ranch, pictograph bowlder near
Xumupamí identified with Shuñopovi
Yucca fiber anciently used
Zagnato, an Awatobi synonym
Zaguate, an Awatobi synonym
Zaguato, an Awatobi synonym
Zinni-jinne, see .
Zuñi and other pottery compared
[Zuñi] origin of Kintiel ,
[Zuñi], Shalako ceremony of
[Zuñi], snake figures on pottery of
[Zuñi], southern origin of clans of
[Zuñi], stick-swallowing at
Transcriber's Notes:
Some illustrations have been repositioned to avoid breaking up the
text. Page numbers in the List of Illustrations refer to the original printed report.
The Index has been edited to list only the topics contained in this report.
, Table of Contents: Ornaments, necklaces, and gorgets (page 733) in original report
changed to Necklaces, gorgets, and other ornaments to match the actual section heading.
, List of Illustrations: CXXXV, a in original report changed to
CXXXV, b to match the actual caption.
(Fig. 270. Outline of plate CXXXV, _a_)
, List of Illustrations: triangles in original report changed to triangle
to match the actual captions.
(Fig. 336. Double triangles) and
(Fig. 337. Double triangles and feathers)
Page : attemps in original report changed to attempts.
(The first attemps at ornamentation)
Page 688, Footnote 1 in original report, now :
annulets is possibly a typo for amulets.
(ceremonial paraphernalia, as annulets, placed on sand pictures)
Page : respresented in original report changed to represented.
(A large number of crosses are respresented in plate)
Page : Sityatki in original report changed to Sikyatki.
(animal figures are unknown in this position in Sityatki pottery;)
Page 709 in original report, now page : lines in original report changed to line.
(Fig. 288--Single lines with triangles)
Page : to-day in original report changed to today for consistency.
(tethering in use today.)
Page : offerigs in original report changed to offerings.
(ancient prayer offerigs)
Page : accompaning in original report changed to accompanying.
(is set forth in the accompaning letter)
Page : In Appendix, Plate CLXXIII, f, the 5th digit of number
is missing in original report; represented by a question mark.
(f, 1561 0;)
: SITYATKI in original report changed to SIKYATKI.
(FIGURES OF BIRDS FROM SITYATKI)
All other spelling and accent variations and inconsistencies have not
been changed from the original document, except for minor punctuation
corrections.