The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Cliff Ruins of Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, by Cosmos Mindeleff
Title: The Cliff Ruins of Canyon de Chelly, Arizona
Sixteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1894-95, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1897, pages 73-198
Author: Cosmos Mindeleff
Release Date: November 6, 2006 [eBook #19723]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE CLIFF RUINS
OF
CANYON DE CHELLY, ARIZONA
BY
COSMOS MINDELEFF
CONTENTS
Page Introduction 79 History and literature 79 Geography 82 Classification and descriptions 89 Ruins of the pueblo region 89 I—Old villages on open sites 93 II—Home villages on bottom lands 94 III—Home villages located for defense 111 IV—Cliff outlooks or farming shelters 142 Details 153 Sites 153 Masonry 159 Openings 164 Roofs, floors, and timber work 165 Storage and burial cists (Navaho) 166 Defensive and constructive expedients 170 Kivas or sacred chambers 174 Chimney-like structures 182 Traditions 190 Conclusions 191 Index Footnotes Numbered sites (list added by
Site 1 a, b, Plate LXI, Figure 77
Site 2, Plate LV
Site 3 a, b, c, Figure 10, Plate LVIII
Site 4 a, b, Plate XLVI, Figure 73
Site 6 a, b, Plate LIII, Plate LXII
Site 8, Plate LVI;
Site 10 a, b, c, d, e, Figure 23, Figure 24, Figure 25, Figure 71, Figure 72, Plate LIX, Plate LXIII;
Site 12, Plate XLIV
Site 14, Figure 57
Site 15 a, b, Figure 19, Figure 78, Figure 79;
Site 16 a, b, c, d, e, f, Figure 27,
Site 17
Site 28, Figure 3
Site 31 a, b, c, d, Figure 20, Figure 70
Site 32 a, b, Figure 21, Figure 69
Site 34, Figure 45
Site 35, Figure 46
Site 36, Figure 35
Site 37 a, b, Figure 47, Figure 74
Site 43, Figure 13
Site 44, Figure 36
Site 45, Figure 63
Site 46, Figure 48
Site 47, Figure 40
Site 48, Figure 17, Figure 18
Site 49, Figure 29
Site 52
Site 58
Site 60
Site 62, Figure 30
Site 64, Figure 62
Site 69, Figure 41
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page Plate XLI.
Map of the ancient pueblo region, showing location of Canyon de Chelly
79 XLII.Map of Canyon de Chelly and its branches
85 XLIII.Detailed map of part of Canyon de Chelly, showing areas of cultivable land
93 XLIV.Section of old walls, Canyon de Chelly
95 XLV.General view of ruin on bottom land, Canyon del Muerto
97 XLVI.Village ruin in Canyon de Chelly
103 XLVII.Casa Blanca ruin, Canyon de Chelly
105 XLVIII.Mummy cave, central and eastern part
112 XLIX.Eastern cove of Mummy cave
115 L.Reservoir in ruin No. 10
127 LI.Small village, ruin No. 16, Canyon de Chelly
129 LII.Walls resting on refuse in ruin No. 16
131 LIII.Cliff outlook in lower Canyon de Chelly
149 LIV.Cliff ruin No. 14
151 LV.Site marked by pictographs
153 LVI.Site difficult of approach
159 LVII.Masonry in Canyon de Chelly
161 LVIII.Chinked walls in Canyon de Chelly
163 LIX.A partly plastered wall
165 LX.Plastered wall in Canyon de Chelly
167 LXI.Storage cist in Canyon de Chelly
169 LXII.Navaho burial cists
171 LXIII.Kivas in ruin No. 10, showing second-story walls
173 Figure 1.Ground plan of an old ruin in Canyon del Muerto
95 2.Ground plan of a ruin on bottom land in Canyon del Muerto
96 3.Ground plan of small ruin in Canyon de Chelly
96 4.Granary in the rocks, connected with a ruin
97 5.Ground plan of a ruin in a cave
98Ground plan of Pakashi-izini ruin, Canyon del Muerto
99 7.Ground plan of a ruin in Canyon del Muerto
100 8.Ground plan of a ruin in Tseonitsosi canyon
100 9.Ground plan of a much obliterated ruin
101 10.Ground plan of a ruin in Canyon de Chelly
101 11.Ground plan of a village ruin
103 12.Ground plan of kivas in Canyon de Chelly
103 13.Ground plan of a small ruin on bottom land
104 14.Ground plan of the upper part of Casa Blanca ruin
105 15.Ground plan of the lower part of Casa Blanca ruin
106 16.Ground plan of Mummy Cave ruin
113 17.Ruin in a rock cove
117 18.Ground plan of a ruin in a rock cove
117 19.Ground plan of a ruin on a ledge
118 20.Ground plan of ruin No. 31, Canyon de Chelly
119 21.Ground plan of ruin No. 32, Canyon de Chelly
120 22.Section of a kiva wall
122 23.Ruin No. 10 on a ledge in a cove
123 24.Ground plan of ruin No. 10
124 25.Oven-like structure in ruin No. 10
127 26.Plan of oven-like structure
128 27.Ground plan of a small village, ruin No. 16
129 28.Ruins on a large rock
130 29.Ground plan of ruins No. 49
131 30.Ruins on an almost inaccessible site
133 31.Ground plan of a large ruin in Canyon del Muerto
134 32.Ground plan of a small ruin in Canyon del Muerto
135 33.Ground plan of a small ruin
135 34.Plan of a ruin of three rooms
136 35.Ground plan of a small ruin, with two kivas
136 36.Ground plan of a small
Ground plan of a ruin on a rocky site
137 38.Rock with cups and petroglyphs
138 39.Ground plan of a ruin in Canyon de Chelly
139 40.Site showing recent fall of rock
140 41.Ruin No. 69 in a branch canyon
140 42.Ground plan of a small ruin in Canyon del Muerto
140 43.Ground plan of a small ruin
141 44.Plan of a ruin with curved inclosing wall
141 45.Ground plan of ruin No. 34
142 46.Ground plan of cliff outlook No. 35
143 47.Plan of a cliff outlook
143 48.Plan of cliff ruin No. 46
144 49.Plan of cliff room with partitions
145 50.Plan of a large cliff outlook in Canyon del Muerto
145 51.Plan of a cluster of rooms in Canyon del Muerto
146 52.White House ruin in Tseonitsosi canyon
146 53.Ground plan of a ruin in Tseonitsosi canyon
147 54.Plan of rooms against a convex cliff
147 55.Small ruin with curved wall
147 56.Ground plan of a cliff outlook
148 57.Plan of cliff outlook No. 14, in Canyon de Chelly
148 58.Ground plan of outlooks in a cleft
149 59.Plan of a single-room outlook
149 60.Three-room outlook in Canyon del Muerto
150 61.Plan of a two-room outlook
150 62.Plan of outlook and burial cists, No. 64
150 63.Plan of rectangular room, No. 45
151 64.Rectangular single room
151 65.Single-room remains
152 66.Site apparently very difficult of access
158Notched doorway in Canyon de Chelly
164 68.Cist composed of upright slabs
169 69.Retaining walls in Canyon de Chelly
172 70.Part of a kiva in ruin No. 31
175 71.Plan of part of a kiva in ruin No. 10
176 72.Kiva decoration in white
177 73.Pictograph in white
178 74.Markings on cliff wall, ruin No. 37
178 75.Decorative band in kiva in Mummy Cave ruin
179 76.Design employed in decorative band
180 77.Pictographs in Canyon de Chelly
181 78.Plan of chimney-like structure in ruin No. 15
182 79.Section of chimney-like structure in ruin No. 15
183 80.Plan of chimney-like structure in ruin No. 16
184 81.Section of chimney-like structure in ruin No. 16
185 82.Plan of the principal kiva in Mummy Cave ruin
186 83.Chimney-like structure in Mummy Cave ruin
187
Plate XLI. Ancient Pueblo Region
Showing Location of Canyon De Chelly
Larger View
THE CLIFF RUINS
OF CANYON DE CHELLY, ARIZONA
By Cosmos Mindeleff
INTRODUCTION
HISTORY AND LITERATURE
Although Canyon de Chelly is one of the best cliff-ruin regions of the United States, it is not easily accessible and is practically unknown. At the time of the conquest of this country by the "Army of the West" in 1846, and of the rush to California in 1849, vague rumors were current of wonderful "cities" built in the cliffs, but the position of the canyon in the heart of the Navaho country apparently prevented exploration. In 1849 it was found necessary to make a demonstration against these Indians, and an expedition was sent out under the command of Colonel Washington, then governor of New Mexico. A detachment of troops set out from Santa Fé, and was accompanied by Lieutenant (afterward General) J. H. Simpson, of the topographical engineers, to whose indefatigable zeal for investigation and carefulness of observation much credit is due. He was much interested in the archeology of the country passed over and his descriptions are remarkable for their freedom from the exaggerations and erroneous observations which characterize many of the publications of that period. His journal was published by Congress the next year1 and was also printed privately.
The expedition camped in the Chin Lee valley outside of Canyon de Chelly, and Lieutenant Simpson made a side trip into the canyon itself. He mentions ruins noticed by him at 4½, 5, and 7 miles from the mouth; the latter, the ruin subsequently known as Casa Blanca, he describes at some length. He also gives an illustration drawn by R. H. Kern, which is very bad, and pictures some pottery fragments found near or in the ruin. The name De Chelly was apparently used before this time. Simpson obtained its orthography from Vigil, secretary of the province (of New Mexico), who told him it was of Indian origin and was pronounced chay-e. Possibly it was derived from the Navaho name of the place, Tsé-gi.
Simpson's description, although very brief, formed the basis of all the succeeding accounts for the next thirty years. The Pacific railroad surveys, which added so much to our knowledge of the Southwest, did not touch this field. In 1860 the Abbé Domenech published his "Deserts of North America," which contains a reference to Casa Blanca ruin, but his knowledge was apparently derived wholly from Simpson. None of the assistants of the Hayden Survey actually penetrated the canyon, but one of them, W. H. Jackson, examined and described some ruins on the Rio de Chelly, in the lower Chin Lee valley. But in an article in Scribner's Magazine for December, 1878, Emma C. Hardacre published a number of descriptions and illustrations
This article is worth more than a passing notice, as it not only illustrates the extent of knowledge of the ruins at that time (1878), but probably had much to do with disseminating and making current erroneous inferences which survive to this day. In an introductory paragraph the author says:
Of late, blown over the plains, come stories of strange newly discovered cities of the far south-west; picturesque piles of masonry, of an age unknown to tradition. These ruins mark an era among antiquarians. The mysterious mound-builders fade into comparative insignificance before the grander and more ancient cliff-dwellers, whose castles lift their towers amid the sands of Arizona and crown the terraced slopes of the Rio Mancos and the Hovenweap.
Of the Chaco ruins it is said:
In size and grandeur of conception, they equal any of the present buildings of the United States, if we except the Capitol at Washington, and may without discredit be compared to the Pantheon and the Colosseum of the Old World.
In the same year Mr J. H. Beadle gave an account2 of a visit he made to the canyon. He entered it over the Bat trail, near the junction of Monument canyon, and saw several ruins in the upper part. His descriptions are hardly more than a mention. Much archeologic data were secured by the assistants of the Wheeler Survey, but it does not appear that any of them, except the photographer, visited Canyon de Chelly. In the final reports of the Survey there is an illustration of the ruin visited by Lieutenant Simpson about thirty years before.3 The illustration is a beautiful heliotype from a fine photograph made by T. H. O'Sullivan, but one serious defect renders it useless; through some blunder of the photographer or the engraver, the picture is reversed, the right and left sides being interchanged, so that to see it properly it must be looked at in a mirror. The illustration is accompanied by a short text, apparently prepared by Prof. F. W. Putnam, who edited the volume. The account by Simpson is quoted and some additional data are given, derived from notes accompanying the photograph. The ruin is said to have "now received the name of the Casa Blanca, or White House," but the derivation of the name is not stated.
In 1882 Bancroft could find no better or fuller description than Simpson's, which he uses fully, and reproduces also Simpson's (Kern's) illustration. In the same year investigation by the assistants of the Bureau of Ethnology was commenced. Colonel James Stevenson and a party visited the canyon, and a considerable amount of data was obtained. In all, 46 ruins were visited, 17 of which were in Del Muerto; and sketches, ground plans, and photographs were obtained. The report of the Bureau for that year contains an account of this expedition, including a short description of a large ruin in Del Muerto, subsequently known as Mummy Cave. A brief account of the trip was also published elsewhere.4 The next year a map of the canyon was made by the writer and many new ruins were discovered, making the total number in the canyon and its branches about 140. Since 1883 two short visits have been made to the place, the last late in 1893, and on each trip additional material was obtained. In 1890 Mr F. T. Bickford5 published an account of a visit to the canyon, illustrated with a series of woodcuts made from the photographs of the Bureau. The illustrations are excellent and the text is pleasantly written, but the descriptions of ruins are too general to be of much value to the student.
In recent years several publications have appeared which, while not bearing directly on the De Chelly ruins, are of great interest, as they treat of analogous remains—the cliff ruins of the Mancos canyon and the Mesa Verde. These ruins were discovered in 1874 by W. H. Jackson and were visited and described in 1875 by W. H. Holmes,6 both of the Hayden Survey. This region was roamed over by bands of renegade Ute and Navaho, who were constantly making trouble, and for fifteen years was apparently not visited by whites. Recent exploration appears to have been inaugurated by Mr F. H. Chapin, who spent two summers in the Mesa Verde country. Subsequently he published the results of some of his observations in a handsome little volume.7 In 1891 Dr W. R. Birdsall made a flying trip to this region and published an account8 of the ruins he saw the same year. At the time of this visit a more elaborate exploration was being carried on by the late G. Nordenskiöld, who made some excavations and obtained much valuable data which formed the basis of a book published in 1893.9 This is the most important treatise on the cliff ruins that has ever been published, and the illustrations can only be characterized as magnificent. All of these works, and especially the last named, are of great value to the student of the cliff ruins wherever located, or of pueblo architecture.
GEOGRAPHY
The ancient pueblo culture was so intimately connected with and dependent on the character of the country where its remains are found that some idea of this country is necessary to understand it. The limits of the region are closely coincident with the boundaries of the plateau country except on the south, so much so that a map of the latter,10 slightly extended around its margin, will serve to show the former. The area of the ancient pueblo region may be 150,000 square miles; that of the plateau country, approximately, 130,000.
The plateau country is not a smooth and level region, as its name might imply; it is extremely rugged, and the topographic obstacles to travel are greater than in many wild mountain regions. It is a country of cliffs and canyons, often of considerable magnitude and forming a bar to extended progress in any direction. The surface is generally smooth or slightly undulating and apparently level, but it is composed of a series of platforms or mesas, which are seldom of great extent and generally terminate at the brink of a wall, often of huge dimensions. There are mesas everywhere; it is the mesa country.
Although the strata
The courses of the margins of the mesas are not regular. The cliffs sometimes maintain an average trend through great distances, but in detail their courses are extremely crooked; they wind in and out, forming alternate alcoves and promontories in the wall, and frequently they are cut through by valleys, which may be either narrow canyons or interspaces 10 or even 20 miles wide.
The whole region has been subjected to many displacements, both flexures of the monoclinal type and faults. Some of these flexures attain a length of over 80 miles and a displacement of 3,000 feet, and the faults reach even a greater magnitude. There is also an abundance of volcanic rocks and extinct volcanoes, and while the principal eruptions have occurred about the borders of the region, extending but slightly into it, traces of lesser disturbances can be found throughout the country. It has been said that if a geologist should actually make the circuit of the plateau country, he could so conduct his route that for three-fourths of the time he would be treading upon volcanic materials and could pitch his camp upon them every night. The oldest eruptions do not go back of Tertiary time, while some are so recent as probably to come within the historic period—within three or four centuries.
The strata of the plateau country are remarkable for their homogeneity, when considered with reference to their horizontal extensions; hardly less so for their diversity when considered in their vertical relation. Although the groups differ radically from each other, still each preserves its characteristics with singularly slight degrees of variation from place to place. Hence we have a certain amount of similarity and monotony in the landscape which is aided rather than diminished by the vegetation; for the vegetation, like the human occupants of this country, has come under its overpowering influence. The characteristic landscape consists of a wide expanse of featureless plains, bounded by far-off cliffs in gorgeous colors; in the foreground a soil of bright yellow or ashy gray; over all the most brilliant sunlight, while the distant features are softened by a blue haze.
The most conspicuous formation of the whole region is a massive bright-red sandstone out of which have been carved "the most striking and typical features of those marvelous plateau landscapes which will be subjects of wonder and delight to all coming generations of men. The most superb canyons of the neighboring region, the Canyon de Chelly and the Del Muerto, the lofty pinnacles and towers of the San Juan country, the finest walls in the great upper chasms of the Colorado, are the vertical edges of this red sandstone."
Of the climate of the plateau country it has been said that in the large valleys it is "temperate in winter and insufferable in summer; higher up the summers are temperate and the winters barely sufferable." It is as though there were two distinct regions covering the same area, for there are marked differences throughout, except in topographic configuration, between the lowlands and the uplands or high plateaus. The lowlands present an appearance which is barren and desolate in the extreme, although the soil is fertile and under irrigation yields good crops. Vegetation is limited to a scanty growth of grass during a small part of the year, with small areas here and there scantily covered by the prickly greasewood and at intervals by clumps of sagebrush; but even these prefer a higher level, and develop better on the neighboring mesas than in the valleys proper. The arborescent growth consists of sparsely distributed cottonwoods and willows, closely confined to the river bottoms. On intermediate higher levels junipers and cedars appear, often standing so closely together as to seriously impede travel, but they are confined to the tops of mesas and other high ground, the valleys being generally clear or covered with sagebrush. Still higher up yellow pines become abundant and in places spread out into magnificent forests, while in some mountain regions scrub oak, quaking asp, and even spruce trees are abundant.
In the mountain regions there is often a reasonable amount of moisture, and some crops, potatoes for example, are grown there without irrigation; but the season is short. In the Tunicha mountains the Navaho raise corn at an altitude of nearly 8,000 feet, but they often lose the crop from drought or from frost. On the intermediate levels and in the lowlands cultivation by modern methods is practically impossible without irrigation, except in a few favored localities, where a crop can be obtained perhaps two years or three years in five. But with a minute knowledge of the climatic conditions, and with methods adapted to meet these conditions, scanty crops can be and are raised by the Indians without irrigation throughout the whole region; but everywhere that water can be applied the product of the soil is increased many fold.
Near the center of the plateau country, in the northeastern corner of Arizona, a range of mountains crosses diagonally from northwest to southeast, extending into New Mexico. In the north an irregular cluster of considerable size, separated from the remainder of the range, is called the Carrizo; and the range proper has no less than three names applied to different parts of it. The northern end is known as the Lukachukai, the central part as the Tunicha, and the southern part as the Chuska or Choiskai mountains, all Navaho names. The two former clusters attain an altitude of 9,500 feet; the Tunicha and the Chuska are about 9,000 feet high, the latter having a flat top of considerable area.
On the east these mountains break down rather abruptly into the broad valley of the Chaco river, or the Chaco wash, as it is more commonly designated; on the west they break down gradually, through a series of slopes and mesas, into the Chin Lee valley. Canyon de Chelly has been cut in the western slope by a series of small streams, which, rising near the crest of the mountain, combine near its head and flow in a general westerly direction. The mouth of the canyon is on the eastern border of the Chin Lee valley. It is 60 miles south of the Utah boundary and 25 miles west of that of New Mexico; hence it is 60 miles east and a little north from the old province of Tusayan, the modern Moki, and 85 miles northwest from the old province of Cibola, the modern Zuñi. Its position is almost in the heart of the ancient pueblo region; the Chaco ruins lie about 80 miles east, and the ruins of the San Juan from 60 to 80 miles north and northeast.
The geographic position of Canyon de Chelly has had an important effect on its history, forming as it does an available resting place in any migratory movement either on the north and south line or east and west. The Tunicha mountains are a serious obstacle to north and south movement at the present day, but less so than the arid valleys which border them. Except at one place, and that place is difficult, it is almost impossible to cross the
To the traveler on foot, or even on horseback, Canyon de Chelly is easily accessible from almost any direction. Good trails run northward to the San Juan and northeastward over the Tunicha mountains to the upper part of that river; Fort Defiance is but half a day's journey to the southeast; Tusayan and Zuñi are but three days distant to the traveler on foot; the Navaho often ride the distance in a day or a day and a half. The canyon is accessible to wagons, however, only at its mouth.
Plate XLII. Map of Canyon De Chelly and Its Branches
Surveyed by Cosmos Mindeleff
Larger View
The main canyon, shown on the map (plate XLII) as Canyon de Chelly and known to the Navaho as Tsé-gi, is about 20 miles long. It heads near Washington pass, within a few miles of the crest of the mountain, and extends almost due west to the Chin Lee valley. The country descends by a regular slope from an altitude of about 7,500 feet at the foot of the main crest to about 5,200 feet in the Chin Lee valley, 25 miles west, and is so much cut up locally by ravines and washes that it is impassable to wagons, but it preserves throughout its mesa-like character.
About 3 miles from its mouth De Chelly is joined by another canyon almost as long, which, heading also in the Tunicha mountains, comes in from the northeast. It is over 15 miles long, and is called on the map Canyon del Muerto; the Navaho know it as Én-a-tsé-gi. About 13 miles above the mouth of the main canyon a small branch comes in from the southeast. It is about 10 miles long, and has been called Monument canyon, on account of the number of upright natural pinnacles of rock in it. In addition to those named there are innumerable small branches, ranging in size from deep coves to real canyons a mile or two long. Outside of De Chelly, and independent of it, there is a little canyon about 4 miles long, called Tse-on-i-tso-si by the Navaho. At one point near its head it approaches so near to De Chelly that but a few feet of rock separate them.
On the western side of the mountains there are a number of small perennial streams fed by springs on the upper slopes. Several of these meet in the upper part of De Chelly, others in Del Muerto, and in the upper parts of these canyons there is generally water. But, except at the time of the autumn and winter rains and in the spring when the mountain snows are melting, the streams are not powerful enough to carry the water to the mouth of the canyon. The flow is absorbed by the deep sand which forms the stream bed. Ordinarily it is difficult to procure enough water to drink less than 8 or 10 miles from the mouth of De Chelly, but occasionally the whole stream bed, at places over a quarter of a mile wide, is occupied by a raging torrent impassable to man or beast. Such ebullitions, however, seldom last more than a few hours. Usually water can be obtained anywhere in the bottom by sinking a shallow well in the sand, and it is by this method that the Navaho, the present occupants of the canyon, obtain their supply.
The walls of the canyon are composed of brilliant red sandstone, discolored everywhere by long streaks of black and gray coming from above. At its mouth it is about 500 feet wide. Higher up the walls sometimes approach to 300 feet of each other, elsewhere broadening out to half a mile or more; but everywhere the wall line is tortuous and crooked in the extreme, and, while the general direction of De Chelly is east and west, the traveler on the trail which runs through it is as often headed north or south. Del Muerto is even more tortuous than De Chelly, and in places it is so narrow that one could almost throw a stone across it.