tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">67.

Notched 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

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THE CLIFF RUINS
OF CANYON DE CHELLY, ARIZONA

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By Cosmos Mindeleff

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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