THE ANCIENT INHABITANTS Naturally the first question that arises in the mind of every intelligent visitor to these cliff-dwellings, is: Who were the people who built and lived in these peculiar homes? It has been customary to answer that these were simply the earlier homes of the Pueblo tribes now living in the villages near by. This answer must, at least, be qualified. It was accepted by the early explorers on the evidence of surface appearances and the traditions of the living Pueblo Indians. Subsequent observers merely followed the lead of their predecessors. Extensive excavations made in recent years have brought to light more reliable evidences. Large collections of the ancient pottery have been compared with that of the modern Pueblos and but few similarities found in form, color, mode of ornamentation, and symbolism. This in itself would not be conclusive proof of lack of identity between the makers, but it is supported by the indisputable evidence of the anatomical characters of the people. The living Pueblo Indians are predominantly (50 to 75 per cent) brachycephalic, or short-headed people; while the ancient people of the cliffs, as shown by the examination of a large collection of skeletal remains excavated by the writer at five different sites on Pajarito plateau, were practically 100 per cent dolichocephalic, or long-headed. The noticeable proportion of long-headed people found among the present Pueblo Indians probably represents an infusion of blood from the ancient cliff-dwelling tribes. In the light of the mass of evidence now at hand the answer of the present author to the question, Who were the inhabitants of the cliff-dwellings and ancient pueblos of this plateau? would be as follows: The ruins herein described were the ancient habitations of Indian tribes some descendants of which are doubtless now living in the adjacent valley of the Rio Grande and its tributaries, but most of whom are probably dispersed widely over the southwest. In every existing Tewa tribe (San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Nambe, and Tesuque) it is claimed that certain clans may be traced back through one or more migrations to the ruined pueblos and cliff-villages of the Pajarito plateau. The same may be said of the Keres villages (Cochiti, Santo Domingo, San Felipe, Santa Ana, and Zia), while it is known that the earlier Jemez people and their kindred occupied sites farther up the valley well into the historic period. On The pueblos and the cliff-houses were occupied during the same period and by the same people. The age of these ruins may be approximately fixed. The San Ildefonso tribe has occupied its present site since before the Spanish conquest, we may say four centuries. the opposite side of the Rio Grande, a mile west of the present San Ildefonso, are the ruins of Perage. This is the village last occupied by some of these people prior to their removal to Powhoge, their present site. Their traditions indicate a residence at this site of as great a duration as at their present location. Archeological evidences would reduce this period somewhat. It would thus appear that the San Ildefonso have lived in the valley for from six to eight centuries. The next earlier site of at least one or two clans of this tribe was on the plateau, at the great pueblo and cliff-village of Otowi, where there is every evidence, fully sustained by the traditions of the people, of long-continued residence. The history of this village is almost a repetition of that of each one of the Tewa villages. It appears that the abandonment of the cliff and pueblo villages of the plateau occurred from six hundred to eight hundred years ago as a result of climatic modifications by reason of which the hardships of living at these sites became unendurable. The transition from plateau to valley life was not necessarily sudden. There is no evidence of any great simultaneous movement from all parts of the plateau. The change was probably accomplished within a generation or two, one village after another removing to the valley or to more distant places, as the desiccation of the plateau proceeded. There is at present not a single stream on the east side of the Jemez plateau between the Chama and the Jemez that carries its water to the Rio Grande throughout the year. The ancient Tewa people were, as are their modern successors, agriculturists; hence, their living was dependent on the water supply. Only the most primitive style of irrigation was practised and there is every evidence that the region was never rich in game or natural food products of any kind. It must be remembered that the foregoing statements refer to the period of continuous residence on the plateau. There have been from time to time in comparatively recent years sporadic reoccupations of these ancient villages by clans from the valley, as that of Puyé by the Santa Clara Indians, and of Kotyiti, or Pueblo Viejo, above the Cañada de Cochiti, by the Keres after the Pueblo rebellion of 1680. These reoccupations were attended with considerable rebuilding and repairing of ancient structures; thus may be accounted for the improved irrigation system at Puyé, which is a work of the last occupation and far in advance of anything that was known to the ancient inhabitants of any part of the plateau. DISTRIBUTION OF THE RUINS The ruins of the entire area considered in this bulletin are distributed in three geographical groups: I. Ruins of the Pajarito plateau. I. RUINS OF THE PAJARITO PLATEAU This name, the Pajarito plateau, proposed by the writer some years ago and now generally adopted, is applied to the table-land on the eastern side of the Jemez mountains. The name is usually confined to the region lying east of the foothills, which is bordered on the east by the Rio Grande, on the north by the Rio Chama, and on the south by the Cañada de Cochiti. It is roughly crescent-shaped and is about fifty miles long with a width varying from ten to fifteen miles. It is boldly defined on all sides. A considerable portion of the plateau was covered originally by a sheet of volcanic tufa, varying in thickness from 100 to 1,000 feet. The source of this material was the now extinct volcanic cones of the Jemez range. Rudely dressed from the somewhat regular blocks into which it is readily broken, it furnished a durable and easily worked building material for the primitive inhabit 90 FEET 75 FEET Ө FIG. 1.-Ground plan of Shufinne. ants of the plateau; while caves, both natural and artificial, afforded comfortable and secure abodes with the expenditure of but little labor. In considering the ruins of this area it will be convenient to defer the description of the succession of large pueblos which occupy the northern rim of the plateau, including them with the group situated in the Chama drainage. The Pajarito plateau group begins then with the ruins in the vicinity of Santa Clara creek (see map, pl. xvII), a few miles west of the Indian village of Santa Clara. This section was visited and briefly described by Stevenson, Powell, and Bandelier in the early eighties. It has been made the subject of numerous popular articles, among which may be mentioned those of Lummis and Wallace. All the pueblos on the Pajarito plateau were built of stone. Only the most conspicuous ruins can be pointed out in this paper. A multitude of "small house" pueblos and innumerable cliff-dwellings of minor importance are passed without notice. No. 1. Shufinne (fig. 1).-This is a small pueblo ruin with an accompanying cliff-village, situated on a high mesa which rises abruptly above the plateau on the north side of Santa Clara canyon, about ten miles west of the Santa Clara village. The site is a most picturesque one, visible in some directions from a distance of twentyfive miles. The pueblo was rather inferior in construction and is reduced to low mounds. The cliff-dwellings are quite generally broken down. No. 2. Puyé. This settlement consisted of the large pueblo on the top of Puyé mesa (pl. v, b) and an extensive tributary cliff-village (pl. v, a). The pueblo was a huge quadrangular structure (fig. 2), next to Tshirege the largest in the park. It was the most compact, the most regular of all the large pueblos. The quadrangle had but one entrance, this being in the eastern side, near the southeastern corner. The four sides are so connected as to form practically one structure, though it is not to be inferred that this was all built at one time. It presents no new constructive architectural features. In some rooms of this building there are evidences of occupancy after once having been abandoned. Doors and windows previously used are found closed with masonry and plastered over. The last floor is laid upon a foot or more of débris accumulated upon an original floor and not removed in the process of remodeling. The pottery between these two floors is noticeably different from that above the upper floor. Round kivas, mostly subterranean, are found both inside and outside the court. The cliff-village at Puyé was a very extensive one. The mesa is a mile and a quarter in length and a large portion of the south face is literally honeycombed with dwellings. A ledge midway up the face of the cliff divides it into two parts. In some places the lower part contains three levels of dwellings, the bottom series being, in many instances, below the talus. The dwellings above the ledge are more scattered, but are also disposed in three levels. They are not generally so well constructed as those in the lower part and are in a more ruinous condition. There is rarely communication between dwellings in different levels; when such connection exists it appears to be accidental. The porches illustrated in plate III, b, were a prevalent feature here. Two round excavated kivas are found in a ledge in front of the cliff. A number of caves of unusual size for this locality evidently served the purpose of kivas for the inhabitants of the cliff-village. FIG. 2.-Ground plan of Puyé. No. 3. Chipiwi.-This is a small pueblo of imperfect quadrangular form situated on a low mesa about two miles west and a little south of Puyé. It belongs to the older type of pueblos and was one of several minor villages, including Shufinne, that are said to have been absorbed into Puyé. An extensive cliff-village, consisting mainly of open-front dwellings, occupies the southern exposure of the mesa on which this pueblo is located. No. 4. Navahú.-In the second valley south of the great pueblo and cliff-village of Puyé is a small pueblo ruin known to the Tewa Indians as Navahú, this being, as they claim, the original name of the village. This particular pueblo was well situated for agriculture, there being a considerable acreage of tillable land near by, far more 160 FEET 120 FEET 120 FEET FIG. 3.-Ground plan of Navahú. than this small population would have utilized. The old trail across the neck of the mesa to the north is worn hip-deep in the rock by the attrition of human feet, showing constant long-continued use. I infer that here were the fields not only of the people of Navahú, but also of the more populous settlements beyond the great mesa to the north, where tillable land is wanting. The Tewa Indians assert that the name Navahú re fers to the large area of cultivated lands. This suggests an identity with Navajó, which Fray Alonso de Benavides, in his Memorial on New Mexico published in 1630, says signifies "great planted fields." The pueblo is reduced to a mound (sketch plan, fig. 3).a No. 5. Pininicangwi ("place of the corn-flour").-This is a pueblo considerably smaller than Navahú, situated in the same valley about a mile and a half farther from the mountains. It was built in the form of a complete quadrangle with a single opening on the east side (sketch plan, fig. 4). There was a kiva in the southeast corner of the court. The village was situated on a rounded knoll about 100 yards south of the arroyo. No. 6. Chupadero.-This does not refer to any single site, but to a number of cliffvillages grouped within and about the Chupadero canyon. Here is a great network of deep gorges affording exceptional facilities for retreat from enemies. There is no pueblo ruin of any considerable magnitude in this section and the cliff-dwellings, numbering many hundreds, are of a quite temporary character. 210 FEET. 150 FEET FIG. 4.-Ground plan of Pininicangwi. No. 7. Perage. This ruin is not on the plateau. It is situated on level ground in the valley a few rods from the west bank of the Rio Grande and a mile west of the Indian village of San Ildefonso. It is included here because of its relation to the ruins on the plateau, which rise in huge escarpments of conglomerate a half mile to the west. This is the site occupied by certain clans of the Powhoge (San Ildefonso) Indians prior to removal to their present location, which a See Hewett in American Anthropologist, v. VIII, no. 1, p. 193, 1906. |