Chapter 8

RUINS AND INHABITED VILLAGES OF CIBOLA.

PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE PROVINCE.

Though the surroundings of the Cibolan pueblos and ruins exhibit the ordinary characteristics of plateau scenery, they have not the monotonous and forbidding aspect that characterizes the mesas and valleys of Tusayan. The dusty sage brush and the stunted cedar and piñon, as in Tusayan, form a conspicuous feature of the landscape, but the cliffs are often diversified in color, being in cases composed of alternating bands of light gray and dark red sandstone, which impart a considerable variety of tints to the landscape. The contrast is heightened by the proximity of the Zuñi Mountains, an extensive timber-bearing range that approaches within 12 miles of Zuñi, narrowing down the extent of the surrounding arid region.

Cibola has also been more generously treated by nature in the matter of water supply, as the province contains a perennial stream which has its sources near the village of Nutria, and, flowing past the pueblo of Zuñi, disappears a few miles below. During the rainy season the river empties into the Colorado Chiquito. The Cibolan pueblos are built on the foothills of mesas or in open valley sites, surrounded by broad fields, while the Tusayan villages are perched upon mesa promontories that overlook the valley lands used for cultivation.

PLANS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF RUINS.

HAWIKUH.

The village of Hawikuh, situated about 15 miles to the south of Zuñi, consisted of irregular groups of densely clustered cells, occupying the point of a spur projecting from a low rounded hill. The houses are in such a ruined condition that few separate rooms can be traced, and these are much obscured by débris. This débris covers the entire area extending down the east slope of the hill to the site of the church. The large amount of débris and the comparative thinness of such walls as are found suggest that the dwellings had been densely clustered, and carried to the height of several stories. Much of the space between the village on the hill and the site of the Spanish church on the plain at its foot is covered with masonry débris, part of which has slid down from above (Pl. XLVI).

The arrangement suggests a large principal court of irregular form. The surrounding clusters are very irregularly disposed, the directions of the prevailing lines of walls greatly varying in different groups. There is a suggestion also of several smaller courts, as well as of alleyways leading to the principal one.

The church, built on the plain below at a distance of about 200 feet from the main village, seems to have been surrounded by several groups of rooms and inclosures of various sizes, differing somewhat in character from those within the village. These groups are scattered and open, and the small amount of debris leads to the conclusion that this portion of the village was not more than a single story in height. (Pl. XLVII.)

The destruction of the village has been so complete that no vestige of constructional details remains, with the exception of a row of posts in a building near the church. The governor of Zuñi stated that these posts were part of a projecting porch similar to those seen in connection with modern houses. (See Pls. LXXI, LXXV.) Suggestions of this feature are met with at other points on the plain, but they all occur within the newer portion of the village around the church. Some of the larger inclosures in this portion of the village were very lightly constructed, and cover large areas. They were probably used as corrals. Inclosures for this purpose occur at other pueblos traditionally ascribed to the same age.

The church in this village was constructed of adobe bricks, without the introduction of any stonework. The bricks appear to have been molded with an unusual degree of care. The massive angles of the northwest, or altar end of the structure, have survived the stonework of the adjoining village and stand to-day 13 feet high. (Pl. XLVIII.)

KETCHIPAUAN.

The small village of Ketchipauan appears to have been arranged about two courts of unequal dimensions. It is difficult to determine, however, how much of the larger court, containing the stone church, is of later construction. (Pl. XLIX.)

All the northwest portion of the village is now one large inclosure or corral, whose walls have apparently been built of the fallen masonry from the surrounding houses, leaving the central space clear. This wall on the northeast side of the large inclosure apparently follows the jogs and angles of the original houses. This may have been the outer line of rooms, as traces of buildings occur for some distance within it. On the opposite side the wall is nearly continuous, the jogs being of slight projection. Here some traces of dwellings occur outside of the wall in places to a depth of three rooms. The same thing occurs also at the north corner. The continuation of these lines suggests a rectangular court of considerable size, bounded symmetrically by groups of compartments averaging three rooms deep. (Pl. L.)

Several much smaller inclosures made in the same way occur in the village, but they apparently do not conform to the original courts.

At the present time dwelling rooms are traceable over a portion of the area south and west of the church. As shown on the plan, upright posts occasionally occur. These appear to have been incorporated into the original walls, but the latter are so ruined that this can not be stated positively, as such posts have sometimes been incorporated in modern corral walls. In places they suggest the balcony-like feature seen in modern houses, as in Hawikuh, but in the east portion of the pueblo they are irregularly scattered about the rooms. A considerable area on the west side of the ruin is covered with loosely scattered stones, affording no suggestions of a ground plan. They do not seem sufficient in amount to be the remains of dwelling rooms.

The Spanish church in this pueblo was built of stone, but the walls were much more massive than those of the dwellings. The building is well preserved, most of the walls standing 8 or 10 feet high, and in places 14 feet. This church was apparently built by Indian labor, as the walls everywhere show the chinking with small stones characteristic of the native work. In this village also, the massive Spanish construction has survived the dwelling houses.

The ground plan of the church shows that the openings were splayed in the thickness of the walls, at an angle of about 45°. In the doorway, in the east end of the building, the greater width of the opening is on the inside, a rather unusual arrangement; in the window, on the north side, this arrangement is reversed, the splay being outward. On the south side are indications of a similar opening, but at the present time the wall is so broken out that no well defined jamb can be traced, and it is impossible to determine whether the splayed opening was used or not. The stones of the masonry are laid with extreme care at the angles and in the faces of these splays, producing a highly finished effect.

The position of the beam-holes on the inner face of the wall suggests that the floor of the church had been raised somewhat above the ground, and that there may have been a cellar-like space under it. No beams are now found, however, and no remains of wood are seen in the "altar" end of the church. At the present time there are low partitions dividing the inclosed area into six rooms or cells. The Indians state that these were built at a late date to convert the church into a defense against the hostile Apache from the south. These partitions apparently formed no part of the original design, yet it is difficult to see how they could have served as a defense, unless they were intended to be roofed over and thus converted into completely inclosed rooms. A stone of somewhat larger size than usual has been built into the south wall of the church. Upon its surface some native artist has engraved a rudely drawn mask.

About 150 yards southeast from the church, and on the edge of the low mesa upon which the ruin stands, has been constructed a reservoir of large size which furnished the pueblo with a reserve water supply. The ordinary supply was probably derived from the valley below, where water is found at no great distance from the pueblo. Springs may also have formerly existed near the village, but this reservoir, located where the drainage of a large area discharges, must have materially increased the water supply. The basin or depression is about 110 feet in diameter and its present depth in the center is about 4 feet; but it has undoubtedly been filled in by sediment since its abandonment. More than half of its circumference was originally walled in, but at the present time the old masonry is indicated only by an interrupted row of large foundation stones and fallen masonry. Some large stones, apparently undisturbed portions of the mesa edge, have been incorporated into the inclosing masonry. The Indians stated that originally the bottom of this basin was lined with stones, but these statements could not be verified. Without excavation on the upper side, the basin faded imperceptibly into the rising ground of the surrounding drainage. Other examples of these basin reservoirs are met with in this region.

CHALOWE.

About 15° north of west from Hawikuh, and distant 1½ miles from it, begins the series of ruins called Chalowe. They are located on two low elevations or foothills extending in a southwestern direction from the group of hills, upon whose eastern extremity Hawikuh is built. The southernmost of the series covers a roughly circular area about 40 feet in diameter. Another cluster, measuring about 30 feet by 20, lies immediately north of it, with an intervening depression of a foot or so. About 475 feet northwest occurs a group of three rooms situated on a slight rise, A little east of north and a half a mile distant from the latter is a small hill, upon which is located a cluster of about the same form and dimensions as the one first described. Several more vaguely defined clusters are traceable near this last one, but they are all of small dimensions.

This widely scattered series of dwelling clusters, according to the traditional accounts, belonged to one tribe, which was known by the general name of Chalowe. It is said to have been inhabited at the time of the first arrival of the Spaniards. The general character and arrangement however, are so different from the prevailing type in this region that it seems hardly probable that it belonged to the same people and the same age as the other ruins.

No standing walls are found in any portion of the group, and the small amount of scattered masonry suggests that the rooms were only one story high. Yet the débris of masonry may have been largely covered up by drifting sand. Now it is hardly possible to trace the rooms, and over most of the area only scattered stones mark the positions of the groups of dwellings.

HAMPASSAWAN.

Of the village of Hampassawan, which is said traditionally to have been one of the seven cities of Cibola visited by Coronado, nothing now remains but two detached rooms, both showing vestiges of an upper story. With this exception, the destruction of the village is complete and only a low rise in the plain marks its site. Owing to its exposed position, the fallen walls have been completely covered with drifting sand and earth, no vestige of the buildings showing through the dense growth of sagebrush that now covers it.

The two surviving rooms referred to appear to have been used from time to time, as outlooks over corn fields close by, and as a defense against the Navajo. Their final abandonment, and that of the cultivation of the adjoining fields, is said to have been due to the killing of a Zuñi there, by the Navajo, within very recent times. These rooms have been several times repaired, the one on the west particularly. In the latter an additional wall has been built upon the northern side, as shown on the plan, Fig. 15. The old roof seems to have survived until recently, for, although at the present time the room is covered with a roof of rudely split cedar beams, the remains of the old, carefully built roof lie scattered about in the corners of the room, under the dirt and débris. The openings are very small and seem to have been modified since the original construction, but it is difficult to distinguish between the older original structure and the more recent additions.

K'IAKIMA.

On the south side of the isolated mesa of Tâaaiyalana and occupying a high rounded spur of foothills, is the ruined village of K'iakima (Pl. LII). A long gulch on the west side of the spur contains, for 300 or 400 yards, a small stream which is fed from springs near the ruined village.

The entire surface of the hill is covered with scattered débris of fallen walls, which must at one time have formed a village of considerable size. Over most of this area the walls can not be traced; the few rooms which can be distinctly outlined, occurring in a group on the highest part of the hill. Standing walls are here seen, but they are apparently recent, one room showing traces of a chimney (Pl. LIV). Some of the more distinct inclosures, built from fallen masonry of the old village, seem to have been intended for corrals. This is the case also with the remains found on the cliffs to the north of the village, whose position is shown on the plan (Pl. LIII). Here nearly all the scattered stones of the original one-story buildings, have been utilized for these large inclosures. It is quite possible that these smaller structures on the ledge of the mesa were built and occupied at a much later date than the principal village. Pl. LIII illustrates a portion of the base of Tâaaiyalana where these inclosures appear.

A striking feature of this ruin is the occurrence in the northeast corner of the village of large upright slabs of stone. The largest of these is about 3 feet wide and stands 5½ feet out of the ground. One of the slabs is of such symmetrical form that it suggests skillful artificial treatment, but the stone was used just as it came from a seam in the cliff above. From the same seam many slabs of nearly equal size and symmetrical form have fallen out and now lie scattered about on the talus below. Some are remarkable for their perfectly rectangular form, while all are distinguished by a notable uniformity in thickness. Close by, and apparently forming part of the same group, are a number of stones imbedded in the ground with their upper edges exposed and placed at right angles to the faces of the vertical monuments. The taller slabs are said by the Indians to have been erected as a defense against the attacks of the Apache upon this pueblo, but only a portion of the group could, from their position, have been of any use for this purpose. The stones probably mark graves. Although thorough excavation of the hard soil could not be undertaken, digging to the depth of 18 inches revealed the same character of pottery fragments, ashes, etc., found in many of the pueblo graves. Mr. E. W. Nelson found identical remains in graves in the Rio San Francisco region which he excavated in collecting pottery. Comparatively little is known, however, of the burial practices of this region, so it would be difficult to decide whether this was an ordinary method of burial or not.

This pueblo has been identified by Mr. Cushing, through Zuñi tradition, as the scene of the death of Estevanico, the negro who accompanied the first Spanish expedition to Cibola.

MATSAKI.

Matsaki is situated on a foothill at the base of Tâaaiyalana, near its northwestern extremity. This pueblo is in about the same state of preservation as K'iakima, no complete rooms being traceable over most of the area. Traces of walls, where seen, are not uniform in direction, suggesting irregular grouping of the village. At two points on the plan rooms partially bounded by standing walls are found. These appear to owe their preservation to their occupation as outlooks over fields in the vicinity long after the destruction of the pueblo. One of the two rooms shows only a few feet of rather rude masonry. The walls of the other room, in one corner, stand the height of a full story above the surrounding débris, a low room under it having been partially filled up with fallen masonry and earth. The well preserved inner corner of the exposed room shows lumps of clay adhering here and there to the walls, the remnants of an interior corner chimney. No trace of the supports for a chimney hood, such as occur in the modern fireplaces, could be found. The form outlined against the wall by these slight remains indicates a rather rudely constructed feature which was added at a late date to the room and formed no part of its original construction. It was probably built while the room was used as a farming outlook. As shown on the ground plan (Pl. LV), a small cluster of houses once stood at some little distance to the southwest of the main pueblo and was connected with the latter by a series of rooms. The intervening space may have been a court. At the northern edge of the village a primitive shrine has been erected in recent times and is still in use. It is rudely constructed by simply piling up stones to a height of 2½ or 3 feet, in a rudely rectangular arrangement, with an opening on the east. This shrine, facing east, contains an upright slab of thin sandstone on which a rude sun-symbol has been engraved. The governor of Zuñi, in explaining the purpose of this shrine, compared its use to that of our own astronomical observatories, which he had seen.

PINAWA.

The ruins of the small pueblo of Pinawa occupy a slight rise on the south side of the Zuñi River, a short distance west of Zuñi. The road from Zuñi to Ojo Caliente traverses the ruin. Over most of the area rooms can not be traced. One complete room, however, has been preserved and appears to be still occupied during the cultivation of the neighboring "milpas." It is roofed over and in good condition, though the general character of the masonry resembles the older work. On the plan (Fig. 16) it will be seen that the stones of the original masonry have been collected and built into a number of large inclosures, which have in turn been partly destroyed. The positions of the entrances to these inclosures can be traced by the absence of stones on the surface. The general outline of the corral-like inclosures appears to have followed comparatively well preserved portions of the original wall, as was the case at Ketchipauan. (Pl. LVI.)

On the southwest side of the pueblo, portions of the outer wall are distinctly traceable, some of the stones being still in position. This portion of the outline is distinguished by a curious series of curves, resembling portions of Nutria and Pescado, but intersecting in an unusual manner.

The Ojo Caliente road passes between the main ruin and the standing room above described. The remnants of the fallen masonry are so few and so promiscuously scattered over this area that the continuity of remains can not be fully traced.

HALONA.

An ancient pueblo called Halona is said to have belonged to the Cibolan group, and to have been inhabited at the time of the conquest. It occupied a portion of the site upon which the present pueblo of Zuñi stands. A part of this pueblo was built on the opposite side of the river, where the remains of walls were encountered at a slight depth below the surface of the ground in excavating for the foundations of Mr. Cushing's house. At that time only scattered remains of masonry were met with, and they furnished but little indication of details of plan or arrangement. Later--during the summer of 1888--Mr. Cushing made extensive additions to his house on the south side of the river, and in excavating for the foundations laid bare a number of small rooms. Excavation was continued until December of that year, when a large part of the ancient village had been exposed. Pl. LVII, from a photograph, illustrates a portion of these remains as seen from the southwest corner of Zuñi. The view was taken in the morning during a light fall of snow which, lightly covering the tops of the walls left standing in the excavations, sharply defined their outlines against the shadows of the rooms.

It seems impossible to restore the entire outline of the portion of Halona that has served as a nucleus for modern Zuñi from such data as can be procured. At several points of the present village, however, vestiges of the old pueblo can be identified. Doubtless if access could be obtained to all the innermost rooms of the pueblo some of them would show traces of ancient methods of construction sufficient, at least, to admit of a restoration of the general form of the ancient pueblo. At the time the village was surveyed such examination was not practicable. The portion of the old pueblo serving as a nucleus for later construction would probably be found under houses Nos. 1 and 4, forming practically one mass of rooms. Strangers and outsiders are not admitted to these innermost rooms. Outcrops in the small cluster No. 2 indicate by their position a continuous wall of the old pueblo, probably the external one. Portions of the ancient outer wall are probably incorporated into the west side of cluster No. 1. On the north side of cluster No. 2 (see Pl. LXXVI) may be seen a buttress-like projection whose construction of small tabular stones strongly contrasts with the character of the surrounding walls, and indicates that it is a fragment of the ancient pueblo. This projecting buttress answers no purpose whatever in its present position.

The above suggestions are confirmed by another feature in the same house-cluster. On continuing the line of this buttress through the governor's house we find a projecting fragment of second story wall, the character and finish of which is clearly shown in Pl. LVIII. Its general similarity to ancient masonry and contrast with the present careless methods of construction are very noticeable. The height of this fragment above the ground suggests that the original pueblo was in a very good state of preservation when it was first utilized as a nucleus for later additions. That portion under house No. 1 is probably equally well preserved. The frequent renovation of rooms by the application of a mud coating renders the task of determining the ancient portions of the cluster by the character of the masonry a very difficult one. Ceilings would probably longest retain the original appearance of the ancient rooms as they are not subjected to such renovation.

Mr. Cushing thought that the outer western wall of the ancient pueblo was curved in outline. It is more probable, however, that it regulated the lines of the present outer rooms, and is reflected in them, as the usual practice of these builders was to put one partition directly over another in adding to the height of a building. This would suggest a nearly rectangular form, perhaps with jogs and offsets, for the old builders could not incorporate a curved outer wall into a mass of rectangular cells, such as that seen in the present pueblo. On the other hand, the outer wall of the original pueblo may have been outside of rooms now occupied, for the village had been abandoned for some time before the colony returned to the site.

TÂAAIYALANA.

On the abandonment of the pueblos known as the Seven Cities of Cibola, supposed to have occurred at the time of the general uprising of the pueblos in 1680, the inhabitants of all the Cibolan villages sought refuge on the summit of Tâaaiyalana, an isolated mesa, 3 miles southeast from Zuñi, and there built a number of pueblo clusters.

This mesa, otherwise known as "Thunder Mountain," rises to the height of 1,000 feet above the plain, and is almost inaccessible. There are two foot trails leading to the summit, each of which in places traverses abrupt slopes of sandstone where holes have been pecked into the rock to furnish foot and hand holds. From the northeast side the summit of the mesa can be reached by a rough and tortuous burro trail. All the rest of the mesa rim is too precipitous to be scaled. Its appearance as seen from Zuñi is shown in Pl. LIX.

On the southern portion of this impregnable site and grouped about a point where nearly the whole drainage of the mesa top collects, are found the village remains. The Zuñis stated that the houses were distributed in six groups or clusters, each taking the place of one of the abandoned towns. Mr. Frank H. Cushing [4] was also under the impression that these houses had been built as six distinct clusters of one village, and he has found that at the time of the Pueblo rebellion, but six of the Cibolan villages were occupied. An examination of the plan, however, will at once show that no such definite scheme of arrangement governed the builders. There are but three, or at most four groups that could be defined as distinct clusters, and even in the case of these the disposition is so irregular and their boundaries so ill defined, through the great number of outlying small groups scattered about, that they can hardly be considered distinct. There are really thirty-eight separate buildings (Pl. LX) ranging in size from one of two rooms, near the southern extremity to one of one hundred and three rooms, situated at the southwestern corner of the whole group and close to the western edge of the mesa where the foot trails reach the summit. There is also great diversity in the arrangement of rooms. In some cases the clusters are quite compact, and in others the rooms are distributed in narrow rows. In the large cluster at the northwestern extremity the houses are arranged around a court; with this exception the clusters of rooms are scattered about in an irregular manner, regardless of any defensive arrangement of the buildings. The builders evidently placed the greatest reliance on their impregnable site, and freely adopted such arrangement as convenience dictated.

[Footnote 4: See Millstone for April, 1884, Indianapolis, Indiana.]

The masonry of these villages was roughly constructed, the walls being often less than a foot thick. Very little adobe mortar seems to have been used; some of the thickest and best preserved walls have apparently been laid nearly dry (Pl. LXI). The few openings still preserved also show evidence of hasty and careless construction. Over most of the area the debris of the fallen walls is very clearly marked, and is but little encumbered with earth or drifted sand. This imparts an odd effect of newness to these ruins, as though the walls had recently fallen. The small amount of debris suggests that the majority of these buildings never were more than one story high, though in four of the broadest clusters (see plan, Pl. LX) a height of two, and possibly three, stories may have been attained. All the ruins are thickly covered by a very luxurious growth of braided cactus, but little of which is found elsewhere in the neighborhood. The extreme southeastern cluster, consisting of four large rooms, differs greatly in character from the rest of the ruins. Here the rooms or inclosures are defined only by a few stones on the surface of the ground and partly embedded in the soil. There is no trace of the debris of fallen walls. These outlined inclosures appear never to have been walled to any considerable height. Within one of the rooms is a slab of stone, about which a few ceremonial plume sticks have been set on end within recent times.

The motive that led to the occupation of this mesa was defense; the cause that led to the selection of the particular site was facility for procuring a water supply. The trail on the west side passes a spring half way down the mesa. There was another spring close to the foot trail on the south side; this, however, was lower, being almost at the foot of the talus.

In addition to these water sources, the builders collected and stored the drainage of the mesa summit near the southern gap or recess. At this point are still seen the remains of two reservoirs or dams built of heavy masonry. Only a few stones are now in place, but these indicate unusually massive construction. Another reservoir occurs farther along the mesa rim to the southeast, beyond the limits of the plan as given. As may be seen from the plan (Pl. LX) the two reservoirs at the gap are quite close together. These receptacles have been much filled up with sediment. Pl. LXII gives a view of the principal or westernmost reservoir as seen from the northeast. On the left are the large stones once incorporated in the masonry of the dam. This masonry appears to have originally extended around three-fourths of the circumference of the reservoir. As at Ketchipauan, previously described, the upper portion of the basins merged insensibly into the general drainage and had no definite limit.

The Zuñi claim to have here practiced a curious method of water storage. They say that whenever there was snow on the ground the villagers would turn out in force and roll up huge snowballs, which were finally collected into these basins, the gradually melting snow furnishing a considerable quantity of water. The desert environment has taught these people to avail themselves of every expedient that could increase their supply of water.

It is proper to state that in the illustrated plan of the Tâaaiyalana ruins the mesa margin was sketched in without the aid of instrumental sights, and hence is not so accurately recorded as the plans and relative positions of the houses. It was all that could be done at the time, and will sufficiently illustrate the general relation of the buildings to the surrounding topography.

KIN-TIEL.

All the ruins above described bear close traditional and historic relationship to Zuñi. This is not the case with the splendidly preserved ancient pueblo of Kin-tiel, but the absence of such close historic connection is compensated for by its architectural interest. Differing radically in its general plan from the ruins already examined, it still suggests that some resemblance to the more ancient portions of Nutria and Pescado, as will be seen by comparing the ground plans (Pls. LXVII and LXIX). Its state of preservation is such that it throws light on details which have not survived the general destruction in the other pueblos. These features will be referred to in the discussion and comparison of these architectural groups by constructional details in