Part 1

_Canyon de Chelly_

The Story of its Ruins and People

by Zorro A. Bradley

Office of Publications National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Washington, D.C., 1973

_Library of Congress Catalog Card Number_ 73-600078

Contents

Discovery of the Ruins 3 The Principal Ruins 7 White House 7 Antelope House 9 Standing Cow 12 Big Cave 13 Mummy Cave 15 The People of Canyon de Chelly 17 The Anasazi 18 The Navajos 27 Further Reading 57 Maps 8, 24, 39

_Far up above me, a thousand feet or so, set in a great cavern in the face of the cliff, I saw a little city of stone asleep. It was as still as sculpture—and something like that. It all hung together, seemed to have a kind of composition: pale little houses of stone nestling close to one another, perched on top of each other, with flat roofs, narrow windows, straight walls, and in the middle of the group, a round tower...._

_In sunlight it was the colour of winter oak leaves. A fringe of cedars grew along the edge of the cavern, like a garden. They were the only living things. Such silence and stillness and repose—immortal repose. That village sat looking down into the canyon with the calmness of eternity.... I had come upon the city of some extinct civilization, hidden away in this inaccessible mesa for centuries, preserved in the dry air and almost perpetual sunlight like a fly in amber, guarded by the cliffs and the river and the desert._

—_Willa Cather_

Quotation from _The Professor’s House_, 1925, by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

Discovery of the Ruins

Canyon de Chelly National Monument is located in the red rock country of northeastern Arizona’s high plateau, near the center of the Navajo Indian Reservation. Included in its 131 square miles are three spectacular canyons—Canyon de Chelly, Canyon del Muerto, and Monument Canyon—and many ruins of long-deserted villages. Perched in alcoves and on high ledges along the sheer-walled canyons, these villages are evidence of man’s ability to adjust to a difficult environment, using bare hands, simple stone age tools, and his own ingenuity. They stand as enduring monuments to the culture of the ancestors of the present-day Pueblo Indians of the southwestern United States.

The ancestors of the Navajo Indians who now live in the shadows of these deep canyons came here long after the earlier peoples had left. Originally the Navajos did not live in the canyon, but only passed through it on their yearly migrations. Today some live here permanently, and their hogans are scattered along the sandy canyon floor, almost hidden by the thick growth of willows and cottonwoods and detectable only by a column of smoke slowly rising from a cook fire or by the barking of dogs. Occasionally one may catch a glimpse of a brightly dressed woman working around the hogan or of black-hatted men trotting their horses between the nearby trading post, cornfields, or peach orchards. A reserved and dignified people, they still live in the tradition of their fathers.

The main canyon’s name, de Chelly, stems from the Navajo word “Tsegi” (pronounced tsay-yih or tsay-yhi and meaning “Rock Canyon”), the name by which they know the canyon network. Two centuries of Spanish and English usage have corrupted both the form and pronunciation. Most people now pronounce it “dah-SHAY” or “d’SHAY.”

The first Europeans to see the extensive ruins in Canyon de Chelly are unknown. A Spanish map of 1776 indicates its location, and other documents reveal that Spanish military expeditions sometimes passed through the neighborhood. In 1805, Spanish troops entered the canyon while trying to suppress Navajo raids. During the period of Mexican rule (1821-46), a number of military expeditions against the Navajo invaded the Canyon de Chelly region. Though the ruins had not been described in writing, the area was fairly well known, and by 1846, when the “Army of the West” brought the region under United States control, there were many tall tales and rumors about the wonderful cities built in the cliffs.

In 1849, the New Mexico territorial government found it necessary to request that a U.S. Army expedition be sent to subdue the Navajos. Lt. J. H. Simpson of the Topographical Engineers accompanied the troops. His journal, published in 1850, contained the first detailed account of some of the Canyon de Chelly ruins.

After Simpson’s visit, other military expeditions and a few civilian parties probably entered the canyons. No archeological investigations were made, however, until 1882, when James Stevenson surveyed the area for the Smithsonian Institution, making sketches, photographs, and ground plans of 46 ruins in the two main canyons.

Stevenson found two mummies in a rock shelter ruin in the northern canyon. Because of this find the ruin is known as Mummy Cave, and Stevenson gave the canyon a Spanish name, Canyon de los Muertos, or canyon of the dead men. The name has since been shortened to del Muerto.

Later in 1882, Cosmos Mindeleff, also from the Smithsonian and a member of Stevenson’s party, mapped the canyons and showed the locations of some of the larger ruins. Mindeleff’s monumental architectural survey of the ruins of Canyon de Chelly was published in 1896, after two more visits.

Much of our knowledge about material objects used by the early Puebloan inhabitants of the canyons comes from the work of the late Earl H. Morris, who excavated a number of the important cave sites in the 1920’s. Since then a comprehensive survey of the monument has been carried out by David L. De Harport for the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, and additional excavations have been conducted by National Park Service archeologists.

The Principal Ruins

Within the national monument are perhaps 800 prehistoric and historic Indian village sites, representing various stages of Pueblo and later Navajo cultural development and spanning a period of about 1,800 years. The most interesting and important ruins are described below.

WHITE HOUSE

Located up the main canyon, about 6 miles from Park Service headquarters, White House is one of the largest, best preserved, and most accessible ruins in the monument.

Lt. J. H. Simpson described this ruin after his 1849 visit, calling it Casa Blanca (White House). It is also known by its Navajo name, Kini-na-e-kai. Both names derive from a conspicuous white-plastered wall in the upper portion.

White House was constructed in two sections; one stands against the base of the cliff on the canyon floor, and the other is in a small cave immediately above. Mindeleff estimated that at one time the whole ruin contained as many as 80 rooms. Much of the lower building has probably been washed away by the stream nearby (a retaining wall now helps to prevent this), but evidence of about 60 rooms and 4 kivas (special ceremonial chambers) still survives.

Behind the back walls of the lower ruin the smooth cliff face rises 35 feet to the floor of the cave above. Marks on the face indicate that at one time the rooms of the lower building stood several stories high, and its roof came to within 4 feet of the cave floor above.

The upper ruin contains 10 rooms and has a large room nearly in the center of the cave. The outside front wall of this room is 12 feet high and still has the coating of white gypsum clay plaster with a decorative band of yellow clay for which the ruin was named.

At the western edge of the lower ruin are the partial remains of two well-built kivas. One kiva used to have holes in the floor like those used to support looms in modern Pueblo kivas. The other kiva shows evidence of six layers of plaster. Modern Zuni Indians have a ceremony every 4 years in which they replaster the smoke-stained kiva interior, and this tradition may give some idea of how long this kiva was in use.

A study of the annual growth rings of its roof timbers indicates that most of the lower ruin was built after A.D. 1070.

ANTELOPE HOUSE

Many large ruins are located in the narrow and twisting Canyon del Muerto. One of the biggest is Antelope House, some 5 miles above del Muerto’s junction with Canyon de Chelly. This 40- to 50-room village was built on the stream bank against the base of a cliff which towers nearly 600 feet above it.

Antelope House received its name from four antelopes painted in tan and white, about half life size, high on the cliff nearby. Navajo families living in the canyon believe that these well-executed paintings were done by Dibe Yazhi (Little Sheep), a Navajo artist who lived here in the 1830’s. Other figures in white paint are probably the work of the prehistoric inhabitants of Antelope House.

Because it stands on the river bank, Antelope House has also eroded badly. Yet many of the house walls still rise two and three stories high, and the masonry outlines of dozens of unexcavated rubble-filled rooms and of two kivas can still be seen.

The famous “Burial of the Weaver” was found in a small cliff alcove not far from Antelope House. The grave was against the cliff, and a curved masonry wall in front held back the earth. Inside was the tightly flexed body of an old man lying on his left side. His hair was streaked with gray and tied back in a bob; a billet of wood served as a pillow. The body’s outer wrapping was a feather blanket made from the breast down of golden eagles. Under the feather cloth was a white cotton blanket, excellently made and appearing as clean and new as if freshly woven; and under the white blanket was an old gray cotton blanket. Beneath that blanket, lying on the mummy’s breast, was a single ear of corn.

A reed mat covered the floor of the grave, and the amount and variety of objects laid away with the body suggest that the individual was highly respected in life. A long wooden digging stick, broken to fit into the grave, lay across the burial bundle. Beside this, and also broken, was a bow so thick that only a powerful arm could have pulled it. With the bow was a single reed arrow with a fire-hardened wooden point. Five pottery jars, one broken, together with four bowl-shaped baskets woven from yucca leaves, were also in the grave. These containers were filled with cornmeal, shelled corn, four ears of husked corn, pinyon nuts, beans, and salt. Tightly packed around the body and offerings were thick skeins of cotton yarn which measured more than 2 miles in length. A spindle whorl—a wooden disc on a reed stem which probably had been used to spin the cotton—lay on the yarn.

STANDING COW

This cave in Canyon del Muerto was named for a large white and blue pictograph of a cow, drawn in the historic period and undoubtedly the work of a Navajo. Not much can be seen of this ancient ruin, for Navajos have lived on the site in recent times and still use the old bins for storing corn and the leveled areas for drying peaches.

On the cliff near this ruin is an interesting old Navajo painting of Spanish cavalrymen.

BIG CAVE

One of the largest concentrations of very early material at Canyon de Chelly came from Big Cave (Tse-Ya-Tso) in Canyon del Muerto. Tree-ring dates ranging from A.D. 331 to 835 indicate an intensive occupation of the site in Basketmaker times.

Several burials of interest were found at Big Cave. One was of an old man who had broken both legs across the shin bones. The fractures were set so well that only the smallest of bumps were left.

The remains of 14 infants were found in a slab-lined cist used earlier as a storage bin. Below the infants were the bodies of four other children packed in an enormous basket. None showed any signs of violence, and it is thought that some disease must have swept through the cave, killing many children in a short time.

The unique “Burial of the Hands” was discovered in another part of Big Cave. This burial consisted of just a pair of arms and hands lying side by side on a bed of grass. The elbows touched the wall of the cave in a way that suggested that the rest of the body had not been removed at a later time. Three necklaces of abalone shell pendants were wrapped around the wrists, and two pairs of exceptionally fine, unworn sandals, patterned in black and red, were lying beside the hands, as was a small basket half full of white shell beads. Another basket nearly 2 feet in diameter covered the burial. No satisfactory explanation of this burial has ever been advanced.

MUMMY CAVE

One of the most beautifully situated ruins in the national monument is Mummy Cave in Canyon del Muerto 21 miles northeast of park headquarters. This dwelling, the largest in the canyons, was built in two adjacent caves about 300 feet up a talus slope from the streambed.

The largest part of the structure, about 55 rooms and 4 kivas, was built in the eastern cave. The western cave, with about 20 rooms, is now accessible only by a ledge from the east cave, although traces of an eroded hand-and-toe trail can be seen leading directly from the top of the talus to the ruin. Along the ledge connecting the two caves are 15 rooms, including a “tower” house; these are the best preserved of all the ruins here. Much original plaster in several colors remains on inner and outer walls throughout the village. Especially notable is the white clay plaster on the interior of the third story of the tower house and the red-painted fret design on white plaster in the large kiva of the east cave.

The People of Canyon de Chelly

Though the stunning sheer red cliffs of Canyon de Chelly are easily the national monument’s most spectacular feature, the area was set aside for its importance to the study of prehistoric peoples in the Southwest. The architecture, tools, clothing, ceramics, and other decorative or useful objects found here contain a comprehensive record of many hundreds of years of human activity.

Nothing was known about the ancient culture sheltered here until archeologists began piecing together the information gleaned from Canyon de Chelly’s many ruins and burials. Their story survived because these people lived in a physical environment that posed a minimal threat to normally fragile remains.

Wherever the remains of ancient man occur in the open, building ruins and some objects of stone, bone, and pottery survive, but those of wood and fiber disappear completely. Most of what we know about peoples from the dim past thus comes from materials that have been buried and protected. For the archeologist there are few better sources of information than formal burials, which often contain extensive offerings, and situations like those at Canyon de Chelly and Canyon del Muerto, where sites served as dwelling places for long periods of time and the steady accumulation of refuse buried layers of cultural debris.

The extremely arid conditions in the caves of these canyons offered additional protection. The climate here is so dry that human burials are perfectly preserved as natural mummies or desiccated bodies (there being no attempt at artificial preservation by these people), and such fragile buried objects as baskets more than a thousand years old are in good condition.

The people who lived at Canyon de Chelly in prehistoric times are today called the Anasazi, a Navajo word meaning “old people.” These people were the ancestors of modern Pueblo Indians, and they lived in the vicinity of northern Arizona and New Mexico, southwestern Colorado, and southeastern Utah from about the beginning of the Christian era to the end of the 13th century. Over most of that period they lived in these canyons. Before they learned to build in the cliffs they located and constructed their houses much differently. But the canyons always sheltered them, and their homes, their dead, and their debris tell us how it was with these people from the beginning to the end of their time here.

THE ANASAZI

Early man, a nomadic hunter of big-game animals, came to the Americas from Asia over the Bering Strait some time between 20,000 and 15,000 B.C. Thousands of years later, after the big animals had become extinct, larger bands of hunters and gatherers preyed on game animals of species still living today. Still later, groups began to settle in favorable areas and to grow maize (corn), which reached them from more complex cultures in what is now Mexico. From this time on, the spread and development of prehistoric Indian cultures in the northern Southwest can be traced in increasing detail.

No one knows exactly when the first people arrived in the Canyon de Chelly area. But a tree-ring date of A.D. 306 from the West Alcove at Mummy Cave and the accumulation of sweepings and ashes at this site suggest that people were living in Canyon del Muerto at about the beginning of the Christian era.

These early people were primarily farmers rather than nomadic hunters, although they still depended to some extent on game animals for food. They established their homes in the shelter of the many caves and alcoves in the canyon walls, and farmed the mesa tops and canyon bottoms. Dogs were their only domestic animal, and corn was their major crop and main source of food. Squashes (pumpkins) were grown in some quantity, and beans were introduced at an early time. Pinyon nuts and acorns, sunflower seeds, yucca and cactus fruit, and small seeds of other wild plants were gathered for food.

The early farmers were accomplished makers of baskets, and for this reason archeologists commonly call them Basketmakers. Instead of pottery they used baskets for many utilitarian purposes: carrying sacks, burden baskets, food containers, cooking pots, water carriers, storage containers, and even “coffins.” Sometimes plain, often decorated, they are the most impressive surviving artifact of the culture which produced them. More baskets made by these early people have been found in Canyon de Chelly caves than in any other locality.

The caves in Canyon de Chelly have produced no evidence of houses built by these early farmers. If these groups had shelters at all, they were little more than brush-and-pole windbreaks or lean-tos made of poles and skins propped against the sides of the rock shelters. The only architectural remains found so far are pits lined with stone slabs and located in deposits on the cave floors. These pits were used to store corn and wild plant foods.

Permanent dwellings apparently were not constructed until about A.D. 500. The first such houses of which we have knowledge were small and generally insubstantial circular or squarish pits, shallowly dug into the ground. They were walled and roofed with brush and dirt or mud-covered poles. Later the people often built their houses in deep excavations, and then the structures became essentially roofed pits.

The atlatl, or dart-thrower, and dart constituted the early implement for hunting and warfare. There is no definite evidence that the Anasazi used a bow and arrow until the 7th century, but one find in Canyon del Muerto suggests that they were attacked by a group that did use such weapons. The evidence was found in a cave across the canyon from Antelope House at a typical dwelling site of the early people. It appears that a massacre took place inside the cave and the remains of the dead were scattered about the floor until almost completely dried or skeletonized. The bones were then gathered up and dumped into one of the many storage pits that dotted the cave floor, where the archeologists found them. Among the artifacts discovered with the bones was a short, slender piece of wood, more like the shaft of an arrow than a dart, between the ribs and dried skin on the left side of an old woman.

Little clothing was worn in these early years. Men usually wore sandals and a loin cloth and women an apron like skirt. In cold weather the only additional body covering was a blanket woven from strips of fur.

Several exceptions to this mode of dress have been found. One mummy recovered from the slope in front of Mummy Cave (perhaps of a tribal leader) was elaborately dressed and had a great many possessions to take with him to the spirit world. He was wrapped in a woven robe of rabbit fur and had a basket over his face and one under his head. His feet were covered with buckskin moccasins lined with soft juniper bark. Buckskin leggings were wrapped around his legs from ankle to knee. Another piece of buckskin was wound around his waist; one end fell like a breechclout to his thighs, and the other end was thrown over his shoulder like a toga.