Corn-Cobs, Melon Rinds And Grass
Seeds May Be Added To The List.
Old Cemeteries.
Then - most interesting of finds - a number of cemeteries
were located, and these were raked and scraped over until every visible
secret hidden in their depths was brought into the light of the sun.
Tracing the Indian Races. Now here were numbers of facts to work upon. Then
the myths, legends and traditions of the Indians living near by were
carefully collected and studied, and light began to dawn in the minds of
our archaeologists. The Hopis in Northern Arizona, the Zunis in New
Mexico, the Acomas who live on the massive cliff twenty miles south of the
Santa Fe Railway at Laguna Station, the score of pueblos on the banks of
the Rio Grande, even to far-away Taos, - all contributed their share to the
elucidation of the mystery. Even the semi-nomadic Navaho had something to
say which helped. Cushing found among the Zuni stories galore of their
struggles with the fierce and warlike wandering tribes, who constantly
harassed the home-loving people who built their rude villages. Fewkes not
only unearthed whole cities of the past, but, gained from the nearby Hopis
their traditions, which told in reasonable and intelligible form what was
most probably their history. He listened while their old men and women
recited the stories and legends of their migration from the south
northwards, and how certain families or clans came from this or that
direction, building and inhabiting certain now ruined dwellings in ages
long past. Others heard similar stories, which they investigated as far as
possible, compared with the ruins named, and then recorded, with such
discovered facts as helped in the elucidation of the problems involved.
Ancestors of the Pueblo People. All these investigations pointed to one
great fact, and that was that the cliff and cave dwellers of the Grand
Canyon region and all the contiguous country were none other than the
ancestors of the present pueblo people, - those who live in the Hopi
villages, the Zuni villages, Acoma, Laguna, Santo Domingo, Isleta, Teseque,
Jemez, Taos, San Ildefonso, Zia and the rest.
With this luminous fact before them, a greater study began of these pueblo
people, and it was then found that, to this day, they use the same
utensils, make the same implements, wear the same ornaments, follow the
same burial customs, and generally live the same life that these ancient
cliff-dwellers did. The conclusions, therefore, are obvious and inevitable.
The cliff-dwellers were none other than the ancestors of the pueblo people,
a little less advanced, doubtless, in the march of civilization, yet
already far progressed from the rude civilization of the nomad. They were
driven to occupy the inaccessible cliffs by the constant attacks of the
warlike nomads.
Sedentary and Home-loving Indians. Thus the cliff dwellings become
interesting memorials of the great fight for existence, where one race has
striven to the very death with other races, and the weaker have either
given way or been swept out of existence. The picture is easy to draw. The
country was peopled with these sedentary and home-loving Indians. They had
come largely from the south, had settled down, had built their humble
villages, tilled their fields and cultivated their crops. The women made
baskets and pottery, and the men hunted game, while the women prepared it
for food, and gathered seeds, nuts and roots to eke out their not
overextensive dietary. Young men and women grew up, felt the dawnings of
love and the final awakenings of the great passion, and then married,
settled down in a house the community helped them to build, and began to
work a piece of land selected for them, or at least approved, by the town
council. For, even in those early days, there is every evidence that these
people had a definite and distinct form of democratic government, to the
elected officials of which they yielded an almost perfect reverence and
obedience. In due time, happy and healthy children were born to them.
Peaceful and Religious. They were a religious people, were these early
dwellers in the land. They built kivas and estufas, - under and above ground
ceremonial chambers, - where they regularly and decorously met to worship by
dance, recitation of ancient songs, telling of divine leadings and
interpositions on their behalf, smoking, singing, prayer, and the
observance of other ritual. Thus happy, contented and basking in the favor
of Those Above, they dwelt, until suddenly a new and unfavorable element
was injected into their hitherto peaceful life. The buffetings of nature
they had become accustomed to, and they had kept their bodies healthy so as
to resist these assaults, but now human storms were about to burst upon
them. Apaches in the south, Comanches and Navahos in the east, Utes and
Navahos in the north, Mohaves and Yumas in the west began to encroach upon
them. Envious eyes gazed upon their houses and the goods that industry and
skill had gathered within. Those who had no food stored when famine swooped
upon them, came and begged from those who had. By and by jealousy and envy
prompted theft, and then strife began. Strife spread and grew, until war in
all its horrors became the normal condition. In self preservation, these
peaceable, friendly, hospitable peoples were compelled to be warriors. But
their foes were many and crafty, skilful in war, wary in attack and
retreat. Their harassments became more than could be borne, so, in their
desperation, the peaceable people retreated to the cliffs and walls of the
Canyons, where surprise could be guarded against, where a small supply of
water could be reasonably sure, and where, not too far away, when permitted
to do so, they might cultivate a small piece of arable land.
Compelled to Wage War. Think of the state of affairs! A state of perpetual
siege and watchfulness, of readiness to fight at any moment, of keeping
lookouts on the alert day and night, of working in the fields with one hand
on the implements of peace and industry, and the other on the implements of
war.
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