A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola: Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 3-228Mindeleff, Cosmos
History
A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola: Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 3-228
Mindeleff, Cosmos
Pueblo Indians -- Antiquities; Pueblo architecture
At several points around Zuñi, usually at a greater distance than the
terrace gardens, are fields of much larger area inclosed in a similar
manner. Their inclosure was simply to secure them against the
depredations of stray burros, so numerous about the village. When the
crops are gathered in the autumn, several breaches are made in the low
wall and the burros are allowed to luxuriate on the remains. Pl. LIX
indicates the position of the large cluster of garden patches on the
southeastern side of Zuñi. Fig. 110, taken from photographs made in
1873, shows several of these small gardens with their growing crops and
a large field of corn beyond. The workmanship of the garden walls as
contrasted with that of the house masonry has been already described and
is illustrated in Pl. XC.
“KISI” CONSTRUCTION.
Lightly constructed shelters for the use of those in charge of fields
were probably a constant accompaniment of pueblo horticulture. Such
shelters were built of stone or of brush, according to which material
was most available.
In very precipitous localities, as the Canyon de Chelly, these outlooks
naturally became the so-called cliff-dwellings or isolated shelters.
In Cibola single stone houses are in common use, not to the exclusion,
however, of the lighter structures of brush, while in Tusayan these
lighter forms, of which there are a number of well defined varieties,
are almost exclusively used. A detailed study of the methods of
construction employed in these rude shelters would be of great interest
as affording a comparison both with the building methods of the ruder
neighboring tribes and with those adopted in constructing some of the
details of the terraced house; the writer, however, did not have an
opportunity of making an examination of all the field shelters used in
these pueblos. Two of the simpler types are the “tuwahlki,” or watch
house, and the “kishoni,” or uncovered shade. The former is constructed
by first planting a short forked stick in the ground, which supports one
end of a pole, the other end resting on the ground. The interval between
this ridge pole and the ground is roughly filled in with slanting sticks
and brush, the inclosed space being not more than 3 feet in height, with
a maximum width of four or five feet. These shelters are for the
accommodation of the children who watch the melon patches until the
fruit is harvested.
[Illustration: Fig. 111. Kishoni, or uncovered shade, of Tusayan.]
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