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
Moen-kopi was the headquarters of a large business enterprise of the
Mormons a number of years ago. They attempted to concentrate the product
of the Navajo wool trade at this point and to establish here a
completely appointed woolen mill. Water was brought from a series of
reservoirs built in a small valley several miles away, and was conducted
to a point on the Moen-kopi knoll, near the end of the south row of
houses, where the ditch terminated in a solidly constructed box of
masonry. From this in turn the water was delivered through a large pipe
to a turbine wheel, which furnished the motive power for the works. The
ditch and masonry are shown on the ground plan of the village (Pl.
XLIII). This mill was a large stone building, and no expense was spared
in fitting it up with the most complete machinery. At the time of our
visit the whole establishment had been abandoned for some years and was
rapidly going to decay. The frames had been torn from the windows, and
both the floor of the building and the ground in its vicinity were
strewn with fragments of expensive machinery, broken cog-wheels, shafts,
etc. This building is shown in Pl. XLV, and may serve as an illustration
of the contrast between Tusayan masonry and modern stonemason’s work
carried out with the same material. The comparison, however, is not
entirely fair, as applied to the pueblo builders in general, as the
Tusayan mason is unusually careless in his work. Many old examples are
seen in which the finish of the walls compares very favorably with the
American mason’s work, though the result is attained in a wholly
different manner, viz, by close and careful chinking with numberless
small tablets of stone. This process brings the wall to a remarkably
smooth and even surface, the joints almost disappearing in the
mosaic-like effect of the wall mass. The masonry of Moen-kopi is more
than ordinarily rough, as the small village was probably built hastily
and used for temporary occupation as a farming center. In the winter the
place is usually abandoned, the few families occupying it during the
farming months returning to Oraibi for the season of festivities and
ceremonials.
CHAPTER III.
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.
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