Aboriginal Remains in Verde Valley, Arizona: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1891-92, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 179-262Mindeleff, Cosmos
History
Aboriginal Remains in Verde Valley, Arizona: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1891-92, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 179-262
Mindeleff, Cosmos
Pueblo Indians -- Antiquities; Verde River Valley (Ariz.) -- Antiquities
It will be seen that the first group described bears a remarkably close
resemblance to the cavate lodges on the Rio Verde. The lodges themselves
are smaller, but the arrangement of main apartment and attached back
rooms is quite similar. It will be noticed also that in the second group
described village ruins are again associated on the summit of the cliff
or ridge. Major Powell ascertained that these cavate lodges were
occupied by the Havasupai Indians now living in Cataract canyon, who are
closely related to the Walapai, and who, it is said, were driven from
this region by the Spaniards.
The cavate lodges on the Rio Grande, in New Mexico, in the vicinity of
the modern pueblo of Santa Clara, were also visited in 1885 by Major
Powell and are thus described by him:[7]
The cliffs themselves are built of volcanic sands and ashes, and
many of the strata are exceedingly light and friable. The specific
gravity of some of these rocks is so low that they will float on
water. Into the faces of these cliffs, in the friable and easily
worked rock, many chambers have been excavated; for mile after mile
the cliffs are studded with them, so that altogether there are many
thousands. Sometimes a chamber or series of chambers is entered from
a terrace, but usually they were excavated many feet above any
landing or terrace below, so that they could be reached only by
ladders. In other places artificial terraces were built by
constructing retaining walls and filling the interior next to the
cliffs with loose rock and sand. Very often steps were cut into the
face of a cliff and a rude stairway formed by which chambers could
be reached. The chambers were very irregularly arranged and very
irregular in size and structure. In many cases there is a central
chamber, which seems to have been a general living room for the
people, back of which two, three, or more chambers somewhat smaller
are found. The chambers occupied by one family are sometimes
connected with those occupied by another family, so that two or
three or four sets of chambers have interior communication. Usually,
however, the communication from one system of chambers to another
was by the outside. Many of the chambers had evidently been occupied
as dwellings. They still contained fireplaces and evidences of fire;
there were little caverns or shelves in which various vessels were
placed, and many evidences of the handicraft of the people were left
in stone, bone, horn, and wood, and in the chambers and about the
sides of the cliffs potsherds are abundant. On more careful survey
it was found that many chambers had been used as stables for asses,
goats, and sheep. Sometimes they had been filled a few inches, or
even 2 or 3 feet, with the excrement of these animals. Ears of corn
and corncobs were also found in many places. Some of the chambers
were evidently constructed to be used as storehouses or caches for
grain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Aboriginal Remains in Verde Valley, Arizona: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1891-92, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 179-262 — John Shaqi
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