Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology: to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891
History
Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology: to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891
Navajo Indians -- Rites and ceremonies; Pueblo Indians -- Antiquities; Pueblo architecture
Formerly on the approach of cold weather, and to some extent the custom
still exists, people withdrew from the upper stories to the kikoli
rooms, where they huddled together to keep warm. Economy in the
consumption of fuel also prompted this expedient; but these ground-floor
rooms forming the first terrace, as a rule having no external doorways,
and entered from without by means of a roof hatchway provided with a
ladder, are ordinarily used only for purposes of storage. Even their
roofs are largely utilized for the temporary storage of many household
articles, and in the autumn, after the harvests have been gathered, the
terraces and copings are often covered with drying peaches, and the
peculiar long strips into which pumpkins and squashes have been cut to
facilitate their desiccation for winter use. Among other things the
household supply of wood is sometimes piled up at one end of this
terrace, but more commonly the natives have so many other uses for this
space that the sticks of fuel are piled up on a rude projecting skeleton
of poles, supported on one side by two upright forked sticks set into
the ground, and on the other resting upon the stone coping of the wall,
as illustrated in Fig. 19. At other times poles are laid across a
re-entering angle of a house and used as a wood rack, without any
support from the ground. At the autumn season not only is the available
space of the first terrace fully utilized, but every projecting beam or
stick is covered with strings of drying meat or squashes, and many long
poles are extended between convenient points to do temporary duty as
additional drying racks. There was in all cases at least one fireplace
on the inside in the upper stories, but the cooking was done on the
terraces, usually at the end of the first or kikoli roof. This is still
a general custom, and the end of the first terrace is usually walled up
and roofed, and is called tupubi. Tuma is the name of the flat
baking-stone used in the houses, but the flat stone used for baking at
the kisi in the field is called tupubi.
Kikoli is the name of the ground story of the house, which has no
opening in the outer wall.
The term for the terraced roofs is ihpobi, and is applied to all of
them; but the tupatca ihpobi, or third terrace, is the place of general
resort, and is regarded as a common loitering place, no one claiming
distinct ownership. This is suggestive of an early communal dwelling,
but nothing definite can now be ascertained on this point. In this
connection it may also be noted that the eldest sister’s house is
regarded as their home by her younger brothers and her nieces and
nephews.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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