Frijoles: A Hidden Valley in the New World — John Shaqi
Frijoles: A Hidden Valley in the New WorldHendron, J. W. (Jerome William)
History
Frijoles: A Hidden Valley in the New World
Hendron, J. W. (Jerome William)
Cliff-dwellers -- New Mexico; Frijoles Canyon (N.M.)
Something very drastic must have taken place. Could it be that there was
just not enough room in the beautiful Frijoles for two groups of people
who spoke different languages? It was easily a prize spot. It was a
green valley—a perfect place to live and the water supply was constant.
It might have been the envy of Indians for many miles around. There was
not this constant water supply either to the north or to the south. Some
groups living on the high mesas might even have depended on open basins
hollowed out of soft rock to catch the rain water. Great jealousy could
have arisen between individuals or even groups. And one might safely
guess that love affairs were broken up between Tewa maidens and Keres
boys or vice versa. And who can say with certainty that the Tyuonyi was
not the earliest known home of the Keres-speaking people in this
vicinity? Or that it was not the Tewas from the north who did the
encroaching and forced their way into the Valley of the Frijoles and
lived and traded pottery with the Keres?
By the time of the fifteenth century, there were many of the Indians
living to the north of Tyuonyi. Little house sites were being abandoned.
People were drawing closer together to live in larger communities.
Surely, the soft volcanic ash from the cliffs was being fashioned into
building blocks with stone axes. Some were square, some were
rectangular—long heavy four-sided blocks. It had taken Indians years and
years, possibly, to learn that this soft stone could be quarried and
then shaped. These blocks were definitely better and single thickness
coursed masonry walls were in vogue by this time. This was the highest
type of prehistoric pueblo architecture on the Pajarito Plateau.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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