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.)
This was most likely the period in which the terraced communal apartment
houses were developed and erected. There were centers of population from
this time on. There were no more small family houses. Indians built
houses with several hundred rooms, at least two, and, in some cases,
three stories high. What was the reason? Was it for defense purposes or
was it just a normal outgrowth of the discovery of the fashioned block
technique? There were several main villages occupied by the
Tewa-speaking people to the north. They were all built in defensible
positions: on a knoll, a high mesa top overlooking the entire
surrounding country, or in a valley away from the cliffs from which
heavy objects could be thrown down by enemies. These four villages were
Potsui’i, Sankawi, Navawi and Tshirege. Potsui’i was located in a deep
valley on a knoll. It was known as “gap where the water sinks.” Sankawi
was “gap of the sharp round cactus.” It was built high on a mesa top in
a defensible position. A trail was worn in the soft rock by thousands of
moccasined feet going and coming from the pueblo. Another of their
villages, Navawi, was so-called because of a pitfall gap or game trap.
Game coming from either direction on the trail was caught in a deep pit.
Tshirege was “House of the Bird People.” It was the largest pueblo on
the Pajarito and had extensive villages built at the base of the cliff.
The numbers of Indians who lived at these sites during these times
cannot be estimated though all four villages were large. It would appear
that nothing but Tewas lived here. But there also lived their kin and
kind in Frijoles Canyon.
Keres people were living to the south of Frijoles—in large pueblos too.
They had been living in this south country for years at Yapashi, “pueblo
of the Stone Lions,” and at Haatze, “House of the Earth People.” These
were communal apartment houses also but the Keres population on the
Pajarito probably was not as great as that of the Tewas in those days.
Nobody but Keres lived here to the south of Tyuonyi.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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