The majority of the caves at Tyuonyi were connected with the talus houses to the front. Caves entered from second-story rooms were very popular and likely were used, for the most part, as ante-chambers and not as independent dwellings. They were excellent for storage purposes and if the Indian wanted to live he had to hold food over from one season to the next. Covering a period of a little more than a hundred years, let us say, the Indians of Frijoles Canyon cut over three hundred cave rooms in the north cliff. Some were, used independently of the houses to the front but most of them were not. Caves were hewn before houses were built, and likely, a great number of them were cut after the talus houses were erected against the cliff. They built just as many houses as caves, if not more. Houses extended as far as four rows of rooms out from the cliff and they were terraced up as high as three stories. On top of them were open porches which we call “ramadas” today. They were mere shelters with four corner poles and a few cross pieces of juniper or pine with brush and leaves over the top. What delight some old cronies might have had basking in the sun during some hot summer afternoon! This was the valley of the cliff dweller, the Ancient Tewa more than likely, who built houses and cut caves for almost two miles up and down the north cliff of Frijoles Canyon. Here he could see for great distances—he could look up and he could look down. He could hear the water rippling in the Rito below and he could live in true Indian fashion. But these villages were not built in a day or a year. It took many years. Although there are the ruins of enough houses and caves along the north wall to have housed two thousand primitive Indians, no more than a few hundred ever lived here at one time. There simply wasn’t land enough to farm, or game enough to supply food for a greater number. It would seem that Tyuonyi never had a static occupation but an ever moving one. The cliff dwellers at Frijoles, like their kin to the north, knew that the only safe method of living was in communities. So they erected what is known today as the “Long House.” One section of the north cliff was almost vertical and its base sloped gently down to the waters of the little river. This must have been the concentration of the cliff homes. Rooms were built side by side for over seven hundred feet. There were few cave rooms here to crawl back into and out of the weather. These people must have learned by experience how uncomfortable caves were, because they stuck to houses with stone walls and roofs of poles and brush and grass and mud. And they built these homes solid against the cliff and even carved recesses in the cliff so that the ends of the building stones would fit perfectly. Then the walls would not slip. The Long House was not very far from water—fifty yards. This was just a step for the women.