Puwige never existed during the very early occupation of the Canyon. Its initial wall stones were not laid until the beginning of the Great Period. Any Indian family might have erected a few rooms near the little river—close to water. Then another family came along and built a few more rooms. A son took on a wife and the entire family helped to build his house, since house-building was a community proposition. Indian men went to the slopes where boulders had rolled down and broke them with heavy stones and fashioned the pieces into uneven building blocks. This was no small job. Walls were laid in mud mixed by the small brown hands of Indian women. Poles were cut and laid across the walls, then splittings and cane and brush were laid over the tops and sealed with thick coats of mud. Thick coats of crude plaster were spread over the inside of walls and over floors. These Indians had little clay, none for walls anyway, without hauling it in on their backs, so, they poured hot ashes into the mud to make it stick. Hot ashes formed a sort of lime. Coronado, in 1540, found the Indians at Tiguex making a mortar and plaster in this manner. Slabs of basalt were brought in and set edgewise in the rooms as fireplaces. This was the home of the newlyweds—built right next to the groom’s father’s house. The young bride could have come from the Long House to live at Puwige, the community house, with her husband’s family. [Illustration: FEDERAL ART PROJECT, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE. CUT COURTESY MUSEUM OF NEW MEXICO ARTIST’S RESTORATION OF PUWIGE] [Illustration: COURTESY NAT’L. PARK SERVICE AERIAL VIEW OF PUWIGE RESTORED]