The Indians of Tyuonyi during the Great Period had developed the dwellings in the north cliff extensively to the number of some three hundred caves. There might have been twice as many talus houses to the front, some one story and others two and three stories high. The cliff population centered around the Long House while other groups built houses in different locations at the base of the north cliff. And still other groups built the big community apartment house of about four hundred rooms to a height of possibly three stories and called it “Puwige” or “pueblo where the Indian women scraped the bottoms of the pottery vessels clean.” And they built it in the form of a fort with a narrow hallway through the east side as the only means of entrance. And here they fortified themselves during times of attack by other Indians like themselves who might have been jealous of the watered Valley of the Frijoles. Another group preferred to remove themselves down the Canyon a quarter-mile and they erected a circular pueblo, a miniature of Puwige, seemingly. Still another group preferred to be more isolated and so they chose a deep cave one hundred fifty feet above the Canyon floor in which to build their house and kiva. One would think, looking at the ruined home sites, that thousands of prehistoric Indians dwelt at Tyuonyi but that was never the case. Although the dwellings were extensive they were not all occupied at any one time. Small groups moved in. Others moved out. They could have taken turns living in Hidden Valley and then returned to the northern villages of Potsui’i, Sankawi, Navawi or Tshirege, where their kin and kind lived. Tyuonyi might have been a place for summer occupation during the growing season. When planting time came little groups trickled in from the large northern community villages and remained for a while. One cannot be sure of what went on in the Canyon. It was a suitable place for continued occupation with the possibility of an influx of population during the summer months. One can only speculate. Scientific investigation reveals nothing in this regard. The legends are scant now—the old men who remembered them are just about gone. So one is left with little about how Indians lived on the Pajarito Plateau during prehistoric times. CHAPTER V Living in the Great Period