Preliminary report on a visit to the Navaho National Monument, ArizonaFewkes, Jesse Walter
History
Preliminary report on a visit to the Navaho National Monument, Arizona
Fewkes, Jesse Walter
Arizona -- Antiquities; Cliff-dwellings -- Arizona; Navajo National Monument (Ariz.)
The legends of the Snake clans recount also that when their ancestors
migrated from Tokónabi they went south and west until they reached the
Little Colorado river, where they built many houses of stone. They
remained there several years, but later left these houses and continued
in an easterly direction to Walpi. Where are the ruins of these ancient
houses of the Snake clans on the Little Colorado? There are several
Little Colorado ruins, as Homolobi near Winslow, but Hopi traditions
affirm these were built by people who came from the south. Lower down
the river at the Great Falls are other ruins, but these likewise are
ascribed to southern clans. The cluster of stone buildings near the
Black Falls conforms in position and direction from Walpi to Hopi
legends of the site of Wukóki, the Great Houses built by Snake clans
before they went to Walpi. In their migration from Tokónabi, probably
the Snake people tarried here and built houses, and then went on to the
Bear settlements or the Hopi pueblos, where their descendants now live.
More extensive archeologic work on these ruins may shed additional
light on this identification, and it is interesting to compare in point
of architecture the buildings at Black Falls[17] with those of extreme
northern Arizona.
An obscure trail branches from the Tuba road to the Black Falls ruins
just beyond the cedars below Indian Tanks, and the black walls of the
so-called “citadel” of this cluster are conspicuous for a considerable
distance before one leaves the main road. The ruin here figured is some
distance beyond the “citadel” and is hidden from view by intervening
hills and mesas, but from the time the traveler crosses the valley of
the Little Colorado and goes down into the Moenkopi wash he follows
approximately the old trail the Snake people took in their southerly
migration from Tokónabi.
Near Tanners crossing on the left bank, a short distance down the
river, Mr. Janus[18] has cemented a small basin above the highest level
of the flood, into which always flows pure water. The road from the
river to Moenkopi wash passes through a region where there is very
little wood for camping and no water. The distance from Flagstaff to
Tuba, about 90 miles, may be traveled in two days by taking the midday
meal of the first day at Indian Tanks and camping the first night at
Halfway House, where there is water for horses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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