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<h1><i>Canyon de Chelly</i></h1>
<p class="tbcenter"><span class="ss">The Story of its Ruins and People</span></p>
<p class="center"><span class="ss">by Zorro A. Bradley</span></p>
<p class="tbcenter"><span class="smaller ss">Office of Publications
<br/>National Park Service
<br/>U.S. Department of the Interior
<br/>Washington, D.C.,
<br/>1973</span></p>
<p class="center smaller"><i>Library of Congress Catalog Card Number</i> 73-600078</p>
</div>
<h2 class="center">Contents</h2>
<br/><SPAN href="#c1">Discovery of the Ruins</SPAN> 3
<br/><SPAN href="#c2">The Principal Ruins</SPAN> 7
<br/><SPAN href="#c3">White House</SPAN> 7
<br/><SPAN href="#c4">Antelope House</SPAN> 9
<br/><SPAN href="#c5">Standing Cow</SPAN> 12
<br/><SPAN href="#c6">Big Cave</SPAN> 13
<br/><SPAN href="#c7">Mummy Cave</SPAN> 15
<br/><SPAN href="#c8">The People of Canyon de Chelly</SPAN> 17
<br/><SPAN href="#c9">The Anasazi</SPAN> 18
<br/><SPAN href="#c10">The Navajos</SPAN> 27
<br/><SPAN href="#c11">Further Reading</SPAN> 57
<br/><span class="left">Maps</span> <span class="jr"><SPAN href="#Page_8">8</SPAN>, <SPAN href="#Page_24">24</SPAN>, <SPAN href="#Page_39">39</SPAN></span>
<div class="pb" id="Page_1">1</div>
<p class="tb"><i>Far up above me, a thousand feet or so, set in a great cavern in
the face of the cliff, I saw a little city of stone asleep. It was as still
as sculpture—and something like that. It all hung together,
seemed to have a kind of composition: pale little houses of stone
nestling close to one another, perched on top of each other, with
flat roofs, narrow windows, straight walls, and in the middle of
the group, a round tower....</i></p>
<p><i>In sunlight it was the colour of winter oak leaves. A fringe of
cedars grew along the edge of the cavern, like a garden. They
were the only living things. Such silence and stillness and repose—immortal
repose. That village sat looking down into the
canyon with the calmness of eternity.... I had come upon the
city of some extinct civilization, hidden away in this inaccessible
mesa for centuries, preserved in the dry air and almost perpetual
sunlight like a fly in amber, guarded by the cliffs and the river
and the desert.</i></p>
<p><span class="lr">—<i>Willa Cather</i></span></p>
<p class="tbcenter"><span class="smaller"><span class="ss">Quotation from <i>The Professor’s House</i>, 1925, by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, New York.</span></span></p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_2">2</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig1"> <ANTIMG src="images/p32.jpg" alt="" width-obs="640" height-obs="700" /> <p class="pcap">The righthand section of Mummy Cave Ruin as it was photographed
by Ben Wittick in
1882 during the James
Stevenson Survey for
the Smithsonian
Institution.</p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_3">3</div>
<h2 id="c1"><span class="small">Discovery of the Ruins</span></h2>
<p>Canyon de Chelly National Monument
is located in the red rock
country of northeastern Arizona’s
high plateau, near the center of
the Navajo Indian Reservation.
Included in its 131 square miles
are three spectacular canyons—Canyon
de Chelly, Canyon del
Muerto, and Monument Canyon—and
many ruins of long-deserted
villages. Perched in alcoves and
on high ledges along the sheer-walled
canyons, these villages are
evidence of man’s ability to adjust
to a difficult environment, using
bare hands, simple stone age
tools, and his own ingenuity. They
stand as enduring monuments to
the culture of the ancestors of the
present-day Pueblo Indians of the
southwestern United States.</p>
<p>The ancestors of the Navajo
Indians who now live in the shadows
of these deep canyons came
here long after the earlier peoples
had left. Originally the Navajos
did not live in the canyon, but only
passed through it on their yearly
migrations. Today some live here
permanently, and their hogans are
scattered along the sandy canyon
floor, almost hidden by the thick
growth of willows and cottonwoods
and detectable only by a column
of smoke slowly rising from a cook
fire or by the barking of dogs.
Occasionally one may catch a
glimpse of a brightly dressed
woman working around the hogan
or of black-hatted men trotting
their horses between the nearby
trading post, cornfields, or peach
orchards. A reserved and dignified
people, they still live in the tradition
of their fathers.</p>
<p>The main canyon’s name, de
Chelly, stems from the Navajo
word “Tsegi” (pronounced tsay-yih
or tsay-yhi and meaning “Rock
Canyon”), the name by which they
know the canyon network. Two
centuries of Spanish and English
usage have corrupted both the
form and pronunciation. Most people
now pronounce it “dah-SHAY”
or “d’SHAY.”</p>
<p>The first Europeans to see the
extensive ruins in Canyon de
Chelly are unknown. A Spanish
map of 1776 indicates its location,
and other documents reveal that
Spanish military expeditions sometimes
passed through the neighborhood.
In 1805, Spanish troops
entered the canyon while trying to
suppress Navajo raids. During the
period of Mexican rule (1821-46),
a number of military expeditions
against the Navajo invaded the
Canyon de Chelly region. Though
the ruins had not been described
in writing, the area was fairly well
known, and by 1846, when the
“Army of the West” brought the
<span class="pb" id="Page_4">4</span>
region under United States control,
there were many tall tales and
rumors about the wonderful cities
built in the cliffs.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig2"> <ANTIMG src="images/p33.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="506" /> <p class="pcap">Archeological excavations in Canyon del Muerto, 1929.</p> </div>
<p>In 1849, the New Mexico territorial
government found it necessary
to request that a U.S. Army
expedition be sent to subdue the
Navajos. Lt. J. H. Simpson of the
Topographical Engineers accompanied
the troops. His journal,
published in 1850, contained the
first detailed account of some of
the Canyon de Chelly ruins.</p>
<p>After Simpson’s visit, other
military expeditions and a few
civilian parties probably entered
the canyons. No archeological
investigations were made, however,
until 1882, when James
Stevenson surveyed the area for
the Smithsonian Institution, making
sketches, photographs, and
ground plans of 46 ruins in the two
main canyons.</p>
<p>Stevenson found two mummies
in a rock shelter ruin in the northern
canyon. Because of this find
the ruin is known as Mummy Cave,
and Stevenson gave the canyon
a Spanish name, Canyon de los
Muertos, or canyon of the dead
men. The name has since been
shortened to del Muerto.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_5">5</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig3"> <ANTIMG src="images/p33a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="863" /> <p class="pcap">First Ruin in the lower part of Canyon de Chelly. It has 10 rooms and two kivas.</p> </div>
<p>Later in 1882, Cosmos Mindeleff,
also from the Smithsonian and a
member of Stevenson’s party,
mapped the canyons and showed
the locations of some of the larger
ruins. Mindeleff’s monumental
architectural survey of the ruins
of Canyon de Chelly was published
in 1896, after two more visits.</p>
<p>Much of our knowledge about
material objects used by the early
Puebloan inhabitants of the canyons
comes from the work of the
late Earl H. Morris, who excavated
a number of the important cave
sites in the 1920’s. Since then a
comprehensive survey of the monument
has been carried out by
David L. De Harport for the Peabody
Museum of Harvard University,
and additional excavations
have been conducted by National
Park Service archeologists.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_6">6</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig4"> <ANTIMG src="images/p34.jpg" alt="" width-obs="695" height-obs="760" /> <p class="pcap">The upper and lower White House ruins were probably connected when the ancient Indians lived there.</p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_7">7</div>
<h2 id="c2"><span class="small">The Principal Ruins</span></h2>
<p>Within the national monument are
perhaps 800 prehistoric and
historic Indian village sites, representing
various stages of Pueblo
and later Navajo cultural development
and spanning a period of
about 1,800 years. The most
interesting and important ruins are
described below.</p>
<h3 id="c3">WHITE HOUSE</h3>
<p>Located up the main canyon,
about 6 miles from Park Service
headquarters, White House is one
of the largest, best preserved,
and most accessible ruins in the
monument.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig5"> <ANTIMG src="images/p34a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="433" /> <p class="pcap">A kiva at the White House ruin, where religious and other ceremonies were held.</p> </div>
<p>Lt. J. H. Simpson described this
ruin after his 1849 visit, calling it
Casa Blanca (White House). It is
also known by its Navajo name,
Kini-na-e-kai. Both names derive
from a conspicuous white-plastered
wall in the upper portion.</p>
<p>White House was constructed in
two sections; one stands against
the base of the cliff on the canyon
floor, and the other is in a small
cave immediately above. Mindeleff
estimated that at one time the
whole ruin contained as many as
80 rooms. Much of the lower building
has probably been washed
away by the stream nearby (a
retaining wall now helps to prevent
this), but evidence of about 60
rooms and 4 kivas (special ceremonial
chambers) still survives.</p>
<p>Behind the back walls of the
lower ruin the smooth cliff face
rises 35 feet to the floor of the
cave above. Marks on the face
indicate that at one time the rooms
of the lower building stood several
stories high, and its roof came to
within 4 feet of the cave floor
above.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_8">8</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig6"> <ANTIMG src="images/p35.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="815" /> <p class="pcap">This map shows only the principal ruins in the canyons that are open to visitors. Only some of these are discussed in the text. The rock formations of these canyons eroded easily, thus producing
the steep cliffs and cave formations that provided protection
for the Anasazi.</p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_9">9</div>
<p>The upper ruin contains 10
rooms and has a large room nearly
in the center of the cave. The outside
front wall of this room is 12
feet high and still has the coating
of white gypsum clay plaster with
a decorative band of yellow clay
for which the ruin was named.</p>
<p>At the western edge of the lower
ruin are the partial remains of two
well-built kivas. One kiva used to
have holes in the floor like those
used to support looms in modern
Pueblo kivas. The other kiva shows
evidence of six layers of plaster.
Modern Zuni Indians have a ceremony
every 4 years in which they
replaster the smoke-stained kiva
interior, and this tradition may
give some idea of how long this
kiva was in use.</p>
<p>A study of the annual growth
rings of its roof timbers indicates
that most of the lower ruin was
built after A.D. 1070.</p>
<h3 id="c4">ANTELOPE HOUSE</h3>
<p>Many large ruins are located in the
narrow and twisting Canyon del
Muerto. One of the biggest is
Antelope House, some 5 miles
above del Muerto’s junction with
Canyon de Chelly. This 40- to 50-room
village was built on the
stream bank against the base of a
cliff which towers nearly 600 feet
above it.</p>
<p>Antelope House received its
name from four antelopes painted
in tan and white, about half life
size, high on the cliff nearby.
Navajo families living in the canyon
believe that these well-executed
paintings were done by
Dibe Yazhi (Little Sheep), a Navajo
artist who lived here in the
1830’s. Other figures in white paint
are probably the work of the prehistoric
inhabitants of Antelope
House.</p>
<p>Because it stands on the river
bank, Antelope House has also
eroded badly. Yet many of the
house walls still rise two and three
stories high, and the masonry
outlines of dozens of unexcavated
rubble-filled rooms and of two
kivas can still be seen.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_10">10</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig7"> <ANTIMG src="images/p36.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="870" /> <p class="pcap">Antelope House in Canyon del Muerto is on the canyon floor under a towering, overhanging cliff.</p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_11">11</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig8"> <ANTIMG src="images/p36a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="515" /> <p class="pcap">An Anasazi pictograph.</p> </div>
<p>The famous “Burial of the
Weaver” was found in a small cliff
alcove not far from Antelope
House. The grave was against the
cliff, and a curved masonry wall
in front held back the earth. Inside
was the tightly flexed body of an
old man lying on his left side. His
hair was streaked with gray and
tied back in a bob; a billet of
wood served as a pillow. The
body’s outer wrapping was a
feather blanket made from the
breast down of golden eagles.
Under the feather cloth was a
white cotton blanket, excellently
made and appearing as clean and
new as if freshly woven; and under
the white blanket was an old gray
cotton blanket. Beneath that
blanket, lying on the mummy’s
breast, was a single ear of corn.</p>
<p>A reed mat covered the floor of
the grave, and the amount and
variety of objects laid away with
the body suggest that the individual
was highly respected in life.
A long wooden digging stick,
broken to fit into the grave, lay
across the burial bundle. Beside
this, and also broken, was a bow
so thick that only a powerful arm
could have pulled it. With the bow
was a single reed arrow with a
fire-hardened wooden point. Five
pottery jars, one broken, together
with four bowl-shaped baskets
woven from yucca leaves, were
also in the grave. These containers
were filled with cornmeal, shelled
corn, four ears of husked corn,
pinyon nuts, beans, and salt.
Tightly packed around the body
and offerings were thick skeins of
cotton yarn which measured more
than 2 miles in length. A spindle
whorl—a wooden disc on a reed
stem which probably had been
used to spin the cotton—lay on
the yarn.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig9"> <ANTIMG src="images/p36b.jpg" alt="" width-obs="700" height-obs="669" /> <p class="pcap">A National Park Service archeologist examines a storage jar found at Antelope House.</p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_12">12</div>
<h3 id="c5">STANDING COW</h3>
<p>This cave in Canyon del Muerto
was named for a large white and
blue pictograph of a cow, drawn
in the historic period and undoubtedly
the work of a Navajo. Not
much can be seen of this ancient
ruin, for Navajos have lived on the
site in recent times and still use
the old bins for storing corn and
the leveled areas for drying
peaches.</p>
<p>On the cliff near this ruin is an
interesting old Navajo painting of
Spanish cavalrymen.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig10"> <ANTIMG src="images/p37.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="600" /> <p class="pcap">This blue-headed cow, painted by an early Navajo artist on the shelter wall, gave Standing Cow Ruin its name.</p> </div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig11"> <ANTIMG src="images/p37a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="700" height-obs="643" /> <p class="pcap">This Navajo rock painting in Canyon del Muerto shows a procession of soldiers. It probably records a Spanish expedition in the 19th century.</p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_13">13</div>
<h3 id="c6">BIG CAVE</h3>
<p>One of the largest concentrations
of very early material at Canyon
de Chelly came from Big Cave
(Tse-Ya-Tso) in Canyon del
Muerto. Tree-ring dates ranging
from A.D. 331 to 835 indicate an
intensive occupation of the site
in Basketmaker times.</p>
<p>Several burials of interest were
found at Big Cave. One was of an
old man who had broken both legs
across the shin bones. The fractures
were set so well that only
the smallest of bumps were left.</p>
<p>The remains of 14 infants were
found in a slab-lined cist used
earlier as a storage bin. Below
the infants were the bodies of
four other children packed in an
enormous basket. None showed
any signs of violence, and it is
thought that some disease must
have swept through the cave,
killing many children in a short
time.</p>
<p>The unique “Burial of the
Hands” was discovered in another
part of Big Cave. This burial consisted
of just a pair of arms and
hands lying side by side on a bed
of grass. The elbows touched the
wall of the cave in a way that
suggested that the rest of the body
had not been removed at a later
time. Three necklaces of abalone
shell pendants were wrapped
around the wrists, and two pairs of
exceptionally fine, unworn sandals,
patterned in black and red, were
lying beside the hands, as was a
small basket half full of white
shell beads. Another basket nearly
2 feet in diameter covered the
burial. No satisfactory explanation
of this burial has ever been advanced.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig12"> <ANTIMG src="images/p37b.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="491" /> <p class="pcap">Excavations at Big Cave in Canyon del Muerto yielded valuable artifacts of the Basketmaker period.</p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_14">14</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig13"> <ANTIMG src="images/p38.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="851" /> <p class="pcap">Mummy Cave, bathed in sun with its flanking ruins almost hidden in shadows.</p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_15">15</div>
<h3 id="c7">MUMMY CAVE</h3>
<div class="fig"> id="fig14"> <ANTIMG src="images/p38a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="455" /> <p class="pcap">This fretwork design decorates a kiva in Mummy Cave.</p> </div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig15"> <ANTIMG src="images/p38b.jpg" alt="" width-obs="700" height-obs="680" /> <p class="pcap">The central tower structure at Mummy Cave shows strong Mesa Verde affiliations and was constructed in A.D. 1284.</p> </div>
<p>One of the most beautifully situated
ruins in the national monument
is Mummy Cave in Canyon
del Muerto 21 miles northeast of
park headquarters. This dwelling,
the largest in the canyons, was
built in two adjacent caves about
300 feet up a talus slope from
the streambed.</p>
<p>The largest part of the structure,
about 55 rooms and 4 kivas, was
built in the eastern cave. The
western cave, with about 20 rooms,
is now accessible only by a ledge
from the east cave, although
traces of an eroded hand-and-toe
trail can be seen leading directly
from the top of the talus to the
ruin. Along the ledge connecting
the two caves are 15 rooms, including
a “tower” house; these
are the best preserved of all the
ruins here. Much original plaster
in several colors remains on inner
and outer walls throughout the
village. Especially notable is the
white clay plaster on the interior
of the third story of the tower
house and the red-painted fret
design on white plaster in the
large kiva of the east cave.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_16">16</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig16"> <ANTIMG src="images/p39.jpg" alt="" width-obs="623" height-obs="700" /> <p class="pcap">A Navajo family has settled below the ruins of the ancient ones in Canyon del Muerto.</p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_17">17</div>
<h2 id="c8"><span class="small">The People of Canyon de Chelly</span></h2>
<p>Though the stunning sheer red
cliffs of Canyon de Chelly are
easily the national monument’s
most spectacular feature, the area
was set aside for its importance to
the study of prehistoric peoples
in the Southwest. The architecture,
tools, clothing, ceramics, and
other decorative or useful objects
found here contain a comprehensive
record of many hundreds of
years of human activity.</p>
<p>Nothing was known about the
ancient culture sheltered here
until archeologists began piecing
together the information gleaned
from Canyon de Chelly’s many
ruins and burials. Their story survived
because these people lived
in a physical environment that
posed a minimal threat to normally
fragile remains.</p>
<p>Wherever the remains of ancient
man occur in the open, building
ruins and some objects of stone,
bone, and pottery survive, but
those of wood and fiber disappear
completely. Most of what we know
about peoples from the dim past
thus comes from materials that
have been buried and protected.
For the archeologist there are few
better sources of information than
formal burials, which often contain
extensive offerings, and situations
like those at Canyon de Chelly
and Canyon del Muerto, where
sites served as dwelling places
for long periods of time and
the steady accumulation of refuse
buried layers of cultural debris.</p>
<p>The extremely arid conditions in
the caves of these canyons offered
additional protection. The climate
here is so dry that human burials
are perfectly preserved as natural
mummies or desiccated bodies
(there being no attempt at artificial
preservation by these people),
and such fragile buried objects
as baskets more than a thousand
years old are in good condition.</p>
<p>The people who lived at Canyon
de Chelly in prehistoric times are
today called the Anasazi, a Navajo
word meaning “old people.”
These people were the ancestors
of modern Pueblo Indians, and
they lived in the vicinity of northern
Arizona and New Mexico,
southwestern Colorado, and southeastern
Utah from about the beginning
of the Christian era to the
end of the 13th century. Over most
of that period they lived in these
canyons. Before they learned to
build in the cliffs they located and
constructed their houses much
differently. But the canyons always
sheltered them, and their homes,
their dead, and their debris tell us
how it was with these people from
the beginning to the end of their
time here.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_18">18</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig17"> <ANTIMG src="images/p40.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="595" /> <p class="pcap">These bone tools were used to work leather and weave baskets.</p> </div>
<h3 id="c9">THE ANASAZI</h3>
<p>Early man, a nomadic hunter of
big-game animals, came to the
Americas from Asia over the
Bering Strait some time between
20,000 and 15,000 B.C. Thousands
of years later, after the big animals
had become extinct, larger bands
of hunters and gatherers preyed
on game animals of species still
living today. Still later, groups
began to settle in favorable areas
and to grow maize (corn), which
reached them from more complex
cultures in what is now Mexico.
From this time on, the spread and
development of prehistoric Indian
cultures in the northern Southwest
can be traced in increasing detail.</p>
<p>No one knows exactly when the
first people arrived in the Canyon
de Chelly area. But a tree-ring
date of A.D. 306 from the West
Alcove at Mummy Cave and the
accumulation of sweepings and
ashes at this site suggest that
people were living in Canyon del
Muerto at about the beginning of
the Christian era.</p>
<p>These early people were primarily
farmers rather than nomadic
hunters, although they still depended
to some extent on game
animals for food. They established
their homes in the shelter of the
many caves and alcoves in the
canyon walls, and farmed the mesa
tops and canyon bottoms. Dogs
were their only domestic animal,
and corn was their major crop
and main source of food. Squashes
(pumpkins) were grown in some
quantity, and beans were introduced
at an early time. Pinyon
nuts and acorns, sunflower seeds,
yucca and cactus fruit, and small
seeds of other wild plants were
gathered for food.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_19">19</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig18"> <ANTIMG src="images/p40a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="862" /> <p class="pcap">This burial at Sliding Rock Ruin shows pottery, baskets, corn, and the remains of a blanket used in the day-to-day life of the Anasazi.</p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_20">20</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig19"> <ANTIMG src="images/p41.jpg" alt="" width-obs="433" height-obs="267" /> <p class="pcap">Ring-baskets of split yucca leaves have been in common use from about A.D. 1100 to the present.</p> </div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig20"> <ANTIMG src="images/p41a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="599" height-obs="261" /> <p class="pcap">This coiled basket was used for carrying burdens.</p> </div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig21"> <ANTIMG src="images/p41b.jpg" alt="" width-obs="527" height-obs="256" /> <p class="pcap">Indian women fastened rabbit fur to lengths of twine by twisting them to form a rope of fur such as this one. A number of these would then be entwined to form a blanket or a robe.</p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_21">21</div>
<p>The early farmers were accomplished
makers of baskets, and for
this reason archeologists commonly
call them Basketmakers.
Instead of pottery they used
baskets for many utilitarian purposes:
carrying sacks, burden
baskets, food containers, cooking
pots, water carriers, storage containers,
and even “coffins.”
Sometimes plain, often decorated,
they are the most impressive
surviving artifact of the culture
which produced them. More
baskets made by these early people
have been found in Canyon de Chelly
caves than in any other locality.</p>
<p>The caves in Canyon de Chelly
have produced no evidence of
houses built by these early farmers.
If these groups had shelters
at all, they were little more than
brush-and-pole windbreaks or
lean-tos made of poles and skins
propped against the sides of the
rock shelters. The only architectural
remains found so far are pits
lined with stone slabs and located
in deposits on the cave floors.
These pits were used to store corn
and wild plant foods.</p>
<p>Permanent dwellings apparently
were not constructed until about
A.D. 500. The first such houses of
which we have knowledge were
small and generally insubstantial
circular or squarish pits, shallowly
dug into the ground. They were
walled and roofed with brush and
dirt or mud-covered poles. Later
the people often built their houses
in deep excavations, and then the
structures became essentially
roofed pits.</p>
<p>The atlatl, or dart-thrower, and
dart constituted the early implement
for hunting and warfare.
There is no definite evidence that
the Anasazi used a bow and arrow
until the 7th century, but one find
in Canyon del Muerto suggests
that they were attacked by a group
that did use such weapons. The
evidence was found in a cave
across the canyon from Antelope
House at a typical dwelling site of
the early people. It appears that
a massacre took place inside
the cave and the remains of the
dead were scattered about
the floor until almost completely
dried or skeletonized. The bones
were then gathered up and
dumped into one of the many
storage pits that dotted the cave
floor, where the archeologists
found them. Among the artifacts
discovered with the bones was a
short, slender piece of wood, more
like the shaft of an arrow than a
dart, between the ribs and dried skin
on the left side of an old woman.</p>
<p>Little clothing was worn in these
early years. Men usually wore
sandals and a loin cloth and
women an apron like skirt. In cold
weather the only additional body
covering was a blanket woven
from strips of fur.</p>
<p>Several exceptions to this mode
of dress have been found. One
mummy recovered from the slope
in front of Mummy Cave (perhaps
of a tribal leader) was elaborately
dressed and had a great many
possessions to take with him to
the spirit world. He was wrapped
in a woven robe of rabbit fur and
<span class="pb" id="Page_22">22</span>
had a basket over his face and
one under his head. His feet were
covered with buckskin moccasins
lined with soft juniper bark. Buckskin
leggings were wrapped
around his legs from ankle to knee.
Another piece of buckskin was
wound around his waist; one end
fell like a breechclout to his
thighs, and the other end was
thrown over his shoulder like a
toga.</p>
<p>The man’s moccasins are a surprising
item, because the Anasazi
of this time usually wore well-made
sandals. These sandals were
typically woven of plant fibers with
intricate designs in several colors,
and are outstanding among the
textiles of any prehistoric people.</p>
<p>In the 5th century A.D., the
Anasazi acquired from the south
the technique of making fired
pottery, and they adopted the craft
rapidly. Ceramics was a significant
addition to the equipment which
these people needed to live in
what was at best a difficult environment.
It made the everyday
business of cooking food and storing
water much easier. During
the next several centuries the
Anasazi achieved a high degree of
skill in the art of ceramics and
produced handsome pots in a
variety of shapes, decorated both
by relief and painting. Various
styles of design were developed by
different groups.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig22"> <ANTIMG src="images/p42.jpg" alt="" width-obs="573" height-obs="489" /> <p class="pcap">The Anasazi used black-on-white pottery jars at home and also for trade with other groups.</p> </div>
<p>Basketry, the ancient craft, survived the competition from ceramics
but became less important. Sandals, coiled bowls, plaited
yucca trays, and rush mattings were still made, but were not as
well manufactured or designed as they once had been.</p>
<p>Other changes followed the introduction of pottery, and they
profoundly altered the culture of the Anasazi. More substantial and
permanent houses were developed, the bow and arrow replaced
the dart-thrower and dart for hunting and fighting, and handles
were placed on stone axes and hammers, greatly increasing the
effectiveness of these tools. Turkeys were domesticated, and
their feathers replaced some of the fur in the blankets which
they used for clothing. New varieties of corn, squash, and
beans became known, and, more importantly, the cultivation of
cotton was introduced.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_23">23</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig23"> <ANTIMG src="images/p42a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="765" /> <p class="pcap">Gourd-shaped black-on-white Anasazi water jar from the period A.D. 500 to 700.</p> </div>
<p>Sometime during these years of
change the Anasazi adopted the
practice of deforming the skulls
of their children by the use of
rigid cradleboards. The cradleboards
of their direct ancestors
were webbed and lined with soft
rabbit fur, but a new conception of
beauty led them to strap newborn
infants onto flat, hard boards
which flattened the back of the
skull and broadened the forehead.</p>
<p>These characteristics of the
Anasazi developed slowly and
were well established only around
A.D. 750. Sometime after that date
they began to live above ground,
building their homes of upright
poles and mud plaster. Each family’s
room adjoined one or more
other rooms, making more and
more compact village units. In the
900’s, these pole and mud structures
gave way to masonry buildings,
some of which eventually
became two-and three-story terraced
apartment houses.</p>
<p>The ancient pithouse was not
forgotten. Its counterpart survived
in almost all of the new villages
in the form of a circular underground
room that soon lost all
resemblance to a house. Each of
the larger villages had two or
more of these underground rooms,
which undoubtedly were ceremonial
structures, serving as meeting
places for men of the various
clan societies and secret religious
brotherhoods and for the performance
of rituals. The rooms
may have functioned very much
like men’s clubhouses. Similar
ceremonial rooms of present-day
Pueblo Indians are called kivas.</p>
<p>Much of the ceremonial activity
in the ancient kivas can be inferred
from the religious practices
of modern Pueblo Indians. A large
part of their ceremonials takes
place within the privacy of the kiva
and includes praying, chanting,
and dancing. Details of costumes,
in which feathers are extensively
used, and of dance steps are important,
for the whole ceremony
is a prayer. The rituals are performed
as petitions for rain, to
insure a good harvest, or for
success in hunting.</p>
<p>In testimony to the traditions
which endure in some human societies,
a cache of bird feathers,
undoubtedly saved to make a costume
for such a ritual, was found
in Big Cave in Canyon del Muerto.
A carefully worked cylinder
of wood was filled with packets
of brightly colored feathers and
bird skins. There were dozens of
blue-green skins from mallard
ducks, and even parrot feathers
that must have come from Mexico.
Skins of a red bird, still not
identified, and bundles of hawk
and eagle down were also found
in the cylinder.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_24">24</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig24"> <ANTIMG src="images/p43.jpg" alt="" width-obs="1000" height-obs="1080" /> <p class="pcap">The Anasazi</p> <p class="pcapc">Few regions in North America have such spectacular archeological sites as the Four Corners area of the Southwest. This semiarid
high plateau country, drained by the San Juan River, saw the
development and later the disappearance of an Indian culture
that archeologists call the Anasazi.</p>
<p class="pcapc">During the Great Pueblo period, the Anasazi developed three
important regional centers: Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, and the
Kayenta country. Their influence extended deep into the territories
of neighboring Indian groups, who followed different
agricultural traditions. By A.D. 1100, all three had become
heavily populated, and the Anasazi were building their largest
towns and fabled cliff dwellings.</p>
<p class="pcapc">The fertile Chaco valley attracted aboriginals early in the 10th
century. They first built on such sites as Pueblo Bonito, which
expanded to a village of over 800 rooms. Their pueblos on the
valley floor near the cliffs tended to be D-shaped, with central
courts closed by walls often as high as four stories.</p>
<p class="pcapc">A hundred miles to the north, on the steep-cliffed fingers
of rock of southwest Colorado, the Mesa Verdians built
pithouses, pueblos, and about 300 cliff dwellings, the largest of
which is Cliff Palace.</p>
<p class="pcapc">The decline of the Anasazi culture from its Great Pueblo
period coincided with a concentration of population at Chaco,
Mesa Verde, and Kayenta that made the people particularly
dependent on a year-round flow of water. Long years of drought
from 1270 to 1300 dried up the rivers and caused an exodus
from the San Juan River region.</p>
<p class="pcapc">First the Chaco residents dispersed southwestward to join
their cousins in the Little Colorado River area. Then the Mesa
Verdians moved to the northern Rio Grande Valley of New
Mexico. Finally, the Kayenta people, the last holdouts, gave up
and joined the population in what is now the Hopi country.</p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_25">25</div>
<p>Between A.D. 1000 and 1050
the culture of the Anasazi reached
its height and became stable for
a few centuries, until about A.D.
1275-1300. Their homes were now
substantial buildings of stone
masonry, containing numerous adjoining
rooms. Their kivas followed
standard lines and were often
incorporated in the house structures,
though they were sometimes
built as separate, semisubterranean
chambers. No other abrupt
changes or new forms distinguish
this late period, which was essentially
a continuation and fulfillment
of earlier times. The large pueblos,
most of which were begun about
A.D. 1000, are the most outstanding
development of this period.</p>
<p>In Canyon de Chelly, construction
was started on White House
and Antelope House during these
years. Other important population
centers were developing simultaneously
at Mesa Verde (Mesa
Verde National Park, Colo.), where
the largest concentration of surviving
cliff dwellings is located,
and at Chaco Canyon (Chaco
Canyon National Monument,
N. Mex.), where spacious apartment
houses, one with more than
<span class="pb" id="Page_26">26</span>
800 rooms, were constructed on
the floor of the canyon. Other
villages were built in the Kayenta-Marsh
Pass area (near Navajo
National Monument, Ariz.).</p>
<p>As permanent homes gave them
social stability and well-developed
agriculture ensured adequate food,
the Anasazi had leisure and sufficient
security for greater activity
in their arts, crafts, and ceremonials.
As a consequence, trade with
other peoples seems to have
grown and flourished because it
brought in the specialized and
exotic materials needed for rituals
and pleasure. Parrots were
traded from Mexico for their plumage,
and ornamental shells from
the Gulf of California and the West
Coast found their way to Anasazi
settlements. Turquoise, jet, and
salt also became important trade
items.</p>
<p>The mode of dress changed
little. Feather-string blankets were
still commonly worn in winter.
Cotton became almost the only
fiber used for making cloth.
Sandals, which were woven from
whole yucca leaves, were crude,
compared to those of earlier
periods. But painted pottery
reached its highest development
in both variety and quality.</p>
<p>These great pueblo centers
flourished for about two centuries.
But this was a time of increasing
dryness in the Southwest, and the
end for these settlements came
during a severe drought late in the
13th century. Tree-ring data
indicate that there was not
enough moisture to produce
crops during most of the years
between 1276 and 1299. The
drought brought crop failures, and
the ensuing erosion destroyed the
fields. Hunger, decline, and migration
followed. Family after family
and group after group left their
homes in the cliffs and canyons.
Taking what few possessions they
could carry on their backs, they
drifted away in search of land with
a dependable water supply suitable
for farming.</p>
<p>The villages in Canyon de
Chelly apparently lasted longer
than most and may even have provided
a temporary haven for
refugees from other regions to the
north. The four-story tower house
at Mummy Cave might have been
built for such refugees by skilled
masons from the Mesa Verde area.</p>
<p>By 1300, however, all the great
cliff dwellings were abandoned,
and the people of the Canyon de
Chelly area had moved on to new
lands. Most of them probably
joined the tribes that were gathering
around Black Mesa to the
west, near the location of the modern
Hopi pueblos. Others may have
turned south, settling finally near
the middle of the present boundary
between Arizona and New Mexico.
Other Anasazi made their way to
the upper Rio Grande Valley
in north-central New Mexico. In
these localities the Pueblo farmers
renewed their way of life, and it
was there that Spanish explorers
found them on their first trip
through the region in 1540-42.</p>
<p>At White House and a few other
ruins there is evidence of structural
<span class="pb" id="Page_27">27</span>
additions made long after the
villages were abandoned. These
and other indications of occupation
well after 1300 probably
represent the work of Hopi Indians
who used the canyons seasonally
for agriculture, taking the harvest
back to their villages about 70
miles to the west. Peach trees,
which the Spanish introduced to
the Hopi in the 17th century, were
evidently brought to Canyon de
Chelly in either that century or the
next, and the small orchards still
scattered through the canyons
were started. The use of the canyons
by the Hopi probably dropped
off rapidly after the Navajos appeared
in the area in the 18th
century.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig25"> <ANTIMG src="images/p44.jpg" alt="" width-obs="690" height-obs="500" /> <p class="pcap">This pictograph of a soldier on horseback is taken from the Navajo rock painting in Canyon del Muerto near Standing Cow Ruin.</p> </div>
<h3 id="c10">THE NAVAJOS</h3>
<p>The present Indian occupants of
Canyon de Chelly are Navajos.
They are not related to the Anasazi
who built the masonry villages
now in ruins.</p>
<p>No one is certain just when the
Navajos came to this region nor
do we know exactly where they
came from. The best available
evidence now suggests that these
people and their close relatives,
the Apaches, both of whom
speak an Athapascan language,
came south along the eastern
edge of the Rocky Mountains
as a single group. They may
have reached the Southwest
between the 13th and the 16th
centuries. The earliest mention of
people who were probably Navajos
is in the Oñate documents of
1598. This account places them in
north-central New Mexico, an area
they still call their homeland but
no longer occupy.</p>
<p>The name “Navajo” has never
been adequately translated. The
first interpretation of the word
came from Father Alonso de
Benavides, a Spanish priest who
started missionary work among
the Navajos. In his “Memorial of
New Mexico,” which was presented
to the court of Spain in
1630, he stated:</p>
<p><i>But these Apache de Nabahu
[Navajo] are very great farmers for
this is what Navajo signifies ...
great planted fields....</i></p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_28">28</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig26"> <ANTIMG src="images/p45.jpg" alt="" width-obs="1000" height-obs="546" /> <p class="pcap">The pastoral scene shows two contemporary Navajo structures. To the left is a modern hogan, and to the right, a ramada.</p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_30">30</div>
<p>By 1750, the Navajos had abandoned
their homes west of the
Chama River Valley because of
pressure from the Utes to the
north. Generally they moved westward,
but a few split off to the
south. We do not know when they
first entered Canyon de Chelly,
but there is evidence at the site of
Tse-ta’a to suggest that it was
after 1700.</p>
<p>Hunters, gatherers, and farmers,
the Navajos changed their way
of life sharply when they acquired
horses and sheep from the Spanish
after the Pueblo Rebellion of 1680.
Horses made the Navajos highly
mobile and increased their ability
to raid the alluring towns along
the Rio Grande and then vanish
into mountain and canyon hideouts.
Sheep gradually changed the
basis of their economy, converting
them from hunters and raiders
to the pastoral herders they are
today.</p>
<p>After the Spanish reconquered
New Mexico in 1692, many Pueblo
families from the Rio Grande
sought sanctuary with the Navajos.
Some of these refugees were absorbed
into the tribe, and they
brought with them not only weaving,
but sheep raising, pottery and
basketry techniques, architectural
and agricultural ideas, the clan
system, and much religious lore.</p>
<p>Navajo-Spanish relations were
generally quiet after the Spanish
returned because the tribe was
preoccupied with fighting the Utes
to the north and was interested
in enlisting Spanish support or, at
least, forbearance. This comparatively
peaceful interlude came
to an end in the 1770’s because
of land disputes, and friction continued
from that time until the
1860’s.</p>
<p>In 1805, during this period of
strife, a Spanish punitive expedition
entered Canyon de Chelly,
bent on taking slaves, or servants
as the whites called them.</p>
<p>According to the Navajo
account of the episode, all the
Navajo men had gone out on an
expedition, leaving the old men,
and women, and children hidden
in a deep ledge high up the
canyon wall. Their position was
strengthened by a wall of loose
stones placed along the rim of the
ledge. As the Spanish troops,
commanded by Lt. Antonio
Narbona, passed below, an old
woman who had been a Spanish
slave could not resist scoffing at
them and thus exposed the hiding
place.</p>
<p>In a letter on January 25, 1805,
to the Governor of New Mexico,
Narbona described the action
which followed:</p>
<p><i>On the 17th of the current month
I managed to attack in Cañon
de Chelli a great number of
enemy Indians and though they
entrenched themselves in an
almost inaccessible spot, and
fortified beforehand, we succeeded
after having battled all
day long with the greatest ardor
and effort, in taking [it] the morning
after and that our arms had
the result of ninety dead warriors,
twenty-five women and children,
and as prisoners three warriors,
eight women and twenty-two
boys and girls....</i></p>
<p>Narbona reported his losses as
1 dead and 64 wounded. Massacre
Cave in Canyon del Muerto was
named for this event.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_31">31</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig27"> <ANTIMG src="images/p46.jpg" alt="" width-obs="725" height-obs="600" /> <p class="pcap">Massacre Cave sits high up on the west wall of Canyon del Muerto, a short way upstream from Mummy Cave.</p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_32">32</div>
<p>The Navajos had been held in
partial check by Spanish bribes
and punitive expeditions, but after
Mexico won its independence
from Spain in 1821, the Navajos
returned to raiding in behalf of
all those enslaved by the Spanish.
In 1823, 1833, 1836, and 1838 the
Mexicans mounted large expeditions
against the Navajos, sometimes
sending as many as 1,500
men after them. It was during this
period that Canyon de Chelly was
most often referred to as the
stronghold of the Navajos. Although
Mexican reprisals often
forced the Indians to take temporary
refuge north of the San
Juan River, they were too sporadic
to effectively quell the raiders, who
always came back with new attacks.
Conditions were so bad that
the Navajos boasted they let the
Mexicans live on only because
they made good shepherds for the
tribe. The taunt hardly exaggerated
their power at the time.</p>
<p>Navajo depredations had very
nearly decimated the frontier settlements
in the central Rio Grande
Valley of New Mexico when the
United States went to war with
Mexico in 1846. Col. Stephen
Watts Kearny had the task of seizing
the northern Mexican provinces,
an area that is now part of
the American Southwest. In late
June 1846 he left Fort Leavenworth,
Kansas. Marching over the Santa
Fe Trail without opposition,
Kearny and his American Dragoons
arrived in Santa Fe on August 18,
1846, and proclaimed New Mexico
a part of the United States.</p>
<p>When Kearny and the Army of
the West marched off to Mexico,
Col. Alexander W. Doniphan was
left behind with orders to invade
the Navajo country, release captives,
reclaim stolen property, and
either to awe or beat the Indians
into submission. In August 1846
he led the first United States expedition
against the Navajos. Maj.
William Gilpin, with 200 men, entered
the Navajo country on the
north and swung south to meet
Doniphan and several Navajo
chiefs at Bear Springs near the
town of Grants, New Mexico,
later the site of Fort Wingate. The
treaty signed there turned out
to be little more than a scrap of
paper. Five more unsuccessful
military expeditions were sent
against the Navajos between 1846
and 1849 in vain attempts to end
the Indian raids.</p>
<p>In trying to contain the Navajos,
the U.S. Government made the
same mistake that the Mexican
and Spanish Governments did
before them. They all assumed
that a single chief led the several
Navajo bands. Actually, each
local Navajo group had its own
leader, and time and again treaties
of “lasting peace with the Navajos”
were signed by these local
chiefs, who spoke only for their
own small bands and had no
influence with others.</p>
<p>The U.S. Army expedition of
1849 clearly illustrated this problem.
Lt. Col. John W. Washington,
military commander of New
Mexico, led an expedition to
Canyon de Chelly, then considered
<span class="pb" id="Page_33">33</span>
to be the Navajo heartland.
Washington met local Navajo
chiefs on the crest of a small hill
between the present Thunderbird
Guest Ranch and the mouth of the
canyon. Here on Treaty Hill a
treaty of “lasting peace” was
signed with the Indians. Washington
had no sooner returned to
Albuquerque, however, than he
learned that another Navajo band
had raided a small village near
Santa Fe.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig28"> <ANTIMG src="images/p47.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="671" /> <p class="pcap">Col. E. R. S. Canby led the last campaign against the Navajos before the Civil War.</p> </div>
<p>Regardless of treaties and punitive
expeditions, Navajo depredations
continued. Late in 1851, Col.
E. V. Sumner marched into the
Navajo country in still another
effort to settle the problem. After a
single encounter with the Navajo
in Canyon de Chelly, Sumner
returned to a spot southwest of
the Chuska Mountains where he
established Fort Defiance in the
autumn of 1851. Fighting broke out
again in 1858, when a Negro
slave of the post commander at
Fort Defiance was killed by a
Navajo arrow. The Army retaliated
with an attack on a party of peaceful
Navajos, and the Indians retreated
northward.</p>
<p>Up to this time, U.S. Army
commanders had controlled Indian
policies; the authority of the civil
agents appointed by the Indian
Department was negligible. But
now the civilian agents brought
political pressure to bear upon the
unsuccessful Army. To soothe
the politicians, the Army drew up
still another treaty with the
Navajos on December 25, 1858.
This treaty was the second attempt
to outline the boundaries of a
proposed Navajo reservation.
Like an earlier proposal, the
Meriweather Treaty of 1855, it
was never ratified.</p>
<p>The year 1859 was relatively
peaceful, with few raids on either
side. But the next year opened
with a series of Navajo raids that
culminated in a concentrated
attack on Fort Defiance. Some of
the old Navajos who participated
later recalled that it was a carefully
planned assault at dawn, with
as many as 2,000 warriors taking
part. After attacking for two hours,
<span class="pb" id="Page_34">34</span>
the Indians were forced to
withdraw.</p>
<p>In the winter of 1860-61, Col.
E. R. S. Canby led the last military
expedition against the Navajos
before the Civil War, but his
efforts failed to bring peace.
Zarcillos Largos, a great Navajo
leader who had worked for
more peaceful relations with
whites, was killed in an ambush
during the campaign. The Indians
soon resorted to their old tactic
of dispersing, and the campaign
ended with another treaty. When
troops were withdrawn from Fort
Defiance in March 1861 for
Civil War duty, the last restraint
was removed from both sides,
and raiding began once more. For
the Spanish-Americans, it was
the high point of their warfare
against the Navajos.</p>
<p>The job of subjugating the recalcitrant
Navajos now fell
to Brig. Gen. James H. Carleton,
commander of the Department
of New Mexico and a seasoned
Indian fighter with 25 years of
active service. His earlier experience
in Indian affairs had convinced
Carleton that establishing
reservations where the Indians
could be educated would be the
only way to get them to settle
down. Carleton said:</p>
<p><i>Soon they will acquire new
habits, new ideas, new modes of
life; the old Indians will die off,
and carry with them the latent
longings for murdering and robbing;
the young ones will take
their place without these longings;
and thus, little by little, they will
become a contented people....</i></p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig29"> <ANTIMG src="images/p48.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="750" /> <p class="pcap">Brig. Gen. James H. Carleton defeated the Navajos and built Fort Sumner at Bosque Redondo, the Navajo’s place of exile.</p>
</div>
<p>In 1863, Carleton drew up plans
for a 40-square-mile reservation at
Fort Sumner on the Pecos River in
central New Mexico. He called the
new reservation Bosque Redondo,
which is Spanish for circular
thicket.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_35">35</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig30"> <ANTIMG src="images/p48a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="869" /> <p class="pcap">The valiant Manuelito fought against the whites, but without permanent success. In 1863 he was one of a number of prominent Navajo leaders.</p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_36">36</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig31"> <ANTIMG src="images/p49.jpg" alt="" width-obs="642" height-obs="700" /> <p class="pcap">Capt. Albert Pfeiffer led his men down Canyon del Muerto between these cliffs, destroying hogans and crops.</p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_37">37</div>
<p>When the reservation was ready,
Carleton ordered Col. Christopher
(Kit) Carson to take the field
against the Navajos in June 1863.
Carson’s force consisted of four
companies of New Mexican Volunteers,
two mounted and two unmounted,
and 200 Ute Indians, who
were guides and scouts, altogether
a force of about 1,000 men. Their
first operation was to reoccupy
and repair the abandoned Fort
Defiance, which they renamed
Fort Canby in honor of General
Canby.</p>
<p>The Navajos were led by Barboncito
of Canyon de Chelly, a
spokesman for the bands living
west of the Chuska Mountains,
and Manuelito, a leader of those
who dwelt east of the mountains.
Many subchiefs, as usual, led
individual bands.</p>
<p>Carson had orders from General
Carleton to destroy all cornfields
and livestock. He sent word to the
Navajos that they should surrender
at Fort Canby, and then moved
into the field to persuade them.
The first skirmish took place in
August near the fort. Under constant
pressure from the military
through the winter of 1863, their
herds being killed and crops
burned, the Navajos were soon
destitute and began to surrender
in small numbers.</p>
<p>The crowning blow to Navajo
pride, however, was the Army’s
ostentatious penetration of Canyon
de Chelly, their most secure
refuge. A detachment of men
under Capt. Albert Pfeiffer carried
the “Navaho Fortress” in January
1864. Entering through Canyon del
Muerto, Pfeiffer guarded the junction
while Capt. A. B. Carey led a
detail through the main gorge of
de Chelly, marching west to east.
Captain Pfeiffer described his
progress through del Muerto:</p>
<p><i>My travel through the cañon, for
the first 12 miles, was accomplished
on the ice of the bed of
the stream which courses through
it.... Lt. C. M. Hubbell, who was
in charge of the rear, had a great
deal of trouble in proceeding with
the pack trains, as the mules frequently
broke through the ice and
tumbled down with their loads. All
the Indian prisoners taken thus
<span class="pb" id="Page_38">38</span>
far were half starved and naked.
The cañon has no road except the
bottom of the creek. We traveled
mostly on the ice, our animals
breaking through every few
minutes, and one mule split completely
open under the exhausting
fatigue of the march. On the 12th
instant traveled 8 miles; had several
skirmishes with the enemy.
Indians on both sides of the cañon
whooping, yelling and cursing,
firing shots and throwing rocks
down upon my command. Killed
two buck Indians in the encounter
and one squaw, who obstinately
persisted in hurling rocks and
pieces of wood at the soldiers. Six
prisoners were captured on this
occasion. Lieutenant Hubbell followed
up some Indians in a tributary
cañon, but could not overtake
them on account of the steepness
of the hillsides, where nothing save
an Indian or mountain goat could
make their way....</i></p>
<p>This raid, which netted only
about 100 prisoners, convinced the
Navajos that even though Carson
was not out to destroy them,
he would go anywhere to ferret
them out. They had no choice
but to surrender at Fort Canby.
Shortly after the Canyon de
Chelly raid some 500 Navajos, with
their flocks, straggled into the
fort. By February 15, 1864, 1,500
Navajos were being fed and
clothed there, and by the first of
March about 2,400.</p>
<p>The much storied “Long Walk”
and exile of the Navajos began on
March 6, 1864, when these 2,400
people with 30 wagons, 400
horses, and 3,000 sheep and goats
left Fort Canby for Bosque
Redondo, 300 miles away in New
Mexico Territory. Only the aged,
the children, and the crippled rode
in wagons—all others walked the
entire distance. One old Navajo
recalled the exodus in later years,
saying:</p>
<p><i>It was a great sight, we stretched from Fort Defiance to the Window
Rock ‘haystacks’ ... a distance of about 7 miles.</i></p>
<p>On March 14-15, a second group
of about 3,000 Navajos began the
foot journey. The last large escort
of Navajos to Fort Sumner was on
April 24, when 1,200 persons
started their “Long Walk.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_39">39</div>
<div class="fig"> id="map1"> <ANTIMG src="images/map_lr.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="879" /> <p class="pcap">This old army map shows the military posts of the 1860’s. The red line traces the “Long Walk” of the defeated Navajos to Fort Sumner at Bosque Redondo.</p>
<p class="center"><SPAN class="ab1" href="images/map_hr.jpg">High-resolution Map</SPAN></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_40">40</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig32"> <ANTIMG src="images/p51.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="873" /> <p class="pcap">Scenes of the Navajos in their place of exile at Fort Sumner on the
Pecos River. The top
view shows them lined
up to receive their issue
of food and clothing.
<span class="attr ss smaller">National Archives</span><span class="attr ss smaller">Museum of New Mexico</span><span class="attr ss smaller">National Archives</span></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_41">41</div>
<p>Not all the Navajos surrendered.
Many tribesmen remained free and
continued to raid settlements.
On April 9, 1864, the very day that
the Governor of New Mexico had
set aside to celebrate the end of
the Navajo war, a band of Navajos
stole 40 head of cattle from
Laguna Pueblo, 140 miles southwest
of Canyon de Chelly. Those
who surrendered endured extreme
hardship at Fort Sumner from
disease, crop failure, famine, and
their sense of exile from their
homeland. After 4 years, the several
thousand reservation Navajos
were broken in body and spirit,
while their still-free tribesmen continued
their troublesome guerrilla
activities. Carleton’s experiment
was judged a complete failure.</p>
<p>The Government then decided
that the Navajos should return to
a part of their old homeland. A
new treaty signed on June 1, 1868,
stated that the tribe and the United
States were at peace, and in it the
Navajos pledged to stop their
raiding. In return, the Government
promised the tribe school facilities
and a reservation that included
Canyon de Chelly in its total area
of 3,500,000 acres. The Navajos
were to stay within this reservation.</p>
<p>Twenty-nine Navajo chiefs and
council members signed the treaty,
and the Navajos began leaving
Fort Sumner almost immediately,
slipping away family by family.
Those without horses or who had
old or sick persons in their family
awaited Government transportation.
On June 15, a wagon train
with a military escort carried the
last Navajos from Fort Sumner to
Fort Wingate. There the tribe
waited while final arrangements
were worked out.</p>
<p>By November the new reservation
boundaries had been surveyed
and shown to the tribe’s
head men, and a headquarters for
the Indian agent had been prepared
at Fort Defiance. At long last
the Navajos were allowed to go
home. They were now united into
a single tribe with leaders, appointed
by the Indian agents, to
represent them in their dealings
with the whites. But their troubles
were not over.</p>
<p>Only a fraction of the Navajos’
sheep had survived Carson’s
slaughter and the years of famine
at Fort Sumner. The treaty had
promised sheep and goats to replenish
the herds, but more than a
year passed before any were received.
Meantime, hunger pursued
the Navajos, and they had to exist
<span class="pb" id="Page_42">42</span>
on army issue rations of beef,
coffee, and flour.</p>
<p>The treaty also promised that
during the first 10 years—called
the Treaty Years—each family
head who took up farming would
receive $25 worth of agricultural
tools and supplies every 2 years
to help him in his new pursuit. It
was 14 years before this promise
was fulfilled, and the tribe was
badly hampered in their efforts to
fill out their slender larder through
agriculture.</p>
<p>During these years the Navajos
eked out a living through their
traditional crafts of weaving and
silver working. Blankets and wool
were beginning to find a market in
the expanding settlements of the
Rio Grande Valley, at army posts,
and in the Mormon settlements of
Utah. In 1869, the first trading post
was established on the reservation,
and it provided the tribe with
a source of supplies and an outlet
for their wares. As Navajo
blankets, wool, and silverwork became
more important, other
traders entered the Navajo country.</p>
<p>Still there was little substantial
change in either the Navajo’s
mode of life or their economy by
the end of the Treaty Years in
1878. True, the tribe and their
flocks had increased in numbers
especially after 1872, when the
U.S. Government distributed
10,000 sheep among them. The
coming of the railroad in 1881-82,
however, accelerated change and
growth in the Navajos more than
any other event. New techniques
for making a living, learned from
working with construction crews,
and new possessions brought by
the railroad, started the people
toward the modern world.</p>
<p>One vexing problem that has
confronted the Navajos since their
days at Fort Sumner is the lack of
adequate grazing land to support
an expanding population. The
reservation boundaries have been
enlarged many times over the
years, but now there is no space
for further expansion. Today the
tribe numbers over 120,000 members,
and tribal lands cannot support
that large a population nor
the uncontrolled grazing that
it causes.</p>
<p>The old way of life is gradually
being replaced. In 1924, Congress
granted citizenship rights to all
Indians in recognition of their
service during World War I when
their men enlisted by the hundreds,
even though exempt from
the draft. After 1923 Navajo tribal
business became less of a haphazard
affair. A tribal council,
<span class="pb" id="Page_43">43</span>
made up of elected delegates, began
to handle contacts with the
world beyond the reservation.
Little or no work was done to
remedy undesirable conditions on
the reservation until the public
works program of the 1930’s, when
a good many schools and hospitals
were built. During World
War II, hundreds of young Navajo
men enlisted in the armed forces
and other thousands went into war
work. These involvements in
American society demonstrated
that an education was essential if
Indians were to compete successfully
in the outer world, and so the
tribal council passed a compulsory
schooling law in 1947. Many
schools and hospitals were built
in the 1950’s and 1960’s.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig33"> <ANTIMG src="images/p52.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="827" /> <p class="pcap">A Navajo weaver, 1873. Their looms have changed little in the years since then.</p> </div>
<p>Little by little the Navajos became
acquainted with the world
outside the reservation and
learned its ways and advantages.
Today their prospects for a better
life are brighter. Oil, gas, coal,
timber, and uranium deposits on
their lands are being developed
for the benefit of all the Navajos.
Children are more eager to attend
school, and many Navajos are now
leaving the reservation to put their
education to work at jobs in the
larger community. The Navajo
people are beginning to find a
place within the Nation.</p>
<p>Despite these changes and prospects,
many Navajo families are
still seminomadic camp dwellers,
following old traditions. Each
family’s grazing land covers about
10 to 15 square miles. Within this
area they have two or more
hogans and corrals, built near
suitable grass, water, and wood.</p>
<p>In winter the family moves to
the foothills or mesa tops to be
near a plentiful wood supply, for
winters in the Navajo country are
severe. The winter hogans, or
houses, are constructed with considerable
care by the men. Brush
shelters are used for cooking and
camping in summer.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_44">44</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig34"> <ANTIMG src="images/p53.jpg" alt="" width-obs="1000" height-obs="543" /> <p class="pcap">Navajo headmen inside a summer brush shelter, 1898.</p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_46">46</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig35"> <ANTIMG src="images/p54.jpg" alt="" width-obs="700" height-obs="754" /> <p class="pcap">A Navajo cribbed (log-cabin) style hogan in the high pine forest in 1908.</p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_47">47</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig36"> <ANTIMG src="images/p54a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="480" /> <p class="pcap">A modern hogan built of stone and mud-plaster with a pane glass window, at Standing Cow Ruin.</p> </div>
<p>Several types of hogans can be
seen on the reservation today.
Some recent ones attempt to copy
houses in off-reservation towns,
but most follow traditional styles.
The earliest type of hogan known
is the so-called “forked-stick”
hogan. This is a tipi-shaped structure
made of three poles with
forked ends that interlock at the
top. Spaces between this framework
are filled with smaller
poles; the whole is plastered with
mud. Another style of hogan is
made of cribbed logs and usually
has six or eight sides, a design
made necessary by the shortness
of the logs available. Circular
hogans of stone, adapted from
Pueblo Indian masonry construction,
are sometimes built. The
roofs on both types of hogans
are constructed of cribbed logs
and appear domed rather than
flat. A feature common to every
hogan is its door facing east,
toward the sunrise.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig37"> <ANTIMG src="images/p54b.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="471" /> <p class="pcap">A Navajo forked-pole hogan, traditionally the earliest form used by
the tribe. Shaped like a
tipi, it is built of heavy
logs covered with soil.
<span class="attr ss smaller">National Archives</span></p>
</div>
<p>Furnishings of hogans were
simple and limited, but today
tables, chairs, cabinets, and beds
are commonly used. Food was
once cooked in a firepit in the
center of the floor, below a hole
in the roof which allowed the
smoke to escape, but today it is
<span class="pb" id="Page_48">48</span>
prepared on stoves which increasingly
are butane gas or
electric models. In good weather,
cooking is done outside. Iron
and aluminum pots and pans have
replaced homemade pottery and
baskets as kitchen utensils.</p>
<p>Water is scarce over much of
the reservation and must be
hauled in wagons or pickup trucks
from as far away as 10 miles.
Water is used sparingly.</p>
<p>The Navajos are fond of goat
meat and mutton, which have
almost entirely replaced the wild
game of the old diet. Canned
goods from the traders’ shelves
have supplanted the wild
plants that used to be gathered
and, in some homes, have eliminated
garden plots of corn and
squash. At Fort Sumner the
Navajos learned to roast and brew
coffee and to use wheat flour.
Now coffee and wheat bread are
important items in their diet.</p>
<p>In aboriginal times Navajo
clothing was meager. Women wore
an apron and men a breechclout
of buckskin. Footwear probably
consisted of yucca fiber sandals,
although moccasins of animal
skins were also common. During
winter, blankets of animal skins or
yucca were added for warmth.</p>
<p>After the Spaniards arrived in
the Rio Grande Valley, the Navajos
copied Spanish costumes. This
style, which prevailed until after
the return from Bosque Redondo
in 1868, consisted of tightly
buttoned knee-length breeches of
buckskin, worn with knitted blue
stockings copied from those of
Pueblo men. A V-neck shirt was
made from a small blanket or
piece of flannel and was worn
outside the trousers. The shirt was
held by a leather belt heavily
ornamented with silver. Moccasins
and leggings of dyed buckskin
completed the men’s dress. When
Navajo women began loom weaving,
they copied the Pueblo
woman’s woven cotton dress in
wool and wore it with a woven
belt. Dyed buckskin moccasins
with wrap-around leggings were
their footwear.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig38"> <ANTIMG src="images/p55.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="401" /> <p class="pcap">Navajo clothing of the 19th century, a pair of moccasins and a shirt.</p>
</div>
<div class="fig">> <ANTIMG src="images/p55a.jpg" alt="Shirt." width-obs="500" height-obs="476" /></div>
<p>After Bosque Redondo, cotton
clothing in Anglo-American and
Mexican styles became popular.
<span class="pb" id="Page_49">49</span>
Today Navajo men wear typical
western ranch and farm clothing:
blue jeans, shirts, and broad-brimmed
felt or straw hats. The
women still prefer the bright calico
skirts and velveteen blouses
which they copied from the styles
worn by American women in the
mid-19th century. The skirt is ankle
length and voluminous, containing
from 12 to 15 yards of material.
Moccasins of dyed buckskin are
still popular with the women at
home, but modish shoes and
stockings have been adopted for
town wear. In winter, both men
and women use commercially
made blankets draped over their
shoulders for protection against
the cold.</p>
<p>Today many Navajo men take
off-reservation jobs with railroads,
in lumber camps, or as migratory
workers following crop harvests.
Sheep still play a major role in the
family economy, and annual income
is supplemented by the
sale of rugs and, sometimes,
silverwork and jewelry.</p>
<p>The Navajos have worn silver
ornaments for many years. A 1795
Spanish reference mentions that
the Navajo captains were rarely
seen without their silver ornaments,
but there is no evidence
that they made them at that time.
They got most of their silver pieces
by trading, and picked up others
on raids against Ute and Commanche
Indians, who in turn had
obtained them from eastern
Indians who were in contact with
Anglo-American or French traders.
A great many silver ornaments
probably came from the Spaniards.</p>
<p>Present evidence indicates that
the Navajos learned silversmithing
sometime after 1850. Old silversmiths
in the tribe have claimed
that Mexicans taught them the
craft during the Bosque Redondo
captivity, citing their first smith,
Atsidi Sani or “Old Smith,” who
was taught by a Mexican blacksmith.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_50">50</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig39"> <ANTIMG src="images/p56.jpg" alt="" width-obs="653" height-obs="700" /> <p class="pcap">An early Navajo silversmith named Slim-Maker-of-Silver. <span class="attr ss smaller">Museum of New Mexico</span></p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_51">51</div>
<div class="fig">> <ANTIMG src="images/p56a.jpg" alt="Ring." width-obs="128" height-obs="108" /></div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig40"> <ANTIMG src="images/p56b.jpg" alt="" width-obs="336" height-obs="251" /> <p class="pcap">Navajo silver bracelets and ring from the period 1880-1900. <span class="attr ss smaller">Smithsonian Institution</span></p> </div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig41"> <ANTIMG src="images/p56c.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="233" /> <p class="pcap">Recent Navajo bracelets.</p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_52">52</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig42"> <ANTIMG src="images/p57.jpg" alt="" width-obs="503" height-obs="799" /> <p class="pcap">A Navajo vegetal-dye rug, hand woven from hand-spun, home-grown wool. It is representative of the Chinle style.</p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_53">53</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig43"> <ANTIMG src="images/p57a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="649" height-obs="700" /> <p class="pcap">A Navajo wife weaving a rug in her front yard at their home near Standing Cow Ruin.</p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_54">54</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig44"> <ANTIMG src="images/p58.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="662" /> <p class="pcap">A Navajo girl and her dogs guard the family sheep near Big Cave.</p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_55">55</div>
<p>By 1881 they had completely
mastered the art, and began to
use turquoise in their jewelry.
Commercialization of their silver-work
began in 1899, when the Fred
Harvey Company first placed large
orders for pieces to sell to tourists.</p>
<p>Perhaps more than anything
else, the colorful rugs and silver
and turquoise jewelry produced by
these people have made the
name “Navajo” a household word.
The two crafts did not develop
simultaneously, for weaving
is almost two centuries older
than silversmithing. The Navajo
mastery of both skills is exceptional,
however, and both lend
themselves readily to Navajo
designs.</p>
<p>The loom used in Navajo
weaving is a native American
device, similar to that of the
ancient Pueblo people. It has
changed little over the centuries.
Men usually construct the loom
and women do the weaving.</p>
<p>In spite of three centuries of
work by Christian missionaries,
the Navajos have clung to their
native religion. Their religious
leaders are medicine men, or
healers, and their rites are intended
primarily to secure and
maintain good health.</p>
<p>The ceremonies, called chants,
sometimes last as long as 9
days. They consist of songs,
dances, the construction of sand
paintings, and the administration
of herbal medicines and sweat
baths.</p>
<p>The Navajos, a unique people in
many ways, are far from being
“vanishing” Americans. Vigorous
and growing in numbers, they have
only recently begun to understand
their potential. While they are
making rapid strides to join the
world around them, they are
keenly aware of their own heritage
and what it can contribute to the
larger culture of America.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_57">57</div>
<h2 id="c11"><span class="small">Further Reading</span></h2>
<p class="book">Kluckholm, Clyde, and Dorothea Leighton. <i>The Navaho.</i> Cambridge, Mass. 1946.</p>
<p class="book">McGregor, John C. <i>Southwestern Archeology.</i> Second Ed. Urbana, Ill. 1965.</p>
<p class="book">Morris, Ann A. <i>Digging in the Southwest.</i> N.Y. 1934.</p>
<p class="book">Underhill, Ruth M. <i>The Navajos.</i> Norman, Okla. 1956.</p>
<p class="book">Wormington, H. M. <i>Prehistoric Indians of the Southwest.</i> Third Ed. Denver, Colo. 1956.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_58">58</div>
<div class="fig">> <ANTIMG src="images/p59.jpg" alt="DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR · March 3, 1849" width-obs="217" height-obs="218" /></div>
<p><i>As the Nation’s principal conservation agency, the Department
of the Interior has basic responsibilities for water, fish, wildlife,
mineral, land, park, and recreational resources. Indian and
Territorial affairs are other major concerns of America’s “Department
of Natural Resources.” The Department works to
assure the wisest choice in managing all our resources so each
will make its full contribution to a better United States—now
and in the future.</i></p>
<p><i>National Park Service</i></p>
<p><i>U.S. DEPARTMENT of the INTERIOR</i></p>
<p class="tbcenter"><span class="smaller"><span class="ss">★ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1973 O—503-170
<br/>For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402. Price 80 cents, domestic postpaid; 60 cents, GPO Bookstore
<br/>Stock Number 2405-00508</span></span></p>
<div class="fig">> <ANTIMG src="images/p60.jpg" alt="Book cover" width-obs="1000" height-obs="530" /></div>
<h2>Transcriber’s Notes</h2>
<ul>
<li>This etext based on a U.S. government publication is public domain in the United States.</li>
<li>Corrected a few palpable typos.</li>
<li>In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.</li>
</ul>
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