A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola Part 2

It occupied 4 years to cross the disrupted country. The kwakwanti (a warrior order) went ahead of the people and carried seed of corn, beans, melons, squashes, and cotton. They would plant corn in the mud at early morning and by noon it was ripe and thus the people were fed. When they reached solid ground they rested, and then they built houses. The kwakwanti were always out exploring--sometimes they were gone as long as four years. Again we would follow them on long journeys, and halt and build houses and plant. While we were traveling if a woman became heavy with child we would build her a house and put plenty of food in it and leave her there, and from these women sprang the Pima, Maricopa, and other Indians in the South.

Away in the South, before we crossed the mountains (south of the Apache country) we built large houses and lived there a long while.

Near these houses is a large rock on which was painted the rain-clouds of the Water phratry, also a man carrying corn in his arms; and the other phratries also painted the Lizard and the Rabbit upon it. While they were living there the kwakwanti made an expedition far to the north and came in conflict with a hostile people. They fought day after day, for days and days--they fought by day only and when night came they separated, each party retiring to its own ground to rest. One night the cranes came and each crane took a kwakwanti on his back and brought them back to their people in the South.

Again all the people traveled north until they came to the Little Colorado, near San Francisco Mountains, and there they built houses up and down the river. They also made long ditches to carry the water from the river to their gardens. After living there a long while they began to be plagued with swarms of a kind of gnat called the sand-fly, which bit the children, causing them to swell up and die. The place becoming unendurable, they were forced again to resume their travels. Before starting, one of the Rain-women, who was big with child, was made comfortable in one of the houses on the mountain. She told her people to leave her, because she knew this was the place where she was to remain forever. She also told them, that hereafter whenever they should return to the mountain to hunt she would provide them with plenty of game. Under her house is a spring and any sterile woman who drinks of its water will bear children. The people then began a long journey to reach the summit of the table land on the north. They camped for rest on one of the terraces, where there was no water, and they were very tired and thirsty. Here the women celebrated the rain-feast--they danced for three days, and on the fourth day the clouds brought heavy rain and refreshed the people. This event is still commemorated by a circle of stones at that place. They reached a spring southeast from Kibitho (k.u.ms Spring) and there they built a house and lived for some time. Our people had plenty of rain and cultivated much corn and some of the Walpi people came to visit us. They told ns that their rain only came here and there in fine misty sprays, and a basketful of corn was regarded as a large crop. So they asked us to come to their land and live with them and finally we consented. When we got there we found some Eagle people living near the Second Mesa; our people divided, and part went with the Eagle and have ever since remained there; but we camped near the First Mesa. It was planting time and the Walpi celebrated their rain-feast but they brought only a mere misty drizzle. Then we celebrated our rain-feast and planted.

Great rains and thunder and lightning immediately followed and on the first day after planting our corn was half an arms length high; on the fourth day it was its full height, and in one moon it was ripe. When we were going up to the village (Walpi was then north of the gap, probably), we were met by a Bear man who said that our thunder frightened the women and we must not go near the village.

Then the kwakwanti said, Let us leave these people and seek a land somewhere else, but our women said they were tired of travel and insisted upon our remaining. Then Fire-picker came down from the village and told us to come up there and stay, but after we had got into the village the Walpi women screamed out against us--they feared our thunder--and so the Walpi turned us away. Then our people, except those who went to the Second Mesa, traveled to the northeast as far as the Tsegi (Canyon de Ch.e.l.ly), but I can not tell whether our people built the louses there. Then they came hack to this region again and built houses and had much trouble with the Walpi, but we have lived here ever since.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XI. Masonry on the outer wall of the Fire-House, detail.]

Groups of the Water people, as already stated, were distributed among all the villages, although the bulk of them remained at the Middle Mesa; but it seems that most of the remaining groups subsequently chose to build their permanent houses at Oraibi. There is no special tradition of this movement; it is only indicated by this circ.u.mstance, that in addition to the Water families common to every village, there are still in Oraibi several families of that people which have no representatives in any of the other villages. At a quite early day Oraibi became a place of importance, and they tell of being sufficiently populous to establish many outlying settlements. They still identify these with ruins on the detached mesas in the valley to the south and along the Moen-kopi (place of flowing water) and other intermittent streams in the west.

These sites were occupied for the purpose of utilizing cultivable tracts of land in their vicinity, and the remotest settlement, about 45 miles west, was especially devoted to the cultivation of cotton, the place being still called by the Navajo and other neighboring tribes, the cotton planting ground. It is also said that several of the larger ruins along the course of the Moen-kopi were occupied by groups of the Snake, the Coyote, and the Eagle who dwelt in that region for a long period before they joined the people in Tusayan. The incursions of foreign bands from the north may have hastened that movement, and the Oraibi say they were compelled to withdraw all their outlying colonies.

An episode is related of an attack upon the main village when a number of young girls were carried off, and 2 or 3 years afterward the same marauders returned and treated with the Oraibi, who paid a ransom in corn and received all their girls back again. After a quiet interval the pillaging bands renewed their attacks and the settlements on the Moen-kopi were vacated. They were again occupied after another peace was established, and this condition of alternate occupancy and abandonment seems to have existed until within quite recent time.

While the Asa were still sojourning in Canyon de Ch.e.l.ly, and before the arrival of the Hano, another b.l.o.o.d.y scene had been enacted in Tusayan.

Since the time of the Antelope Canyon feuds there had been enmity between Awatubi and some of the other villages, especially Walpi, and some of the Sikyatki refugees had transmitted their feudal wrongs to their descendants who dwelt in Awatubi. They had long been perpetrating all manner of offenses; they had intercepted hunting parties from the other villages, seized their game, and sometimes killed the hunters; they had fallen upon men in outlying corn fields, maltreating and sometimes slaying them, and threatened still more serious outrage.

Awatubi was too strong for Walpi to attack single-handed, so the a.s.sistance of the other villages was sought, and it was determined to destroy Awatubi at the close of a feast soon to occur. This was the annual feast of the kwakwanti, which is still maintained and is held during the month of November by each village, when the youths who have been qualified by certain ordeals are admitted to the councils. The ceremonies last several days, and on the concluding night special rites are held in the kivas. At these ceremonies every man must be in the kiva to which he belongs, and after the close of the rites they all sleep there, no one being permitted to leave the kiva until after sunrise on the following day.

There was still some little intercourse between Awatubi and Walpi, and it was easily ascertained when this feast was to be held. On the day of its close, the Walpi sent word to their allies to prepare the war arrow and come, and in the evening the fighting bands from the other villages a.s.sembled at Walpi, as the foray was to be led by the chief of that village. By the time night had fallen something like 150 marauders had met, all armed, of course; and of still more ominous import than their weapons were the firebrands they carried--shredded cedar bark loosely bound in rolls, resinous splinters of pion, dry greasewood (a furze very easily ignited), and pouches full of pulverized red peppers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XII. Chukubi, plan.]

Secure in the darkness from observation, the bands followed the Walpi chief across the valley, every man with his weapons in hand and a bundle of inflammables on his back. Beaching the Awatubi mesa they cautiously crept up the steep, winding trail to the summit, and then stole round the village to the pa.s.sages leading to the different courts holding the kivas, near which they hid themselves. They waited till just before the gray daylight came, then the Walpi chief shouted his war cry and the yelling bands rushed to the kivas. Selecting their positions, they were at them in a moment, and quickly s.n.a.t.c.hing up the ladders through the hatchways, the only means of exit, the doomed occupants were left as helpless as rats in a trap. Fire was at hand in the numerous little cooking pits, containing the jars of food prepared for the celebrants, the inflammable bundles were lit and tossed into the kivas, and the piles of firewood on the terraced roofs were thrown down upon the blaze, and soon each kiva became a furnace. The red pepper was then cast upon the fire to add its choking tortures, while round the hatchways the a.s.sailants stood showering their arrows into the ma.s.s of struggling wretches. The fires were maintained until the roofs fell in and buried and charred the bones of the victims. It is said that every male of Awatubi who had pa.s.sed infancy perished in the slaughter, not one escaping. Such of the women and children as were spared were taken out, and all the houses were destroyed, after which the captives were divided among the different villages.

The date of this last feudal atrocity can be made out with some degree of exactness, because in 1692, Don Diego Vargas with a military force visited Tusayan and mentions Awatubi as a populous village at which he made some halt. The Hano (Tewa) claim that they have lived in Tusayan for five or six generations, and that when they arrived there was no Awatubi in existence; hence it must have been destroyed not long after the close of the seventeenth century.

Since the destruction of Awatubi only one other serious affray has occurred between the villages; that was between Oraibi and Walpi. It appears that after the Oraibi withdrew their colonies from the south and west they took possession of all the unoccupied planting grounds to the east of the village, and kept reaching eastward till they encroached upon some land claimed by the Walpi. This gave rise to intermittent warfare in the outlying fields, and whenever the contending villagers met a broil ensued, until the strife culminated in an attack upon Walpi.

The Oraibi chose a day when the Walpi men were all in the field on the east side of the mesa, but the Walpi say that their women and dogs held the Oraibi at bay until the men came to the rescue. A severe battle was fought at the foot of the mesa, in which the Oraibi were routed and pursued across the Middle Mesa, where an Oraibi chief turned and implored the Walpi to desist. A conciliation was effected there, and harmonious relations have ever since existed between them. Until within a few years ago the spot where they stayed pursuit was marked by a stone, on which a s.h.i.+eld and a dog were depicted, but it was a source of irritation to the Oraibi and it was removed by some of the Walpi.

In the early part of the eighteenth century the Ute from the north, and the Apache from the south made most disastrous inroads upon the villages, in which Walpi especially suffered. The Navajo, who then lived upon their eastern border, also suffered severely from the same bands, but the Navajo and the Tusayan were not on the best terms and never made any alliance for a common defense against these invaders.

Hano was peopled by a different linguistic stock from that of the other villages--a stock which belongs to the Rio Grande group. According to Polaka, the son of the princ.i.p.al chief, and himself an enterprising trader who has made many journeys to distant localities--and to others, the Hano once lived in seven villages on the Rio Grande, and the village in which his forefathers lived was called Tceewge. This, it is said, is the same as the present Mexican village of Pea Blanca.

The Hano claim that they came to Tusayan only after repeated solicitation by the Walpi, at a time when the latter were much hara.s.sed by the Ute and Apache. The story, as told by Kwlakwai, who lives in Hano, but is not himself a Hano, begins as follows:

Long ago the Hopituh were few and were continually hara.s.sed by the Ytamo (Ute), Yuttcemo (Apache), and Dacbimo (Navajo). The chiefs of the Tcuin nyumu (Snake people) and the Hnin nyumu (Bear people) met together and made the baho (sacred plume stick) and sent it with a man from each of these people to the house of the Tewa, called Tceewdigi, which was far off on the Mina (river) near Alavia (Santa F).

The messengers did not succeed in persuading the Tewa to come and the emba.s.sy was sent three times more. On the fourth visit the Tewa consented to come, as the Walpi had offered to divide their land and their waters with them, and set out for Tusayan, led by their own chief, the village being left in the care of his son. This first band is said to have consisted of 146 women, and it was afterwards followed by another and perhaps others.

Before the Hano arrived there had been a cessation of hostile inroads, and the Walpi received them churlishly and revoked their promises regarding the division of land and waters with them. They were shown where they could build houses for themselves on a yellow sand mound on the east side of the mesa just below the gap. They built there, but they were compelled to go for their food up to Walpi. They could get no vessels to carry their food in, and when they held out their hands for some the Walpi women mockingly poured out hot porridge and scalded the fingers of the Hano.

After a time the Ute came down the valley on the west side of the mesa, doing great harm again, and drove off the Walpi flocks andiron Then the Hano got ready for war; they tied buckskins around their loins, whitened their legs with clay, and stained their body and arms with dark red earth (ocher). They overtook the Ute near Wpho (about 3 miles north from Hano), but the Ute had driven the flocks up the steep mesa side, and when they saw the Tewa coming they killed all the sheep and piled the carca.s.ses up for a defense, behind which they lay down. They had a few firearms also, while the Hano had only clubs and bows and arrows; but after some fighting the Ute were driven out and the Tewa followed after them. The first Ute was killed a short distance beyond, and a stone heap still (?) marks the spot. Similar heaps marked the places where other Ute were killed as they fled before the Hano, but not far from the San Juan the last one was killed.

Upon the return of the Hano from this successful expedition they were received gratefully and allowed to come up on the mesa to live--the old houses built by the Asa, in the present village of Hano, being a.s.signed to them. The land was then divided, an imaginary line between Hano and Sichumovi, extending eastward entirely across the valley, marked the southern boundary, and from this line as far north as the spot where the last Utah was killed was a.s.signed to the Hano as their possession.

When the Hano first came the Walpi said to them, let us spit in your mouths, and you will learn our tongue, and to this the Hano consented. When the Hano came up and built on the mesa they said to the Walpi, let us spit in your mouths and you will learn our tongue, but the Walpi would not listen to this, saying it would make them vomit. This is the reason why all the Hano can talk Hop, and none of the Hoptuh can talk Hano.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XIII. Payupki, plan.]

The Asa and the Hano were close friends while they dwelt in New Mexico, and when they came to this region both of them were called Hnomuh by the other people of Tusayan. This term signifies the mode in which the women of these people wear their hair, cut off in front on a line with the mouth and carelessly parted or hanging over the face, the back hair rolled up in a compact queue at the nape of the neck. This uncomely fas.h.i.+on prevails with both matron, and maid, while among the other Tusayan the matron parts her hair evenly down the head and wears it hanging in a straight queue on either side, the maidens wearing theirs in a curious discoid arrangement over each temple.

Although the Asa and the Hano women have the same peculiar fas.h.i.+on of wearing the hair, still there is no affinity of blood claimed between them. The Asa speak the same language as the other Tusayan, but the Tewa (Hano) have a quite distinct language which belongs to the Taoan stock.

They claim that the occupants of the following pueblos, in the same region of the Rio Grande, are of their people and speak the same tongue.

Kt.i.te Cochit (?). Kpung Santa Clara (?) Nmi Namb. Pokwdi Pojoaque.

Ohke San Juan. Tetsgi Tesuque.

Poswe (Doubtless extinct.) Also half of Taos.

Pleasant relations existed for some time, but the Walpi again grew ill-tempered; they encroached upon the Hano planting grounds and stole their property. These troubles increased, and the Hano moved away from the mesa; they crossed the west valley and built temporary shelters.

They sent some men to explore the land on the westward to find a suitable place for a new dwelling. These scouts went to the Moen-kopi, and on returning, the favorable story they told of the land they had seen determined the Tewa to go there.

Meanwhile some knowledge of these troubles had reached Tceewdigi, and a party of the Tewa came to Tusayan to take their friends back. This led the Hopituh to make reparation, which restored the confidence of the Hano, and they returned to the mesa, and the recently arrived party were also induced to remain. Yet even now, when the Hano (Tewa) go to visit their people on the river, the latter beseech them to come back, but the old Tewa say, we shall stay here till our breath leaves us, then surely we shall go back to our first home to live forever.

The Walpi for a long time frowned down all attempts on the part of the Hano to fraternize; they prohibited intermarriages, and in general tabued the Hano. Something of this spirit was maintained until quite recent years, and for this reason the Hano still speak their own language, and have preserved several distinctive customs, although now the most friendly relations exist among all the villages. After the Hano were quietly established in their present position the Asa returned, and the Walpi allotted them a place to build in their own village. As before mentioned, the house ma.s.s on the southeast side of Walpi, at the head of the trail leading up to the village at that point, is still occupied by Asa families, and their tenure of possession was on the condition that they should always defend that point of access and guard the south end of the village. Their kiva is named after this circ.u.mstance as that of the Watchers of the High Place.

Some of the Bear and Lizard families being crowded for building s.p.a.ce, moved from Walpi and built the first houses on the site of the present village of Sichumovi, which is named from the Sivwapsi, a shrub which formerly grew there on some mounds (chumo).

This was after the Asa had been in Walpi for some time; probably about 125 years ago. Some of the Asa, and the Badger, the latter descendants of women saved from the Awatubi catastrophe, also moved to Sichumovi, but a plague of smallpox caused the village to be abandoned shortly afterward. This pestilence is said to have greatly reduced the number of the Tusayan, and after it disappeared there were many vacant houses in every village. Sichumovi was again occupied by a few Asa families, but the first houses were torn down and new ones constructed from them.

LIST OF TRADITIONARY GENTES.

In the following table the early phratries (nyu-mu) are arranged in the order of their arrival, and the direction from which each came is given, except in the case of the Bear people. There are very few representatives of this phratry existing now, and very little tradition extant concerning its early history. The table does not show the condition of these, organizations in the present community but as they appear in the traditional accounts of their coming to Tusayan, although representatives of most of them can still be found in the various villages. There are, moreover, in addition to these, many other gentes and sub-gentes of more recent origin. The subdivision, or rather the multiplication of gentes may be said to be a continuous process; as, for example, in corn can be found families claiming to be of the root, stem, leaf, ear, blossom, etc., all belonging to corn; but there may be several families of each of these components const.i.tuting district sub-gentes. At present there are really but four phratries recognized among the Hopituh, the Snake, Horn, Eagle, and Rain, which is indifferently designated as Water or Corn:

1. Ho-nan--Bear.

Ho-nan Bear.

Ko-kya-a Spider.

Tco-zir Jay.

Hek-pa Fir.

2. Tcu-a--Rattlesnake--from the west and north.

Tcu-a Rattlesnake.

Yu-ya Cactus--opuntia.

Pn-e Cactus, the species that grows in dome-like ma.s.ses.

-se Cactus, candelabra, or branching stemmed species.

He-wi Dove.

Pi-vwani Marmot.

Pih-tca Skunk.

Ka-la-ci-au-u Racc.o.o.n.

3. A-la--Horn--from the east.

So-wi-wa Deer.

Tcib-io Antelope.

Pa-wa Mountain sheep.