Aboriginal Remains in Verde Valley, Arizona | Page 3

occupy an intermediate position between the ruins of the Gila and
Salt river valleys and those of the northern districts. The limits of the
ancient pueblo region have not yet been defined, and the accompanying
map (plate X) is only preliminary. It illustrates the limited extent of our
knowledge of the ancient pueblo region as well as the distribution of
ruins within that region, so far as they are known; and the exceptional
abundance of ruins noted on certain portions of the map means only
that those parts are better known than others. Notwithstanding its
incompleteness, it is the best available and is published in the hope that
it will serve as a nucleus to which further data may be added until a
complete map is produced.
[Illustration: Plate XI. MAP OF THE VALLEY OF THE RIO
VERDE.]
The ruins in the Gila valley, including those along Salt river, are less
known than those farther northward, but we know that there is a
marked difference between the type exemplified by the well-known
Casa Grande, near Florence, Arizona, and that of which the best
specimens (notably the Chaco ruins) are found in the San Juan basin.
This difference may be due only to a different environment,

necessitating a change in material employed and consequent on this a
change in methods, although it seems to the writer that the difference is
perhaps too great to be accounted for in this way. Be the cause what it
may, there is no doubt that there is a difference; and it is reasonable to
expect that in the regions lying between the southern earth-constructed
and the northern stone structures, intermediate types might be found
which would connect them. The valley of Rio Verde occupies such an
intermediate position geographically, but the architectural remains
found in it belong to the northern type; so we must look elsewhere for
connecting links. The most important ruin in the lower Verde region
occurs near its southern end, and more distinctly resembles the northern
ruins than the ruins in the northern part of that region.
Although the examination of this region failed to connect the northern
and southern types of house structure, the peculiar conditions here are
exceptionally valuable to the study of the principles and methods of
pueblo building. Here remains of large villages with elaborate and
complex ground plan, indicating a long period of occupancy, are found,
and within a short distance there are ruins of small villages with very
simple ground plan, both produced under the same environment; and
comparative study of the two may indicate some of the principles
which govern the growth of villages and whose result can be seen in the
ground plans. Here also there is an exceptional development of cavate
lodges, and corresponding to this development an almost entire absence
of cliff dwellings. From the large amount of data here a fairly complete
idea of this phase of pueblo life may be obtained. This region is not
equal to the Gila valley in data for the study of horticultural methods
practiced among the ancient Pueblos, but there is enough to show that
the inhabitants relied principally and, perhaps, exclusively on
horticulture for means of subsistence, and that their knowledge of
horticultural methods was almost, if not quite, equal to that of their
southern neighbors. The environment here was not nearly so favorable
to that method of life as farther southward, not even so favorable as in
some northern districts, and in consequence more primitive appliances
and ruder methods prevailed. Added to these advantages for study there
is the further one that nowhere within this region are there any traces of
other than purely aboriginal work; no adobe walls, no chimneys, no

constructive expedients other than those which may be reasonably set
down as aboriginal; and, finally, the region is still so little occupied by
modern settlers that, with the exception of the vicinity of Verde, the
remains have been practically undisturbed. A complete picture of
aboriginal life during the occupancy of the lower Verde valley would
be a picture of pueblo life pursued in the face of great difficulties, and
with an environment so unfavorable that had the occupation extended
over an indefinite period of time it would still have been impossible to
develop the great structures which resulted from the settlements in
Chaco canyon.
It is not known what particular branch of the pueblo-building tribes
formerly made their home in the lower Verde valley, but the character
of the masonry, the rough methods employed, and the character of the
remains suggest the Tusayan. It has been already stated that the
archeologic affinities of this region are northern and do not conform to
any type now found in the south; and it is known that some of the
Tusayan gentes--the water people--came from the