The Cliff Ruins of Canyon de Chelly, Arizona

The Cliff Ruins of Canyon de
Chelly, Arizona,
by Cosmos
Mindeleff

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by Cosmos Mindeleff
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Title: The Cliff Ruins of Canyon de Chelly, Arizona Sixteenth Annual
Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian
Institution, 1894-95, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1897,
pages 73-198
Author: Cosmos Mindeleff

Release Date: November 6, 2006 [eBook #19723]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

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This document is taken from the Sixteenth Annual Report of the Bureau
of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1894-95,
Government Printing Office, Washington, 1897, pages 73-198. Images
of the original pages are available through the Bibliothèque nationale
de France (BnF/Gallica) (http://gallica.bnf.fr/).
Transcriber's Note:
Typographical errors are listed at the end of the text. Brackets within
quotations are in the original.

THE CLIFF RUINS OF CANYON DE CHELLY, ARIZONA
by
COSMOS MINDELEFF

CONTENTS Page Introduction 79 History and literature 79 Geography
82 Classification and descriptions 89 Ruins of the pueblo region 89
I--Old villages on open sites 93 II--Home villages on bottom lands 94

III--Home villages located for defense 111 IV--Cliff outlooks or
farming shelters 142 Details 153 Sites 153 Masonry 159 Openings 164
Roofs, floors, and timber work 165 Storage and burial cists (Navaho)
166 Defensive and constructive expedients 170 Kivas or sacred
chambers 174 Chimney-like structures 182 Traditions 190 Conclusions
191
ILLUSTRATIONS
Plate Page XLI. Map of the ancient pueblo region, showing location of
Canyon de Chelly 79 XLII. Map of Canyon de Chelly and its branches
85 XLIII. Detailed map of part of Canyon de Chelly, showing areas of
cultivable land 93 XLIV. Section of old walls, Canyon de Chelly 95
XLV. General view of ruin on bottom land, Canyon del Muerto 97
XLVI. Village ruin in Canyon de Chelly 103 XLVII. Casa Blanca ruin,
Canyon de Chelly 105 XLVIII. Mummy cave, central and eastern part
112 XLIX. Eastern cove of Mummy cave 115 L. Reservoir in ruin No.
10 127 LI. Small village, ruin No. 16, Canyon de Chelly 129 LII. Walls
resting on refuse in ruin No. 16 131 LIII. Cliff outlook in lower Canyon
de Chelly 149 LIV. Cliff ruin No. 14 151 LV. Site marked by
pictographs 153 LVI. Site difficult of approach 159 LVII. Masonry in
Canyon de Chelly 161 LVIII. Chinked walls in Canyon de Chelly 163
LIX. A partly plastered wall 165 LX. Plastered wall in Canyon de
Chelly 167 LXI. Storage cist in Canyon de Chelly 169 LXII. Navaho
burial cists 171 LXIII. Kivas in ruin No. 10, showing second-story
walls 173
Figure Page 1. Ground plan of an old ruin in Canyon del Muerto 95 2.
Ground plan of a ruin on bottom land in Canyon del Muerto 96 3.
Ground plan of small ruin in Canyon de Chelly 96 4. Granary in the
rocks, connected with a ruin 97 5. Ground plan of a ruin in a cave 98 6.
Ground plan of Pakashi-izini ruin, Canyon del Muerto 99 7. Ground
plan of a ruin in Canyon del Muerto 100 8. Ground plan of a ruin in
Tseonitsosi canyon 100 9. Ground plan of a much obliterated ruin 101
10. Ground plan of a ruin in Canyon de Chelly 101 11. Ground plan of
a village ruin 103 12. Ground plan of kivas in Canyon de Chelly 103 13.
Ground plan of a small ruin on bottom land 104 14. Ground plan of the

upper part of Casa Blanca ruin 105 15. Ground plan of the lower part of
Casa Blanca ruin 106 16. Ground plan of Mummy Cave ruin 113 17.
Ruin in a rock cove 117 18. Ground plan of a ruin in a rock cove 117
19. Ground plan of a ruin on a ledge 118 20. Ground plan of ruin No.
31, Canyon de Chelly 119 21. Ground plan of ruin No. 32, Canyon de
Chelly 120 22. Section of a kiva wall 122 23. Ruin No. 10 on a ledge in
a cove 123 24. Ground plan of ruin No. 10 124 25. Oven-like structure
in ruin No. 10 127 26. Plan of