Chapter V: Part 5

For many years after its destruction the name of Awatobi was still retained on maps including the Tusayan province, and there exist several published references to the place as if still inhabited; but these appear to be compilations, as no traveler visited the site subsequently to 1700. It is never referred to in writings of the eighteenth or first half of the nineteenth centuries, and its site attracted no attention. The ruins remained unidentified until about 1884, when the late Captain J. G. Bourke published his book on the "Snake Dance of the Moquis," in which he showed that the ruin called by the Navaho Tally-hogan was the old Awatobi which played such a prominent part in early Tusayan history.

The ruin was described and figured a few years later by Mr Victor Mindeleff in his valuable memoir on Cibola and Tusayan architecture. Bourke's reference is very brief and Mindeleff's plan deficient, as it includes only a portion of the ruin, namely, the conspicuous mission walls and adjacent buildings, overlooking entirely the older or western mounds, which are the most characteristic. In 1892 I published the first complete ground-plan of the ruins of Awatobi, including both eastern and western sections. As Mindeleff's plan is defective, his characterization of the architectural features of the pueblo is consequently faulty. He says: "The plan suggests that the original pueblo was built about three sides of a rectangular court, the fourth or southeast side, later occupied by the mission buildings, being left open or protected by a low wall." While the eastern portion undoubtedly supports this conclusion, had he examined the western or main section he would doubtless have qualified his conclusion (plate CVII). This portion was compact, without a rectangular court, and was of pyramidal form. The eastern section was probably of later construction, and the mission was originally built outside the main pueblo, although probably a row of rooms of very ancient date extended along the northern side opposite the church. As it was customary in Tusayan to isolate the kivas, these rooms in Awatobi were probably extramural and may have been situated in this eastern court, but the majority of the people lived in the western section. The architecture of the mission and adjacent rooms shows well-marked Spanish influence, which is wholly absent in the buildings forming the western mounds.

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CVII

GROUND PLAN OF AWATOBI]

LEGEND OF THE DESTRUCTION OF AWATOBI

The legend of the overthrow of Awatobi is preserved in detail among the living villagers of Tusayan, and like all stories which have been transmitted for several generations exist in several variants, differing in episodes, but coinciding in general outlines. In the absence of contemporary documentary history, which some time may possibly be brought to light, the legends are the only available data regarding an event of great importance in the modern history of Tusayan.

I have obtained the legends from Supela, Shimo,[68] Masiumptiwa, and Saliko, and the most complete appears to be that of the last mentioned. The others dilated more on the atrocities which were committed on the bodies of the unfortunate captives, and the tortures endured before they were killed. All show traces of modification, incorporation, and modern invention.

_Destruction of Awatobi as related by Saliko_[69]

"The chiefs Wiki and Shimo, and others, have told you their
stories, and surely their ancestors were living here at Walpi
when Awatobi was occupied. It was a large village, and many
people lived there, and the village chief was called Tapolo,
but he was not at peace with his people, and there were
quarreling and trouble. Owing to this conflict only a little
rain fell, but the land was fertile and fair harvests were
still gathered. The Awatobi men were bad (_powako_,
sorcerers). Sometimes they went in small bands among the
fields of the other villagers and cudgeled any solitary
worker they found. If they overtook any woman they ravished
her, and they waylaid hunting parties, taking the game, after
beating and sometimes killing the hunters. There was
considerable trouble in Awatobi, and Tapolo sent to the
Oraibi chief asking him to bring his people and kill the evil
Awatobians. The Oraibi came and fought with them, and many
were killed on both sides, but the Oraibi were not strong
enough to enter the village, and were compelled to withdraw.
On his way back the Oraibi chief stopped at Walpi and talked
with the chiefs there. Said he, 'I can not tell why Tapolo
wants the Oraibi to kill his folks, but we have tried and
have not succeeded very well. Even if we did succeed, what
benefit would come to us who live too far away to occupy the
land? You Walpi people live close to them and have suffered
most at their hands; it is for you to try.' While they were
talking Tapolo had also come, and it was then decided that
other chiefs of all the villages should convene at Walpi to
consult. Couriers were sent out, and when all the chiefs had
arrived Tapolo declared that his people had become sorcerers
(Christians), and hence should all be destroyed.

"It was then arranged that in four days large bands from all
the other villages should prepare themselves, and assemble at
a spring not far from Awatobi. A long while before this, when
the Spaniards lived there, they had built a wall on the side
of the village that needed protection, and in this wall was a
great, strong door. Tapolo proposed that the assailants
should come before dawn, and he would be at this door ready
to admit them, and under this compact he returned to his
village. During the fourth night after this, as agreed upon,
the various bands assembled at the deep gulch spring, and
every man carried, besides his weapons, a cedar-bark torch
and a bundle of greasewood. Just before dawn they moved
silently up to the mesa summit, and, going directly to the
east side of the village, they entered the gate, which opened
as they approached. In one of the courts was a large kiva,
and in it were a number of men engaged in sorcerer's rites.
The assailants at once made for the kiva, and plucking up the
ladder, they stood around the hatchway, shooting arrows down
among the entrapped occupants. In the numerous cooking pits
fire had been maintained through the night for the
preparation of food for a feast on the appointed morning, and
from these they lighted their torches. Great numbers of these
and the bundles of greasewood being set on fire, they were
cast down the hatchway, and firewood from stacks upon the
house terraces were also thrown into the kiva. The red
peppers for which Awatobi was famous were hanging in thick
clusters along the fronts of the houses, and these they
crushed in their hands and flung upon the blazing fire in the
kiva to further torment their burning occupants. After this,
all who were capable of moving were compelled to travel or
drag themselves until they came to the sand-hills of
Mishoñinovi, and there the final disposition of the prisoners
was made.

"My maternal ancestor had recognized a woman chief (_Mamzrau
moñwi_), and saved her at the place of massacre called Maski,
and now he asked her whether she would be willing to initiate
the woman of Walpi in the rites of the _Mamzrau_. She
complied, and thus the observance of the ceremonial called
the Mamzráuti came to Walpi. I can not tell how it came to
the other villages. This Mamzrau-moñwi had no children, and
hence my maternal ancestor's sister became chief, and her
_tiponi_ (badge of office) came to me. Some of the other
Awatobi women knew how to bring rain, and such of them as
were willing to teach their songs were spared and went to
different villages. The Oraibi chief saved a man who knew how
to cause peaches to grow, and that is why Oraibi has such an
abundance of peaches now. The Mishoñinovi chief saved a
prisoner who knew how to make the sweet, small-ear corn grow,
and that is why it is more abundant there than elsewhere. All
the women who knew song prayers and were willing to teach
them were spared, and no children were designedly killed, but
were divided among the villages, most of them going to
Mishoñinovi. The remainder of the prisoners, men and women,
were again tortured and dismembered and left to die on the
sand hills, and there their bones are, and that is the reason
the place is called _Maschomo_ (Death-mound). This is the
story of Awatobi told by my old people."

All variants of the legend are in harmony in this particular, that Awatobi was destroyed by the other Tusayan pueblos, and that Mishoñinovi, Walpi, and probably Oraibi and Shuñopovi participated in the deed. A grievance that would unite the other villagers against Awatobi must have been a great one, indeed, and not a mere dispute about water or lands. The more I study the real cause, hidden in the term _powako_, "wizard" or "sorcerer," the more I am convinced that the progress Christianity was making in Awatobi, after the reconquest of the Pueblos in 1692, explains the hostility of the other villagers. The party favoring the Catholic fathers in Awatobi was increasing, and the other Tusayan pueblos watched its growth with alarm. They foresaw that it heralded the return of the hated domination of the priests, associated in their minds with practical slavery, and they decided on the tragedy, which was carried out with all the savagery of which their natures were capable.

They greatly feared the return of the Spanish soldiers, as the epoch of Spanish rule, mild though it may have been, was held in universal detestation. Moreover, after the reconquest of the Rio Grande pueblos, many apostates fled to Tusayan and fanned the fires of hatred against the priests. Walpi received these malcontents, who came in numbers a few years later. Among these arrivals were Tanoan warriors and their families, part of whom were ancestors of the present inhabitants of Hano.

It was no doubt hoped that the destruction of Awatobi would effectually root out the growing Christian influence, which it in fact did; and for fifty years afterward Tusayan successfully resisted all efforts to convert it. Franciscans from the east and Jesuits from the Gila in the south strove to get a new hold, but they never succeeded in rebuilding the missions in this isolated province, which was generally regarded as independent.

From the scanty data I have been able to collect from historical and legendary sources, it seems probable that Awatobi was always more affected by the padres than were the other Tusayan pueblos. This was the village which was said to have been "converted" by Padre Porras, whose work, after his death by poison in 1633, was no doubt continued by his associates and successors. About 1680, as we learn from documentary accounts, the population of Awatobi was 800,[70] and it was probably not much smaller in 1700, the time of its destruction.

EVIDENCES OF FIRE IN THE DESTRUCTION

Wherever excavations were conducted in the eastern section of Awatobi, we could not penetrate far below the surface without encountering unmistakable evidences of a great conflagration. The effect of the fire was particularly disastrous in the rooms of the eastern section, or that part of the pueblo contiguous to the mission. Hardly a single object was removed from this part of Awatobi that had not been charred. Many of the beams were completely burned; others were charred only on their surfaces. The rooms were filled with ashes and scoriæ, while the walls had been cracked as if by intense heat.

Perhaps the most significant fact in regard to the burning of Awatobi was seen in some of the houses where the fire seems to have been less intense. In many chambers of the eastern section, which evidently were used as granaries, the corn was stacked in piles just as it is today under many of the living rooms at Walpi, a fact which tends to show that there was no attempt to pillage the pueblo before its destruction. The ears of corn in these store-rooms were simply charred, but so well preserved that entire ears of maize were collected in great numbers. It may here be mentioned that upon one of the stacks of corn I found during my excavations for the Hemenway Expedition in 1892, a rusty iron knife-blade, showing that the owner of the room was acquainted with objects of Spanish manufacture. This blade is now deposited with the Hemenway collection in the Peabody Museum at Cambridge.

THE RUINS OF THE MISSION

The mission church of San Bernardino de Awatobi was erected very early in the history of the Spanish occupancy, and its ruined walls are the only ones now standing above the surface. This building was constructed by the padres on a mesa top, while the churches at Walpi and Shuñopovi were built in the foothills near those pueblos. The mission at Oraibi likewise stood on a mesa top, so that we must qualify Mindeleff's statement[71] that "at Tusayan there is no evidence that a church or mission house ever formed part of the villages on the mesa summits.... These summits have been extensively occupied only in comparatively recent time, although one or more churches may have been built here at an early date as outlooks over the fields in the valley below."

At the time of the Spanish invasion three of the Hopi villages stood on the foothills or lower terraces of the mesas on which they now stand, and the other two, Awatobi and Oraibi, occupied the same sites as today, on the summits of the mesas.

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CVIII

RUINS OF SAN BERNARDINO DE AWATOBI]

I believe that at the time of the Spanish discovery of Tusayan by Pedro de Tobar in 1540, there were only five Tusayan towns--Walpi, Awatobi, Shuñopovi, Mishoñinovi, and Oraibi. Later, Awatobi was destroyed, and shortly after 1680 Walpi, the only East Mesa town, together with Mishoñinovi and Shuñopovi, on the Middle Mesa, were moved to the elevated sites they now occupy. Oraibi, therefore, is probably the only Tusayan pueblo, at present inhabited, which occupies practically the same site that it did in 1540.

In their excavations for the foundations of new houses the present inhabitants of Oraibi often find, as I am informed by Mr H. R. Voth, the missionary at that place, vessels or potsherds of ancient Tusayan ware closely resembling that which is found in the ruins of Sikyatki and Awatobi.

The mission building at Awatobi, known in the church history of New Mexico and Arizona as San Bernardo or San Bernardino, was reputed to be the largest in Tusayan, and its walls are still the best preserved of any mission structure in that province. This, however, does not imply that the church structures of Tusayan are well preserved, for the mission buildings at Walpi have wholly disappeared, while at Oraibi little more than a pile of stones remains. Of the Shuñopovi mission of San Bernabe there are no standing walls save at one end, which are now used as a sheep corral.

The mission of San Bernardino de Awatobi was built on the southern side of the eastern part of the pueblo on the edge of the cliff, and its walls are the only ones of Awatobi now standing above ground. From the situation of these walls, as compared with the oldest part of Awatobi--the western mounds--I believe that San Bernardino mission was, when erected, beyond the limits of the pueblo proper--a custom almost universally followed in erecting pueblo mission churches--necessary in this instance, since from the compactness of the village there was no other available site. The same was true of the missions of Oraibi and Shuñopovi, and probably of Old Walpi. As time passed additional buildings were erected near it, this eastward extension altering the original plan of the town, but in no way affecting the configuration of the older portion.

From its commanding position on the edge of the mesa the mission walls must have presented an imposing appearance from the plain below, rising as they did almost continuously with the side of the cliff, making a conspicuous structure for miles across Antelope valley, from which its crumbling walls are still visible (plate CVIII).

When compared with the masonry of unmodified pueblo ruins the walls of the mission may be designated massive, and excavation at their foundations was very difficult on account of the great amount of débris which had fallen about them. With the limited force of laborers at my command the excavations could not be conducted with a great degree of thoroughness.

In the middle of what I supposed to have been the main church there was much sand, evidently drift, and in it I sank a trench 10 feet below the surface without reaching anything which I considered a floor. We found in excavations at the foundation of the church walls fragments of glass, several copper nails, a much-corroded iron hook, a copper bell pivot, and fragments of Spanish pottery. From the character of these objects alone there is no doubt in my mind of the former existence of Spanish influence, and the method of construction of the mission walls and the addition constructed of adobe containing chopped straw, substantiate this conclusion. Supposing, from the architecture and orientation of other New Mexican missions, that the altar was at the western end, opposite the entrance to the church, I sank a trench along the foundation of the wall on that side, but encountered such a mass of fallen stone at that point that I found it impossible to make much progress, and the fact that the floor was more than 10 feet below the surface of the central depression led me to abandon, as impossible with my little band of native excavators, the laying bare of the floor of the church.

The ground plan (figure 255) of the mission resembles that of the Zuñi church, and is not unlike the plans of the churches in the Rio Grande pueblos. The tall buttresses, which rise 15 or 20 feet above the trail up the mesa on the southern corner, are, I believe, remnants of towers which formerly supported a balcony. During a previous visit to Tusayan I obtained fragments[72] of the ancient bell, which are now on exhibition in the Hemenway section of the Peabody Museum at Cambridge.

The stone walls of the mission were rarely dressed or carefully fitted, the interstices being filled in with loose rubble laid in adobe. There was apparently a gallery over the entrance to the building overlooking many smaller buildings, which evidently were the quarters of the resident priest. The construction of the walls was apparently a laborious task, as many of the stones are large and must have been brought a considerable distance. These stones were laid in adobe, and apparently were plastered without and within, although little evidence of the former plastering may now be seen. At the northwestern corner, however, there still remain well-made adobe walls, the clay having been intermixed with straw. From the general appearance of these walls I regard them as of late construction, probably long after the destruction of the mission.

An examination of the plan of the mission building shows that it was oriented about north and south, with the entrance toward the latter direction. Compared with many other pueblo missions, this would seem to be an exceptional position. In my excavations I naturally sought the probable position of the entrance and, opposite it, the recess for the altar. It is evident, from the form of the standing walls, that an entrance from the east would be blocked by standing walls, and the axis of the building is north and south. The theory that the door was at the south has much in its favor, but there are several almost fatal objections to this conclusion.

If, however, we suppose that the entrance was in the south wall, the high walls still standing above the trail up the mesa would then recall the façades of other missions. The rooms east of the largest inclosure, by this interpretation, would be outbuildings--residence rooms for the padres--one side of which forms the eastern walls of the church edifice. The form of the Awatobi church, as indicated by the walls still standing, is very similar to that of Zuñi, notwithstanding the orientation appears to be somewhat different.

Excavations failed to reveal any sign of the altar recess at either the northern or the western end, which is not surprising, since the walls are so poorly preserved in both these directions. It was, moreover, very difficult to make a satisfactory examination of the foundations of the walls at any point on account of the fallen stories, which encumbered the floor at their bases.

From the appearance of antiquity it seems probable that long before the mission buildings were erected a ridge of many-storied houses extended eastward from the pueblo on the northern side of a level space or court, in which there were, either then or later, ceremonial chambers or kivas. The southern side of this open space was the site of the mission, but was then unoccupied. This open space recalls the large court at Walpi, where the Snake dance occurs, but it was considerably broader, one side being formed by the structures which rose from the edge of the mesa. In course of time, however, the mission buildings were erected on this site, and a wall connecting the ridge of houses on the north and the outhouses of the mission was made, thus inclosing the court on all four sides. It was into this inclosure, through a gateway, the buttresses of which still remain, that the assailants passed on that eventful night when Awatobi was destroyed.

There is good evidence that a massacre of Awatobians occurred in the southeastern angle of the eastern part of the pueblo, just east of the mission. If so, it is probable that many of the unfortunates sought refuge in the outbuildings of the church. Suspecting that such was the case, I excavated a considerable space of ground at these places and found many human skulls and other bones thrown together in confusion. The earth was literally filled with bones, evidently hastily placed there or left where the dead fell. These bodies were not buried with pious care, for there were no fragments of mortuary pottery or other indication of burial objects. Many of the skulls were broken, some pierced with sharp implements. While it is true that possibly this may have been a potter's field, or, from its position east of the mission, a Christian burial place, as at Zuñi, the evidence from the appearance of the bodies points to a different conclusion. According to the legends, the hostiles entered the pueblo through the adjacent gateway; their anger led them especially against those of the inhabitants who were regarded as _powako_ or sorcerers, and their first acts of violence would naturally have been toward those who sought refuge in the buildings adjacent the church. Near this hated "Singing-house" the slaughter began, soon extending to the kivas and the whole of the eastern section of the village. There was no evidence of murderous deeds in the rooms of the western section of the old pueblo, and the legends agree in relating that most of the men were in kivas, not far from the mission, when the village was overthrown. There is no legendary evidence that there were any Spanish priests in the mission at the time of its destruction, and there is no record extant of any Spaniards losing their lives at Awatobi at the time of its destruction, although the fact of the occurrence, according to Bandelier,[73] was recorded.

The traditional clans which inhabited Awatobi were the Awata (Bow), Honani (Badger), Piba (Tobacco), and Buli (Butterfly). The Bow people appear to have been the most important of these, since their name was applied to the village. Their totemic signatures, in pictographic form, may still be seen on the sides of the cliff under Awatobi, and in the ruins was found a fine arrowshaft polisher on which was an incised drawing of a bow and an arrow, suggesting that the owner was a member of the Bow phratry. Saliko, the chief of the woman's society known as the Mamzrautû, insists that this priesthood was strong in the fated pueblo, and that a knowledge of its mysteries was brought to Walpi by one of the women who was saved.

It is claimed by the folklorists of the Tataukyamû, a priesthood which, controls the New-fire ceremonies at Walpi, and is prominent in the Soyaluña, or the rites of the winter solstice, that the Piba or Tobacco phratry brought the fetishes of that society to Walpi, and there are many obscurely known resemblances between the Mamzrauti and the Wüwütcimti celebrations in Walpi which appear to support that claim. The Piba phratry is likewise said to have come to Walpi comparatively late in the history of the village, which fact points the same way.

Undoubtedly Awatobi received additions to its population from the south when the pueblos on the Little Colorado were abandoned, and there are obscure legends which support that belief; but the largest numbers were recruited from the pueblos in the eastern section of the country.[74]

THE KIVAS OF AWATOBI

A pueblo of the size of Awatobi, with so many evidences of long occupancy, would no doubt have several ceremonial chambers or kivas, but as yet no one has definitely indicated their positions. I have already called attention to evidences that if they existed they were probably to be looked for in the open court east of the western mounds and in the space north of the mission. In all the inhabited Tusayan pueblos the kivas are separated from the house clusters and are surrounded by courts or dance plazas. No open spaces existed in the main or western mounds of Awatobi, and there was no place there for kivas unless the pueblo was exceptional in having such structures built among the dwellings, as at Zuñi. A tradition has survived that Awatobi had regular kivas, partially subterranean, of rectangular shape, and that they were situated in open courts. This would indicate that the space east of the oldest part of the ruin may have been the sites of these chambers. The old priests whom I have consulted in regard to the probable positions of Awatobi kivas have invariably pointed out the mounds north of the mission walls in the eastern section of the ruin as the location of the kivas, and in 1892 I proved to my satisfaction that these directions were correct.

There is no reason to suppose that the kiva was a necessity in the ancient performance of the Tusayan ritual, and there are still performed many ceremonials as secret and as sacred as any others which occur in rooms used as dwellings or for the storage of corn. Thus, the Flute ceremony, one of the most complicated in Tusayan, is not, and according to legends never was, performed in a kiva. On the contrary, the secret rites of the Flute society are performed in the ancestral Flute chamber or home of the oldest woman of the Flute clan. Originally, I believe, the same was true in the case of other ceremonials, and that the kiva was of comparatively recent introduction into Tusayan.[75]

Speaking of the sacred rooms of Awatobi, Mindeleff says: "No traces of kivas were visible at the time the ruin was surveyed," but Stephen is quoted in a legend that "the people of Walpi had partly cleaned out one of these chambers and used it as a depository for ceremonial plume-sticks, but the Navaho carried off their sacred deposits, tempted probably by their market value as ethnologic specimens." It is true that while from a superficial examination of the Awatobi mounds the position of the kivas is difficult to locate, a little excavation brings their walls to light. It is likewise quite probable that the legend reported by Stephen has a basis in fact, and that the people at Walpi may have used old shrines in Awatobi, after its destruction, as the priests of Mishoñinovi do at the present time; but I very much doubt if the Navaho sold any of the sacred prayer emblems from these fanes. It is hardly characteristic of these people to barter such objects among one another, and no specimens from the shrines appear to have made their way into the numerous collections of traders known to me. There is, however, archeological evidence revealed by excavations that the room centrally placed in the court north of the mission contained a shrine in its floor on the night Awatobi fell.

In 1892, while removing the soil from a depression about the middle of the eastern court of Awatobi, about 100 feet north of the northern wall of the mission, I laid bare a room 28 by 14 feet, in which were found a skull and many other human bones which, from their disposition, had not been buried with care. The discovery of these skeletons accorded with the Hopi traditions that this was one of the rooms in which the men of Awatobi were gathered on the fatal night, and the inclosure where many died. I was deterred from further excavation at that place by the horror of my workmen at the desecration of the chamber. In 1895, however, I determined to continue my earlier excavations and to trace the course of the walls of adjacent rooms. The results obtained in this work led to a new phase of the question, which sheds more light on the character of the rooms in the middle of the eastern court of Awatobi. Instead of a single room at this point, there are three rectangular chambers side by side, all of about the same size (plate CVIII). In the center of the floor of the middle room, 6 feet below the surface, I came upon a cist or stone shrine. As the workmen approached the floor they encountered a stone slab, horizontally placed in the pavement of the room. This slab was removed, and below it was another flat stone which was perforated by a rectangular hole just large enough to admit the hand and forearm. This second slab was found to cover a stone box, the sides of which were formed of stone slabs about 2-1/2 feet square. On the inner faces of the upright slabs rain-cloud symbols were painted. These symbols were of terrace form, in different colors outlined with black lines. One of the stones bore a yellow figure, another a red, and a third white. The color of the fourth was not determinable, but evidently, from its position relatively to the others, was once green. This arrangement corresponds with the present ceremonial assignment of colors to the cardinal points, or at least the north and south, as at the present time, were yellow and red, respectively, and presumably the white and green were on the east and west sides of the cist. The colors are still fairly bright and may be seen in the restoration of this shrine now in the National Museum.

There was no stone floor to this shrine, but within it were found fragments of prayer-plumes or pahos painted green, but so decayed that, when exposed to sunlight, some of them fell into dust. There were likewise fragments of green carbonate of copper and kaolin, a yellow ocher, and considerable vegetal matter mixed with the sand. All these facts tend to the belief that this crypt was an ancient shrine in the floor of a chamber which may have been a kiva.

The position of this room with a shrine in the middle of the court is interesting in comparison with that of similar shrines in some of the modern Hopi pueblos. Shrines occupy the same relative position in Sichomovi, Hano, Shipaulovi, and elsewhere, and within them sacred prayer-offerings are still deposited on ceremonial occasions. At Walpi, in the middle of the plaza, there is a subterranean crypt in which offerings are often placed, as I have elsewhere described in treating of certain ceremonies. This shrine is not visible, for a slab of stone which is placed over it lies on a level with the plaza, and is securely luted in place with adobe. There are similar subterranean prayer crypts in other Tusayan villages. They represent the traditional opening, or _sipapu_, through which, in Pueblo cosmogony, races crawled to the surface of the earth from an underworld. In Awatobi also there is a similar shrine, for the deposit of prayer-offerings, almost in the middle of a plaza bounded on three sides by the mission, the spur of many-storied houses, and the wall with a gateway, while the remaining side was formed by the great communal houses of the western part of the pueblo.

While we were taking from their ancient resting places the slabs of stone which formed this Awatobi shrine, the workmen reminded me how closely it resembled the _pahoki_ used by the _katcinas_, and when, a month later, I witnessed the _Nimán-katcina_ ceremony at Walpi, and accompanied the chief, Intiwa, when he deposited the prayer-sticks in that shrine,[76] I was again impressed by the similarity of the two, one in a ruin deserted two centuries ago, the other still used in the performance of ancient rites, no doubt much older than the overthrow of the great pueblo of Antelope mesa.

OLD AWATOBI

The western mounds of Awatobi afford satisfactory evidence that they cover the older rooms of the pueblo, and show by their compact form that the ancient village in architectural plan was similar to modern Walpi. They indicate that Awatobi was of pyramidal form, was symmetrical, three or four stories high,[77] without a central plaza, but probably penetrated by narrow courts or passages. No great ceremonial dance could have taken place in the heart of the pueblo, since there was not sufficient space for its celebration, but it must have occurred outside the village, probably in the open space to the east, near where the ruined walls of the mission now stand.

From the nature of the western mounds I found it advantageous to begin the work of excavation in the steep decline on the southern side, and to penetrate the mound on the level of its base or the rock formation which forms its foundation. In this way all the débris could advantageously be moved and thrown over the side of the mesa. We began to open the mounds, therefore, on the southern side, making converging trenches at intervals, working toward their center. We found that these trenches followed continuous walls connected by cross partitions, forming rooms, and that these were continued as far as we penetrated. The evidence is good that these rooms are followed by others which extend into the deepest part of the mound. We likewise excavated at intervals over the whole surface of the western area of Awatobi, and wherever we dug, walls of former rooms, which diminished in altitude on the northern side, were found. From these excavations I concluded that if any part of the western mound was higher than the remainder, it was on the southern side just above the edge of the mesa, and from that highest point the pueblo diminished in altitude to the north, in which direction it was continued for some distance in low, single-story rooms.

ROOMS OF THE WESTERN MOUND

The older or western portion of Awatobi is thus believed to be made up of a number of high mounds which rise steeply, and for a considerable height from the southern edge of the cliff, from which it slopes more gradually to the north and west. On account of this steep declivity we were able to examine, in vertical section, the arrangement of the rooms, one above the other (figure 256). By beginning excavations on the rocky foundation and working into the mound, parallel walls were encountered at intervals as far as we penetrated. From the edge of the cliff there seemed to extend a series of these parallel walls, which were united by cross partitions, forming a series of rooms, one back of another. The deeper we penetrated the mound the higher the walls were found to be, and this was true of the excavations along the whole southern side of the elevation (plate CIX). If, as I suspect, these parallel walls extend to the heart of the mounds, the greatest elevation of the former buildings must have been four stories. It would likewise seem probable that the town was more or less pyramidal, with the highest point somewhat back from the one- or two-story walls at the edge of the cliff, a style of architecture still preserved in Walpi. The loftiest wall, which was followed down to the floor, was 15 feet high, but as that was measured over 20 feet below the apex of the mound, it would seem that, from a distance, there would be a wall 30 feet high in the center of the mound. Even counting 7 feet as the height of each story we would have four stories above the foundation, and this, I believe, was the height of the old pueblo. But probably the wall did not rise to this height at the edge of the mesa, where it could not have been more than one or two stories high. There is no evidence of the former existence of an inclosed court of any considerable size between the buildings and the cliff, although a passage probably skirted the brink of the precipice, and house ladders may have been placed on that side for ready access to upper rooms. By a series of platforms or terraces, which were in fact the roofs of the houses, one mounted to the upper stories which formed the apex of the pueblo.

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CIX

EXCAVATIONS IN THE WESTERN MOUND OF AWATOBI]

On the western, northern, and eastern sides the slope is more gradual, and while there are many obscurely marked house plans visible over the surface, even quite near the top of the elevation, they are doubtless the remains of single-story structures. This leads me to suspect that when Awatobi was built it was reared on a mound of soil or sand, and not on the solid rock surface of the mesa. The configuration, then, shows that the pueblo sloped by easy decline to the plain to the north, but rose more abruptly from the south and west. There are low extramural mounds to the north, showing that on this side the dwellings were composed of straggling chambers. The general character of the rooms on the level slope at the western side of old Awatobi is shown in the accompanying illustration (plate CX). The peculiarity of these rooms appears by a comparison with the many-story chambers of the southern declivity of the ruin. Extending the excavations four feet below the surface we encountered a floor which rested on solid earth, and there were no signs of walls beneath it. This was without doubt a single-story house, the roof of which had disappeared. The surrounding surface of the ground is level, but the tops of adjoining walls of rooms may readily be traced near by.

The room was rectangular, twice as long as wide, and without passageways into adjoining chambers. The northern, eastern, and western walls were unbroken, and there was nothing peculiar in the floor of these sections; but we found a well-preserved, elevated settle at the southern side, extending two-thirds of the length of the main wall to a small side wall, inclosing a square recess, the object of which is unknown to me.

All walls were smoothly plastered, and the floor was paved with flat stones set in adobe. The singular inclosure at the southern corner could not be regarded as a fireplace, for there was no trace of soot upon its walls. I incline to the belief that it may have served as a closet, or possibly as a granary. Its arrangement is not unlike that in certain modern rooms at Walpi.

An examination of the masonry of the rooms of the western mounds of Awatobi shows that the component stones were in a measure dressed into shape, which was, as a rule, cubical. In this respect they differ from the larger stones of which the mission walls were built, for in this masonry the natural cleavage is utilized for the face of the wall.

The differences between the masonry of the mission and that of the room in which we found a chief buried were very marked. In the former, elongated slabs of stone, without pecking or dressing, were universal, while in the latter the squared stones were laid in courses and neatly fitted together. The partitions likewise are narrower, being not more than 6 inches thick.

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CX

EXCAVATED ROOM IN THE WESTERN MOUND OF AWATOBI]

SMALLER AWATOBI

About an eighth of a mile west of the great mounds of Awatobi there is a small rectangular ruin, the ground plan of which is well marked, and in which individual houses are easy to trace. Like its larger neighbor, it stands on the very edge of the mesa. None of its walls rise above the surface of the mounds, which, however, are considerably elevated and readily distinguished for some distance. The pueblo was built in the form of a rectangle of single-story houses surrounding a plaza. There was an opening or entrance on the southern side, near which is a mound, possibly the remains of a kiva. A trail now passes directly through the ruin and down the mesa side to Jeditoh valley, probably the pathway by which the ancient inhabitants ascended the cliff. The Hopi Indians employed by me in excavating Awatobi had no name for this ruin and were not familiar with its existence before I pointed it out to them. For want of a better interpretation I have regarded it as a colony of old Awatobi, possibly of later construction.

Excavations in its mounds revealed no objects of interest, although fragments of beautiful pottery, related to that found at Awatobi and Sikyatki, show that it must have been made by people of the older or best epoch[78] of Tusayan ceramics.

MORTUARY REMAINS

Although it is well known that the ancient inhabitants of the great houses of the Gila-Salado drainage buried some of their dead within their dwellings, or in other rooms, and that the same mortuary practice was observed in ancient Zuñi-Cibola, up to the time of my excavations this form of burial had never been found in Tusayan. I am now able to record that the same custom was practiced at Awatobi.

Excavation made in the southeastern declivity of the western mounds led to a burial chamber in which we found the well-preserved skeleton of an old man, apparently a priest. The body was laid on the floor, at full length, and at his head, which pointed southward, had been placed, not mortuary offerings of food in bowls, but insignia of his priestly office. Eight small objects of pottery were found on his left side (plate CXII, _a_, _b_, _d_, _e_). Among these was a symmetrical vase of beautiful red ware (plate CXI, _a_) richly decorated with geometric patterns, and four globular paint pots, each full of pigment of characteristic color. These paint pots were of black-and-white ware, and contained, respectively, yellow ocher, sesquioxide of iron, green copper carbonate, and micaceous hematite (plate CXIII, _a_, _d_, _e_) such as is now called _yayala_ and used by the Snake priests in the decoration of their faces. There were also many arrowpoints in an earthen colander, and a ladle was luted over the mouth of the red vase. My native excavators pronounced this the grave of a warrior priest. The passageways into this chamber of death had all been closed, and there were no other mortuary objects in the room. This was the only instance of intramural interment which I discovered in the excavations at Awatobi, but a human bone was found on the floor of another chamber. So far as known the Awatobi people buried most of their dead outside the town, either in the foothills at the base of the mesa, or in the adjacent sand-dunes.

The work of excavating the graves at the foot of the mesa was desultory, as I found no single place where many interments had been made. Several food vessels were dug up at a grave opened by Kópeli, the Snake chief. I was not with him when he found the grave, but he called me to see it soon after its discovery. We took from this excavation a sandstone fetish of a mountain-lion, a fragment of the bottom of a basin perforated with holes as if used as a colander. Deposited in this fragment were many stone arrowheads, several fragments of green paint, a flat green paho ornamented with figures of dragon-flies in black. In addition to a single complete prayer-stick there were fragments of many others too much broken to be identified. One of these was declared by Kópeli to be a chief's paho. The grave in which these objects were found was situated about halfway down the side of the mesa to the southward of the highest mounds of the western division of the pueblo.

Here and there along the base of all the foothills south of Awatobi are evidences of former burials, and complete bowls, dippers, and vases were unearthed (plate CXIII, _b_, _c_). The soil is covered with fragments of pottery, and in places, where the water has washed through them, exposing a vertical section of the ground, it was found that the fragments of pottery extended through the soil sometimes to a depth of fifty feet below the surface. There was evidence, however, that this soil had been transported more or less by rain water, which often courses down the sides of the mesa in impetuous torrents.

Human bones and mortuary vessels were found south of the mission near the trail, at the foot of the mesa. In a single grave, a foot below the surface, there were two piles of food bowls, each pile containing six vessels, all broken.

The cemetery northwest of Awatobi, where the soil is sandy and easy to excavate, had been searched by others, and many beautiful objects of pottery taken from it. This burial place yielded many bowls (plates CLXVII, CLXVIII) and jars, as well as several interesting pahos similar to those from Sikyatki, which I shall later describe but which have never before been reported from Awatobi. It was found that one of these prayer-sticks was laid over the heart of the deceased, and as the skeleton was in a sitting posture, with the hand on the breast, the prayer-stick may thus have been held at the time of burial. Our success in finding places of interment on all sides of Sikyatki, irrespective of direction, leads me to suspect that further investigation of the sand-dunes north of Awatobi will reveal graves at that point.

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXI

VASE AND MUGS FROM THE WESTERN MOUNDS OF AWATOBI]

I have already called attention to the great abundance of charred corn found in the rooms north of the mission. Renewed work in this quarter revealed still greater quantities of this corn stacked in piles, sometimes filling the entire side of a room. Evidently, as I have elsewhere shown, the row of rooms at this part of the ruin were burned with all their contents. The corn was not removed from the granaries, as it would have been if the place had been gradually abandoned. When an Indian burns stored corn in such quantities as were found at Awatobi we can not believe he was bent on pillage, and it is an instructive fact that thus far no stacked corn has been found in the western or most ancient section of Awatobi.

SHRINES

Although Awatobi was destroyed almost two centuries ago, the shrines of the old pueblo were used for many years afterward, and are even now frequented by some of the Mishoñinovi priests. In one of these ancient depositories two wooden figurines sat in state up to within a few years ago.

This shrine lies below the ruins of the mission, among the bowlders on the side of the cliff, about fifty feet from the edge of the mesa, and is formed in an eroded cavity in the side of a bowlder of unusual size. A rude wall had been built before this recess, which opened to the east, and apparently the orifice was closed with logs, which have now fallen in. The present appearance of this shrine is shown in the accompanying illustration (figure 257).

In former times two wooden idols, called the _Alosaka_, were kept in this crypt, in much the same manner as the Dawn Maid is now sealed up by the Walpians, when not used in the New-fire ceremony, as I have described in my account of _Naacnaiya_.[79] Mr Thomas V. Keam, not knowing that the Awatobi idols were still used in the Mishoñinovi ritual, had removed them to his residence, but when this was known a large number of priests begged him to return them, saying that they were still used in religious exercises. With that consideration which he has always shown to the Indians, Mr Keam allowed the priests to take the images of _Alosaka_. The figurines were this time carried to Mishoñinovi, the priests sprinkling a line of meal along the trail over which they carried them. The two idols[80] have not been seen by white people since that time, and are now, no doubt, in some hidden crypt near the Mishoñinovi village.

There is a shrine of simple character, near the ruins of smaller Awatobi, which bears evidence of antiquity (figure 258). It consisted, in 1892, of a circle of small stones in which were two large water-worn stones and a fragment of petrified wood. There was no evidence that it had lately been used.

On the extreme western point of the mesa, at the very edge of the cliff, there was also a simple shrine (figure 259). Judging from its general appearance, this, likewise, had not been used in modern times, but there were several old prayer-sticks not far away.

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXII

PAINT POTS, BOWL, AND DIPPER FROM AWATOBI]

At the foot of the mesa, below the point last mentioned, however, there is a shrine (figure 260), the earth of which contained hundreds of prayer-sticks, in all stages of decay, while some of them had been placed there only a few days before my visit. This shrine, I was told, is still used by the Mishoñinovi priests in their sacred observances. Among other forms of prayer offerings there were many small wooden cylinders with radiating sticks connected with yarn, the symbolic prayer offering for squashes.[81] In former times Antelope valley was the garden spot of Tusayan, and from what we know of the antiquity of the cultivation of squashes in the Southwest, there is little doubt that they were cultivated by the Awatobians, and that similar offerings were made by the ancient farmers for a good crop of these vegetables.

POTTERY

The mounds of Awatobi are entirely covered with fragments of pottery of all the various kinds and colors known to ancient Tusayan. There were found coiled and indented ware, coarse undecorated vessels, fine yellow and smooth ware with black-and-white and red decorations. There is no special kind of pottery peculiar to Awatobi, but it shares with the other Tusayan ruins all types, save a few fragments of black glazed ware, which occur elsewhere.

It is highly probable that the few specimens of black-and-white ware found in this ruin were not manufactured in the village, and the red ware probably came from settlements to the south, on the Little Colorado. These colors are in part due to the character of the paste which was used, and the clay most often selected by Awatobi potters made a fine yellow vessel. The material from which most of the vessels were manufactured came, no doubt, from a bank near the ruin, where there is good evidence that it was formerly quarried.

Three coarse clay objects, such as might have been used for roof drains, were found. The use of these objects, possibly indicated by their resemblance, is not, however, perfectly clear. Their capacity would not be equal to the torrents of rain which, no doubt, often fell on the housetops of Awatobi, and they can hardly be identified as spouts of large bowls, since they are attached to a circular disk with smooth edges. In want of a satisfactory explanation I have provisionally regarded them as water spouts, but whether they are from ancient vessels or from the roofs of houses I am in much doubt.[82]

One of the most instructive fragments of pottery taken from the ruins is that of a coarse clay vessel, evidently a part of a flat basin or saucer. The rim of this vessel is punctured with numerous holes, the intervals between which are not greater than the diameter of the perforations.