The Canyons of Death

Canyons of Death Secrets of 2000 Years Lie Buried in Mysterious Silence of de Chelly and Del Muerto

By NORMAN G. WALLACE Photos by the Author FAR BEYOND the northern horizon as seen from the northernmost highways or railroads of Arizona, at the place where the misty blue sandstone mesas reach up and brush a bluer vaulted dome of sky, another land of si lence basks in the bright sunshine. Now it is a land of peace, but for centuries it was a land of strife, battle and violent death. Until seventy years ago this silent place was a center of savage warfare and primitive struggle for existence for those who tried to live in its deep shadows.

More than two thousand years ago the brown sandstone walls of Canyon del Muerto and its twin canyon, the Canyon de Chelly, echoed with the war cry of savage intruders upon the peaceful homes of the basket-weaving aborigines, those first human inhabitants of whom we have any knowledge of living in this part of the western world. From where they came no one knows, and where they went we can only guess; but that they died at the hands of other savages, intruders and spoilers is good conjecture.

From the time of these earliest human inhabitants to the time of the final pacification of our present Navajo tribe. only seventy-three years ago, these two canyons have seen the life span of countless generations of members of the American Indian, and also have seen their sudden death. They have seen, too, the last mo-ments of many a white intruder during the days of the Spanish conquest a century ago. These canyons have seen an entire nation of the Indian race seek shelter for the few remaining members still able to stagger into them, and to grow strong again as they rested and increased for the century they hid in the long shadows of the brown walls.

Remnants of many a white intruder during the days of the Spanish conquest a century ago. These canyons have seen an entire nation of the Indian race seek shelter for the few remaining members still able to stagger into them, and to grow strong again as they rested and increased for the century they hid in the long shadows of the brown walls.

Archaeologists have found in the Canyons del Muerto and de Chelly what they term their happy hunting ground, for here along the vertical sides of the canyons are found hundreds of ancient dwellings representing various periods assigned to the evolution of the American Indian, from the time of the nomad wanderers, who had hardly a flat stone above their heads, to the pueblo period, which

Where Nature fashioned a near-impregnable fortress, The Canyons of Death in Northern Arizona.

there, too, sleeping a few feet away from the original resting places of those who still carried on in those times of strife. In rock cysts are packed the mummified remains of scores. Here will be found a large basket inside of which are the bodies of four children packed as tightly as sardines in a can, and wrapped with cords of yucca leaves and juniper bark fibre. There will be the mummy of an old man with his turquoise bracelet on his wrist and his flute at his side. There will be the burial of one whose only earthly remains were his two hands and forearms. In what battle and under what stress did that victim meet death, that only his hands were left to be reverently hidden away with his precious water bottle and flute beside him?

In the Mummy Cave in Canyon del Muerto there is a dwelling of over eighty rooms and three stories in height. There are corn-bins holding hundreds of ears of the yellow grain, which were found as fresh as if stored last fall. They had been sealed up in the hidden treasure chambers of these ancients for more than a thousand years, to see the light of day again in 1920. There were also the mummies of those buried centuries ago still wrapped in their shrouds of buckskin and wound with shredded juniper bark. Bracelets of turquoise adorned their hands and water bottles of gourds to accompany them on their journey of death were still as fresh as if buried yesterday. This remarkable preservation is due to the dryness of the northern Arizona atmosphere and theprotection from the rain above, as towering walls of stone lean outward as if to embrace them and keep them from the elements.

Fire alone has done most of the damage to the burial places, either from spontaneous combustion or from the ravages of some warlike tribe who killed and burned. One hundred bodies were found near Mummy Cave; they had been burned together, likely by accident, as their interment valuables were not with them.

In Massacre Cave, named from the massacre of the Navajos by the Spaniards over one hundred and thirty years ago, there are still visible the white splotches made by the Spanish bullets as the soldiers fired at the Navajos hidden in the cave above. No doubt a search in the cave would disclose the huge lead pellets the Spanish army used in those days.

The two canyons are invisible to anyone traveling on the top of the sandstone mesas through which the canyons meander. They are invisible even fifty feet from their sheer edges. Del Muerto drops abruptly, then leans outward so that a plumb line from the top will fall fifty or a hundred feet out from the bottom of the canyon wall, and most likely half way across the creek. There are a few places along the rim trail to the White House Ruins where dim wheel tracks run close to the drop off, and anyone using a speed of over one mile an hour at such places is exceeding a safe speed limit. The trail to the rim above the White House Ruins parallels the edge of the canyon at a point about six miles from Chinlee; it leads to where the National Park Service has constructed a foot-path to the river bottom. From here it is only a short walk to the base of the cliff on the opposite side where the White House Ruins stare out of eyeless windows over the canyon.

parallels the edge of the canyon at a point about six miles from Chinlee; it leads to where the National Park Service has constructed a foot-path to the river bottom. From here it is only a short walk to the base of the cliff on the opposite side where the White House Ruins stare out of eyeless windows over the canyon.

The National Park Service has posted signs instructing visitors as to methods of entering the Canyon del Chelly from (Continued on Page 25)