CANYON DE CHELLY

The red-rock country of northeastern Ari-zona a weird land of steep mesas and canyons and caves and arches in red sandstone, of for-ested mountain backgrounds and of barren sandy valleys, populated sparsely by Navajo Indians and a few traders reaches its greatest climax in Canyons de Chelly and del Muerto, lying east of Chinle, Arizona, and heading in the Chuska Mountains.

These two great canyons and their major branches are set aside as a special federally protected area, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, administered by the National Park Service of the Department of the Interior. The monument area is nearly 84,000 acres. The red sandstone cliffs and the striking erosion-forms, ranging from great caves to isolated pillars of stone such as Spider Rock or the Monuments, 800 feet high, in a branch of Canyon de Chelly called Monument Canyon, make the area fascinating and spectacular from the point of view of scenery and geology alone. But the major importance of Canyons de Chelly and del Muerto lies in their historical or scientific (anthropological) aspect their special association with the Navajo Indians in modern times and their earlier occupation by the predecessors sors of the Navajo and ancestors of the Pueblo Indians, the prehistoric Anasazi. Under a special arrangement, Navajo Indians continue to live in this outstanding scenic and scientific area in the heart of the Navajo Reservation.

The name of Canyon de Chelly is a Spanish form of the Navajo name "Tsegi," meaning "rocky" or "between the rocks," as in the Sagi or Tsegi Canyons to the northwest near Kay-enta, Arizona. The visitor will admit the name is suitable; nowhere is one more unquestion-ably between rocks than in Canyon de Chelly. The red cliff walls rise to 800 feet at their highest. The other branch, Canyon del Muerto -or, translated from the Spanish, Canyon of Death, or of the Dead Man-receives its lu-gubrious name from a tragedy which took place at one of its caves, since called Massacre Cave, a hundred and forty-odd years ago. The story goes that in the winter of 1804-05, the Navajos left the women and children concealed in the caves while they left the canyon to hunt Span-iards; and in their absence Spanish soldiers came hunting Navajos. An old woman couldn't resist jeering at the Spaniards they opened fire with their muskets and killed all the Navajos, tragically trapped in the cave.

Red sandstone canyon walls rise precipitately from canyon floors in Canyon de Chelly Na-tional Monument, a protected area of 84,000 acres in heart of the Navajo Indian country.

Canyon de Chelly was also the scene of Kit Carson's final roundup of the Navajos in 1863, to commence their long walk to the Pecos River in New Mexico. The deportation was not a successful project; the Navajos came back to the red-rock country a few years later, and still live there, around their old strong-hold, the approximate center of the Navajo world, Canyon de Chelly. Their "hogans" (Navajo houses) and cultivated fields may be seen down inside the canyons themselves. Old hogans near the rim of Canyon de Chelly have been shown by tree-ring dating to have been built in 1758, 1766 and 1770-the period of the French and Indian war and the Boston Massacre in the English colonies on the At-lantic coast. At this time the Navajos were living in log hogans similar to their modern homes. They had horses, but apparently no sheep in this area although other Navajos further east, in New Mexico, already had flocks of sheep and goats. Navajo weaving probably had developed this early, but Navajo silver-work began only a hundred years ago. Painted pottery, an art undoubtedly learned from Pueblo Indian refugees, was made by the Navajos 180 years ago, similar to modern

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Navajo ceramics. Originally the Navajos probably made only the dark-colored, scored. pointed-bottom cooking-jars, which have also continued into the present time.

A few references in Spanish documents place the Navajos in this region a little earlier by the beginning of the eighteenth century Just when the Navajos first came is unknown Probably it was well after 1300; at any rate, prior to that time the canyons were occupied by very different Indians of Pueblo type instead of Apache type, the builders of stone cliff-dwellings. The ancient cliff-dwellers are best referred to by their Navajo name, "Anasazi."

The Anasazi lived in Canyons de Chelly and del Muerto from before A.D. 350 to near A.D. 1300. The earliest tree-ring date is 348, the last 1284 A.D.; both from the same site-Mummy Cave, one of the longest-occupied spots in the Southwest. On top of very ancient remains, stone houses were built in Mummy Cave about a thousand years ago; and finally in 1284 the cliff dwelling called Tower House. Excavations in this cave in 1923-24 by the noted archaeologist E. H. Morris yielded desicated mummies wrapped in blankets of rabbit-fur and feather-cloth, wearing woven sandals and ornaments of seashells and turquoise mosaics and tiny lignite beads, accompanied by pottery vessels, beautifully-made baskets, wooden implements and weapons and flageolets or flutes. In addition to human bodies buried in normal fashion, a pitiful collection of mummies of little children in a slab-lined pit and a macabre and puzzling burial of a pair of human hands with an abundance of seashell jewelry were also found in this storehouse of archaeological treasures. Interestingly enough, it was clear that here as in the royal tombs of Egypt-ancient grave-robbers had preceded by many centuries the modern excavators.

Other sites in Canyon de Chelly National Monument have been less thoroughly investigated than Mummy cave was. The most important are stone pueblos (apartment houses; with circular ceremonial chambers called by the Hopi name "kiva") of the same general type and period as Tower House in Mummy Cave but larger and somewhat earlier. Antelope House and Standing Cow ruin in Canyon del Muerto receive their names from paintings on the cliff wall against which they were built. The blue and white cow is modern Navajo work, of course, but the lifelike antelopes are prehistoric Anasazi art. In Canyon de Chelly proper, the large ruin White House is built partially in a cave and partially against the cliff under the cave. The lower building, on the canyon floor, has been partly destroyed by stream erosion. Other, smaller sites are found here and there all through the canyons. The whole range of Anasazi cultural development through successive periods or stages to its climax is shown in Canyons de Chelly and del Muerto, though comparatively little systematic study has been carried on. The implements and grinding-stones. Canyon de Chelly National Monument has yielded fine specimens of these prehistoric arts and crafts, as well as mummified specimens of the people themselves.

Probably the Anasazi left the area because of the great drought, known from tree-rings to have occurred in the last quarter of the thirteenth century. Although it is possible that the Navajos arrived at that time and drove the peaceful Anasazi farmers away, arroyo-cutting caused by the drought is a more likely reason.

In any case, the Anasazi left Canyon de Chelly about 650 years ago. Mesa Verde and other areas were abandoned at the same time. The entire San Juan drainage, formerlly thickly populated by the Anasazi as shown by the abundance of cliff-dwellings and other ruins, lay deserted from about 1300 A.D. until the Navajos arrived, whenever that was.

The earliest Spaniards did not enter the Navajo country in their explorations of the Southwest beginning in 1540, and only occasionally penetrated the region during the entire colonial period. After the acquisition of New Mexico and California from Mexico a hundred years ago, U. S. Army expeditions traversed the Navajo country and visited Canyon de Chelly.

The area was proclaimed a national monument in 1931, and a National Park Service custodian is stationed there. Visitors can generally secure meals and overnight accommodation either at Thunderbird Ranch, Chinle, Arizona, close to the monument headquarters, or in Gallup, New Mexico, the nearest town (100 miles). The best approach route is to turn north off U. S. Highway 66 at Gallup and take state route 68 west to Ganado, turning north just beyond Ganado for Chinle. The road to Chinle is not an all-weather road, and inquiries should be made before starting. Another route to Ganado leaves Highway 66 at Chambers, Arizona, and goes north through Kintiel and Klageto trading posts. This is not a surfaced road either. Inquiries for information on road conditions and facilities should be addressed to The Custodian, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Chinle, Arizona; more general inquiries can be made to the Region Three Office, National Park Service, Box 1728, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The area comprising the monument is a treasure house of archeological findings. Here the modern Indian fits into a landscape that harbored great villages of hundreds of years ago.

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A date of 348 may be applied to the early Basket Makers, simple progenitors of the Anasazi, who made fine textiles and baskets but no pottery and only the crudest of houses, though corn agriculture had already reached them. About a hundred years later, pottery began to appear; gradually more new things such as the stone axe and the bow and arrow came in.

The theory, formerly held by most students of Anasazi history, was that a new people came into the region at this time, around 1200 years ago, bringing these new ideas. This is now known to be incorrect. The Basket Makers and the Pueblos were the same race, the Anasazi people. One of the new ideas which came in at this time was artificial "cranial deformation," or flattening of the back of the head. This made the skulls look so different, that a new people of different racial type was postulated. Actually, the Pueblos, right up to the present time, are direct descendants of the earliest Anasazi, the ancient Basket Makers. Finally the dwellings changed from pitlodges to stone pueblos. These pueblos or apartment houses are built on the surface of the ground on the mesa, or in the caves. But the old excavated pit or semi-subterranean lodge was retained-in standardized form, circular or lined with masonry as a ceremonial chamber or "kiva". This stage of Anasazi development was reached nearly 1000 years ago. These stone pueblos, once developed, continued to be built in the Four Corners region-Canyon de Chelly, Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, etc., until just before 1300; and right on to the present time in other districts of the Pueblo area. During the period 1000-1300, when the great cliff-dwellings were built, the Anasazi produced beautifully-painted handmade black-on-white pottery as well as more strictly utilitarian objects such as bone imple-

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