  Several forces which may have worked singly or in combination to displace the cliff dwellers were drouth, enemy raids, and insanitary conditions. One of the most probable causes of abandonment was drouth. The Sinagua may have found it necessary to augment their water supply by making earthen dams along the lower side of natural pools (particularly farther down the canyon where it broadens). With only a slight decline in annual precipitation the stream would fail entirely in early summer and disrupt the entire community. Walnut Canyon Cliff Dwellers at Work Petroglyph cut on the walls of Walnut Canyon, below the “Island” A study of the tree rings reveals that a 23-year drouth prevailed in the Southwest from 1276 to 1299 A.D. It appears that the Walnut Canyon cliff dwellers were gone before that time, and perhaps they were displaced by an earlier drouth of less duration. It is doubtful that the cliff dwellers perished, but rather that their blood flows in the veins of some of the living Pueblo Indians. The Hopis are said to have legends which indicate their ancestors once lived in cliff caves. Hopi Indian visitors sometimes comment on the cliff dwellings being the homes of their ancestors, and there is some evidence to support this. Hopi Indians are of the same basic type which inhabited Walnut Canyon. Studies made on the cliff dwellers’ physical remains reveal they were a short, stocky people much like the Hopi of today. |
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