Could one be so bold as to say that the Moslem Invasion of Spain in the eighth century A.D. took place after the first occupation of the Rio Grande Valley by prehistoric Indians? ArchÆologists, who tell us stories based on the remains of things they have found, broken pottery mostly, say that Indians might have known the Rio Grande before this time. We believe that they have occupied it continuously since about the eleventh century A.D.
Drought seems to have always been one of the main controlling factors in the migrations of Southwestern Indians. The study of tree-rings tells us this. By matching ring patterns formed by the annual growth of certain kinds of trees, pines chiefly, archÆologists are able to determine the years in which age-old timbers were cut. Those they are interested in are the ones used by prehistoric Indians long years ago for building roofs on their houses. So naturally, if an Indian had cut a tree down with a stone axe and laid it across the walls of his house, then the year that the tree was cut would correspond to the approximate time his house was built and occupied. Indians did not cut timbers until they were ready to use them. Felling timbers with crude stone axes was somewhat of a chore. Old beams from houses show that long periods of drought reigned in the Southwest. It is thought that these dry spells caused Indian families to leave their homes and seek new lands for settlement and cultivation.
Such a condition seems to have existed in the entire San Juan area of northwestern New Mexico, northeastern Arizona and southwestern Colorado. The greatest of the large centers of Indian population, which may have numbered hundreds or even thousands of people, were the towns of Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico and the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings in southwestern Colorado. Many of these towns, it seems, were abandoned when the great drought was at its height between 1276-1299, a period of twenty-three years. And so we find shifts in population. It is believed that some of these shifts were toward the Valley of the Rio Grande.
Before this time small individual groups or migrant bands took to wandering. Other Indians could have remained even after the time of the twenty-three year drought period, dreading to leave their homes as we would ours today. No, there was no great exodus of population. The people from the great towns in the west did not move out all at one time and completely abandon their homes and desiccated lands. They moved out in small bands, or even families. In some way, a traveler might have reported high mountain ranges, water and fertile lands to the east—the next best to the places they knew as home which they and their ancestors had occupied for hundreds of years.
It is possible that even in the 1000’s A.D., small groups pushed out over dry desert wastes, following sandy arroyo beds—thought of water ever paramount. They were people struggling again for existence. Some likely stopped along the way and built temporary homes. They broke pottery vessels which they had brought along. The archÆologist found some of the broken pieces nine hundred years later to help tell the story. Whether these migrant bands had a goal or not is questionable but the Valley of the Rio Grande was finally reached and scant evidence of these early people has been found. More and more Indians moved out of the San Juan area and drifted in a southeasterly direction. Some clung to the valleys, others took to the mountains, but all settled in the general locality where we find most of our colorful and picturesque Indian Pueblos so well-known the world over—northern New Mexico.
It is evident that by constant roaming, and penetrating unknown and fascinating country, some of these primitive Indians stumbled into the deep valleys and upon the high forested mesa tops of the Pajarito Plateau, about twenty miles west of the present city of Santa Fe. The spot on which Santa Fe is located was then nothing but arid mesa land and low foothills ascending to the Sangre de Cristo Range of Mountains. Four things were paramount in the minds of these primitive people. They were water, food, protective shelter and clothing. These were the things the Pajarito offered. Anyone journeying through the deep canyons and over the high mesa tops today could easily see why prehistoric Indians settled here.
For centuries the wind pounded tiny sharp particles against cliff surfaces. It whipped up close to the ground and hollowed out shallow caves. Very likely, these places were not large enough for Indians to crawl in out of the weather but the cliff composition was so soft that these natural caves could easily be made larger. A crude stone of basalt with a sharp edge made a perfect hand axe. Indian men hacked out caves large enough for a little family group to enter. Rain and cold created the necessity for heat. Drills of wood were used to start fires in these crude cave dwellings. Fires made them warm—suffocatingly so. There was no way for the smoke to escape except through a wide front opening. This lack of ventilation created a very serious problem for the early cave dweller on the Pajarito Plateau.
There were other Indians who preferred to build their homes on the high mesas during these early times. Adobe was used almost exclusively to build the low walls of rooms. Some bedded small stones into the walls before they were dry. This helped to hold them together. Others preferred to use larger stone, picked up at random, in building their house walls. The adobe huts were undoubtedly unsatisfactory because of their low resistance to weather. Since older styles of pottery have been found in the ruins of these houses, it is logical to suppose that Indians migrating onto the Pajarito built adobe houses first. Later they dug themselves out homes in the cliffs which gave them greater protection from the weather and from any invaders.
In this wilderness a mule deer could have fed in a little valley or drunk from a creek. This would mean food for the entire family or group if a crude arrow would hit its mark. Small razor-sharp fleshers of chalcedony or basalt were used to remove the hide from the carcass. The hide could be used for making clothing or moccasins. Some of the smaller bones might have been used as drills and awls until better ones could be obtained. A flock of wild turkeys would have solved this problem. Turkey bones made excellent awls. Just what the people used for arrow points during these early times is questionable. Maybe they brought them along from the west. They could have used chipped chalcedony or basalt which was readily found, and quite common in this area. An occasional nodule of black volcanic glass, called obsidian, washed down the creek and was found bedded in its soft sandy bottom. Obsidian might have been more popular during later times as the early dweller in this country may not have discovered the ledges of black glass immediately upon his arrival. Such could have been life on the Pajarito Plateau eight hundred years ago.
More groups of people came in. Hand-hewn caves could have dotted the soft workable walls of every canyon which would support human life. The well-known canyon of today, the Frijoles, was one such place. The lower part of the valley formed a sort of a bulb for about two miles. Its sheer cliffs on the north side rose to terrific heights. And throughout the countless years, as boulders and dust fell from the cliffs, a talus slope or base had formed. A little river, the Rito de Los Frijoles, ran for seventeen miles from its source in the high mountains to the west and emptied into the Rio Grande. This Canyon was the best in the entire Pajarito—the most coveted of all habitable places. The water supply was apparently constant and the valley was broad and open at the lower end, most suitable for agriculture. The floor was densely covered with growths of scrub oak, piÑon and pine. This was all that primitive groups needed for successful living. And so we find that some of these wandering Indians from a world a hundred miles to the west, which was to become a thing of the past, penetrated the Valley of the Frijoles over eight hundred years ago. But Frijoles Canyon was not the only place occupied. There were other canyons nearby. There was plenty of room for all. But was there enough water in these other canyons?
Indian families cut their crude shelters deep enough for occupation by several individuals. Caves were uncomfortable, but certainly better than no shelter at all. This was a strange sort of stone which nature had provided. It was very poor to build with, thought the Indian. It was soft and bulky. But years of living would eventually solve the problem. Why worry about it! In time necessity would produce some means of shelter more satisfactory. Later on, more people moved into the area. These people occupied adjacent canyons and mesas as well as Frijoles. During many years population increased and the dwellers on the Pajarito became settled in their locality.
There is no way of telling how many Indians lived in the Valley of the Frijoles during very early times—close to water and well protected. Indians could sit at the openings of their cave homes above the talus slope and see for great distances up and down the Canyon. And it was safe. No jealous enemy lurking above could roll a boulder down on them. Their cave was their protection. But caves were not adequate as homes. Fires could not be built inside without smoking out its occupants. Something better had to replace them. This new soft rock certainly was not suitable for building walls or at least these simple valley folk did not know how to use it. Crude mud huts were erected at the base of the cliff at the same time that caves were occupied as home sites. Mud was all they could find for building walls. It took lots of water to make mud and then it was so soft and crumbly that the little walls cracked and fell when they dried out.
Soon it was found that by picking up small stones and packing them into the soft mud as temper the walls would stand longer. Larger rocks and less mud made better walls and saved a lot of toil and unnecessary labor. There were many rocks to be picked up at random. Walls were raised high enough for the Indian to stand upright inside the rooms. Sharp stone axes of basalt were used to fell small trees which were laid over the tops of walls for the support of the roofs. The blunt ends of the timbers were inserted in holes gouged out of the cliff. Brush and grass were placed over them; thick mud coats were smeared over the top. Holes were cut in the roofs. Fires were built and the smoke could escape through these holes. How much better this than a cave! These tiny rooms were stuffy and smoky inside but not as unpleasant as a cave room. An Indian would soon suffocate inside a cave. During the rainy seasons the roofs leaked and great quantities of mud were stirred up and spread over the top and smoothed down flat. The women could always find more when that washed off. In time weeds and wild grasses took root in these dirt roofs.
But somewhere, somehow, not at Tyuonyi perhaps, but in some nearby valley or on some high mesa top at one of a hundred colony sites, Indian neighbors found that still larger chunks of tuff could be used for building blocks. This would save much labor. So much mud in a wall would not be necessary. It is possible that this use of larger building stones was not a matter of independent origin at any one of many primitive villages on the high mesas and in the deep canyons of the Pajarito. Indians, after years and years of living, simply came into the use of larger building blocks by the trial and error method. They served the purpose better. A dry spell or so, when it did not rain, might have made it necessary to transport more and more water in urns from water holes or nearby streams. This was women’s work and hard work too. And more stone and less mud made stronger walls for houses anyway. Some of the stone was so soft that it could be shaped into blocks to fit into the walls. These blocks did not lay absolutely flat because their surfaces were irregular. Small stones were forced between the cracks and when the mud mortar dried the walls were solid. This practice went on for years and years. Indians experimented with all the materials at their disposal. They could not send an order to the Gods for building materials.
Everywhere on the Pajarito are seen the remains of homes belonging to this period of occupation. There are hundreds of them—small family houses, in deep canyons or in a forest on high mesa tops. Debris has filled them up and today they look like piles of rock. Building blocks are strewn all over the surface. Most of the blocks had been picked up at random after they had been carved by nature. Others were square or rectangular, showing that they had been fashioned by Indian hands.
The Indians who lived in the Valley of the Frijoles communicated with the other groups who lived in deep canyons to the south and to the north. They visited each other and even traded back and forth. Little colonies were formed when one, two, three or four families lived together in a house with several rooms. But the time was to come when this living all over the country would stop; people would come together to live in communities. And the little colony sites would be abandoned forever for the archÆologist to discover centuries later.
A touchy subject is that of linguistics. It is a tricky one. But students know that five different languages are spoken among the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico today. They are: Tiwa, Tewa, Towa, Keres, and ZuÑian. To be on the safe side, one should not touch too heavily upon languages spoken by Indians, especially in a writing of this kind. But languages and dialects do play an important part in our story. When those early people drifted from Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde toward the Rio Grande, they spoke a language. But, it is unknown. Students have ideas, but are reluctant to advance opinions based on the ruins they excavate or the artifacts they discover. But, two groups of Indians speaking different languages drifted onto the Pajarito. People speaking different languages have never gotten along well together even from the Tower of Babel until the present time.
It has been mentioned before that Keres-speaking Indians have a legend that long years ago a treaty or contract was made between their ancestors and Tewa-speaking people. It is said that certain loosely defined ranges of territory were to belong to each of the two groups. The meeting place or the place where the treaty was made was called “Tyuonyi.” “Tyuonyi” means “place of treaty.” Thus the dividing line between Tewa and Keres lands became sharply defined by what is now known as “Frijoles Canyon.” But how long was such a treaty to last among primitive people? All the lands to the south of Frijoles Canyon were supposedly Keres and those to the north were Tewa. After this treaty was made, Indians probably spread out on each side of the Canyon like the parting of the waters of the Red Sea. Small house sites dotted the mesas and canyons on both sides. But still, members of both groups could possibly have lived here together. Legend hints at this.
As time went on more houses sprang up at the base of the north cliff and crude pueblos were erected on the floor of the Canyon. Kivas or ceremonial chambers were dug out of the valley floor and lined with walls of rock. Indians gathered cobble stone because they might not have known how to cut blocks during these early times with which to lay masonry walls. They gathered thousands of them and built their kiva walls eight or ten feet thick. This was their attempt to utilize the pieces of crudely shaped felsite or volcanic ash. They laid huge timbers fifteen or more inches in diameter across the walls of their large underground chambers. Then smaller poles of pine were cut and laid on top of the large vigas. Splittings were hacked from down trees. Pine, cottonwood, juniper, piÑon—anything that would split easily with crude stone implements—were used for the next roof course. Then brush and grass and mud were put on top. The roofs must have been two or more feet thick but little did the Indians realize that the tremendous weight might crack the big timbers after they dried out. How ingenious were these Indians in their simple way!
Many a moon passed. Many houses were built. Jealousy might have arisen between these two groups of Indians. Who was to raise corn on this or that little patch of fertile ground? Who should have a right to hunt deer and turkey in the Valley of the Frijoles? How could Keres-speaking people go to Tewa kivas or how could Tewas go to Keres kivas? Trouble reigned over the entire plateau and most of it was possibly in the Valley of the Frijoles. Was it ever decided which group should live in Hidden Valley when it was given the name Tyuonyi?
Jealousy could have arisen over pottery. When the Frijoles area was first occupied clay deposits were discovered in arroyos and along river banks. Indian women began moulding pottery with local clays. They discovered mineral pigments. They used paints from wild plants which fired the black designs in fast color in the vessels. The color would never come out. But slowly and surely the women began to depart from the techniques which they and their ancestors had previously used. Out of these techniques new styles of pottery were developed by using local materials. These white wares with black designs became thick and coarse as time went on and probably decreased in popularity as far as usefulness was concerned.
The Keres-speaking people had kin far to the south of the Pajarito Plateau. And these people were ingenious. Sometime in the thirteenth century, it seems, Indians living in the Little Colorado River district of what is now eastern Arizona and western New Mexico, were making a style of red pottery with black designs. This pottery was apparently very popular and spread by trade to the Rio Grande Valley. Indians in this same region eventually learned to produce a glaze paint by using lead-manganese ore. This ware also spread to the Rio Grande and glaze paint was used in decorating pottery from about 1350 A.D. to the time of the Pueblo Rebellion in 1680. It is thought that shortly after its inception and perhaps by 1400 A.D. this red pottery spread by trade to Tyuonyi.
The Keres living here might have brought this red ware in from their southern relatives living below the Pajarito Plateau. On the other hand, it is possible that they might not have lived in the Canyon before the time of the glaze pottery. The most plausible explanation seems to be that the people to the south brought the materials to their kin in the Frijoles. These materials were then transformed into the beautiful new hard red ware to catch the eye of the Tewa-speaking people who likely were modeling inferior white wares with black designs. However, there is a remote possibility that this glaze ware was never manufactured in Frijoles Canyon and this possibility brings up the question as to whether or not the ware was used as a wedge to gain entrance into Tyuonyi. The folk who were living here, either Tewa or Keres, or it could have been both, were making an inferior type of black-on-white pottery with local materials. It was inferior because it was so porous. So, the Tewa-speaking people might have readily accepted this red ware in trade from the Keres. And it seems this trading might have been carried on for a half-century or thereabout. No one is sure. At this particular time there seems to have been a definite decrease in the manufacture or trading of glaze pottery.
Something very drastic must have taken place. Could it be that there was just not enough room in the beautiful Frijoles for two groups of people who spoke different languages? It was easily a prize spot. It was a green valley—a perfect place to live and the water supply was constant. It might have been the envy of Indians for many miles around. There was not this constant water supply either to the north or to the south. Some groups living on the high mesas might even have depended on open basins hollowed out of soft rock to catch the rain water. Great jealousy could have arisen between individuals or even groups. And one might safely guess that love affairs were broken up between Tewa maidens and Keres boys or vice versa. And who can say with certainty that the Tyuonyi was not the earliest known home of the Keres-speaking people in this vicinity? Or that it was not the Tewas from the north who did the encroaching and forced their way into the Valley of the Frijoles and lived and traded pottery with the Keres?
By the time of the fifteenth century, there were many of the Indians living to the north of Tyuonyi. Little house sites were being abandoned. People were drawing closer together to live in larger communities. Surely, the soft volcanic ash from the cliffs was being fashioned into building blocks with stone axes. Some were square, some were rectangular—long heavy four-sided blocks. It had taken Indians years and years, possibly, to learn that this soft stone could be quarried and then shaped. These blocks were definitely better and single thickness coursed masonry walls were in vogue by this time. This was the highest type of prehistoric pueblo architecture on the Pajarito Plateau.
This was most likely the period in which the terraced communal apartment houses were developed and erected. There were centers of population from this time on. There were no more small family houses. Indians built houses with several hundred rooms, at least two, and, in some cases, three stories high. What was the reason? Was it for defense purposes or was it just a normal outgrowth of the discovery of the fashioned block technique? There were several main villages occupied by the Tewa-speaking people to the north. They were all built in defensible positions: on a knoll, a high mesa top overlooking the entire surrounding country, or in a valley away from the cliffs from which heavy objects could be thrown down by enemies. These four villages were Potsui’i, Sankawi, Navawi and Tshirege. Potsui’i was located in a deep valley on a knoll. It was known as “gap where the water sinks.” Sankawi was “gap of the sharp round cactus.” It was built high on a mesa top in a defensible position. A trail was worn in the soft rock by thousands of moccasined feet going and coming from the pueblo. Another of their villages, Navawi, was so-called because of a pitfall gap or game trap. Game coming from either direction on the trail was caught in a deep pit. Tshirege was “House of the Bird People.” It was the largest pueblo on the Pajarito and had extensive villages built at the base of the cliff. The numbers of Indians who lived at these sites during these times cannot be estimated though all four villages were large. It would appear that nothing but Tewas lived here. But there also lived their kin and kind in Frijoles Canyon.
Keres people were living to the south of Frijoles—in large pueblos too. They had been living in this south country for years at Yapashi, “pueblo of the Stone Lions,” and at Haatze, “House of the Earth People.” These were communal apartment houses also but the Keres population on the Pajarito probably was not as great as that of the Tewas in those days. Nobody but Keres lived here to the south of Tyuonyi.
But certainly some groups held on at Tyuonyi. Who can say what happened half a millenium ago? Likely, the Tewas in Frijoles were few. They could have been outnumbered by the Keres people who might have refused to leave their Tyuonyi. Runners could have been dispatched across trails to the north to the big villages for help. War chiefs held council. Warriors were called into action and could have streaked out over age-old trails. Hideous looking creatures with flying black hair, bow and arrow and war club in hand, went whooping and yelling to the Tyuonyi and entered the Canyon at half a dozen places over the north cliff. Two groups of Indians speaking different languages simply could not live in the same valley, farm the same fields, live in the same caves and drink the same water. This was the last of the Keres. They could not hold their own because they were outnumbered and out-fought by “the little strong people.” They were driven off and the Valley of the Frijoles was Tewa from then on.
So these beaten Indians pushed south to move in with their kin at the pueblo of the Stone Lions. Whether they ever went back to Tyuonyi and attempted another stand against “the little strong people” is not known. It has been legendarily hinted that a race of “dwarfs” again attacked them at the pueblo of the Stone Lions, slaughtering many and driving off the rest. But we know of no race of “dwarfs” in the Southwest during either prehistoric or historic times. The poor Keres! They were beaten at every turn. But they knew it and moved on, occupying first one place and then another, moving in for awhile with other kin and kind. The farther away from Tyuonyi, the better!
COURTESY MUSEUM OF NEW MEXICO RUINS OF LONG HOUSE
COURTESY MUSEUM OF NEW MEXICO A PART OF LONG HOUSE RUINS
Haatze, or “House of the Earth People” was their next stop but not for long. They lived here with their kind and then moved on, down to the village of Cuapa only to be attacked again by “the little strong people.” Great numbers were slaughtered, so the legends go, and the remainder driven off and pursued almost to the present town of Santo Domingo. Legend has it that one group went off by themselves and formed the pueblos of Cochiti and Santo Domingo. Another group, it is said, climbed up a high rock and took refuge there from their attackers. The rock is known as the “Potrero Viejo” and here they built a village. One San Felipe legend tells us this: nearly all the people at Cuapa were slain, except a woman with a parrot who hid in a metate and a boy who hid in a store-room. These two moved to the Tiwa-speaking village of Sandia and got a cold reception so they went east to live with the Tanos, where the woman gave birth to five children. Things were made so miserable for them here that they left and moved to the Rio Grande and eventually went to San Felipe. That is why we have the pueblo of San Felipe today. These people still know the Pajarito as their ancestral home and it is not an uncommon thing for them to organize a communal hunt to the homes of their ancestors or trudge to the Shrine of the Stone Lions and paint the noses of the life-size fetiches or sprinkle a little sacred meal—deep in ancient Keres land.
