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The close resemblance of these cliff houses to those of the region north of Tusayan is instructive, in view of the ground, well taken, I believe, by Mr Mindeleff, that there is a close likeness between the Verde ruins and those farther north, especially in Tusayan.
One of the most interesting sites of ancient habitation in Verde valley is known as Montezuma Well, and it is remarkable how little attention has been paid to it by archeologists. Dr Mearns, in his article on the ancient dwellings of Verde valley, does not mention the well, and Mindeleff simply refers to the brief description by Dr Hoffman in 1877.
From what little I saw of the village sites on the Verde I believe that Mindeleff is correct in considering that these ruins represent a comparatively late period of pueblo architecture. The character of the cliff houses of the Red-rocks shows no very great antiquity of occupancy.
There are no chimneys, no adobe walls, no constructive expedients other than aboriginal and rather primitive ones. The absence of circular kivas or sacred council chambers is noteworthy. For a full discussion of these structures, see “A Study of Pueblo Architecture,” by Victor Mindeleff, in 8th. Ann. Rep. Bur.
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."
Fewkes, Stephen, Mindeleff, Voth, and others have collected the more important tales of migrations and the major myths underlying both religion and social organization among the Hopi. One gets substantially the same versions today from the oldest story-tellers.
They will be put to ceremonial uses and bring blessings to their owners. Here is at least one of the legends back of the idea, as collected by Stephen and reported by Mindeleff. My people then lived in the distant Palatkiwabi in the South. There was a very bad old man there, who, when he met anyone, would spit in his face, blow his nose upon him, and rub ordure upon him.
In his brief account Mr Victor Mindeleff speaks of it as two prominent knolls, "about 400 yards apart," the summits of which are covered with house walls. He also found portions of walls on intervening hummocks, but gives no plan of the ruin. The name, Sikyatki, is referred to the color of the sandstone of which the walls were built.
For this demonstration I have chosen one of the most striking clusters in Verde valley. The general characteristics of this group have been well described by Mr Mindeleff in the Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau, so that I need but refer to a few additional observations made on these interesting habitations.
They were examined by Mr Cosmos Mindeleff, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, in 1893, but no report on them has yet been published. While, however, the Homolobi group of ruins is the most southerly to which I have been able to affix a Hopi name, others still more to the southward are claimed by certain of their traditions.
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