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Updated: June 3, 2025
An examination and survey of the cliff ruins of Canyon de Chelly, made some years ago by the writer, revealed the fact that they were always located with reference to some area of adjacent tillable land and that the defensive motive exercised so small an influence on the selection of the site and the character of the buildings that it could be ignored.
Plate LIII shows an outlook in the lower part of De Chelly, at the point marked 6 on the map. The lower part of the cliff here flares out slightly, forming a sharp slope; where it meets the vertical rock there is a small bench, on which the ruin is situated.
Am. Geog. In recent years several publications have appeared which, while not bearing directly on the De Chelly ruins, are of great interest, as they treat of analogous remains the cliff ruins of the Mancos canyon and the Mesa Verde. These ruins were discovered in 1874 by W.
More or less smoke is generally present in the kivas when a fire is burning, notwithstanding the care taken to prevent it. That a similar condition prevailed in the kivas of De Chelly is shown by the smoke-blackened plaster of the interiors. In some cases there was a room over the kivas which must have increased the difficulty very much.
Under modern conditions many other localities now vie with it, and some surpass it in output of agricultural products, but not many years ago De Chelly was regarded as the place par excellence.
The canyon walls are so nearly vertical, or rather so large a proportion is vertical, that egress or ingress, except at the mouth of the canyon, is a matter of great difficulty. Near the junction of Monument canyon, 13 miles above the mouth of De Chelly, there is a practicable horse trail ascending a narrow gorge to the southeast. The Navaho call it the Bat trail, on account of its difficulties.
Canyon de Chelly was occupied because it was the best place in that vicinity for the practice of horticulture. The cliff ruins there grew out of the natural conditions, as they have in other places. It is not meant that a type of house structure developed here and was transferred subsequently to other places.
They were introduced into this country originally by the Spanish monks, but in De Chelly there are not more than two or three trees which are older than the last Navaho war. At that time, it is said, the soldiers cut down every peach tree they could find.
Washington Matthews, U.S.A., whose knowledge of Navaho myths and traditions is so great that it can almost be termed exhaustive, has obtained one and doubtless will publish it. The Hopi or Moki Indians, whose villages are some three days' journey to the west, have also very definite traditions bearing on the occupancy of De Chelly.
The ruins in the Mancos canyon and the Mesa Verdé country obviously represent a later stage in development than those in De Chelly, yet nowhere in that region do we find the counterpart of the decoration in Mummy Cave kiva. Bands with points occur, sometimes on walls of rectangular rooms.
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