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Updated: June 15, 2025
Under the head of constructive expedients we have a different result. The difficulties which came from the occupancy of exceptional sites were promptly reflected in the construction, and unusual ways and methods were adopted to overcome them. These methods are the more interesting in that they were not always successful. It sometimes happened that walls had to be placed on a foundation of smooth, sloping rock. In such cases the rock was never cut away, but timbers were employed to hold the wall in place. In some instances the timbers were laid at right angles to the line of front wall, at points where cross walls joined it inside. The front wall thus rested partly on the ends of timbers and partly on rock, while the other ends of the timbers were held in place by the cross walls built upon them. An example of this construction is shown in plate LII. In other instances, where the surface was irregular but did not slope much, timbers were laid on the wall lines and the masonry rested partly upon them. An example of this occurs in the Casa Blanca ruin, shown in plate XLVII. Still another method of using timber in masonry occurs in a number of ruins. It was seldom effective and apparently was confined to this region. This consists of the incorporation into the masonry of upright logs. Figure 69 shows an example that occurs at the point marked 32 on the map. The site here is an especially difficult one, as the builders were compelled to place walls not only on sloping rock foundations, but also on loose débris, and the vertical timber support is quite common. The three kivas which are shown on the plan occupied the front of the village, and their front walls have fallen out. Apparently the same accident has happened at least once, if not several times, before, and a fragment of a previous front wall has slipped down 3 or 4
The kivas, as a rule, were more solidly constructed than the other rooms, and, as the preceding ground plans show, sometimes survived when the rectangular rooms connected with them have entirely disappeared. It may have been connected with that ruin, but could not in itself have been a village, as there are no traces of a kiva on the site, and hardly room enough for one on the bench proper.
Entrance to the kivas is always through the roof, a ceremonial requirement quite as rigidly adhered to today among the Pueblos as it was formerly among their ancestors. The same opening which gives access also provides an exit to the smoke from the fire, which is invariably placed in the center of the kiva below it.
Just above the mouth of Del Muerto and on the opposite side of the main canyon, at the point marked 17 on the map, there was a village on the canyon bottom. It overlooked a fine stretch of cultivable land on both sides of the canyon. There is a large isolated mass of rock here, nearly as high as the cliffs on either side, and connected with those back of it by a slope of talus and débris, partly bare rock, partly covered with sand dunes. At the point where the ruin occurs the rock is bare and about 40 feet high, partly overhanging the site. The remains, shown in plan in figure 12, occupy the summit of a hill about 10 feet high, composed principally of débris of walls. Only a few faint traces now remain, but two kivas are still clearly distinguishable. The one on the south had an interior bench, which apparently extended around it. The other shows walls 2
A slight difference in the geologic formations of two regions will produce a difference in the arts of the inhabitants of those regions, provided the occupancy be a long one. In the case of the Tusayan kivas the rectangular form was imposed on the builders by the character of the sites they occupied.
The kivas, or estufas as they formerly were called, are sacred chambers in which the civil and religious affairs of the tribe are transacted, and they also form a place of resort, or club, as it were, for the men. Their functions are many and varied, but as this subject has already been discussed at length it need not be enlarged upon here.
At various other points in the canyons examples of chimney-like structures occur, none, however, constructed on the elaborate plan of that last described. Two examples were found in the large rooms west of the tower in the central portion of Mummy Cave ruin, and these are especially worthy of attention because they are attached to rectangular rooms, which there is no reason to suppose were kivas.
It seems to have been a common requirement throughout the pueblo country that the kiva should be wholly or partly underground. So strong was this requirement in Tusayan that the occurrence of natural clefts and fissures in the rock of the mesa top has dictated the location of the kivas often at some distance from the houses.
On cross-examination it appeared that he meant apollinaris. He was certain, however, that it was half a pint. The butler, it was shown, had been in Kivas Kelly's employ for twenty years. The coachman, an Irishman, was closely questioned. He had been in Mr. Kelly's employ for three years ever since his arrival from the old country.
The exact date of the dance is determined by the Snake Priest, and announced from the housetops nine days before it takes place. The underground "kivas" are filled with the various secret orders, corresponding to our lodges, going through their mystic ceremonies.
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