A Study of Pueblo Pottery as Illustrative of Zuñi Culture Growth. / Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-83, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 467-522

It is conceded that the peculiarities of a culture-status are due chiefly to the necessities encountered during its development. In this sense the Pueblo phase of life was, like the Egyptian, the product of a desert environment. Given that a tribe or stock of people is weak, they will be encroached upon by neighboring stronger tribes, and driven to new surroundings if not subdued. Such we may believe was the influence which led the ancestors of the Pueblo tribes to adopt an almost waterless area for their habitat.
It is apparent at least that they entered the country wherein their remains occur while comparatively a rude people, and worked out there almost wholly their incipient civilization. Of this there is important linguistic evidence.

Fig. 490.—A Navajo hut.
The archaic name for a building or walled inclosure is hé sho ta , a contraction of the now obsolete term, hé sho ta pon ne , from hé sho , gum, or resin-like; shó tai e , leaned or placed together convergingly; and tá po an ne , a roof of wood or a roof supported by wood.

Fig. 491.—Perspective view of earliest or Round-house structure of lava.

Fig. 492.—Plan of Pueblo structure of lava.