Abandonment
All of the ruins were abandoned in the 1200’s. This is accounted for, partly at least, by several factors—high winds sweeping the moisture-conserving cinder fields, climatic changes, and disease among the Indians. It brought to a close one of the unique chapters of Southwestern archeology. Probably among the present day Hopis the descendants of these people are to be found.
Drought and disease, possibly also attacks of nomad enemies, caused the abandonment by the Pueblos of most of northern Arizona during the thirteenth century. This region, the Tsegi region (Navajo National Monument and vicinity), and the region of Canyon de Chelly National Monument were deserted. The survivors from all these areas must have congregated at the Hopi mesas, where the springs never fail. Later, in the fourteenth century, the great pueblos of Chaves Pass and Homolovi (near Winslow, Ariz.) and of the Verde Valley (notably Tuzigoot and Montezuma Castle National Monuments) were abandoned, their people going northeast to swell the Hopi nation. When the Spaniards arrived in 1540 there were no pueblo villages occupied in Arizona save those of the Hopi, in Tusayan.
The Citadel