In most cases, the buildings were constructed of pieces of sandstone, but in a few instances the Indians had an eye for color and used pieces of petrified wood which made a very substantial as well as colorful building. “Agate House” in the south part of the Third Forest is one example of such construction. This was partially reconstructed in 1934 in the early Pueblo style by the use of chunks of petrified wood from the heap of the ruins. Indians also used the petrified wood for making arrow-points and other tools and weapons.
These people practiced agriculture, cultivating corn, pumpkins, and beans. They probably wore simple clothing made of cotton cloth or the skins of wild animals. They also made pottery.
Tree-ring studies show that there was a great drought from 1275 to 1299 A.D. This apparently caused a great deal of shifting around among the Pueblo people. Only a few villages in the Petrified Forest area were occupied during the fourteenth century. It is not known whether the people were driven out by the predatory Apaches or because of the drought.
Where did these Indians get water? While there probably has not been any marked change in climate or rainfall since that time, there may have been more springs and seeps along the cliffs. It is possible that these failed during that great drought period.
Pottery designs of these early Indians show an artistic talent, further indicated by the many petroglyphs on the sandstone cliffs and boulders throughout the area. A petroglyph is a picture or design carved or pecked in the face of a rock. These pictures are of figures, geometric patterns, and symbols in many cases similar to those found on the pottery. Some represent hands, feet, human figures and shapes of mammals, birds, or lizards. These appear to be simply a collection of drawings made by various Indians over a period of time. In some cases, they were clan symbols, each passerby adding his own much like a visitor’s register such as we have today or a collection of initials or names unthinking people carve on trees or scratch on rocks. Unfortunately an occasional person nowadays, thoughtless of those that follow, either destroys this ancient art work or defaces it by adding his name or initials to those of an earlier man. “Newspaper Rock” is the most spectacular group of petroglyphs found on the monument.
Homes and tribal lands of modern Indians are located in areas to the south, east, and north of Petrified Forest National Monument—homes that were established in some cases before the first Spanish explorer entered the Southwest.
To the south in the White Mountains are the Apaches. Apparently both the Apache and the Navajo entered the Southwest only a short time before the Spaniards came. Being nomads and predatory in nature, they soon struck terror in the hearts of the peaceful Pueblo people and caused many of them to abandon their homes to seek more secluded and protected sites.
To the east are the Zuni, a Pueblo people that some of the early occupants of the Petrified Forest may have joined. When the Spaniards came, these Zuni were living in seven pueblos that became known as the historic “Seven Cities of Cibola.”
To the north are the Navajo and Hopi peoples. Arizona’s famous Painted Desert forms a long curving border to the Navajo Reservation—a border extending from near the New Mexico line westward to the Colorado River northwest of Cameron. A spectacular portion of it lies in the northern part of Petrified Forest National Monument.
The Painted Desert is a colorful, often fantastically eroded badlands of Bentonitic beds stained with shades of red, orange, yellow, blue, purple, and brown by iron minerals. Arid or semi-arid with only a sparse vegetative cover, these soft beds are subject to rapid erosion during Arizona’s season of torrential rains.