But certainly some groups held on at [Tyuonyi]. Who can say what happened half a millenium ago? Likely, the Tewas in Frijoles were few. They could have been outnumbered by the [Keres] people who might have refused to leave their Tyuonyi. Runners could have been dispatched across trails to the north to the big villages for help. War chiefs held council. Warriors were called into action and could have streaked out over age-old trails. Hideous looking creatures with flying black hair, bow and arrow and war club in hand, went whooping and yelling to the Tyuonyi and entered the [Canyon] at half a dozen places over the north cliff. Two groups of Indians speaking different languages simply could not live in the same valley, farm the same fields, live in the same caves and drink the same water. This was the last of the Keres. They could not hold their own because they were outnumbered and out-fought by “the little strong people.” They were driven off and the Valley of the Frijoles was [Tewa] from then on.
So these beaten Indians pushed south to move in with their kin at the [pueblo] of the Stone Lions. Whether they ever went back to [Tyuonyi] and attempted another stand against “the little strong people” is not known. It has been legendarily hinted that a race of “dwarfs” again attacked them at the pueblo of the Stone Lions, slaughtering many and driving off the rest. But we know of no race of “dwarfs” in the Southwest during either [prehistoric] or historic times. The poor [Keres]! They were beaten at every turn. But they knew it and moved on, occupying first one place and then another, moving in for awhile with other kin and kind. The farther away from Tyuonyi, the better!
COURTESY MUSEUM OF NEW MEXICO RUINS OF LONG HOUSE
COURTESY MUSEUM OF NEW MEXICO A PART OF LONG HOUSE RUINS
[Haatze], or “House of the Earth People” was their next stop but not for long. They lived here with their kind and then moved on, down to the village of [Cuapa] only to be attacked again by “the little strong people.” Great numbers were slaughtered, so the legends go, and the remainder driven off and pursued almost to the present town of [Santo Domingo]. Legend has it that one group went off by themselves and formed the [pueblos] of [Cochiti] and Santo Domingo. Another group, it is said, climbed up a high rock and took refuge there from their attackers. The rock is known as the “[Potrero] [Viejo]” and here they built a village. One [San Felipe] legend tells us this: nearly all the people at Cuapa were slain, except a woman with a parrot who hid in a [metate] and a boy who hid in a store-room. These two moved to the Tiwa-speaking village of [Sandia] and got a cold reception so they went east to live with the [Tanos], where the woman gave birth to five children. Things were made so miserable for them here that they left and moved to the [Rio Grande] and eventually went to San Felipe. That is why we have the pueblo of San Felipe today. These people still know the [Pajarito] as their ancestral home and it is not an uncommon thing for them to organize a communal hunt to the homes of their ancestors or trudge to the Shrine of the Stone Lions and paint the noses of the life-size fetiches or sprinkle a little sacred meal—deep in ancient [Keres] land.
CHAPTER IV
Building in the Great Period
Time has a peculiar way of curing all ills. The [Keres] had been driven from the [Tyuonyi] by the “little strong people” and possibly did not make further attempt to re-occupy this Valley of the Frijoles. They were contented to stay in the broad Valley of the [Rio Grande] where the water supply was constant and where their enemies did not care to go. The boundary line was set. And even the hostile Tewas had probably experienced enough of war and trouble.
[Tyuonyi], the Hidden Valley, might have been like an oasis in the desert. Who can say that there was sufficient water in the [canyons] and on the [mesas] to the north—that water holes did not go dry and that the Tewas did not have to depend upon waters from the heavens to make their corn grow? And who can say that the waters of [El Rito de Los Frijoles] dried up? One can only suppose. But judging by climatic conditions as they are today, Frijoles Canyon was one of the main sources of water on the [Pajarito]. Since water was a controlling factor in the lives of these people, what primitive group of Indians would not fight over the right to live in a well-watered valley—a green and beautiful valley—where adequate shelter was afforded by the vertical walls of a high north cliff? Certain things hint that little time passed before Tewa-speaking groups penetrated the Valley of the Frijoles again and in larger numbers than before. Slowly and surely they trickled in a few at a time. Over a period of years the infiltration was heavy. Deep trails were worn in the soft rock ledges by the passing over of thousands of moccasined feet going to and from the northern villages some ten miles distant. The steam of hatred between the jealous groups could have cooled off but probably never completely. Toward the close of the fifteenth century primitive [Tewa] farmers, it seems, had again settled in Frijoles Canyon.