Frijoles: A Hidden Valley in the New World

by J. W. Hendron

Had these Keres-led Spanish peered into the Frijoles—known to Indians as [Tyuonyi]—this Hidden Valley in the New World, they would have seen the unbelievable. They would have looked into a valley six hundred feet deep and several hundred feet across. The opposite or north side was a sheer perpendicular cliff of pinkish rock. There were houses terraced high in the air, three or four stories at the base of the cliff. There were cave openings in the cliff, over some of the houses, which led out to open porches built of poles and brush. Small houses of stone and mud extended up and down the north wall of the [Canyon] almost as far as the human eye could see. People were walking around, microscopic in size because of the distance, climbing up and down tiny ladders to and from the tops of their houses. They were clothed in cotton cloth, hides and furs.

In the center of the valley, seemingly equidistant from both sides, was a huge circular house comprised of many small rooms, one on top of another, with tiny ladders extending from the ground to the roofs. Indians were going in and out of small roof openings. Their house was a veritable fort of primitive style. Four hundred rooms, or more, were built in the form of a circle. The structure had an opening or hallway through one side which led to an inner court or [plaza]. A sentry was stationed inside the entrance which was a high, thick wall built in the shape of a semi-circle with a narrow opening. A lone Indian, or maybe two, with bow and arrow in hand, might have been seen carrying a deer down a narrow trail. Queer looking creatures were these Indians with long stringy hair tied down by a band around their foreheads. They wore [moccasins] of deer skin on their feet. Kilts covered their thighs. They could have been a short muscular sort of people much the same as our modern [pueblo] dwellers. But they were known as the “pygmies” or “the little strong people.”

COURTESY MUSEUM OF NEW MEXICO THE PAINTED CAVE

COURTESY MUSEUM OF NEW MEXICO STONE LIONS OF [COCHITI]

Smoke emerged from tiny openings in the roofs. Occasionally an Indian woman would appear, black hair stringing and her body draped with a [manta] of cotton cloth or animal skins. The bark of a dog or the gobble of a turkey which the Indians had domesticated might have broken the silence. The waters of the little river far below could be heard rolling over and onward toward the [Rio Grande]. The occasional thud of a boulder was heard as it bumped down stream.

Only one side of the valley was occupied—the north side. The south side was covered with trees, bare now because winter was here. The south wall of the [Canyon] was not as conducive to habitation as the north because it was worn down at a sharp angle. There were no vertical cliffs from which to carve out caves and no [talus] slopes on which to build little houses of stone and mud. No sun directed its rays toward the south cliff. The snow lay there all winter and helped cut it down at a sharp angle from top to bottom. The north side was sunny and dry—a perfect place for habitation.

There were not many people here during these last years of the sixteenth century. Great numbers had gone: but where, and why? A few [cronies] could have been seen crouching against stone houses at the base of the cliff, basking in the afternoon sun. A woman or two could have been grinding corn on flat stone slabs inside a cliff house, keeping time to a weird monotonous chant sung by old men as they pounded drums. Things were hanging from the ends of roof poles protruding through the front walls of houses—perhaps a piece of highly prized venison. House tops were strewn with corncobs. A weather-beaten corn field had spent itself.

This was the valley known to the [Keres] as “[Tyuonyi].” It was the place where their people had lived only a few generations before. It was a valley over which most any group of primitive people would fight and was a place where the water supply was constant except in times of intense drought. Tyuonyi is a Keres word which signifies a treaty or contract and was so-called because of a treaty made with Tewa-speaking people years before, marking it as the boundary between Keres and [Tewa] territory. But who was to occupy Tyuonyi, the Hidden Valley and the most ideal spot on all the [Pajarito] Plateau? It seems that the Tewas (the little strong people) were the ones who occupied it until the very last. This was perhaps the reason why the Keres became envious and that is why to this day they retain a feeling of criticism for the Tewa-speaking people. Legend has it that relations between the two groups in [prehistoric] times were normally unfriendly.