Antiquities of the Mesa Verde National Park

by Jesse Walter Fewkes

Fig. 36. Hoop used in hoop-and-pole game.

It appears from the discovery of a small wooden hoop in one of the rooms that the prehistoric people of Spruce-tree House were familiar with the hoop-and-pole game (fig. 36) so popular among several of our aboriginal tribes. But whether or not the individual hoop obtained was used in a secular game or a ceremony may be open to differences of opinion. The author is inclined to connect the specimen above referred to with basket dances, one of which is called by the Hopi the Owakulti.[31] In this dance the hoop is rolled on the ground and the players throw or attempt to throw darts through it.

LEATHER AND SKIN OBJECTS

Fig. 37. Portion of leather moccasin.

Fragments of leather or dressed skin (fig. 37) were found in several of the rooms. These are apparently parts of moccasins or sandals, but may have been pouches or similar objects. A strip of rawhide by means of which an ax was lashed to its handle was picked up in the dump, where also was a fragment of what may have been a leather pouch with a thong of hide woven in one edge. If skins of animals were used for clothing, as they probably were, but slight evidence of the fact remains.

ABSENCE OF OBJECTS SHOWING EUROPEAN CULTURE

In the excavations which were necessary to clean out the rooms of Spruce-tree House no object of European make was discovered. There was no sign of any metal, even copper being unrepresented; no object discovered shows traces of cutting by knives or other implements made of metal. Evidently European culture exerted no influence on the aborigines of Spruce-tree House.

PICTOGRAPHS

Near Spruce-tree House, as elsewhere on the Mesa Verde, are found examples of those rock-etchings and other markings known as pictographs. Some of these represent human beings in various attitudes, and animals, as deer, mountain sheep, snakes, and other subjects not yet determined. As seems to be true of the other rock-inscriptions just mentioned, some of those near Spruce-tree House are religious symbols, some are totems, while others are mere scribblings.