Preliminary report on a visit to the Navaho National Monument, Arizona

by Jesse Walter Fewkes

This picturesque ruin occupies the whole floor of a narrow, low cave situated in an almost vertical cliff forming one side of a canyon which extends deep into the mountain; the entrance is between low hills on the left, where the road ascends to Marsh pass. The ruin can be seen for a long distance, but as one approaches the canyon in which it lies the site is hidden by foothills. The accompanying view (pl. [5]) was taken from the opposite side of the canyon, it being impossible to get an extended detailed view of the ruin from above or below. Beyond the ruin the canyon forms a narrowing fissure with precipitous sides; its bed is covered with bushes, stunted trees, and fallen rocks. No flowing water was found in this canyon, but in the ledges near its mouth, below the ruins, there are pockets and potholes which contained considerable water at the time of the writer’s visit.

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

BULLETIN 50 PLATE 7

SWALLOWS NEST

This cliff-dwelling is difficult to enter, the walls of the canyon, both above and below and on the sides, being almost perpendicular. A pathway extending along the side of the cliff on the level of the cave approaches within 20 feet of the ruin; from its end to the first room of the ruin this trail is continued by a series of footholes pecked in the rock, making entrance hazardous at this point.[23] Although the walls of this cliff-dwelling are more or less destroyed and their foundations deeply buried, there still remains standing masonry of a square tower (?) reaching from the floor to the roof of the cave. One corner of this tower is completely broken out, but the remaining sides show that this building was three stories high, composed of rooms one above another.

Several other rooms lie concealed under fallen walls and débris. One of the most instructive of these is what may have been a kiva, or ceremonial room,[24] the location of its walls being indicated by stakes projecting out of the ground. Lower down, where the wall was better preserved, sticks or wickerwork were found interwoven in the uprights, the whole being plastered with adobe, a form of wall construction common in prehistoric ruins of Arizona.

In comparison with the Mesa Verde ruins, the masonry of this ruin is poor, but the stones used in constructing the walls are large. The many fragments of pottery strewn over the surface of the floor of the cave resemble in symbolism pottery from Black Falls, the same colors, black and white, predominating.[25]

In descending the declivity of the cliff in the sides of which cliff-house B is situated, there comes to view a cluster of broken walls crowning a low elevation, which indicate a former house of some size. In their neighborhood are the foundations of other walls, and the ground in the vicinity is strewn with many fragments of pottery and much fallen masonry half buried in débris. Farther down the hill, on the level of the road and extending parallel with it, are low ridges or mounds covered with pottery, indicating the former presence of a pueblo of considerable size. No walls were traced in these mounds, which seem to indicate the existence of an ancient cemetery, as several rings of small stones, suggesting graves, were found. A short distance beyond this supposed cemetery is a little cave, situated a few hundred feet to the left of the road. In this cave are a few walls, but the cliff-dwelling is not of great size; beyond it the road rises steeply to Marsh pass. (Pl. [6].)

Although some of the ruins in the Navaho Monument may be visited without the use of saddle horses, the largest can not now be approached with wagons. It would be possible at a small expense, however, so to improve the Indian trail up the canyon of Laguna creek that one could drive within a fraction of a mile of the great ruins, Betatakin and Kitsiel. At present, to reach these one must leave carriages at Marsh pass and descend with saddle horses to the bed of Laguna creek, which flows along the canyon, in the side branches of which are situated the greatest two cliff-dwellings of the region. One of these, Betatakin, is about six miles, the other, Kitsiel, about 10 miles, from Marsh pass.