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

by Jesse Walter Fewkes

b. EXTERIOR

RUIN A, SOUTHWEST OF MARSH PASS

The ruins in West canyon (pl. [2]) are particularly interesting from the fact that the walls of some of the rooms are built of elongated cylinders of clay shaped like a Vienna loaf of bread. These “bricks” consist of a bundle of twigs enveloped in red clay, which forms a superficial covering, the “brick” being flattened on two faces. These unusual adobes were laid like bricks, and so tenaciously were they held together by clay mortar that in one instance the corner of a room, on account of undermining, had fallen as a single mass. The use of straw-strengthened adobe blocks is unknown in the construction of other cliff-houses, although the author’s investigations at Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde National Park revealed the use of cubical clay blocks not having the central core of twigs or sticks, and true adobes are found in the Chelly canyon and at Awatobi. The ruins in West canyon can be visited from either Bekishibito or Shanto, the approach from both of these places being not difficult. There is good drinking water in West canyon, where may be found also small areas of pasturage owned by a few Navaho who inhabit this region. The trail by which one descends from the rim of West canyon to the valley is steep and difficult.

One of the most interesting discoveries in West canyon is the grove of peach trees in the valley a short distance from the canyon wall. The existence of these trees indicates Spanish influence. Peach trees were introduced into the Hopi country and the Canyon de Chelly in historic times either by Spanish priests or by refugees from the Rio Grande pueblos. They were observed in the Chelly canyon by Simpson in 1850.

The geographical position of these ruins in relation to Navaho mountain[12] leads the writer to believe that they might have been built by the Snake clans in their migration south and west from Tokónabi to Wukóki, but he has not yet been able to identify them by Hopi traditions.

But little has appeared in print on the ruins near Marsh pass. In former times an old government road, now seldom used, ran through Marsh pass, and those who traveled over it had a good view of some of these ruins. Situated far from civilization, this region has attracted but slight attention, although it is one of the most important, archeologically speaking, in our Southwest. Much of this part of Arizona is covered with ruins, some of which, as “Tecolote,”[13] are indicated on the United States Engineers’ map of 1877. In his excellent article[14] on this region Dr. T. Mitchell Prudden gives us no description of the interesting cliff-dwellings in or near Marsh pass, though he writes of the ruins in the neighboring canyon: “There are numerous small valley sites, several cliff houses, and a few pictographs in the canyon of the Towanache,[15] which enters Marsh pass from the northwest.” As indicated on his map, Doctor Prudden’s route did not pass the large ruins west and south of this canyon or those on the road to Red Lake and Tuba.

Manifestly, the purpose of a national monument is the preservation of important objects contained therein, and a primary object of archeological work should be to attract to it as many visitors and students as possible. As the country in which the Navaho National Monument is situated is one of the least known parts of Arizona, first place will be given to a brief account of one of the routes by which the important ruins included in the reserve may be reached.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The author’s first visit to these ruins was made in September, 1909, and he returned to the work in the following May. A few notes made on the latter trip on ruins not observed during the former are incorporated in this report.

[2] The exact situation of Tokónabi has never been identified by archeologists. Ruins are called by the Navaho nasazi bogondi, “houses of the nasazi.” The name Tokónabi may be derived from Navaho to, “water;” ko, contraction of bokho, “canyon;” and the Hopi locative obi, “place of.” The derivation from Navaho boko, “coal oil,” is rejected, since it is very modern.