Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1879-04-04
The Cliff.DWellers.

Long before Columbus discovery,
probably early in the Christian era, civil
! ization began in America. Five distinct
native civilizations are known to have
| existed: one in Peru, one in Yucatan,
one in Mexico, one in New Mexico, Ari-
zona and Colorado, and one in the val
leys of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.
The latter were mound builders, who
worked the copper mines of lake Superb
or and worshiped the American eagle.
The New Mexican race we call the Pueb-
| los, or town builders, and toward the
close of their career the Clif-dwellers.
When the whites came to this CONT
nent the Peruvians and the civilizations
Of Yucatan and Mexico were flourish
ing; the Cliff-dwellers had nearly disap-
peared, and the Mound-builders had
been swept away and replaced by barbar-
Gus northern hordes. Living in a
moist land rich in wood, they built of
this material, and most Of their works
perished with them; but the New Mexi-
can people occupied a dry, elevated and
barren country abounding in plateaus
and cliffs, where agriculture, requiring
irrigation, could be carried on only along
the borders of the few and widely-sepa-
lated streams, or where water could be
stored in reservoirs. The region was
and is a desert, in which settlements
mark oases. Wherever the Pueblos
could cultivate the ground they built
towns of stone or sun-burnt brick, the
only material at hand in this nearly
woodless land. They raised cotton,
corn, pumpkins, beans and other vege-
tables, had domestic animals, and were
quite advanced in weaving, pottery max
ing, and other primitive arts. At one
time they occupied every available spot
in eastern Arizona, New Mexico and
southern Colorado; but the natural con-
ditions of climate and topography for
bade that any great accumulations of
wealth should repay the endless patience
of their toll. A bare subsistence was
all that could be wrung from the desert
land.
When, therefore, the northern tribes
began to crowd down upon the scattered
settlements, these wild men of the chase,
who, having neither property nor fixed
homes, had everything to gain and
nothing to lose in the struggle, slowly
wore out the strength of the more civil
lied race. While the services of every
man, woman and child must have been
needed in agriculture to secure a living,
large proportion of the male popula-
ton were in arms resisting the increas-
ing incursions of nomads. Weakened
by battle and famine, the gentler race,
who had treasured and developed the
sacred germ of human progress, aban-
doned their cities in the valleys and took
refuge in lodges of almost inaccessible
cliffs. Here they built themselves stone
houses, not to be approached except by
ladders, and supported themselves on
what could be raised along streams al
the foot of the rocks. All of this trans.
pired before the fifteenth century.
When the Spaniards first penetrated
into New Mexico, they heard fabulous
tales of seven inhabited cities, full o
gold and silver, perched on the summi
of high rock. They vainly endeavore(
to cross the deserts separating them from
these so-called cities of Cibola. Amos
nothing was known of them until {
United States government expedition
overcoming great obstacles, encampeC
/; finally at the foot of the escarped plateau
| on whose top stand the seven Moqu
towns. They found a civilized agricul
tural people, clad in cotton and woolel
} garments of their own weaving, en-
F. gagged in cultivating maize, vegetable
< and fruit, but also men of the chase, ant
S thoroughly warlike.
a This is the only surviving remnant o
i of that once-powerful people, who
y driven from the valleys to the cliffs
3 perished at last by the hands of the will
tribes we are now exterminating -Al
: bG7y Journal.