The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-06-09
PREHISTORIC AMERICANS.

Buried Dwellings in Arizona Being Laid
Bare-Dr. Fewkes Guided by Hopi
Sages, Finds Ruins of Ancient Cities.
DR. ]. Walter Fewkes. the noted arch
geological explorer Of Washington, who
by his recent discoveries in the south
west won for himself the title of ''the
Schliemann of the new world" is going
to excavate another mass of buried
treasure which he believes to lie be-
meath the parched sands of Arizona.
The region into which he will shortly
penetrate lies in the weird valleys and
among the treacherous cliffs Of the nu-
merous parallel mountain ranges run
ming diagonally across northeastern Ar
iona into New Mexico.
| DR.. Fewkes has lived among the Zuni
at the lower end of the trails and with
| the weird Hopi people above. He has
| been admitted to their sacred priest
| hoods, and is known to them under an
aboriginal name. They have conflded to
him the traditions handed down through
the centuries by ancestors
The most probable theory as to the
origin of those people is that they re-
suited from an overflow of the ancient
Mexican peoples--the same frontier Gull
ture which included the Aztecs.
They once reached a remarkable stage
Of civilization. Their cities were built
of stone They were short and broad
headed, resembling the Chinese or Japa-
nese more than any other race. They
wore their hair long and straight. Both
men and women clothed themselves in
kits and sandals woven from the fibre
OF the century plant. They were an ag-
ricultural people, who probably deserted
the valley because of the rising of alkali
to the top of their soil as a result Of
their mastery of irrigation, or they may
have been driven out by wandering
tribes from the north. One clan of the
Hopi people seems to have descended
from them. Excavations near the Zuni
country show simlarlties to the latter.
The largest ruins are buried along the
ater-courses of the rivers. The migra-
ton of the ancient people seems to have
followed these courses. The country is
wild and mountainous, a iumbled mass
of parched soil, and rock formation. To
cross many of the cliffs is impossible.
Two years ago DIR. Fewkes, with his as
sociate, DR.. Hough, acting upon the ira
dition of the Hopi sage. who had de-
clared that mound of buried treasure
lay near the point where the Atchison,
Topeka and Santa Fe railroad bridge
crosses the Little Colorado, resorted to
this spot, and after a month of digging
excavated moro than they had anticipa-
ted. They uncovered what had been a
large settlement of many houses, built
like cells of a mammoth beehive, one
upon another, towering up into trun-
Gated pyramid of four stories. The en-
frances were in the tops.
There were no relics which might indi-
cate that the occupants had ever seen
the whites or learned any of their arts
The entire populace appeared to have
deserted rather than to have suffered
violent determination by enemies or the
elements. No skeletons haunted the liv-
ing rooms to tell of massacre or starva-
ton. Several of the dead had been bur-
led beneath the floors of the houses.
Excava tons continued near by brought
20 light the cemetery of the settlement,