Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1899-12-28
OLDER THAN AZTECS.
Cliff Dwellers of the Southwest Ante
date the Sphinx.

Major E. H. Cooper has spent the
greater part of the last twenty-three
years in explorations among the
former homes of the cliff dwellers, and
has collected facts and materials that
have thrown much light on their man
ners, customs, arts and religion. His
travels have taken him over an area
900 miles square, including the cliff
dwellings found in Colorado, Utah,
Arizona and Mexico, and the results of
his studies have led him to differ from
many of the accepted theories.
According to Mr.. Cooper, the cliff
jewellers were an Indigenous race from
the Moquis, Navajoes and Pueblos have
descended. Long before history began
recording human deeds and achieve
ments these people pursued the even
tenor of their way on the surface of
the earth, not yet having conceived the
desire to emulate the mountain goat
and scale the giddy heights of the sur
rounding cliffs. They were a numer-
GUS and peaceful people, tending their
focks and cultivating fields of corn
and cotton. Their houses were built
of stone and cement, and while they
were not triumphs of architectural art,
their durability puts to shame many
more pretentious edifices of later years.
How long they lived thus no one can
tell; but it is a cheerful thought, not
to say brain-terrifying conception,
when it is brought home to average
minds that ruins have been found in
the Montezuma Valley twenty-five
feet below the surface in alluvial de-
posits and extending twelve feet
farther down, while biologists sit
calmly by and state that it takes 1000
They must be very ancient. Be this as
1t may, these quiet folk were suddenly
beset by the Navajoes from the north,
and, although physically large and
vigorous, they were not possessed of
warlike spirit, and after being smit-
ten on the cheek, rather than turn the
other cheek they-in the language of
later day poet-looked aloft and
climbed out of danger.
Henceforth they proceeded to walk
up the face of the cliffs and along
betting crags and precipices until
they made their homes in the great
caves that perhaps an overriding Prov
idence had hewed out expressly for
them. Contemplating these airy dom
iciles and the serpentine and precip-
itous method of attaining them, the
thought how a cliff dweller who had
stayed out late with the boys ever at
tanned the proper doorstep confounds
and terrifies the Imagination, and the
act is worthy to be placed among the
achievements of great men.
Their ascension day is supposed to
have occurred some 5000 years ago.
In fact, the Moquis, who, according to
Mr.. Cooper, are the direct descendants
Of the cliff people, speaking the orig
inal language, have a tradition of how
the cliff dwellers were driven into the
Grand Canyon and south of San Juan
by red men from the north. This cor
responds with a similar tradition of
the Navajoes that once, many years
ago, they drove white people out of
the country. The cliff dwellers were
a light-colored people, as are the Mo-
quis of the present day.
Some of the lodges on which the
houses were built are 1900 feet in
height and are overhung by masses of
rocks running up 500 feet higher.
Ropes were let down from above which
enabled the people to reach their
homes. These houses were built Of
stone fastened by cement and the en-
tire outside was plastered over. The
people were decidedly gregarious, liv-
ing together in large buildings which,
perhaps, were the precursors of the
modern apartment-houses
The cliff palace in the Nance Can
yon, Colorado, is from three to seven
stories in height, $50 feet long and con-
tains LOO rooms. The latter are from
fifteen to twenty feet in size, having
cement floors and walls, and they GER
tainly did not lack for ventilation or
unobstructed view. The cliff houses
are much more carefully constructed
than those of the ground and make
considerable pretensions to architec-
tural effects.
The cliff jewellers lived in the stone
age, and although inhabiting a coun-
try rich in mineral wealth, there is no
evidence that it was ever put to any
practical use. Their weapons were
bows and arrows tipped with obsidian
or agate. clubs and spears Consider
able skill was shown in the pottery
and basket work. The pottery, says
Mr.. Cooper, was all hand made, no
knowledge of the potter's wheel being
in evidence.
Few attempts were made at fanciful
shapes, which so distinguished the
Peruvian product. but their ornamen-
tation was strictly up to date. The
pigments were applied and rubbed in,
and then the article was heated or
fired. This was repeated three times,
resulting in a glazed surface that has
stood the wear OF centuries. The bas-
ket work greatly resembles the pro-
ducts of Mexico and Arizona Weaving
wool and cotton was another art pos
sessed in a high degree of excellence,