Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-05-03
PREHISTORIC AMERICANS.

Chicago Chronicle: DR.. ]. Walter Few
kes, the noted archaeological explorer Of
Washington, who by his recent discov-
cries in the Southwest won for himself
the title of "the Schliemann of the New
World" is going to e~xcavate another
mass Of buried treasure which he be-
lieves to lie beneath the parched sands Of
Arizona. The region into which he will
shortly penetrate lies in the weird val
leys and among the treacherous cliffs Of
the numerous parallel mountain ranges
running diagonally across Northeastern
Arizona into New Mexico.
DR.. Fewkes has lived among the Zuni
at the lower end of the trails n 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 confided to
him the traditions handed down through
the centuries by ancestors.
The most probable theory as to the ORR
gin of those people is that they resulted
from an overflow Of the ancient Mexican
peoples-the same frontier culture which
Includes the Aztecs.
They once reached a remarkable stage
of civilization. Their cities were built of
stone. They We're short and broad
headed, resembling the Chinese or Jap
anese 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 We're an agri-
cultural people, who probably deserted
the valley because of the raising 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
noOV1n ooV,, 10 InconrIn1 from fhn,n
Excavations neal the Fun country show
similarities to the latter.
The largest ruins are buried along the
water-courses of the rivers. The migra-
ton of the ancient people seems to have
followed these courses. The country Is
wild and mountainous, a jumbled mass
Of parched soil and rock formation. To
cross many of the Cliffs is impossible.
, Two years ago DR.. Fewkes, with his as
s%ociate, DR.. Hougll, acting upon the ira
dition of the Hopi sage. who had de-
clared that a mound of buried treasure
lay near the point where the Atchison,
Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad bridge
, this spot. and after a month Of digging
i. eXcavated more than they had antici-
pated. They uncovered what had been a
large settlement of many houses, built
like cells of a mammoth beehive, one
/ upon another, towering up into a trun-
Gated pyramid OF four stores. Inc en-
frances We're 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 de-
! serted rather than to have suffered vio-
lent determination by enemies or the e,e-
ments. No skeletons haunted the living
rooms to tell of massacre Or starvation.
Several of the dead had been buried be-
! meath the floors Of the houses. EXcava-
lions continued near by brought to light
the cemetery of the settlement, where
hundreds of skeletons We're found repos-
ing beneath fiat slabs of stone, upon
which nae been painted pictures of rain
clouds. A round hole was invariably
drilled in the center of each slab, proba-
bly, to admit the soul to the spirit world.
At either side of the neck OF a skeleton
was usually found a mortuary bowl con-
tanning grass seed, corn or rolled waters
of meal. Upon the wrists, necks and
breasts of the skeletons were found elab-
crate jewels of turquoise and shell.
There is also a tradition, confidede to
DR.. Fewkes by two Hopi priests, that far
to the south there was a stream known
as "The Blue Water" where a race of
people lived many long years ago. and
where the Hopi always went for "holy
water"'to be used by the priests in their
rituals. The exploring party went here
and e~Xcavated a second settlement SIM