Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1907-09-23
SUCCESSFUL
EXPEDITION
Professor Edgar L.
Hewett And PARTY
Return
EXPLORED CLIFF DWELLINGS
Rewarded By Collection of
5000 Valuable Archaeo.
logical Specimens.

One hundred and twenty rooms ex.
cavated, three thousand archaeologic
al specimens collected, such are the
results of the archaeological expedi.
tion of Professor Edgar l.. Hewett and
his class of students to the Puye
Mesa in the Pajarito Park, thirty
miles west of Santa Fe, the Puye be.
ing one of the northernmost and most
extensively explored of the large
communal cliff houses. In the party
were Mrs. J. L. Wood Of this city, and
number of graduates of eastern uni
versities and several weeks were Civ.
en- to the work During the day,
when the weather permitted, excava.
tion work was done while in the even
ing around the camp fire, Professor
Hewett lectured. Among the speci-
mems found are number that are
unique ard very valuable from the
archaeological standpoint and besides
pottery include an idol, an entire
cacique outfit, burial urns and stone
implements. Two burial places, one
that OF an infant and the other of a
Raven burial, the latter consisting of
o cemented vault and having a COM
plete set of burial urns, were exca-
vated. The expedition was paid for
In part by the Southwest Archaeolog-
ical Society of Los Angeles, and the
most of the specimens will go to the
museum Of that society at Los Ange.
les. II is to be regretted that the
Santa Fe Society Is not yet financially
strong enough to pay for a similar ex-
pedition which would give it the nu
cleus Of an intensely interesting arch
geological collection and museum
How much interest is being awakened
In ts4a wonders of the twenty thou
sand cliff and communal dwellings 50
near Santa Fe, may be gathered from
the following article In the New
York Tribune of recent date:
Great Interest in Ancient Cliff Dwell.
ings.
"A new and systematic attempt is
soon to be made by the Archaeologic-
al Institute of America to unearth
additional information relative to
the Cliff Dwellers, one of The most in
teresting and recently extinct of the
prehistoric races of America. To this
end the institute has asked permis-
sion of the Secretary of Agriculture
to explore the Canon of the Rito de
los Frijoles, in New Mexico, which
cuts through the region of the coun-
try richest in prehistoric ruins. This
permission has been granted, and an
expedition will be sent to New Mexico
in the near future.
1.-THE Canon of the Rito de los Fri.
joles, which interpreted means the
Rite Of the Beans, branches off from
the Rio Grande at a point opposite
Santa Fe. It was here that the Span
iards settled in the earliest days of
Americas history, planting a perma-
nent colony, second in age only to
st. Augustine, Florida. Directly
through this country runs the famous
Santa Fe trail, which was first mark.
ed out by Coronado when he passed
from San Diego, California, eastward,
being the first European to penetrtae
what Is now the southwestern part of
the United States. The Mexican pop
ulation, which still predominates in
this region, makes beans its chief ar
ticle of food, and it was through the
custom in early days of holding feasts
in the shady canon that 1t got its
name
The native Indians still live on the
mesas that adjoin the canon, where
they celebrate many quaint customs
and religious ceremonies, some of
which are known to have been derived
from the Cliff Dwellers. Among these
Indians is still to be found strain
of the extinct blood, as there was
some intercourse between the two
races before the Cliff Dwellers became
extinct. The Indians are, however, a
greatly inferior race, never having at
tanned to anything like the civiliza-
tion of the older race.
1T is generally accepted theory that
the Cliff Dwellers were crowded by
the Indians from the mesas, where
are still found evidences Of extensive
irrigation systems. They went into
the canons and caves for shelter from
the force of numbers of their conquer
ors, who drove them from their agri-
cultural pursuits, and then were ex-
terminated largely through starvation,
the date Of their passing being set at
something near a thousand years ago.
The Indians prof1ted In no way from
the agricultural example set by their