River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1911-06-01

| in great numbers at any one time. De-
! Tense was not the primary motive
| that led the sedentary people of this
| canyon to utilize the caverns for shell
| ter Again, the inroads of enemies
never led to the abandonment of these
great cliffhouses, If we can impute
valor in any appreciate degree to the
| inhabitants. Fancy, for instance, the
difficulty, or, rather, improbability, of
number of nomadic warriors great
| enough to drive out the population of
Kitsiel, making their way up Cataract
canyon and besieging the pueblo. Such
an approach would have been impos-
sible Marauders might have raided
the Kitsiel cornfields, but they could
not have dislodged the inhabitants.
Even if they had succeeded in cap.
turing one house, but little would have
been gained, Fas it was custom of the
Pueblos to keep enough food in store
to last more than year. In this con-
nection the question is pertinent.
While hostiles were besieging Kit
siel how could they subsist during
any length of time? Only with the ut
most difficulty, even with aid of ropes
and ladders, can one now gain access
to some of these ruins. How could
marauding parties have entered them
if the inhabitants were hostile? The
cliff dwellings were constructed part
ly for defense, but mainly for the
shelter afforded by the overhanging
cliff, and the cause of their desertion
was not due SO much to predatory
enemies as failure of crops or the dis
appearance of the water supply.
"The writer does not regard these
ruins as of great antiquity; some of
the evidence indicates tAat they are
of later time. Features in their archi-
lecture show resemblances derived
from other regions.
Ruins Not of Great Antiquity.
'"The Navahoes ascribe the build
ings to ancient people and say that
the ruined houses existed before their
own advent in the country, but this
was not necessarily long ago. Such
evidence as has been gathered sup
ports Hopi legends that the inhabi-
tants were ancient Hopi, belonging to
the Flute, Horn and Snake families.
There is no evidence that cliff
house architecture developed in these
canyons, and rude structures older
than these have been founo q this
region. Whoever the builders of these
structures were, they brought their
craft with them. The adoption of the
deflector in the rectangular ceremo-
nial-rooms called kihus implies the
derivation Of these rooms from cir.
cular kivas, and all indications are
that the ancient inhabitants came
from higher up San Juan river.
MANY of the ruins in Canyon de
Chiefly, situated east of Laguna creek,
show marked evidence of being mod.
ern, and they in turn are not SO old
as those of the Mesa Verde. If the
ruins become older as we go up the
river the conclusion is logical that the
migration of the San Juan culture was
down the river from east to west,
rather than in the opposite direction.
The scanty traditions known to the
author support the belief in a migra-
ton from east to west, although there
were exceptional instances of clan
movements in the opposite direction.
The general trend of migration would
indicate that the ancestral home of
the Snake and Flute people was in
Colorado and New Mexico"