The Coconino sun., 1920-02-20

enterprises. This route was also fol- lowed by the white explorers, adven- turers and eMigrants, as we have seen. As time passed, the Flutes be- gan to raid the cornfelds and homes of the Hopis there. Then came the su- 1 perior Navajo, who dispossessed both Hopi and Piute. The oasis was, there fore, practically abandoned by the Hopi and the Piute retreated to the region of the San Jaun. From about 1750 to the days of men now living, the Moenkopi fields were cultivated I only as it was thought safe for the Hopi, farmers to \come from their homes forty miles away at the we'll protected village of Oraibi to put in the crops and attend them and then return to the home village when the crops were gathered, the Hopi women seldom visiting the place. Garces, in 1776, found on the Oasis 'half-ruin- ed pueblo and some crops near d spring." He further stated that the people who cultivated the fields were i Hopis, "they coming to cultivate them iron, the same Moqui pueblo (Oraibi) which is so large."*
 (*Transaltion from Coues (Elliott) |, Loc. cit, H., p. 35S.)
 From the traditions of the Hopis, it is learned that few of the Hopi men came and farmed on this oasis each year, some possibly staying year by year. A few Flutes and Navajos ap- pear also to have had fields there | from time to time. As late as 1874 Jacob Hamblia found "only one Piute family and one Oraibi woman there."
 In the early 70ties the Saints of the Mormon church were called to set i tie in Arizona" and crossing at Lee Ferry, Pierce Ferry, and the Gross ing of the Fathers" they made set dement's under Jacob Hamblin and others in the Navajo-Hopi region, Mr. Hamblin having previously made sew en excursions into the region between ' the years 1858 and 1871. The emi- grants in 1873 turned back to Utah on account of disastrous experiences in the Painted Desert, leaving but one family at Moenkopi. In 1875 this family was forced to leave by the Navajos. A permanent settlement, however, was made there the follow ing year. The saints" first culti- vated the abandoned fields of the wash. Then followed years of hard shipy for though the fields yielded fruit, garden truck, corn and wheat, everything else had to be brought ov- erland from Utah to the place or from Albuquerque, New Mexico, 370 to 450 miles. And their building material, except rock and earth, had to be haul ed from the San Francisco peaks 70 miles distant. Moreover, the area that could be irrigated was small in comparison with the population that had to depend on it for a living. In addition there was more or less trou- ble with the Navajos. Also at times to keep peace with the Indians, cer- tain Navajos and Flutes were permit ted to live on the Oasis, which, though keeping the peace, also divided the sustaining crops among that many more families.
 Also with the coming of the Nor mons, the Hopis, under Tuba (after whom the town of Tuba (City) gets its name), began to return to the lands of their ancestors. The Moen- kopi people state that Chief Tuba went tc Salt Lake City and prevailed on the Mormon church to send the white settlers to the region so they would be protected from the Navajos and Flutes by the hand of stronger race. From records it also appears that Tuba and his family were the only Hopis living at Moenkopi in 1880. By 1903, 100 Hopis were re- siding there and now over 300 make their home at Moenkopi.
 In 1903 the government purchased" the Mormon settlers rights to the Iands at Moenkopi, Tuba, Moa Ave, and Reservoir Canyon for $54 ,000 and has since made Tuba the headquar- ters of the Western Navajo Indian Agency and school, the Mormon pio- neers moving to other points in the upper Little Colorado valley. And both the government and the Indians and the pioneers have profted by the change.
 ] This accounts, in brief, for the known occupation of Moenkopi and Tuba; but the ruins s.low that the place was inhabited long before the coming of the Spaniards or before the time of any Indian then living. Be- ! low is a description of the ruins exam ined by the writer.
 Ruin of Honogee-Across the wash northeast of the village of Moen- kopi on top of the mesa, about direct ly east of the day school, are the ex- tensive ruins of Honogee, built in the form of rude square. Parts of it's walls are still standing, which indi- cates that 1t is younger in time than the other ruins of the region, as will be noted later. Moreover, the Hopis told the writer that this was their will lage where they made their last stand against the Navajos, and consequent ly was their last abandoned village. Near to it on the side of the bluff overlooking the canyon are also the ruins of series of cliffhouses under an overhanging wall-roof. Five rooms are still intact, with the little, al most square doors still showing. They are built of rock, cemented in with I