The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-10-20
by FREDERICK J. HAsKIN

WASHINGTON, d. c.. Oct 90
The discovery of tobacco pipes in the
ruins of the Colorado cIiff-dwelIings
this summer by DR.. J. Walter Fewkes,
chief of the bureau of American eth
nology, adds another bit to the accum-
ulation of data on which psychologists
are building up the history of the pre-
historic people that inhabited the area
now set aside as the Mesa Verde Ma
tional park. 1t had not been known be.
fore that the cliff-dwellers knew the
solace of that weed which Columbus
discovered the West Indian savages
smoking three hundred years after the
ciiff-dwellers attained the summit OF
their civilization.
Each summer-the government ex-
plorers eXcavate in the ruins on Mesa
Verde only during the summer-adds
more to the knowledge of these re-
markable people. 1t is possible now to
give their civilization an approximate
date. We know fairly well now how
and why they rose to stand so much
higher in intelligence and in tribal
achievement than the savage tribes
that surrounded them We have a good
idea of their communal life. What
brought them to disaster, where they
went, and whether they have left des-
cendants, are still matters of conjec
ture, but investigation is going on in
a direction that may some day give
a complete picture of the cliff-dwellers.
Enough is known now, however, to
make it certain that theirs was much
the highest culture developed in pre-
historic times on this continent north
of the Rio Grande. South of what is
now the Mexican border there were
Indian civilizations even higher-those
OF the Aztecs in Mexico, the NIayas ir
Central America and the Incas in
South America. But the culture Of the
cliff-dwellers was a development indie
pendent of these others. The cliff
jewellers were probably a timid, IN
adventurous people; and, according
to DR.. Fewkes, they knew little of the
world outside a radius of hundred
miles or so from their own narrow
province. There was probably NO
communication between them and the
Aztecs TO the south.
The opening of automobile roads in
the Mesa Verde park and the increase
in recent years of automobile touring
have made the magnificent ruins O.
the cliff-dwellings familiar to thous.
ands of Americans. We are called q
young nation, yet in these ancient
structures we have antiquities which
In age rival those of northern Europe
Thousands of Americans looking at
the ruins of the cliff palace, the sun
temple, the spruce tree house, and
other remains must have wondered
what sort OF people they were who
could build structures of such dura-
bility and imposing size while all about
them stretched continent peopled
with men Of their own racial blood
but who nevertheless had never been
able to rise much above the plane of
naked savagery.
indian Corn
Civllizlng Influence.
The spade of the archeologist Is
gradually revealing the cliff people to
us. Year after year the excavating
goes on, more structures are uncover.
ed, and the museums at WASHINGTON
and elsewhere are further enriched by
implements, utensils, ornaments, and
other artifacts taken from the sites
of these buildings. Along with these
discoveries come new deductions
about the cliff-dwellers themselves.
According to DR.. Fewkes. the maize
plant-lndian corn-expiains the SUI
perior civilization of the cliff-dwellers
small-statured, unwarlike people, in
the first place they found in this I'm.
promising region of windswept can
yon and tableland a refuge from the
stronger and more warlike tribes who
preempted the regions of plenty. The
the Mnco
scarce. The streams were little more
than the channels for periodical fresh
cts. A few fish could be caught, but
not enough to support a population as
large as one which dwelt there. There
was no natural food supply at all such
rs other Indian tribes enjoyed, and so
the cliff people were forced to create
n soed supply by their own ingenuity.
They grew corn on the mesas.
And this was no easy thing. There