Last updated 10th July 2024: Online ordering is currently unavailable due to technical issues. We apologise for any delays responding to customers while we resolve this. For further updates please visit our website https://www.cambridge.org/news-and-insights/technical-incident
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Scant attention has been given to the archaeology of so inconspicuous a group as the nomadic Navaho in a land where great and imposing pueblos dominate the archaeological scene. Kidder was the first to point out what appeared to be remains of Navaho hogans in the upper San Juan Valley, New Mexico. As early as 1912 he reported visiting three ruins in the Gobernador and Largo canyons, consisting of settlements of pueblo type in association with a “number of ruined log structures closely resembling modern Navajo hogans.” One entire settlement in the San Rafael Canyon, including both Pueblo and Navaho type dwellings, was surrounded by high defense walls, without openings. These sites were recognizable as historic in time, due to the presence of metal axe marks on the timber, cow and sheep bones in the rubbish, and one fireplace of the “hood” type, alleged to be of Spanish derivation. Nelson, in 1916, reported similar types of ruins, not only in the Largo and Gobernador, but also in Carriso and Burns Canyons; and traces in the Puerco drainage.
1 Kidder, 1920, p. 322 et seq.
2 Ibid., p. 323.
3 Ibid., p. 329.
4 Haile, 1937, p. 2
5 Hibben, 1937, pp. 13, 14.
6 Malcolm, 1939, pp. 4-20.
7 Ibid., p. 10, footnote.
8 Farmer, Field and Laboratory Reports; Archaeological work done in the old Navaho country, summer of 1938; in manuscript form. Kindly placed at the disposal of the writer by Mr. Farmer.
9 Such as those described by Ugarte in 1788; Archive no. 1022, New Mexico State Historical Society. Hibben also reports similar round watch towers on the bluffs above the rivers in the valleys of the Gallina and upper Chama. Many others have been observed by Mera and the writer, in the Gobernador region, some of which are located on barely accessible promontories.
10 Farmer, MS., Sect. IV, p. 77.
11 Harrington, 1940, Fig. 32, p. 514. Here the Cabezon region is indicated as occupied by the Navaho in the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century.
12 Map of U. S. Dept. of Agriculture; Forest Service; Cibola National Forest, Mt. Taylor Division.
13 U. S. Geologic Survey, Bulletin 860 B.
14 Mindeleff, C, 1896, p. 490.
15 Except for the solitary hogan K.
16 Pointed out to the writer by Van. Valkenburgh, June, 1939.
17 Mindeleff, 1895-6.
18 Ibid., p. 489.
19 Farmer, Section III, pp. 1-33.
20 Notably by Schoolcraft, PI. 3, 1853, p. 70; and Matthews, 1897, p. 14.
21 Page, 1937, p. 47.
22 By J. R. Jones.
23 For a more detailed discussion of the use of stone in hogan construction, see Malcolm, 1939, p. 5, and footnote, p. 9.
24 Cf. the two-room rectangular dwelling described by Malcolm (1939, p. 7) and the “unit houses” of Kidder (1920) and Farmer.
25 Malcolm, 1939, p. 6.
26 Ibid., p. 11.
27 Jones, 1939.
28 Malcolm states that all the entrances to the Chaco Canyon hogan sites examined by him, face east (1939, p. 7) but Farmer notes one entrance which is presumably in the northeast quadrant, in a hogan excavated by him in the drainage between the Largo and Blanco Canyons. (MS, Section IV, p. 32.)
29 Malcolm notes only one entrance of the c type, where, “the wall was projected out in an arm” in the sites he examined in Chaco Canyon. (1939, p. 7.)
30 Mindeleff, 1896, p. 493.
31 Note also Hill, 1938, pp. 173-4, re the preparation of porcupine. “A pit was lined with heated flat rocks. These were covered with wet mud, the porcupine laid in the pit, and another layer of mud and hot stones added. Then the pit was covered with earth, and the meat allowed to cook for about an hour.”
32 Farmer, MS., Section IV, p. 14.
33 Farmer, MS., Section IV, pp. 15, 39.
34 Hill mentions “natural cavities in cliff surfaces” used for storage by modern Navahos, although the most common modern storage place appears to be the excavated pit (Hill, 1938, pp. 42, 43). None of the latter were found in the Guadalupe Canyon area.
35 Malcolm, 1939, p. 15.
36 Malcolm, 1939, p. 11.
37 Ibid., p. 12.
38 Hill, 1938, p. 99.
39 Ibid., p. 117.
40 Ibid., p. 121.
41 Ibid., p. 129.
42 Ibid., p. 101.
43 Ibid., p. 113.
44 Kidder, 1920, p. 322.
45 Farmer, MS., Section IV, pp. 123-129.
45a This is a particular point of emphasis made in the reports of twelve witnesses recorded in the early eighteenth century Rabal Manuscript; Hill, 1940, p. 395 et seq.
46 The writer is indebted to Dr. Volney H. Jones of the University of Michigan for the identification and description of all vegetal material.
47 Hill, 1940, pp. 39S et seq.
48 The writer is indebted to H. P. Mera and W. S. Stallings, Jr., for aid in identification and description of the Navaho painted wares, and the historic Pueblo wares.
49 All number, letter and name color references are from Maerz and Paul, A Dictionary of Color.
50 Mera, 1939, pp. 124-137.
51 For a description of Ashiwi Polychrome, see Mera, 1939, pp. 138-162.
52 This is suggestive of the Ramah-Navaho practice of gathering together pieces of broken vessels, and placing them under rocks or in dry places. Tschopik, 1941, p. 14.
53 For descriptions of this type see Hargrave, 1932, p. 11, and Hawley, 1936, p. 25.
54 Identified by Hibben.
55 Mera, 1935, p. 6; Hawley, 1936, p. 35.
56 Hawley, F., 1936, pp. 42-43.
57 Mera, H. P., 1935, p. 6.
58 Comparable in form to that described for the Ramah Navaho and Zuni by Tschopik, 1941; p. 70, footnote 6.
59 Franciscan Fathers, 1910, pp. 285-291.
60 Tschopik, 1941, p. 20.
61 Tschopik, 1938, pp. 2S7-262.
62 Hill, 1937, p. 22.
63 Kidder, 1920, p. 323.
64 In conversation with the writer, August, 1940.
65 The Big Bead Navaho polychrome seems comparable to the second style described by Tschopik, 1941, p. 70, which he locates possibly somewhat to the south of the junction of Eastern and Central Navaho areas.
66 Mera, 1939, pp. 18-20.
67 Parsons, 1939, p. 906.
68 Ibid., p. 98S, note.
69 Mera, 1939, p. 4.
70 Hill, 1937, p. 22 and Amsden, 1934, p. 124.
71 Described by Mera, 1935, 1938; and Hibben, 1938.
72 Mera, 1938, p. 236.
73 In the Gobernador region. Dated by E. T. Hall, Jr.
74 Huscher, B. H. and H. A., 1940, pp. 139-142.
75 Ibid., p. 140.
76 Steward, 1937.
77 Ibid., p. 43.
78 Ibid., p. 44.
79 Ibid., p. 48.
80 Strong, 1935, pp. 212-217.
81 Smith, 1939, Mss. p. 6.
82 Strong, 1935, p. 216.
83 Wedel, 1939, p. 86.
84 Smith, 1939, Mss. p. 10.
85 Hy de Laguna, in the summer of 1936 (De Laguna, 1936, p. 11 ).
86 According to one of Hill's informants, “It was told in the past that the ‘giant’ had all the arrow points. Later it was said that the ‘Horn Toad People’ made them.” Hill, 1938, p. 96.
87 The terminology and classification of projectile points is based on Strong, 1935, p. 88.
88 Kidder, 1932, p. 64.
89 Among the Ramah Navahos polishers are used today on unpainted ware, and may be employed after slipping, but are not used after painted designs have been applied. Tschopik, 1941, p. 15
90 Farmer, MS., Section IV, Catalogue.
91 The writer is indebted to Dr. Glover M. Allen of Harvard University for the identification of all bone material.
92 Matthews, 1902, p. 140.
93 According to Reichard, after examination of the material.
94 Matthews, 1883-4, p. 436.
95 Ibid., p. 386.
96 Ibid., p. 436.
97 Ibid.
98 In the suppressed part of the Mountain Chant by Matthews, 1892.
99 All indices from Wilder, 1920, unless otherwise specified.
100 After Hrdlicka, 1939, p. 186.
101 Matthews, 1897, p. 10.
102 According to both Matthews, 1897, p. 12, and Hrdlicka, 1900, p. 340.
103 Boas, 1895, p. 366. Unpublished data of Kluckhohn also indicate brachycephalism.
104 By Morice, 1906, pp. 697 et seq.
105 Ibid., p. 696.
106 Except in the specimen from JH-13, with an estimated bark date of 1673 ± x, but the unknown rings here, in all probability make this specimen post Pueblo rebellion in date.
107 Obtained by the writer, summer of 1940. See also Kidder, 1920, re mixed Navaho-Pueblo sites in the upper San Juan Valley.
