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                           _Canyon de Chelly_


                   The Story of its Ruins and People

                          by Zorro A. Bradley


                         Office of Publications
                         National Park Service
                    U.S. Department of the Interior
                           Washington, D.C.,
                                  1973

          _Library of Congress Catalog Card Number_ 73-600078




                                Contents


  Discovery of the Ruins                                                3
  The Principal Ruins                                                   7
      White House                                                       7
      Antelope House                                                    9
      Standing Cow                                                     12
      Big Cave                                                         13
      Mummy Cave                                                       15
  The People of Canyon de Chelly                                       17
      The Anasazi                                                      18
      The Navajos                                                      27
  Further Reading                                                      57
  Maps                                                          8, 24, 39


_Far up above me, a thousand feet or so, set in a great cavern in the
face of the cliff, I saw a little city of stone asleep. It was as still
as sculpture—and something like that. It all hung together, seemed to
have a kind of composition: pale little houses of stone nestling close
to one another, perched on top of each other, with flat roofs, narrow
windows, straight walls, and in the middle of the group, a round
tower...._

_In sunlight it was the colour of winter oak leaves. A fringe of cedars
grew along the edge of the cavern, like a garden. They were the only
living things. Such silence and stillness and repose—immortal repose.
That village sat looking down into the canyon with the calmness of
eternity.... I had come upon the city of some extinct civilization,
hidden away in this inaccessible mesa for centuries, preserved in the
dry air and almost perpetual sunlight like a fly in amber, guarded by
the cliffs and the river and the desert._

                                                         —_Willa Cather_


Quotation from _The Professor’s House_, 1925, by permission of Alfred A.
                            Knopf, New York.

    [Illustration: The righthand section of Mummy Cave Ruin as it was
    photographed by Ben Wittick in 1882 during the James Stevenson
    Survey for the Smithsonian Institution.]




                         Discovery of the Ruins


Canyon de Chelly National Monument is located in the red rock country of
northeastern Arizona’s high plateau, near the center of the Navajo
Indian Reservation. Included in its 131 square miles are three
spectacular canyons—Canyon de Chelly, Canyon del Muerto, and Monument
Canyon—and many ruins of long-deserted villages. Perched in alcoves and
on high ledges along the sheer-walled canyons, these villages are
evidence of man’s ability to adjust to a difficult environment, using
bare hands, simple stone age tools, and his own ingenuity. They stand as
enduring monuments to the culture of the ancestors of the present-day
Pueblo Indians of the southwestern United States.

The ancestors of the Navajo Indians who now live in the shadows of these
deep canyons came here long after the earlier peoples had left.
Originally the Navajos did not live in the canyon, but only passed
through it on their yearly migrations. Today some live here permanently,
and their hogans are scattered along the sandy canyon floor, almost
hidden by the thick growth of willows and cottonwoods and detectable
only by a column of smoke slowly rising from a cook fire or by the
barking of dogs. Occasionally one may catch a glimpse of a brightly
dressed woman working around the hogan or of black-hatted men trotting
their horses between the nearby trading post, cornfields, or peach
orchards. A reserved and dignified people, they still live in the
tradition of their fathers.

The main canyon’s name, de Chelly, stems from the Navajo word “Tsegi”
(pronounced tsay-yih or tsay-yhi and meaning “Rock Canyon”), the name by
which they know the canyon network. Two centuries of Spanish and English
usage have corrupted both the form and pronunciation. Most people now
pronounce it “dah-SHAY” or “d’SHAY.”

The first Europeans to see the extensive ruins in Canyon de Chelly are
unknown. A Spanish map of 1776 indicates its location, and other
documents reveal that Spanish military expeditions sometimes passed
through the neighborhood. In 1805, Spanish troops entered the canyon
while trying to suppress Navajo raids. During the period of Mexican rule
(1821-46), a number of military expeditions against the Navajo invaded
the Canyon de Chelly region. Though the ruins had not been described in
writing, the area was fairly well known, and by 1846, when the “Army of
the West” brought the region under United States control, there were
many tall tales and rumors about the wonderful cities built in the
cliffs.

    [Illustration: Archeological excavations in Canyon del Muerto,
    1929.]

In 1849, the New Mexico territorial government found it necessary to
request that a U.S. Army expedition be sent to subdue the Navajos. Lt.
J. H. Simpson of the Topographical Engineers accompanied the troops. His
journal, published in 1850, contained the first detailed account of some
of the Canyon de Chelly ruins.

After Simpson’s visit, other military expeditions and a few civilian
parties probably entered the canyons. No archeological investigations
were made,