THE RUINS OF SIKYATKI

TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE PUEBLO

Very vague ideas are current regarding the character of Hopi culture prior to Tobar's visit to Tusayan in 1540, and with the exception of the most meager information nothing concerning it has come down to us from early historical references in the sixteenth century. It is therefore interesting to record all possible information in regard to these people prior to the period mentioned, and this must be done mainly through archeology.

Although there are many Tusayan ruins which we have every reason to believe are older than the time of Coronado, no archeologist has gathered from them the evidences bearing on prehistoric Tusayan culture which they will undoubtedly yield. Large and beautiful collections of pottery ascribed to Tusayan ruins have shown the excellent artistic taste of the ancient potters of this region, indicating that in the ceramic art they were far in advance of their descendants. But these collections have failed to teach, the lesson they might have taught, from the fact that data concerning the objects composing them are so indefinite. Very little care had been taken to label these collections accurately or to collect any specimens but those which were strikingly beautiful or commercially valuable. It was therefore with the hope of giving a more precise and comprehensive character to our knowledge of Tusayan antiquities that I wished to excavate one of the ruins of this province which was undoubtedly prehistoric. Conditions were favorable for success at the mounds called by the Indians Sikyatki.[95] These ruins are situated near the modern Tusayan pueblos of East Mesa, from which I could hire workmen, and not far from Keam's Canyon, which could be made a base of supplies. The existing legends bearing on these ruins, although obscure, are sufficiently definite for all practical purposes.

I find no mention of Sikyatki in early historical doc.u.ments, nor can the name be even remotely identified with any which has been given to a Tusayan pueblo. My knowledge of the mounds which mark the site of this ancient village dates back to 1892, when I visited them with one of the old men of Walpi, who then and there narrated the legend of its destruction by the Walpians previously to the advent of the Spaniards.

I was at that time impressed by the extent of the mounds, and prepared a rough sketch of the ground plan of the former houses, but from lack of means was unable to conduct any systematic excavation of the ruin.

Comparatively nothing concerning the ruin of Sikyatki has been published, although its existence had been known for several years previously to my visit. In his brief account Mr Victor Mindeleff[96]

speaks of it as two prominent knolls, "about 400 yards apart," the summits of which are covered with house walls. He also found portions of walls on intervening hummocks, but gives no plan of the ruin. The name, Sikyatki, is referred to the color of the sandstone of which the walls were built. He found some of the rooms were constructed of small stones, dressed by rubbing, and laid in mud. The largest chamber was stated to be 9-1/2 by 4-1/2 feet, and it was considered that many of the houses were "built in excavated places around the rocky summits of the knolls."[97] Mr Mindeleff identified the former inhabitants with the ancestors of the Kokop people, and mentioned the more important details of their legend concerning the destruction of the village.

We can rely on the statement that Sikyatki was inhabited by the Kokop or Firewood people of Tusayan, who were so named because they obtained fire from wood by the use of drills. These people are represented today at Walpi by Katci, whose totem is a picture of Masauwu, the G.o.d of Fire. It is said that the home of the Firewood people before they built Sikyatki was at Tebunki, or Fire-house, a round ruin northeastward from Keam's canyon. They were late arrivals in Tusayan, coming at least after the Flute people, and probably before the Honani or Badger people, who brought, I believe, the _katcina_ cult. Although we can not definitely a.s.sert that this cultus was unknown at Sikyatki, it is significant that in the ruins no ornamental vessel was found with a figure of a _katcina_ mask, although these figures occur on modern bowls. The original home of the Kokop people is not known, but indefinite legends ascribe their origin to Rio Grande valley. They are reputed to have had kindred in Antelope valley and at the Fire-house, above alluded to, near Eighteen-mile spring.

The ruin of Fire-house, one of the pueblos where the Kokop people are reputed to have lived before they built Sikyatki, is situated on the periphery of Tusayan. It is built of ma.s.sive stones and differs from all other ruins in that province in that it is circular in form. The round type of ruin is, however, to be seen in the two conical mounds on the mesa above Sikyatki, which was connected in some way with the inhabitants who formerly lived at its base.

The reason the Kokop people left Fire-house is not certain, but it is said that they came in conflict with Bear clans who were entering the province from the east. Certain it is that if the Kokop people once inhabited Fire-house they must have been joined by other clans when they lived at Sikyatki, for the mounds of this pueblo indicate a village much larger than the round ruin on the brink of the mesa northeast of Keam's canyon. The general ground plan of the ruin indicates an inclosed court with surrounding tiers of houses, suggesting the eastern type of pueblo architecture.

The traditional knowledge of the destruction of Sikyatki is very limited among the present Hopi, but the best folklorists all claim that it was destroyed by warriors from Walpi and possibly from Middle Mesa. Awatobi seems not to have taken part in the tragedy, while Hano and Sich.o.m.ovi did not exist when the catastrophe took place.

The cause of the destruction of Sikyatki is not clearly known, and probably was hardly commensurate with the result. Its proximity to Walpi may have led to disputes over the boundaries of fields or the ownership of the scanty water supply. The people who lived there were intruders and belonged to clans not represented in Walpi, which in all probability kept hostility alive. The early Tusayan peoples did not readily a.s.similate, but quarreled with one another even when sorely oppressed by common enemies.

There is current in Walpi a romantic story connected with the overthrow of Sikyatki. It is said that a son of a prominent chief, disguised as a _katcina_, offered a prayer-stick to a maiden, and as she received it he cut her throat with a stone knife. He is said to have escaped to the mesa top and to have made his way along its edge to his own town, taunting his pursuers. It is also related that the Walpians fell upon the village of Sikyatki to avenge this b.l.o.o.d.y deed, but it is much more likely that there was ill feeling between the two villages for other reasons, probably disputes about farm limits or the control of the water supply, inflamed by other difficulties. The inhabitants of the two pueblos came into Tusayan from different directions, and as they may have spoken different languages and thus have failed to understand each other, they may have been mutually regarded as interlopers. Petty quarrels no doubt ripened into altercations, which probably led to bloodshed. The forays of the Apache from the south and the Ute from the north, which began at a later period, should naturally have led to a defensive alliance; but in those early days confederation was not dreamed of and the feeling between the two pueblos culminated in the destruction of Sikyatki.

This was apparently the result of a quarrel between two pueblos of East Mesa, or at least there is no intimation that the other pueblos took prominent part in it. It is said that after the destruction some of those who escaped fled to Oraibi, which would imply that the Walpi and Oraibi peoples, even at that early date, were not on very friendly terms. If, however, the statement that Oraibi was then a distinct pueblo be true, it in a way affords a suggestion of the approximate age[98] of this village.

There was apparently a more or less intimate connection between the inhabitants of old Sikyatki and those of Awatobi, but whether or not it indicates that the latter was founded by the refugees from the former I have not been able definitely to make out. All my informants agree that on the destruction of Sikyatki some of its people fled to Awatobi, but no one has yet stated that the Kokop people were represented in the latter pueblo. The distinctive clans of the pueblo of Antelope mesa are not mentioned as living in Sikyatki, and yet the two pueblos are said to have been kindred. The indications are that the inhabitants of both came from the east--possibly were intruders, which may have been the cause of the hostility entertained by both toward the Walpians. The problem is too complex to be solved with our present limited knowledge in this direction, and archeology seems not to afford very satisfactory evidence one way or the other. We may never know whether the Sikyatki refugees founded Awatobi or simply fled to that pueblo for protection.

There appears to be no good evidence that Sikyatki was destroyed by fire, nor would it seem that it was gradually abandoned. The larger beams of the houses have disappeared from many rooms, evidently having been appropriated in building or enlarging other pueblos.

There is nothing to show that any considerable ma.s.sacre of the people took place when the village was destroyed, in which respect it differs considerably from Awatobi. There is little doubt that many Sikyatki women were appropriated by the Walpians, and in support of this it is stated that the Kokop people of the present Walpi are the descendants of the people of that clan who dwelt at Sikyatki. This conclusion is further substantiated by the statements of one of the oldest members of the Kokop phratry who frequently visited me while the excavations were in progress.

The destruction of Sikyatki and its consequent abandonment doubtless occurred before the Spaniards obtained a foothold in the country. The aged Hopi folklorists insist that such is the case, and the excavations did not reveal any evidence to the contrary. If we add to the negative testimony that Sikyatki is not mentioned in any of the early writings, and that no fragment of metal, gla.s.s, or Spanish glazed pottery has been taken from it, we appear to have substantial proof of its prehistoric character.

In the early times when Sikyatki was a flourishing pueblo, Walpi was still a small settlement on the terrace of the mesa just below the present town that bears its name. Two ruins are pointed out as the sites of Old Walpi, one to the northward of the modern town, and a second more to the westward. The former is called at present the Ash-heap house or pueblo, the latter Kisakobi. It is said that the people whose ancestors formed the nucleus of the more northerly town moved from there to Kisakobi on account of the cold weather, for it was too much in the shadow of the mesa. Its general appearance would indicate it to be older than the more westerly ruin, higher up on the mesa. It was a pueblo of some size, and was situated on the edge of the terrace. The refuse from the settlement was thrown over the edge of the decline, where it acc.u.mulated in great quant.i.ties. This debris contains many fragments of characteristic pottery, similar to that from Sikyatki, and would well repay systematic investigation. No walls of the old town rise more than a few feet above the surface, for most of the stones have long ago been used in rebuilding the pueblo on other sites. Kisakobi was situated higher up on the mesa, and bears every appearance of being more modern than the ruin below. Its site may readily be seen from the road to Keam's canyon, on the terrace-like prolongation of the mesa. Some of the walls are still erect, and the house visible for a great distance is part of the old pueblo. This, I believe, was the site of Walpi at the time the Spaniards visited Tusayan, and I have found here a fragment of pottery which I believe is of Spanish origin. The ancient pueblo crowned the ridge of the terrace which narrows here to 30 or 40 feet, so that ancient Walpi was an elongated pueblo, with narrow pa.s.sageways and no rectangular court. I should judge, however, that the pueblo was not inhabited for a great period, but was moved to its present site after a few generations of occupancy. The Ash-hill village was inhabited contemporaneously with Sikyatki, but Kisakobi was of later construction. Neither Sich.o.m.ovi nor Hano was in existence when Sikyatki was in its prime, nor, indeed, at the time of its abandonment. In 1782 Morfi spoke of Sich.o.m.ovi as a pueblo recently founded, with but fifteen families. Hano, although older, was certainly not established before 1700.[99]

The a.s.sertions of all Hopi traditionists that Sikyatki is a prehistoric ruin, as well as the scientific evidence looking the same way, are most important facts in considering the weight of deductions in regard to the character of prehistoric Tusayan culture.

Although we have no means of knowing how long a period has elapsed since the occupancy and abandonment of Sikyatki, we are reasonably sure that objects taken from it are purely aboriginal in character and antedate the inception of European influence. It is certain, however, that the Sikyatki people lived long enough in that pueblo to develop a ceramic art essentially peculiar to Tusayan.

NOMENCLATURE

The commonly accepted definition of Sikyatki is "yellow house"

(_sikya_, yellow; _ki_, house). One of the most reliable chiefs of Walpi, however, called my attention to the fact that the hills in the locality were more or less parallel, and that there might be a relationship between the parallel valleys and the name. The application of the term "yellow" would not seem to be very appropriate so far as it is distinctive of the general color of the pueblo. The neighboring spring, however, contains water which after standing some time has a yellowish tinge, and it was not unusual to name pueblos from the color of the adjacent water or from some peculiarity of the spring, which was one of the most potent factors in the determination of the site of a village. Although the name may also refer to a cardinal point, a method of nomenclature followed in some regions of the Southwest, if such were the case in regard to Sikyatki it would be exceptional in Tusayan.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXV

SIKYATKI MOUNDS FROM THE KANELBA TRAIL]

FORMER INHABITANTS OF SIKYATKI

The origin of the pueblo settlement at Sikyatki is doubtful, but as I have shown in my enumeration of the clans of Walpi, the Kokop (Firewood) and the Isauuh (Coyote) phratries which lived there are supposed to have come into Tusayan from the far east or the valley of the Rio Grande. The former phratry is not regarded as one of the earliest arrivals in Tusayan, for when its members arrived at Walpi they found living there the Flute, Snake, and Water-house phratries.

It is highly probable that the Firewood, or as they are sometimes called the Fire, people, once lived in the round pueblo known as Fire-house, and as the form of this ruin is exceptional in Tusayan, and highly characteristic of the region east of this province, there is archeological evidence of the eastern origin of the Fire people.

Perhaps the most intelligent folklorist of the Kokop people was Nasyunweve, who died a few years ago--unfortunately before I had been able to record all the traditions which he knew concerning his ancestors. At the present day Katci, his successor[100] in these sacerdotal duties in the Antelope-Snake mysteries, claims that his people formerly occupied Sikyatki, and indeed the contiguous fields are still cultivated by members of that phratry.

It is hardly possible to do more than estimate the population of Sikyatki when in its prime, but I do not believe that it was more than 500;[101] probably 300 inhabitants would be a closer estimate if we judge from the relative population to the size of the pueblo of Walpi at the present time. On the basis of population given, the evidences from the size of the Sikyatki cemeteries would not point to an occupancy of the village for several centuries, although, of course, the strict confines of these burial places may not have been determined by our excavations. The comparatively great depth at which some of the human remains were found does not necessarily mean great antiquity, for the drifting sands of the region may cover or uncover the soil or rocks in a very short time, and the depth at which an object is found below the surface is a very uncertain medium for estimating the antiquity of buried remains.

GENERAL FEATURES

The ruin of Sikyatki (plates CXV, CXVI) lies about three miles east of the recent settlement of Tanoan families at Isba or Coyote spring, near the beginning of the trail to Hano. Its site is in full view from the road extending from the last-mentioned settlement to Keam's canyon, and lies among the hills just below the two pyramidal elevations called Kukuch.o.m.o, which are visible for a much greater distance. When seen from this road the mounds of Sikyatki are observed to be elevated at least 300 feet above the adjacent cultivated plain, but at the ruin itself this elevation is scarcely appreciable, so gradual is the southerly decline to the arroyo which drains the plain.

The ruin is situated among foothills a few hundred yards from the base of the mesa, and in the depression between it and the mesa there is a stretch of sand in which grow peach trees and a few stunted cedars. At this point, likewise, there is a spring, now feeble in its flow from the gradually drifting sand, yet sufficient to afford a trickling stream by means of which an enterprising native, named Tcino, irrigates a small garden of melons and onions. On all sides of the ruin there are barren stretches of sand relieved in some places by stunted trees and scanty vegetation similar to that of the adjacent plains. The soil in the plaza of the ruin is cultivated, yielding a fair crop of squashes, but is useless for corn or beans.

Here and there about the ruins stand great jagged bowlders, relieving what would otherwise be a monotonous waste of sand. One of these stony outcrops forms what I have called the "acropolis" of Sikyatki, which will presently be described. On the eastern side the drifting sand has so filled in around the elevation on which the ruin stands that the ascent is gradual, and the same drift extends to the rim of the mesa, affording access to the summit that otherwise would necessitate difficult climbing. Along the ridge of this great drift there runs a trail which pa.s.ses over the mesa top to a beautiful spring, on the other side, called Kanelba.[102]

The highest point of the ruin as seen from the plain is the rocky eminence rising at the western edge, familiarly known among the members of my party as the "acropolis." As one approaches the ruin from a deep gulch on the west, the acropolis appears quite lofty, and a visitor would hardly suspect that it marks the culminating point of a ruin, so similar does it appear to surrounding hills of like geologic character where no vestiges of former house-walls appear.

The spring from which the inhabitants of the old pueblo obtained their water supply lies between the ruin and the foot of the mesa, nearer the latter. The water is yellow in color, especially after it has remained undisturbed for some time, and the quant.i.ty is very limited.

It trickles out of a bed of clay in several places and forms a pool from which it is drawn to irrigate a small garden and a grove of peach trees. It is said that when Sikyatki was in its prime this spring was larger than at present, and I am sure that a little labor spent in digging out the acc.u.mulation of sand would make the water more wholesome and probably sufficiently abundant for the needs of a considerable population.

The nearest spring of potable water available for our excavation camp at Sikyatki was Kanelba, or Sheep spring, one of the best sources of water supply in Tusayan. The word Kanelba, containing a Spanish element, must have replaced a Hopi name, for it is hardly to be supposed that this spring was not known before sheep were brought into the country. There is a legend that formerly the site of this spring was dry, when an ancient priest, who had deposited his _tiponi_, or chieftain's badge, at the place, caused the water to flow from the ground; at present however the water rushes from a hole as large as the arm in the face of the rock, as well as from several minor openings. It is situated on the opposite side of the mesa from Sikyatki, a couple of miles northeastward from the ruin.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXVI

GROUND PLAN OF SIKYATKI]

Half-way up the side of the mesa, about opposite Sikyatki, there is a large reservoir, used as a watering place for sheep. The splash of the water, as it falls into this reservoir, is an unusual sound in this arid region, and is worth a tramp of many miles. There are many evidences that this spring was a popular one in former times. As it is approached from the top of the mesa, a brief inspection of the surroundings shows that for about a quarter of a mile, on either side, there are signs of ancient terraced gardens, walled in with rows of stones. These gardens have today greatly diminished in size, as compared with the ancient outlines, and only that portion which is occupied by a grove of peach trees is now under cultivation, although there is plenty of water for the successful irrigation of a much larger tract of land than the gardens now cover.[103] Judging from their size, many of the peach trees are very old, although they still bear their annual crop of fruit. Everything indicates, as the legends relate, that these Kanelba gardens, the walls of which now form sheep corrals, were long ago abandoned.

The terraces south of the Kanelba peach grove resemble the lower terraces of Wipo. About 100 rods farther south, along the foot of the mesa, on the same level, are a number of unused fields, and a cl.u.s.ter of house remains. The whole of this terrace is of a type which shows greater action of the weather than the others, but the boundaries of the fields are still marked with rows of stones. The adjacent foothills contain piles of ashes in several places, as if the sites of ancient pottery kilns, and very old stone inclosures occur on the top of the mesa above Kanelba. All indications seem to point to the ancient occupancy of the region about Kanelba by many more farmers than today. Possibly the inhabitants of Sikyatki, which is only two or three miles away, frequented this place and cultivated these ancient gardens. Kanelba is regarded as a sacred spring by several Hopi religious societies of East Mesa. The Snake priests of Walpi always celebrate a feast there on the day of the snake hunt to the east in odd years,[104] while in the alternate years it is visited by the Flute men.

The present appearance of Sikyatki (plate CXV) is very desolate, and when visited by our party previously to the initiation of the work, seemed to promise little in the way of archeological results. No walls were standing above ground, and the outlines of the rooms were very indistinct. All we saw at that time was a series of mounds, irregularly rectangular in shape, of varying alt.i.tude, with here and there faint traces of walls. Prominent above all these mounds, however, was the pinnacle of rock on the northwestern corner, rising abruptly from the remainder of the ruin, easily approached from the west and sloping more gradually to the south. This rocky elevation, which we styled the acropolis, was doubtless once covered with houses.

On the western edge of the ruin a solitary farmhouse, used during the summer season, had been constructed of materials from the old walls, and was inhabited by an Indian named Lelo and his family during our excavations. He is the recognized owner of the farm land about Sikyatki and the cultivator of the soil in the old plaza of the ruins.

Jakwaina, an enterprising Tewan who lives not far from Isba, the spring near the trail to Hano, has also erected a modern house near the Sikyatki spring, but it had not been completed at the time of our stay. Probably never since its destruction in prehistoric times have so many people as there were in our party lived for so long a time at this desolate place.

The disposition of the mounds show that the ground plan of Sikyatki (plate CXVI) was rectangular in shape, the houses inclosing a court in which are several mounds that may be the remains of kivas. The highest range of rooms, and we may suppose the most populous part of the ancient pueblo, was on the same side as the acropolis, where a large number of walled chambers in several series were traced.

The surface of what was formerly the plaza is crossed by rows of stones regularly arranged to form gardens, in which several kinds of gourds are cultivated. In the sands north of the ruin there are many peach trees, small and stunted, but yearly furnishing a fair crop.

These are owned by Tcino,[105] and of course were planted long after the destruction of the pueblo.

In order to obtain legends of the former occupancy and destruction of Sikyatki, I consulted Nasyunweve, the former head of the Kokop people, and while the results were not very satisfactory, I learned that the land about Sikyatki is still claimed by that phratry. Nasyunweve,[106]