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The Branner Geological Library
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TWENTY-EIGHTH MNUAl REPORT
OF THE
u_. s
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
TO THE
SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
1906-1907
211663
. • • ••
• • • • • • • •
* .••'•• :
• ^ ; '
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology,
Washington^ D. C, August 17, 1907.
Sm: I have the honor to submit herewith a report of the operations of the Bureau of American Ethnology for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1907.
Permit me to express my appreciation of your aid in the work under my charge.
Very respectfully, yours,
W. H. Holmes, Chief. Dr. Charles D. Walcott,
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
3
CONTENTS
REPORT OF THE CHIEF
Page
Systematic researches 9
Special researches 15
Preservation of antiquities 17
Catalogue of linguistic manuscripts 18
Editorial work - 19
Publications 19
Library 20
Collections 20
Illustrations 21
Note on the accompanying papers 21
ACCOMPANYING PAPERS
Casa Grande, Arizona, by Jesse Walter Fewkes; plates 1-78; figures 1-54 25
Antiquities of the Upper Verde River and Walnut Creek Valleys, Arizona, by
Jesse Walter Fewkes; plates 79-102; figures 55-68 181
Preliminary report on the linguistic classification of Algonquian tribes, by
Truman Michelson; plate 103 (map) 221
Index 291
5
REPORT OF THE CHIEF
TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT
or THB
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
W. H. Houues, CmsF
SYSTEMATIC RESEARCHES
The operations of the Bureau of American Ethnology, con- ducted in accordance with the act of Congress making pro- vision for continuing researches relating to the American Indians, under direction of the Smithsonian Institution, have been carried forward in conformity with the plan of opersr tions approved by the Secretary July 19, 1906.
Systematic ethnologic researches have been prosecuted by the scientific sta£F of the Bureau, assisted by a number of collaborators who have been invited to conduct investiga- tions for which they are especially qualified. The Bureau's scientific sta£F is restricted to a small number of investigators whose field of labor is necessarily limited, and it has always been the policy of the Bureau to widen its scope by enlisting the aid of specialists in various important branches. While thus seeking to cover in the fullest possible manner the whole field of American ethnology, it has sought with particular care to piu*sue only such branches of research as are not adequately provided for by other agencies, public or private. The result sought by the Bureau is the completion of a sys- tematic and weU-roimded record of the tribes before the ever-accelerating march of change shall have robbed them of their aboriginal characteristics and culture.
During the year researches have been carried on in New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida,
9
• • ' .
10
BUBEAt; OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOOT
New York, and Ontario. The field work has not been so exten- sive, however, as during most previous years, for the reason that a number of the ethnologists had to be retained in the office to assist in the completion of the'Handbook of American Indians and in the proof reading of reports passing through the press.
The Chief of the Bureau remained on duty in the office during nearly the entire year. Administrative duties occu- pied much of his time, but during the winter and spring months he was called on to assist in the preparation of the exhibit of the Smithsonian Institution at the Jamestown Exposition, and in April in installing this exhibit. The com- pletion of numerous articles for the Handbook of American Indians, the revision of various manuscripts submitted for publication, and the proof reading of reports and bulletins claimed his attention. Aside from these occupations his duties as honorary curator of the department of prehistoric archeology in the National Museum and as curator of the National Gallery of Art absorbed a portion of his time. The Chief was called on also to assist in formulating the uniform rules and regulations required by the Departments of the Interior, Agriculture, and War in carrying out the provisions of the law for the preservation of antiquities, to pass on various applications for permits to explore among the antiq- uities of the public domain,, and to furnish data needful in the selection of the archeologic sites to be set aside as national monuments. In addition he was able to give some attention to carrying forward the systematic study of aboriginal technology and art, on which he has been engaged for several years, as occasion offered.
At the beginning of the year Mrs. M. C. Stevenson, ethnolo- gist, was in the Indian village of Taos, New Mexico, continu- ing her studies of the arts, habits, customs, and language of this tribe begun during the previous year. Although the field was new and the traditional conservatism of the tribe made investigation in certain directions difficult or impossible much progress was made, and when the work is completed results of exceptional value will doubtless have been obtained.
ADMINISTRATIVE BEPOBT 11
In November Mrs. Stevenson visited Santa Clara pueblo with the object of making studies of the people and their cul- ture for comparative purposes, and observations were made of the social customs and religious ceremonies of the people. Afterward several days were spent in Santa F6, examining the old Spanish records preserved in the archives of the His- torical Society of New Mexico, with the view of learning something of the early relations of the local tribes with the Spanish invaders and with then- Spanish-speaking neighbors of later times. Late in November Mrs. Stevenson visited the pueblo of Zuni, the site of her former extended researches, and spent some weeks in completing her studies of certain phases of the native ritual and worship, of religious sym- bolism as embodied in pictography and ceramic and textile decoration, and in the revision of hel* list of plants employed for food, medicine, and dyes. Numerous photographs and stretches of ceremonies and ceremonial objects were made. A number of changes were noted in the dramas and other ceremonies since her last visit, and Zuni, heretofore presenting at night the quiet somberness of an aboriginal village, has now, when dusk falls, the appearance of an eastern town with many lighted windows. Mrs. Stevenson notes that changes are creeping steadily into all the pueblos, Taos per- haps excepted, and is led to express the earnest hope that the work of investigating the town-building tribes of the Southwest be carried forward with all possible energy.
On April 1 Mrs. Stevenson returned to the office, where during the remainder of the year she has been engaged in the preparation of reports on her field researches.
Dr. Cyrus Thomas, ethnologist, has been employed the greater portion of the year in assisting Mr. Hodge on Ihe Handbook of American Indians, not only in the preparation of separate articles, but also in assisting the editor on certain lines of proof reading relating to omissions, uniformity in names, etc. Such time as could be spared from these duties was devoted to the preparation of a Catalogue of Books and Papers relating to the Hawaiian Islands. For this purpose the Library of Congress and other libraries in Washington
12 BUBEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
were consulted, and a short trip to Worcester and Boston, Massachusetts, was made for the purpose of examining the libraries of those cities, which are the chief depositories in the United States of the early publications of the missionaries in Hawaii. The number of titles so far obtained is about 2,000. Doctor Thomas assisted also with the official correspondence on subjects with which he is particularly familiar, his attain- ments as a student of ancient Mexican writings having proved of special value in the examination of certain manuscripts in the Cakchikel language submitted by the Librarian of . the American Philosophical Society, of Philadelphia.
During the latter part of the previous fiscal year, in pur- suance of his linguistic studies. Dr. John R. Swanton, eth- nologist, was engaged in preparing an English-Natchez and Natchez-English analytical dictionary, embodying all the published and unpublished material available — that is, about two thousand words and phrases; he also copied on cards all the words and phrases collected by the late Doctor Gat- schet from the Attacapa, Chitimacha, and Tunica Indians. At the beginning of the fiscal year Doctor Swanton was engaged in compiling a dictionary of the Tunica language similar to that made for the Natchez. In the field of general ethnology he excerpted and, when necessary, translated, all the avail- able material bearing on the tribes of the lower Mississippi Valley, and arranged for publication that portion dealing with the Natchez.
On April 3 he left Washington to make investigations among the tribal remnants of Louisiana and Oklahoma, and visited the members of the Houma, Chitimacha, Attacapa, Alibamu, Biloxi, Tunica, and Natchez tribes, and was able definitely to establish the relationship of the Houma to the Choctaw and to identify the Ouspie — ^a small people referred to by the early French writers — with the Ofogoula. From the Tunica and Chitimacha he collected several stories which will be of importance in the endeavor to restore the mythology of the tribes of this area, now almost a blank. In the Chero- kee Nation (Oklahoma), contrary to expectation, Doctor Swanton found several persons who still speak the Natchez
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT 13
language. This discovery will necessarily delay the publi- cation of the Natchez material already referred to, but if prompt measures are taken, will insure the preservation of that language in its completeness. At Eufaula (Creek Nation) he made a slight investigation into the social organization of the Creeks — enough to determine that much work still remains to be done in that tribe entirely apart from language. Doctor Swanton returned to the office June 7, and during the remainder of the year was engaged in arranging and collating the material collected by him.
Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, ethnologist, was employed in the office during the first month of the year reading proofs of his articles on the Aborigines of Porto Rico and Neighboring Islands and on Antiquities of Eastern Mexico, for the Twenty- fifth Annual Report of the Bureau. Part of August and all of September were devoted to the preparation of a bulletin on the Antiquities of the Little Colorado. He spent seven months in Arizona, leaving Washington on October 15 and returning the middle of May. During four months he super- intended the work of excavation, repair, and preservation of the Casa Grande Ruin, in Pinal County, Arizona, and in March and April visited a nmnber of little-known and unde- scribed ruins along Canyon Diablo and Grapevine Canyon, gathermg material for his bulletin on The Antiquities of the Little Colorado Valley. During May and June he was em- ployed in the office, devoting his time to the preparation of an account of the excavations at Casa Grande. The explo- rations at Casa Grande were conducted under a special appropriation disbursed directly by the Smithsonian Insti- tution, and Doctor Fewkes's preliminary report has been submitted to the Secretary. It is anticipated that a final report on the work when completed will be published by the Bureau of American Ethnology.
Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt was occupied during the earlier months of the year in |)reparing and correcting matter for the Hand- book of American Indians, devoting special attention to the articles on the Iroquoian family, Iroquois, Mohawk, Montour, Mythology, Nanabozho, Neutrals, Oneida, Onondaga, and
14 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
Ottawa, and to the lists of towns formerly belonging to the Iroquois tribes.
From the 20th of January to the 23d of March, 1907, he was engaged in field work among -the Iroquois tribes in New York and in Ontario, Canada. The entire period was devoted to collecting texts in the Onondaga and Mohawk dialects, embodying the basic principles and the civil and political structure and organization of the League of the Iroquois and data relating , thereto. The Onondaga texts aggregate about 27,000 words and the Mohawk texts about 1,500 words, making a total of 28,500 words. The following captions will indicate sufficiently the subject-matter of these texts: The Constitution of the League, the Powers of the T'hadoda'ho', Amendments, Powers and Rights of the Chiefs, Powers and Rights of the Women, Powers of the Women Chiefs, Procedure on Failure in Succession, Powers and Restrictions of "Pine Tree'' Chiefs, Procedure in Case of Murder, Address of Condolence for Death in a Chief's Family, Forest-edge Chanted Address of Welcome, The Chant for the Dead, Interpretation of the Fundamental Terms, Peace, Power, and Justice.
Mr. Hewitt also continued his duties as custodian of the collection of linguistic manuscripts of the Bureau, the com- pletion of the catalogue of which was entrusted to Mr. J. B. Clayton, head clerk. He has also been called on to furnish data for the correspondence of the office, more particularly that portion relating to the Iroquoian tribes.
Mr. F. W. Hodge, ethnologist, has been engaged during the entire year on the Handbook of American Indians, the edi- torial work of which has proved extremely arduous and difficult. This work is in two parts: Part I, A — ^M, was issued from the press in March last, and the main body of Part II was in type at the close of the fiscal year, though progress in proof reading was exceedingly slow on account of the great diversity of the topics treated and the difficulty of bringing up to date numbers of articles, many of them relating to obscure tribes and subjects.
During the entire fiscal year Mr. James Mooney, eth- nologist, remained in the office, occupied chiefly on the
ADMINISTBATIVE REPORT 15
Handbook of American Indians and in the classification of the large body of material previously obtained relating to the tribes of the Great Plains. His extended article on Indian Missions^ written for the Handbook, has been made the subject of a special reprint, a small edition of which was issued by the Bureau. Mr. Mooney has also given valuable assistance in connection with the corre- spondence of the Bureau, more especially that portion relating to the languages of the Algonquian stock.
SPECIAL RESEARCHES
For a number of years Dr. Franz Boas, assisted by a corps of philologists, has been engaged in the preparation of a work on the American languages, to be published as a bulletin of the Bureau, entitled "Handbook of American Indian Languages," and it is expected that the manuscript of the first part will be submitted for publication at an early date. Of Part 1, sections relating to the languages of the Eskimo and the Iroquois alone remain incomplete. Diu'ing the sununer of 1906 Mr. Edward Sapir was engaged in col- lecting data for the handbook, on the language of theTakelma, residing at the Siletz Agency, Oregon, and toward the close of the year Mr. Leo J. Frachtenberg began similar studies among the Tutelo remnant on the Tuscarora Reservation in Ontario, Canada.
Reports of the discovery of fossil remains of men of ex- tremely primitive type in the vicinity of Omaha, Nebraska, led to the assignment of Dr. AleS Hrdlidka, curator of physical anthropology in the National Museum, to the duty of visiting the University of Nebraska, at Lincoln, where the remains are preserved, and also the site of their exhumation. The examinations were made with the greatest care, and the results are embodied in Bulletin 33 of the Bureau, which was in press at the close of the fiscal year. The conclusion reached by Doctor Hrdli6ka with respect to the age and character of these remains is that they are not geologically ancient, belonging rather to the mound-building period in the Mississippi Valley, and that, although a number of the
16 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
crania are of low type, this was a characteristic appearing among many comparatively recent mound-building tribes.
At the beginning of the fiscal year the Bureau was fortu- nate enough to enter into arrangements with Prof. Herbert E. Bolton, of the University of Texas, for recording the history of the Texan tribes. During the early historical period the French controlled and came into intimate relations with the northern Caddo, hence the early history of this group is to be found chiefly in French records; but with this excep- tion it is mainly in Spanish documents, scattered and almost wholly imprinted. These facts make the task in every sense a pioneer one.
The Spanish manuscript sources available to Professor Bolton, and upon which, aside from the printed French sources, he has thus far mainly drawn, consist of (1) the B6xar archives, a rich collection of perhaps 300,000 pages of original manuscripts that accumulated at San Antonio during the Spanish occupancy, now in the University of Texas; (2) the Nacogdoches archives, a similar but much smaller collection that accumulated at Nacogdoches and that is now in the State Historical Library; (3) the Lamar papers, a small collection of Spanish manuscripts, now in private hands; (4) mission records preserved at the residence of the Bishop of San Antonio; (5) copies of doctmients from the Archivo General of Mexico, belonging to the University of Texas and to Professor Bolton ; and (6) the various Mexican archives. From these have been extracted a great many notes, but much material yet remains to be examined.
During the year Professor Bolton's efforts have taken three principal directions: (1) He has systematically and fully indexed, on about 10,000 cards, a large amount of the early material, including tribal, institutional, linguistic, historical, and other data on the whole Texas field. (2) From this material as a basis he has written for the Handbook of American Indians many brief articles on tribes and missions, aggregating about 20,000 words. (3) While in the analysis of the materials and the making of the index cards he has covered the whole field, in the final work of construction he
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT 17
has begun the Caddoan tribes of eastern Texas^ with the design of treating them separately. In this work Professor Bolton has made commendable progress. He has already written a detailed description, consisting of about 40,000 words, of the location, social and political organization, economic life, religion, and ceremonial of the Hasfnai, com- monly designated " Texas, *' as known and described by the earliest European chronicles, accompanied with a map.
The task of writing a history of the Texas tribes is a great one, and can be performed only by long and painstaking effort, but its successful accomplishment promises an impor- tant addition to our knowledge of the native Americans.
PRESERVATION OF ANTIQUITIES
With the object of assisting the departments of the Govern- ment having custody of the public domain in the initiation of measures for the preservation of the antiquities of the country, the compilation of a descriptive catalogue of anti- quities has been continued, and the preparation of bulletins having the same end in view has also received every possible attention. Bulletin 32, Antiquities of the Jemez Plateau, by Edgar L. Hewett, was published and distributed during the year, and Bulletin 35, Antiquities of the Upper Gila and Salt River Valleys in Arizona and New Mexico, by Dr. Walter Hough, was in page form at the close of the year, while bul- letins by Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, on the Antiquities of the Little Colorado Valley, and Edgar L. Hewett, on the Anti- quities of the Mesa Verde, Colorado, were in course of prep- aration.
The sum of $3,000, appropriated by Congress for the excavation, repair, and preservation of Casa Grande Ruin, in Arizona, was disbursed by the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, of the Biu-eau of American Ethnology, having charge of the work. A brief preliminary report on the first year's operations will appear in the Quarterly Issue of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. A second * appropriation of $3,000 is provided for continuing the work during the coming year.
20903**— 28 ETH— 12 2
18 BUBEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
During the year uniform rules and regulations intended to serve in carrying out the recently enacted law for the preser- vation of national antiquities were formulated and adopted by the three departments having control of the public domain. Under these, on recommendation of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, permits were issued for con- ducting explorations on Indian reservations and in national forests in Idaho and Wyoming, by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, and among the ancient ruins on the public lands in Navajo and Apache Counties, Arizona, by the University of California. Arrangements were also made with the Interior Department for carrying on explorations at Casa Grande Ruin, Arizona, by the Smithsonian Institu- tion. Under the same law during the year three important archeologic sites were declared national monuments by the President of the United States. They are as follows: Chaco Canyon, in New Mexico, including several important ruined pueblos; El Morro, New Mexico, commonly known as Inscription Rock; and Montezuma Castle, in Arizona, an important cliff-ruin.
CATALOGUE OF LINGUISTIC MANUSCRIPTS
The archives of the Bureau contain 1,626 manuscripts, mainly linguistic, of which only a partial catalogue had previously been made. In January Mr. J. B. Clayton, head clerk, began the preparation of a card catalogue, which was completed at the close of the year. The manuscripts were jacketed in manila envelopes of uniform size, except where bulk prevented, and were numbered from 1 to 1,626.
The catalogue comprises about 14,000 cards which give, as completely as available data permit, the names of stock, language, dialect, collector, and locality, as well as the date of the manuscript. It was not possible in every instance to supply all the information called for under these heads, but the card has been made as complete in each case as the information permitted. The cards have been arranged in one alphabetical series, the names of the languages not only under these languages in their proper alphabetic place, but
ADMINISTRATIVE BEPORT 19
also alphabetically under' their stocks. Under the name of
each collector his manuscripts are indexed under stocks,
languages, and dialects. The data in regard to ^' place" are
defective, and a number of the manuscripts are from unknowh
sources.
EDITORIAL WORK
Mr. Joseph G. Gurley, who was appointed to the position of editor for a probationary period during the previous year, was permanently appointed on August 16, 1906.
The editorial work of the year may be summarized briefly as follows: The proof reading of the Twenty-fourth Annual Report was completed and the work advanced to publication. At the close of the year the Twenty-fifth Annual was prac- tically finished, with the exception of the presswork, while the Twenty-sixth Report was in page form, so that the work was practically rieady for printing. Bulletin 32 was com- pleted and published early in the year, and Bulletin 36 also has been issued. Bulletins 33, 34, and 35 are in type, and the proof reading on Bulletins 33 and 35 has progressed so far that they can be put on the press at an early day.
For about three months the Bureau has had the efficient services of Mr. Stanley Searles, who was courteously detailed for the purpose from the proof-reading force of the Govern- ment Printing Office. The editor has assisted to sdme extent in the proof reading of the Handbook of American Indians, Bulletin 30, which is in charge of Mr. F. W. Hodge.
PUBLICATIONS
During the year the Twenty-sixth Annual Report and Bulletins 33, 34, 35, and 36 were forwarded to the Public Printer. Bulletins 31 and 32 were published in July. Part I of the Handbook of American Indians (Bulletin 30) appeared in March and the Twenty-fourth Annual Report in May. One thousand copies of the List of Publications of the Bureau (Bulletin 36) and 500 copies of a special article on Indian missions were issued in June. Fifteen hundred copies of the Twenty-fourth Annual Report and the same number of Bulletin 30, Part I, and Bulletin 32 were sent to
20 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
regular recipients. About 1,500 copies of Bulletin 30, Part I, and 200 copies of the Twenty-fourth Annual, as well as numerous buUetins and separates, were distributed in response to special requests, presented for the most part by Members of Congress.
The distribution of publications was continued as in former years. The great increase in the number of libraries in the country and the multiplication of demands from the public generally have resulted in the almost inunediate exhaustion of the quota of volumes (3,500) allotted to the Bureau. Few copies of any of the reports remain six months after the date of issue.
LIBRARY
The library remains in charge of Miss Ella Leary, who waa able to bring the accessioning and cataloguing of books, pamphlets, and periodicals up to date. In ^11, there have been received and recorded during the year 760 volumes, 1,200 pamphlets, and the current issues of upward of 500 periodicals, while about 500 volumes have been bound at the Government Printing Office. The library now contains 13,657 volumes', 9,800 pamphlets, and several thousand copies of periodicals which relate to anthropology. The purchase of books and periodicals has been restricted to such as relate to anthropology and, more especially, to such as have a direct bearing on the American aborigines.
COLLECTIONS
The collections of the year comprise large series of objects obtained by Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, in his excavations at Casa Grande Ruins, Arizona, conducted under the imme- diate auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, and by Mrs. M. C. Stevenson in Zuni and Taos pueblos, New Mexico.
Some of the minor collections are a cache of stone knife blades from the vicinity of Tenleytown, District of Columbia, obtained through the kindness of Mr. C. C. Glover; a series of relics (fragments of pottery) from the temple of Diana at Caldecote, presented by Mr. Robert C. Nightingale; relics
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT 21
from the shell heaps of Popes Creek, Maryland, presented by Mr. S. H. Morris, of Faulkner, Maryland; and a number of stone implements and unfinished soapstone utensils from the ancient quarries on Connecticut Avenue extended, Wash- ington, District of Columbia, collected by Mr. W. H. Gill.
ILLUSTRATIONS
The division of illustrations was, as heretofore, in charge of Mr. De Lancey Gill, who was assisted by Mr. Henry Walther. One hundred and fifty-nine illustrations were prepared for Bulletins 30, 33, 34, and 35, and a large number of proofs of illustrations for the various volumes were revised. The photographic work included the making of 277 n^atives required in the illustration work and 160 portraits of Indians . of visiting delegations. Negatives developed for ethnologists retimiing from the field numbered 96. During the year a total of 11,078 photographic prints was made.
Albert Samuel Gatschet, a distinguished philologist and
ethnologist, for many years connected with the Bureau,
died at his home in Washington, District of Columbia,
March 16, 1907.
W. H. Holmes, Chief.
NOTE ON THE ACCOMPANYING PAPERS
The papers included in this volume are not necessarily to be re- garded as a part of the scientific results of the Bureau's researches , during tlie period covered by the administrative report, but are incor- porated herein for the sake of convenience.
The report by Doctor Fewkes on the celebrated Casa Grande and surrounding ruins in southern Arizona embodies the results of his observations during excavations conducted therein throughout two winter seasons, by means of special appropriations by Congress for that purpose, together with a review of the general knowledge of these ruins from the time they became known to the Spaniards in the seventeenth century. Two papers on the subject of Casa Grande were previously published under the auspices of the Bureau, one, by Mr. Cosmos Mindelefl, in the Thirteenth Annual Report, the otlier, by the same author, presenting an account of the repair of tlie main
22 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
ruin, in the Fifteenth Annual Report. It was not until the excara* tions conducted by Doctor Fewkes, however, that an adequate knowledge of the character and importance of the great house clus- ters was obtained, and this knowledge, together with such historical data as are available, is now embodied in the present volume as a per- manent and final record. A preliminary report of Doctor Fewkes' work at Casa Grande during the first season has been published in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous CoUecHons.
A second paper by Doctor Fewkes summarizes the results of his investigations of the Antiquities of the Upper Verde River and Wal- nut Creek Valleys, Arizona. This report is preliminary in character and is supplementary to the memoir by Mr. Cosmos Mindeleff pub- lished in the Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau on the arche- ology of the lower valley of the Verde. No excavations have yet been conducted in the region of which Doctor Fewkes treats, yet suf- ficient evidence has been gathered from a study of the architectural features of the ruins now visible to enable a determination of the western limits of Pueblo culture in central Arizona and to define the area in which a distinct culture has its beginning.
The memoir by Dr. Truman Michelson, being a Preliminary Report on the Linguistic Classification of Algonquian Tribes, with a map, is based on the author's studies for the Bureau during the years 1910- 1912. The Algonquian tribes are now found to be divided linguist- ically into four major groups, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Eastern-Central. The results of Doctor Michelson's observations elucidate many questions formerly existing with respect to the inter- relations of the various Algonquian languages and dialects. The map illustrating the memoir was prepared with the cooperation of
Dr. John R. Swanton.
F. W. Hodge,
Ethnologist-in-charge. April, 1912.
ACCOMPANYING PAPERS
23
CASA GRANDE, ARIZONA
JESSE WALTEK FEWKES
/
I
4
25
Traditu
CONTENTS
Ptg»
Introduction 33
Work of excavation and repair 37
First season 37
Compound A 37
Second season 40
Compound B 40
Clan-house 1 , 41
Compounds C and D 42
itions 42
Fqnt*s legend 43
Legends from other sources 44
How a chief of another ''great house" enticed the women from Casa
Grande 45
How turquoises were obtained from Chief Morning Green 46
How Morning Green lost his power over the Wind gods and the Rain
gods 47
The birth of Hok 48
A creation l^end 49
A flood legend 49
History 53
Discovery and early accounts 54
Mange's narrative 55
"Rudo Ensayo " narrative 56
Garc^' narrative 57
Font's narrative 58
Grossman's narrative 61
Early American reports 62
Emory's narrative 63
Johnston's narrative 64
Bartlett's narrative 66
Hughes's narrative 68
Later American reports 68
Hinton's description 68
Bandolier's account 69
Cushing's researches 72
Fewkes's description ". 72
Cosmos Mindeleff's description .^ 79
Present conditipn 82
Main building 82
Construction 82
Rooms 82
Walls 83
Floors 84
Doorways and windows 85
Casa Grande mounds , 86
General description 86
Compound A 88
Southwest building 88
Northeast building 89
27
28 CONTENTS
Caaa Grande mounds — Continued.
Compound A — Continued. Page
Rooms on the west hall 90
Six ceremonial rooms 90
Central building 91
Font*s room 91
Rooms between Casa Grande and Font's room 92
Rooms adjoining the most northerly of the six ceremonial rooms 92
Northwest room 92
Rooms near east wall 92
Northeast plaza 93
Central plaza 93
East plaza 93
Southwest plaza 93
South court 93
Compound B 95
Pyramid A 97
Pyramid B 98
Rooms east of Pyramid B 99
Southeast plaza 100
North plaza 100
West area 100
Subterranean rooms 102
Compound C 102
Compound D 104
Compounds E and F 106
Clan-house 1 106
Refuse-heaps Ill
Reservoirs Ill
Irrigation ditches 113
Mescal pits 116
Methods of disposal of the dead 117
Minor antiquities 118
Mindeleff collection 1 19
Pinckley collection 120
Fewkes collection 120
Stone idols 120
Stone implements 122
Pottery 133
Specialized forms 133
Decoration of Casa Gtande pottery 137
Beams and rafters 142
Cane cigarettes 142
Shell objects 143
Bone implements 145
Wooden implements 146
Basketry 147
Fabrics 148
Copper bells 148
Pictographs 148
Seeds 150
Relation of compounds to pueblos 150
Summary of conclusions 153
Appendix: Catalogue of specimens from Casa Grande 161
ILLUSTRATIONS
Pass*
Plate 1. Adamsville (Sanford'a Mill) 34
2. Tcurikv^ki 35
3. Section of wall of ruin between Casa Qrande and Tcurikv^ki 35
4. Bird's-eye view of Gaaa Grande group of ruins, looking northwest ... 36
5. General view of Casa Grande group of ruins 37
6. Ground plan of Compound A 38
7. Bird's^ye view of Compound A, from the east 39
8. Casa Grande, from the southwest 43
9. Northeast comer of Casa Grande 43
10. West wall of Casa Grande, showing component blocks 79
11. Bird's-eye view of north half of Compound A 80
12. Bird's-eye view of Compound A, from the south 80
13. Southwest building of Compound A 88
14. Southwest building of Compound A, from the north 88
15. Northeast rooms, Compound A 89
16. Northeast rooms. Compound A 89
17. Area adjoining Casa Grande on the east 89
18. Six ceremonial rooms, Compound A 90
19. Ceremonial rooms and plaza, Compound A 90
20. West wall of Font's room, from the southeast 91
21. East rooms, Compound A 91
22. Rooms and corner, Compound A 92
23. Northwest comer, Compound A 92
24. Northeast comer, Compound A 93
25. Compound B, before Excavation , 95
26. Ground plan of Compound B 95
27. Bird's-eye view of Compound B, from the south 95
28. Bird's-eye view of Compound B, from the east 96
29. Northeast comer of Compound B 97
30. Comer and rooms. Compound B 97
31. Plaza and rooms, Compound B 97
32. Walls and rooms. Compound B 97
33. Plaza and walls. Compound B 97
34. Views of Pyramids A and B, Compound B 98
35. Comers of Compound B 98
36. Plazas and rooms, Compound B 99
37. Plaza and rooms, Compound B 99
38. Typical ancient reservoir, and rooms of Compound B 100
39. Walls of Compound B 100
40. Pictographs from Casa Grande and vicinity 101
41. Subterranean rooms and clay-pits . 102
42. Appearance of compound-walls before excavation 106
43. Bird's-eye view of Clan-house 1, from the northeast 106
44. Bird's-eye view of Clan-house 1, from the southwest 106
46. Clan-housel 106
29
30 ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
Plate 46. Annex to Clan-houfie 1. . . '. 108
47. Stone idols/ 121
48. Stone idols 121
49. Grooved stone axes 123
50. Grooved stone axes *. 123
51. Grooved stone axes 123
52. Grooved stone axes 124
53. Grooved stone axes 124
54. Grooved stone axes 124
55. Grooved stone ax, showing effects of secondary pecking 124
56. Stone hammers 124
57. Stone hammers 125
58. Problematical stone implements 125
59. Problematical stone implements 125
60. Grinding-stones 125
61. Stone implements 126
62. Grinding-stones 126
63. Manos 126
64. Mortars and pestle 127
65. Mortars 128
66. Problematical stone objects 129
67. Miscellaneous objects 130
68. Stone disks 131
69. Stone balls and disk 131
70. Stone shovels 131
71. Stone shovels 131
72. Pottery 133
73. Pottery 133
74. Clay objects : 137
75. Shell carvings 143
76. Wooden shovels or spades ; 146
77. Wooden paddles 146
78. Modem objects found on surface 147
Figure 1. Sketoh of Casa Grande ruin (Mange) 55
2. Ground plan of Casa Grande ruin (Mange) 55
3. Ground plan of Compound A (Font) , 59
4. Casa Grande in 1846 (after a drawing by Stanley) 64
5. Casa Grande in 1846 (Johnston) 65
6. Casa Grande in 1852 (Bartlett) 66
7. Casa Grande ruin, from the south 73
8. Interior of room, showing doorway and lines of floor 75
9. Interior of north room, looking west 76
10. Casa Grande ruin, looking northwest 78
11. Southeast comer of ruin, showing part of east wall 83
12. West wal 1 of Font's room (about 1880) 87
13. Ground plan of Compound B (made before completion of excava-
tions), showing height of walls in feet 96
14. Ground plan of Compound C 103
15. Ground plan of Compound D 104
16. Hand-prints and eroded base of wall of house in Compound D 105
IliLUSTBATIONS 31
Page
Figure 17. Oround plan of Clan-houae 1 107
18. SarcophaguB in room K of annex to Clan-house 1 108
19. Seat in room M. Clan-house 1, looking northeast 109
20. Seat in room M, Clan-house 1, looking southwest 110
21. Stone image of mountain sheep 122
22 . Stone ax 123
23. Stone ax 123
24. Stone ax 124
25. Grooved double-edge ax 126
26. Stone hammer 126
27. Dimib-bell shaped stone maul 127
28. Plummet-like object 127
29. Tool for rubbing or grinding pigment 128
30. Paint pestle from burial in annex room M, Clan-house 1 129
31. Perforated stone slab of unknown use 129
32. Perforated stone disk used in game 130
33. Knife or projectile point 131
34. Stone balls 132
35. Stone bead 133
36. Stone ornament 133
37. Ornament of jasper 133
38. Tooth-shaped pendant of stone 133
39. Shovel with handle 134
40. Three-legged earthenware dish 135
41. Pottery fragment bearing bird's head 135
42. Bowl bearing bird's head decoration (restored) 136
43. Spindle whorls 137
44. Fragment of burnt clay having lines incised in surface 138
45. Earthenware bowl decorated with triangle pattern 139
46. Triangle design decorating bowl 140
47. Design decorating vase 141
48. Bracelet of Pectunculus shell 144
49. Shell (Conus) finger ring decorated with incised design 144
50. Shell fr<^ 144
51. Copper bells 148
52. Incised pictc^raph of "the House of Tcuhu'' 149
53. Model of Pima .circular house constructed south of Compound A . . 153
54. Typical modem Pima rectangular dwelling 154
I
CASA GRANDE, ARIZONA
By Jesse Walter Fewkes
INTRODUCTION
■
The ruin known by the Spanish name Casa Grande, "Great House/' is situated near the left bank of the Gila River about 12 miles from the site of the present town of Florence, Ariz. Inmiediately after the discovery of Casa Grande by Father Kino, in 1694, there arose a legend, which became persistent, that it was one of the halting places of the Aztec on their way south, or that it was connected in some way with the southern migrations of Mexican tribes. We find it desig- nated also, in early, and even in later writings, Casa Montezuma, or the House of Montezuma, a name that in late years has passed prac- tically out of use, the ruin being now universally known, among both Americans and Mexicans, as Casa Grande, the name given it by Father Kino. The Pima Indians, who dwell in the neighborhood, claim Casa Grande as the habitation of one of their ancient chiefs, and designate it by several names, among which are V6aki, Old House; CivanavAaki, Old House of the Chief; and Sialim Civanav6aki, Old House of Chief Morning Green.
Casa Grande was a ruin when discovered and has not been perma- nently inhabited since it was first seen by a white man. The identity of its builders has furnished a constant theme for speculation from the discovery of the ruin to the present time. Although it has been ascribed to the Aztec, there is no evidence that the ancient people who inhabited this building were closely related to any tribes of the Mexican plateau, whose culture, as indicated by archeologic remains, was different from that of the Pueblos, or sedentary tribes of New Mexico and Arizona. The age of Casa Grande and contiguous remains is unknown, but there is good reason to believe that settle- ments on their site were older than most of the present pueblos or cliff-dwellings. The Pima claim, however, that it is not so old as ruins of the same general character situated near Phoenix, on Salt River, a short distance from its junction with the Gila.
20903**— 28 BTH— 12 3 33
34 CASA GRANDE, ARIZONA [eth. ann. 28
Some of the Pima formerly had a superstitious fear of Casa Grande which at times led them to avoid it,^ especially at night, and many do not now willingly sleep or camp near this remarkable monument of antiquity — a feeling that has given rise to stories that Casa Grande is haunted. * It is beUeved by some Indians that at times flames issue from the ruin; several Pima women were seen to cross themselves when passing near it.
Although Casa Grande is situated a considerable distance from the nearest railroad station, it can be conveniently reached by carriage either from the town of Florence, or from Casa Grande station on the Southern Pacific Railroad. The route to the ruin via Florence is slightly shorter than that from Casa Grande station, enabling one to make the visit and return in a single day. There are a hotel and livery stables in both towns, but the visitor should provide for his own refreshment at the ruin, where there is a good well with abundant water.^
After leaving Florence the road to Casa Grande follows the left bank of the Gila westward, crossing a level stretch and skirting for a few miled the base of a low gravelly mesa. The first aboriginal object of interest met with is a group of Indian huts situated on the left of this road. This settlement is of recent origin; the rectangular houses composing it are built in the old style and inhabited by Pa- pago. Near it looms a low white mound indicating an ancient ruin, which will well repay a brief visit. Following the road farther west- ward, the traveler passes through a cluster of houses known as Adams- ville (pi. 1), formerly called Sanford's Mill, an old Mexican settlement; this consists of a double row of rambling roofless houses built of adobe. Although Adamsville is one of the "dead'' towns of Arizona and for the most part is deserted, a Mexican family still fives in a fairly weU preserved room at the west end of the village. The waUs of an old gristmill are still pointed out and those of the former hotel can still be traced. This settlement was once an important station ' on the stage-coach route between Tucson and Phoenix, and many stories are current regarding the stirring events which took place in these now tenantless rooms when Apache roamed unrestricted the plains of Arizona.* The foundations of the adobe walls have been much
1 This is not true of most of the Pima. While engaged in relating to the writer the accompanying legends of Casa Orande, Thin Leather slept for several weeks in the west room of the ruin. The hooting of the owls which nest in the upper walls may add to the Ptmas' dread of it, hut did not seem to disturb him. Several rattlesnakes have been killed in this room, the record of the area covered by the mounds being 20 for the year the writer was engaged in work on Compound A.
s The resident custodian, Mr. Frank Pinckley, has built his house in Compound A, and has likewise dug a well, no water having been available when he took up his residence at the ruin. On acooimt of the extreme heat in midsummer, the autumn, winter, or spring months are the best seasons of the year in which to visit the ruins at Casa Grande.
* Several persons in Florence, known to the writer, who were bom in Adamsville, remember when it was a flourishing town.
« If the walls of this place could speak they oould recount many bloodcurdling tales of early Arixona history. The son of the Pima chief, Antonio Asul, is said to have been killed in this village.
\
V
^T^
BUREAU OF AMEfilCAN ETHNOLOOy TWENTV-EIQHTH ANNUAL HEPOflT F
E SOUTHWEST
■ROM THE SOUTHEAST
TCURIKVAAKI
^
PBWKES] INTRODUCTION 85
weakened by rains and in a few years the buildings now standing will faU to the ground.
Somewhat off the main road to Casa Grande, about half a mile south of AdamsviUe, on a plateau or mesa, rises a cluster of mounds^ indicat* ing the site of a settlement called by the Pima Tcurikv&aki {tcurikf ''bisnaga cactus"; vdaki, "old house'*), which is well worth visiting. This ruin (pi. 2) is approached from the Casa Grande highway by a rarely traveled road, not much more than a wagon track, branching from the main thoroughfare a short distance west of the town. The 4 standing walls of a house ' that rise considerably above the surface of
^ one of the mounds resemble in structure and general appearance those
c of Casa Grande. Among the mounds in this cluster is one oval in
o shape with a central depression indicating a former tank or reservoir.
Near by, the surrounding wall of a large compound, including a high z mound, suggests that Tcurikv&aki was formerly a place of consid-
erable importance. From this ruin there is a road to Casa Grande c which passes a large, conspicuous mound, the site of another ancient
< Indian settlement. This mound (pi. 3) is instructive because it shows o sections of a wall formerly inclosing a rectangular area, suggesting
< the surrounding wall at Casa Grande.
^ ■ If the visitor follows the direct route from Adamsville to Casa
2 Grande Mdthout making a detour to the Indian mounds above men-
Ij tioned, he can discern the roof, of corrugated iron, painted red, for
^ some distance before he arrives at his destination. On each side of
^ the road the traveler passes several small mounds belonging to the
2 Casa Grande Group, which are situated not far from the large pyram-
5 idal elevations marking Compound B.
The high range on the north side of the Gila in full sight of the ^ traveler the whole way from Florence to Casa Grande is called Super-
stition Mountains. This range separates part of the Gila Valley from the valley of the Salt River; it is a very wild and broken area, ending precipitously on the south and the west. Concerning this region many Pima legends are extant, the best known of which recounts how a flood once covered the whole earth.' To this place an antediluvian chief, named White Feather, followed by his band, once retreated, climbing to the top of these mountains for safety. The water is said to have risen in the valley to a level half-way up the mountain side,
I The ruins in the OilarSalt Valley reeembllni; Casa Grande are considered in another report, Prehlstorid Bnins of the Qlla Valley (hi amWuofUan MheeUaneout OoOectioru, No. 187S).
t The writer has been informed that Dr. Carlos Montezuma was sold in this house by a Pima Indian.
s This is supposed to be the flood the legend of which is still related by old men of the PatU clans of Walpi, who say it was the cause of their leaving Palatkwabi, the mythic southern home of this people. The Pima have a legend of a place in southern Ariiona out of which at one time water gushed and cov* ered the whole earth. Here they made offerings, which are continued even to the present day. They call the place by a name mwming ''where women cry/' for a child was once sacrificed there to cause the waten to subside.
36 CAS A GRANDE, ARIZONA [eth.ann.28
where there is now a stratum of white rock* which is clearly visible from Casa Grande. White Feather is said to have taken his stand on top of one of the pinnacles, whence he addressed his followers, re- minding them that he had exhausted Ms magic power in vain efforts to stay the flood. But one supreme resource to control the rising water still remained. As he spoke, he held aloft in the palm of one hand a medicine-stone, invoking the aid of the Sky god, who in reply sent a bolt of lightning that shattered the stone. But as the chief turned to his followers they were found to be petrified where they stood, and there they still stand as rocky pinnacles.'
There are many Indian shrines in Superstition Mountains, and as the wind whistles through the deep recesses the Indian fancies he can hear the moans of the shades of the dead who inhabit those dreary canyons.
Another less conspicuous hill, called Walker's Butte, on the north side of the Gila not far from the river bank, is constantly in sight for a long distance from the road from Florence to Casa Grande. Near its base ruined housewaUs wero discovered, and other remains of aboriginal life, as pictographs, can be found on lava rocks in the neighborhood.
The traveler along this road catches glimpses also of the lofty Santa Catalina Mountains far to the southeast, while to the south rises the distant Casa Grande Range. A solitary peak called Pichacho Moun- tain is a spur of a range of the same name that lies to the southeast, marking the position of a pass throu^ which the early travelers entered this region from Mexico. Near this peak was situated in old times a Pima settlement called Akutchin C mouth of the creek"), inhabited from early Spanish times down to a comparatively late date. The mountain itself, known as Tcacca by the Pima, is also associated with Pima legends of the country.' The aroa about the ruin of Casa Grande is broken by but few elevations.
The vegetation in the vicinity of Casa Grande consists mainly of desert growth — ^mesquite trees, sagebrush, and giant cacti. After the spring rains begin many herbs appear, some bearing small flowers which carpet the earth with variegated colors. Long before one comes to the largest mounds (pi. 4) at Casa Grande, fragments of pottery and other indisputable evidences of former human occupancy may be detected on the surface of the ground. At a Mexican adt)be house I
a few miles from the ruins, near the Gila River, can be traced a long ditch, filled in here and there, marking the site of the prehistoric
1 A feature of the huge butte here rising to the right of the road to RooseTelt Dam, resembHiig in Cxm an eagle, by which name it is known to the Pima.'
s These ptainacles are in plain sight from the road from Mesa to Roo8e\'elt Dam. They are results of ero- sion, the work of which on a vast scale b visible In many places on the slopes of the SopeistitlMi ICoontabis.
* There are still a few Pima and Papago huts in the neighborhood.
TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 5
T-r
^
i
f
COi97POuND D
^•^'^
CLAiN House 1
RUINS
FBWKB8] WORK OF EXCAVATION AND REPAIR 37
irrigation canal, resembling a modem ditch in approximately the same place.
There is no considerable outcrop of rock in the immediate vicin- ity of Casa Grande and the neighboring plain is almost wholly devoid 0[ stones large enough to use in the construction of walls; neverthe- less, several rooms have stones of considerable size built into the foundations of their walls. ^
WORK OF EXCAVATION AND REPAIR
The excavation of the mounds of Casa Grande was conducted by the Smithsonian Institution by means of appropriations made by Congress for the purpose, the work extending through two winters (1906-07 and 1907-08). The first season's field work was limited to what is here designated Compoimd A; the second to Compound B and Clan-house 1, together with considerable work on Compounds C and D.' (PL 5.)
First Season
compound a
In the first season the excavations were begun at the base of the two fragments of walls rising from the ground at the southwest angle of Compound A. At the beginning of the work the writer was wholly ignorant of the existence of a wall surrounding the area now caUed Compound A, the object of opening the mound at the base of the outside fragment being to repair the base with cement to prevent its falling. With the exception of several low mounds, more or less scattered, the area about the historic building, Casa Grande, was
I Certain implemeiits from Casa Orande, as batchets and axes, were apparantiy made from stones col- lected in the river bed or washed into view along the arroyos.
> The manual work of excavation and repair was performed by Pima Indians together with several white men who voluntarily assisted, among whom should be mentioned the custodian, Mr. Frank Pinckley, and Messrs. Hugh Hartshome, Thomas Ackerman, the late Thomas Ray, and others.
Road building, cutting away underbrush, grading, and incidental work, necessary to open the ruin to visitors, consumed some time during both seasons.
In order to aid those who wish to know when early discoverers visited Casa Orande, and to enable them to follow descriptions where the designations Compounds A, B, C, etc., are used in this report, signboards bearing that information were erected at convenient places. Wooden steps were also placed wherever they could facilitate mounting to the tops of the pyramids.
The Pima workmen above mentioned were natives of the neighboring town of Blackwater, a collection of modem houses, settled by colonists from Casa Blanca. At the time of the discovery of Casa Qrande and for several years thereafter, there was a Pima settlement called Uturituo ("the comer"), a few miles from Gasa Grande, near the Oila. The natives were driven out of this settlement, the site of which is said to have been washed away as the result of a change in the course of the river. The writer has heard an old Pima call Casa Grande Uturituc, owing to a confusion of localities.
San Juan Capistrano de Uturitucis thusreferred to by Father Pedro Font (1775): "This town consists of smalUodges of the kind that the GIleAos use . . . They lodged me in a large hut [possibly like the "Cap- illa' ' on the San Pedro) which they oonstmcted to that end and in front of it they placed a large cross, pagans though they were ... In the afternoon I went to the town with Father Oaroes and the governor, Papago de (}oJet, to see the fields. Thefr milptu are inclosed by stakes, cultivated in sections with fine canals or draws, and are excessively clean. They are close by the town on the bcmks of the river, which is large in the se^n of the freshets."
38 CA8A GRANDE, ARIZONA [eth. anx. 28
level, no sign of the boundary wall of the compound projecting above the surrounding plain.
On excavating to the base of the western, or outermost, of the two fragments it was discovered that the true foundations are deep below the eroded part and that a thick wall extends north and south from that point. This wall was found to continue to a point 420 feet to the north, where it turns at right angles, forming the northwest comer of the compound, thence running 230 feet in an easterly direction. Thus was brought to light the west wall, the longest wall of any compound in the Casa Grande Group of ruins. It was then a simple task to trace the three remaining walls, those forming the north, south, and east sides of the compound. (PL 6.)
After the surrounding walls of Compound A had been traced throughout their whole length by excavation, a trench being dug along the outside of each to its foundations, it was necessary to remove the earth that had accumulated without and within the inclosure through the years that had passed since Compound A had been abandoned. This was an undertaking of magnitude. When Casa Grande was inhabited the wall of the compoimd was probably 7 feet high. The upper part (about 3 feet) had fallen level with the ground, about 4 feet above the base, and the debris had filled in along the base throughout the whole length and breadth of the compound.^ This great accumulation of clayey soil was removed by means of scrapers and transported to the distance of about 50 feet from the compound.
In addition to the removal of the earth that had fallen outside the compound,' on the four sides, a drain was dug from the base of each wall along its entire length. This was constructed with sufficient incline to convey water from the wall into a larger ditch extending from the northeast comer to a depression 200 feet away. Similar removals of earth were made and similar ditches constructed on all sides of Compound A; the aggregate length of the drains thus made about this compound is not far from 1,500 feet.
The construction of the main drainage ditch just mentioned was a work of considerable magnitude, as it was necessary, in order to insure the requisite fall, to cut through several elevations or refuse- heaps, that obstructed the course. In addition to the draining ditches above described, a layer of clay coated with a thin layer of cement was placed along the bases of the walls of Compound A to prevent undermining and rapid destruction of their foundations; in some places Mexican adobes were laid on top of the wall to shed water and preserve it from erosion. The foundations of the waUs
t A prdlmiiuury raport on the ezcavatioiu made in 1906-7 wu published in SmUk$(mlan lilaeeUaneout OoUediofu, L (No. 1772), 1907.
* The aocomolation of earth on the east side near the southeast angle was not removed. It is conjectured that this part of the compound was oooe occupied by small huts, the habitations of the people.
F1WKB8] WORK OF EXCAVATION AND REPAIR 89
were pierced at intervak to prevent water from accumulating in the compound.
The excavations within the compound were even more extensive than those outside; from this inclosure a larger amount of debris had to be removed to a greater distance than from the area outside the walls.
A block of rooms was excavated in the southwest mound from which rise the two fragments of walls above mentioned. It is instructive to note that the east walls of these rooms are worn down more than the west waJls, which are still several feet high, and that the effects of erosion are also more marked on the east side of the historic structure of Casa Grande. The condition may be explained in this way: Originally the east walls were probably not so high as the west walls, a terrace, or platform, being situated on the former side, but the prevailing storms, which come from the east, beating with greater force against the eastern walls, caused them to disin- tegrate more rapidly.
The now conspicuous row of six ceremonial rooms extending from the northeast comer of the historic building to the north wall of the compound presented the appearance before excavation merely of a low ridge. This ridge, or mound, was a' favorite camping place for visitors, especially when the sun was high, the walls of the building making here a pleasant shade. The excavation and removal of the earth from these six rooms and the clearing away of the fallen material from the f oimdations of the outer walls proved to be a work of considei'able magnitude.'
The removal of the earth from the plaza in the northwest part of C!ompound A to the former level of its floor, the excavation of the room in the northwest angle, and the transportation of the accumu- lations of earth alone necessitated the employment of many workmen for a considerable period. Much time was consumed in clearing out the large cluster of rooms on the northeast side of the compound. When excavation began at this point nothing was visible but a large moimd.
The massive-waUed building east of Casa' Grande, the west wall of which rose several feet above the surface of the mound, was not difficult to excavate, as the earth could be readily removed and the distance to the dump was not great. The southeast section of the compound, which presents no conspicuous elevation, still awaits excavation. (PI. 7.)
To show the supposed character of the habitations of the ancient people of Compound A, a Pima circular hut (fig. 53) was built near the southwest angle, outside the inclosure.
> Some walla which aspedally needed protection against the elemcDta were capped with adobe bricks to prevent tfcaion.
I The nomber of cabio yards of earth leoiOYed fhnn this vicinity was not aooorately determined, bnt some Idea of the aggregate may be given by the statement that 10 scrapers were employed for almost a month in aooomplishing this result.
40 CASA GRANDE, ARIZONA [eth. ann. 28
Second Season
The field work carried on in 1907-8 was devoted to Clan-house 1 and to Compounds B, C, and D, begmnmg with an attempt to deter- mine the position of the surrounding wall of Compound B. The only indication of the existence of this wall was a low '^platform/' or elevation, mentioned by several authors, rising a few feet above the surface of the plain.
COMPOUND B
The boundary wall of this compound was first encountered at its southeast angle and the first section to be laid bare was the south wall. Having determined the course and length of this wall, the d6bris was removed from its foundation so that the wall stood clear for an average height of 3 feet. A drain was dug about 5 feet from the base to carry the surplus water into a depression a few hundred feet northwest of the compound.
The determination of the east wall of Compound B was somewhat more difficult than that of the north and west walls because of a reconstruction, or change .in direction, possibly by way of repair by the builders, at the southeast comer. The east wall was found to be for the greater part more massive than the south wall and more dilapidated on top than the other waUs. The excavation of the north wall followed the completion of the work on the east, the d6bris about it being removed by means of scrapers. . Provision was made for turning all drainage to the northwest corner where the level was somewhat lower than elsewhere; thence the water was conducted into a depression a hundred feet away.
The subterranean room under tlie northeast wall of Compound B was roofed over to prevent it being filled with water, which in course of time would have destroyed the floor and other evidences of its existence. The wall of the compound, which passes over this sub- terranean room, was in danger of faUing. In order to prevent tliis a support made of masonry was placed under it, i:e8ting on the floor of the underground room.
More earth had to be removed from the base of the west wall of Compound B than from all the others combined, a fact which suggests that formerly this wall was higher than the others but that a con- siderable portion had fallen or been worn down, burying the founda- tions. Th^ task of carrying away earth that had fallen from *he walls on the outer side and the removal of d6bris that had washed over it from a neighboring refuse-heap was a considerable one. When this work was finished the wall stood, in the middle, about 10 feet in height.
The excavation of the plazas and rooms adjoining the two great pyramids, or inclosed mounds, of Compound B was not so difficult
FEWKE8) WORK OF EXCAVATION AND REPAIR 41
as in the case of Compound A, but the removal of the earth was more tedious, it being necessary to carry the material a greater distance. The difficulties of work in Compound B were somewhat increased by the presence of successive floors, one below another. This condition was found on the tops of the mounds and in the plazas, necessitating careful excavation by hand.
The outlines of the many fragile-walled houses supported by rows of posts could readily be followed, but as the supports were much decayed, provision for the preservation of evidence of the existence of these rooms, which otherwise under the torrential summer rains would soon be destroyed, had to be made. To indicate the positions of the upright supports of these walls, new posts of cottonwood were inserted in the old holes, most of which were found to be filled with fine yellow sand and the decayed remains of the former supports. The fireplaces in the middle of the floors of these fragile-walled rooms, opposite the entrances, were protected with wooden covers. The floors were smoothly made and evidently had been tramped down.
The bases of all the walls exposed by the excavation work were strengthened with cement, so that they might resist longer the action of the water.
CLAN-HOUSE 1
The excavation and repair of Clan-house 1 were satisfactorily completed. No waUs were visible when work began, but two low ash-colored mounds were traceable among the mesquite trees, indicat- ing the site of a large building; there was no means of knowing, how- ever, the shape or size of the rooms later brought to light. As work progressed on the larger, or more westerly, of these mounds, the west wall of a lai^e building was the first to be traced. Having determined the position of the southwest comer, the removal of earth from the south and west walls was easily accomplished. The earth was hauled some distance from the walls by means of scrapers and later provi- sion was made for diverting the surface drainage on these two sides. The outside of the east and north walls was similarly treated. Tem- porary roadways left about midway in the west wall were utilized for hauling the material removed from the central room. The plaza east of this room was filled originally with earth to the level of the top of the compound waUs; the removal of this to the level of the floors of the central room and plaza required about a month. The bases of the walls were treated with cement and shallow drains parallel with them were dug to carry away the surplus water.
The presence of unusually large accumulations of earth in the rooms of Clan-house 1 can not be accounted for wholly by the falling
42 CASA GRANDE, ABIZONA [sth.ann.28
of the material eroded from the top of the walls^ but was due in part to drifted sand, which for the greater part filled the rooms of the compounds. The sandstorms left deposits at the bases of the walls, both within and without, the sand often drifting like snow; but when the drift was once arrested by the waUs and by roots of mes- quite trees, and weighted down by the adobe that fell from the walls, the rooms and waUs were eventually covered.
COMPOUNDS C AND D
The amount of excavation and repair work on Compounds C and D was not so extensive as on Compounds A and B. Neither of the former contained high mounds, and apparently neither ever had included extensive buildings with thick high walls. The walls of the central building of Compound C were low and few in number. The corners and surrounding walls in Compounds C and D having been determined, part of the accumulated earth was removed, provision being made for protection of the wall where necessary. In both these compounds the surrounding wall had been worn down almost to the level of the plain, a low platform being the only visible evidence of its former existence.
TRADITIONS
The question. Who built Casa Grande ? has been repeatedly asked the Pima Indians dwelling in the neighborhood from the time of its discovery in 1694 and their answer has generally come to be, the "Hohokam,'* or Ancients. But if their old men are interrogated more closely they frequently mention the name of a chief {dvan) called Morning Green, who, they affirm, constructed the buildings and ruled over the inhabitants. There is internal evidence that the legends they relate of this chief are not inventions of the modem Pima; at all events incidental references to him as master of the Wind gods and the Rain gods date back to Father Font's narrative in 1775. Modem variants of the legends are probably somewhat embellished, however, by repetition from one generation to another.^ The Pima conception of this chief is best indicated by quoting a few folk-tales, some of which have not been published while others have been known for many years.
> Dr. Frank Rossell's ezioeltent monogmph on The Plnm Indians {tSth Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Btknol.) sbows the wealth of Pima (or Marioopa7) material still available. This material, like all legends, can he treated in a scientific way in the interpretation of culture and should not he rejected by archeologists. Ethnology is simply culture-history, of which archeology is one chapter.
Neglect of ethnology in the study of the archeology of the American Indians is unfortunate. Some of the Pima told the writer that tJs interpreter had made mistakes in inteipretatlons, so that what is given here can be regarded only as approximations to truth. As will appear in many of these legends, the chief of Casa Orande is exalted into a cultua>hero, who had extraordinary magic powers; insome aloiiea he to repreeented as the supernatural oilspiing of the sun and a maid.
TRADITIONS 43
There still survive among the Mexicans living in the neighborhood of Casa Grande (pis. 8> 9) a few stories connecting Montezuma with this ruin. One day whUe the writer was at work on Compound B, an old Mexican who visited the place said that several years ago as he was driving past the ruin from Florence to his farm, which is south of the main building, a man with a long white beard, clad only in a single short garment, stopped him and without a word took his seat on the wagon. When they arrived at Casa Grande the mysterious personage alighted and without speaking entered the ruin; he was never seen again. The Mexican asked whether the writer thought this strange ^rson was Montezuma the old chief.
FoNT^s Legbnd
This legend (1775) contains the following story (related to Father Font by the governor of Uturituc), which is the oldest legendary account of Casa Grande, or Clvanav&aki,^ extant, from Pima sources:
He [the governor] said —
That in a very distant time there came to that land a man who, because of his evil disposition and harsh sway, was called The Bitter Bfan; that this man was old and had a young daughter; that in his company there came another num who was young, who was not his relative nor anything, and that he gave him in marriage his daughter, who was very pretty, the young man being handsome also, and that the said old man had with him as servants the Wind and the Storm-cloud. That the old man b^an to build that Casa Grande and ordered his son-in-law to fetch beams for the roof of the house. That the young man went far off, and as he had no ax nor anything else with which to cut the trees, he tarried many dajrs, and at the end he came back without bringing any beams. That the old man was very angry and told him he was good for nothing; that he should see how he himself would bring beams. That the old man went very far off to a moimtain range where there are many pines and, calling on God to help him, he cut many pines and brought many beams for the roof of the house. That when this Bitter Man came, there were in that land neither trees nor plants, and he brought seeds of all and he reaped very large harvests with his two servants, the Wind and the Storm-cloud, who served him. That by reason of his evil disposition he grew angry with the two servants and turned them away and they went very far off; and as he could no longer harvest any crops through lack of the servants, he ate what he had gathered and came near dying of hunger. That he sent his son-in-law to call the two servants and bring them back and he could not find them, seek as he might. That thereupon the old man went to seek them and, having found them, he brought them once more into his service, and with their aid he had once more laige crops, and thus he continued for many yean in that land; and after a long time they went away and nething more was heard of them.
He [the governor] said also, that after the old man there came to that land a man called The Drinker, and he grew angry with the people of that place and he eent much water so that the whole country was covered with water, and he went to a very high mountain range which is seen from there, and which is called The Mountain of the Foam (Sierra de la Espuma), and he took with him a little dog and a coyote. (This mountain range [Superstition Moimtains] is called * ' of the foapi " because at the end of it, which is cut off and steep like the comer of a bastion, there is seen high
> The term ClmnavAaki, which has heen translated "chief of the aocleot house," is afeneral term applied also to other coMf ^rendct in the Oila-Salt Valley.
44 CASA GRANDE, ABIZONA [eth. ann. 28
up near the top a white brow as of rock, which also continues along the range for a good distance, and the Indians say that this is the mark of the foam of the water which rose to that height.) That The Drinker went up, and left the dog below that he might notify him when the water came too far, and when the water reached the brow of the foam the dog notified The Drinker, because at that time the animals talked, and the latter carried him up. That after some days The Drinker Man sent the Rose-sucker (Chuparosaa) to Coyote to bring him mud; they brought some toliim and of the mud he made men of different kinds, and some turned out good ani others bad. That theee men scattered over the land, upstream and downstream; after some time he sent some men of h\a to see if the other men upstream talked; these went, and returned saying that although they talked, they had not underst-ood what they said, and that The Drinker Man was very angry because these men talked without his having given them leave. That next he sent other men downstream to see those who had gone that way and they returned saying that they had received them well, that they spoke another tongue but that they had understood them. Then The Drinker Man told them that those men downstream were the good men and there were such as far as the Opa, with whom they are friendly, and there were the Apache, who are their enemies. He [the governor] said also that at one time The Drinker Man was angry with the people and killed many and transformed them into aaguaros (giant cacti), and on this account there are so many saguaros in that country . . . Furthermore, he said that at another time The Drinker Man was very angry with the men and caused the sun to come down to bum them, and was making an end of them; that he now begged him much not to bum them, and therefore The Drinker Man said that he would no longer bum them and then he told the sun to go up, but not as much as before, and he told them that he left it lower in order to bum them by means of it, if ever they made him angry again, and for this reason it is so hot in that country in summer.
He [the governor] added that he knew other stories; that he could not tell them because the time was up, and he agreed to tell them to us another day; but as we had laughed a little at his tales, which he related with a good deal of seriousness, we could not get him afterward to tell us anything more, saying that he did not know anymore.*
Legends from Other Sources
In the account of Casa Grande given by Johnston^ lie wrote (1847) as follows:
The general asked a Pimo who made the house [Casa Grande] I had seen. '* It is the 'Cara [sic] de Montezuma,' " said he; *' it was built by the son of the most beautiful woman who once dwelt in yon mountain; she was fair, and all the handsome men came to court her, but in vain; when they came, they paid tribute, and out of this small store, she fed all people in times of famine, and it did not diminish ; at last, as she lay asleep, a drop of rain fell upon her navel, and she became pregnant, and brought forth a boy, who was the builder of all these houses."
Capt. F. E. Grossman' in 1871 made tlie following allusions to the Pima legends regarding Casa Grande:
The Pimas claim to be the direct descendants of the chief Sd'-hft. The children of Sy-h6 reinhabited the Gila River Valley, and soon the people became numerous.
1 It will be seen that there are some parts of this story almost identical with a story that follows, told the writer by Thin Leather in 1907-8.
s Johnston, Journal, in Emory, Notes of a Military Reoonnolssance, Washington, 1848 (Ex. Doc. 41, 30th Cong., 1st sess., 1848).
s SmUhMonian Report for 1871, p. 406.
FBWKJB8] TRADITIONS 45
One of the direct descendants of S^-hd, King SP-va-no, erected the Casas Giandes on the Gila River. Here he governed a large empire, before — ^long before — the Spaniards were known.
The following quotation is taken from Bandelier's report:*
Mr. J. D. Walker, an old resident in the vicinity of Casa Grande, who has been to me x)er8onally an excellent friend and valuable informant, told me this tale.
The Gila Pimas claim to have been created on the banks of the river. After residing there for some time a great flood came that destroyed the tribe, with the exception of one man, called Gi-ho. He was of small stature, and became the ancestor of the present Pimas. The tribe, beginning to grow in numbers, built the villages now in ruins and also spread to the north bank of the river. But there appeared a mouBtrous eagle, which, occasionally aiwuming the shape of an old woman, visited the pueblos and stole women and children, carrying them to his abode in an inaccessible cliff. On one occasion the eagle seized a girl with the intention of making of her his wife. Ci-ho thereupon went to the cliff, but found it impossible to climb. The girl, who was still alive, shouted down to him the way of making the ascent. When the eagle came back, Ci-ho slew him with a sword, and thus liberated his people from the scourge.^
The following existing Pima legends relating to Morning Green, chief of Casa Grande, were collected from Thin Leather (Kamaltkak), an old Pima regarded as one of the best informed story-tellers of the tribe.^ Some of his legends repeat statements identical with those told to Father Font, 137 years ago, a fact which proves ap- parently that they have been but little changed by intervening generations. The statement which recounts how Morning Green was miraculously conceived by a Hohokam maiden has been verified by several legmdists. The following stories supplement published legends of tliis chief and other ancients and shed li^t on the condition of early society in the settlement over which Morning Green is said to have ruled.
HOW A CHIEF OF ANOTHER " GREAT HOUSE ' ' ENTICED THE WOMEN
FROM CASA GRANDE
Morning Green, chief of Casa Grande, invited Chief Tcematsing and his women to visit him. Tcematsing lived in a great house situated near Gila Crossing, which is so far away from Casa Grande that he found it necessary to camp one night en route at the settlement on the Gila River opposite Sacaton. When the visitors arrived at Casa Grande a dance was celebrated in the open space north of Compound A, some- where between it and the circular wall inclosing a reservoir or **we\\.** Here the women who accompanied Tcematsing danced with those of Casa Grande, singing the
Bong:
Ta 9ai nawHwH
Sim shade sing with me
My body will become a humming-bird
When Tcematsing came and witnessed the women dancing he shook his rattle and
sang a magic song, which enticed all the women of Casa Grande to follow him to
1 Bandelier, Final Rep., pt. n, in Papers Areh. Intt. Amer., iv, p. 463, 1892.
> For another venion of this tale, see Bancroft, Native Races, vol. HI, p. 79.
* Many other legends were collected, but these have no bearing on Casa Grande, and some of them have been published by previous observers, especially Doctor Russell, who obtained many of his stories from the same authority. It is said that rooet of these legends are from the Maricopa; several show miaslonary influence.
46 CASA GRANDE, ABIZONA [bth. anw. 28
another dance place, nearer the Gila. Morning Green, who also sang a magic song, found it powerless > to prevent the departure of the women, and he went back to his house for a more powerful ''medicine," after which he returned to the dance and ordered his women back to their dwellings; but they were so much bewitched by the songs of Tcematsing that they could not, or would not, obey him. Farther and farther from their homes Tcematsmg enticed the women, dancing first in one place and then in another until they came to his compound. Among the women who abandoned their home was the wite of Morning Green, who refused to return even' after he sent a special messenger to her.
The sequel of the legend is that Tcematsing mairied Nactci, a daughter of Morning Green, making her father so angry that he sent a spider to bite his own gnmdson, off- spring of the union. When the boy was sick unto death Tcematsing invited Morning Green to visit his grandson before the boy died. Moming Green relented and sent his daughter an herb (the name of which is lost) powerful enough to cure the spider's bite, and thus the child's life was spared.'
Another legend of Chief Moming Green, also obtained from Thin Leather, affords an instructive glimpse of prehistoric thought.
HOW TUBQUOISES WERE OBTAINED FBOM CHIEF MORNING GREEN
One day, long ago, the women and girls of Casa Grande were plasring an ancient game called toibd,' formerly much in vogue at Casa Grande, but now no longer played by Pima. During the progress of the game a blue-tailed lizard was noticed descending into the earth at a spot where the stones were green .^ The fact was so strange that it was reported to Moming Green, who immediately ordered excavation to be made. Here they eventually discovered many turquoises, with which they made, among other things, a mosaic covering for a chair that used to stand in one of the rooms of Casa Grande. This chair was carried away many years ago and buried, no one knows where.
Moming Green also distributed so many turquoises among his people that the fame of these precious stones reached the ears of the Sun, in the East, who sent the bird with bright pliunage (parrot?) to obtain them. When Parrot approached within a short distance of Casa Grande he was met by one of the daughters of the chief, who retumed to the town and announced to her father the arrival of a visitor from the Sun. The father said, ''Take this small stick, which is charmed, and when Parrot puts the stick into his mouth, you lead him to me." But Parrot was not charmed by the stick and refused to take it into his mouth and the girl reported her failure. The chief answered, "Perhaps the strange bird would eat pumpkin seed," and told his daughter to offer these to him. She made the attempt without result and, returning,
1 Evidently Morning Green had met his equal in Toemataing, whose "medicine "was superior to that he employed on the first trial of magic power.
s Morning Oreen (Sialim Tcutuk) is regarded by the Pima as an historic personage. Civan is here inter- preted as a generic name for "chief," not limited to Moming Oreen alone; all chieft of the ancients are called ei0an<. In commenting on the word Siba of Kino and Mange, and on Cibola, Doctor Russell puts this query: Is the similarity of this term («ite) to Shl'wona or Shi Vina, given by Mr. F. H. Gushing as the native name of the ZufU country, a mere coincidence? This question assumes a new signlflcanoe if we remember that some of the ZuAi clans originally came firom villages ruled over by the doatU.
* The iriayecs in this game were generally 10 in number, facing each other about 100 yards apart. Eadi participant had a pointed stick with whidi she caught a rope having a knot at each end.
« In a legend of the Ho|d, turquoises are said to be the excrement of a reptile.
The legend of the "throne" of Monteauma covered with turquoises may be of late introduction, but how the resemblance to the Mexican account Is to be accounted for among the Pima does not appear; possibly by the same m^ans as in the case of the name Montesuma. In this connection attention is directed to the "seat" excavated in Clan-house 1 (flg. 19).
FiwKEs] TBADITI0N8 47
reported that the bird refuaed pumpkin seed. The father then said, 'Tut the seed into a blanket and spread it before the bird; then perhaps you may capture him." Still Parrot would not eat, and the father thereupon suggested watermelon seeds. But Panrot was not tempted by these nor by seeds of cat's claw, nor was he charmed by charcoal.^
The chief of Gasa Grande then told his daughter to tempt Parrot with com well cooked and soaked in water, in a new food-bowl. Parrot was obdurate and would not taste it, but, noticing a turquoise bead of blue-green color, he swallowed it; when the two daughters of the chief saw this they brought to him a number of blue stones, which the bird greedily devoured. Then the girls brought valuable turquoise beads, which Parrot ate; then he flew away. The girls tried to capture him, but without success. He made his way through the air to the home of the Sun in the East, where he drank an emetic and vomited. the turquoises, which the Sun god distributed am<Hig that people which reside near his house of rising, beyond the eastern moun- tains. This is the reason, it is said, why these people have many stone ornaments made of this material.
But when the chief of Casa Grande heard that Parrot had been sent to steal his tur- quoises, he was greatly vexed and caused a violent rain to fall that extinguished all fires in the East. His magic power over the Rain god was so great that he was able even to extinguish the light of the Sun, making it very cold. Then the old priests gathered in council and debated what they diould do. Man-Fox was first sent by them into the East to get fire, but he failed to obtain it, and then Road-runner was commissioned to visit Thunder, the only one that possessed fire, and steal his lighted torch. But when Thunder saw him running off with the torch he shot an arrow at the thief and sparks of fire were scattered around, setting afire every tree, bush, and other inflammable object, from which it happens that there is fire in every- thing.
HOW MORNING OREEN LOST HIS POWER OVER THE WIND OODS AND
THE RAIN OODS
Morning Green is reputed to have had special magic power over two supernatural beings, known as Wind-man and Rain-man. It happened at one time that many people were playing a game with canes in the main plaza of Morning Green's settlement [Gasa Grande], on the south side of the compound; among these were Rain-man and Wind- man. The latter laid a wager that if he lost, his opponent should look on the charms of a certain maid. When Wind-man lost, in revenge he sent a great wind that blew aside her blanket, at which indignity she cried and complained of Wind-man to Morning Green, who was so angry that he made Rain-man blind, obliging him to be led about by his servant, the wind; he also banished both from Gasa Grande. They went to the San Bernardino Mountains in what is now Galifomia and lived at Eagle Mountain, near the present town of Wadsworth, where as a consequence it rains continually.
After the banishment of these two the rain ceased at Gasa Grande for four years, and Morning Green sent Humming-bird to the mountains where Wind^man and Rain-man resided. Humming-bird carried with him a white feather, which he held aloft to detect the presence of the wind . Three times he thus tried to discover Wind-man by the move- ment of this feather, but was not successful. When at last Humming-bird came to a place where there was much green grass he again held up the feather to see whether it showed any movement of the air. It responded by indicating a slight wind, and later he came to the spot where Wind-man and Rain-man were, but found them asleep.
iCIiarooal, the product of fire, la regarded by the Hopl Vaya, or fire priests, as poasesBing most powerftil magic in heaUng diaeases, eapedally thoee of the sUn In which there b a burning aenaatioo.
48 CASA GRANDE, ABIZONA [bth. axn. 28
Humming-bird dropped a little medicine on the breasts of Wind-man and Rain- man, which caused them after a time to move and later to awake. When they had risen from their sleep ^umming-bird informed them that Morning Green had sent him to ask them to return and again take up their abode with him at Casa Grande. Rain- man, who had no desire to return, answered, "Why did Morning Green send us away?" and Wind-man said, *' Return to Morning Green and tell him to cut off his daughter's hair and make from it a rope.^ Bring this rope to ine and I will tie it about my loins that Rain-man, who is blind, may catch hold of it while I am leading him. But advise all in Casa Grande to take the precaution to repair the roofs of their houses so they will not leak, for when we arrive it will rain violently." Humming-bird delivered the message to the chief of Casa Grande and later brought back the twisted rope of human hair. Wind-man and Rain-man had barely started for Casa Grande when it began to rain, and for four days the downpour was so great that every roof leaked. Morning Green vainly used alLhis power to stop the rain, but the magic availed but little.
THE BIBTH OF HOK
Long ago the Sun god sent a messenger on an errand to the settlement now called Casa Grande. As this messenger proceeded on his way he occupied himself in kicking a stone ball, and on approaching Casa Grande he gave the ball so violent a kick that it landed near a maiden who sat on the housetop making pottery. Seeing the object, the girl picked it up and hid it under her belt. When the man sought the stone it was nowhere to be found; he asked the girl if she knew where it fell, but she would not divulge what had become of it. Discouraged in his quest, the man was about to return to the Sun god, but the girl urged him not to depart but to search more dili- gently for the ball. She also sought for it, but it was no longer under her belt; it had disappeared. Later she was with child and in due time gave birth to a girl baby, which, instead of feet and hands, had claws like a bear or a mountain lion. As this strange child grew older and played with other boys and girls she scratched them so often with her claws that they were afraid of her, and ran away whenever she appeared. The brothers of the girl were hunters of rabbits, but were unsuccessful. When their sister grew older she followed them to the hunt and their luck changed, so that thence- forth they killed plenty of game. As she matured, however, she outgrew all restraint and became a wild woman. She was then called Hok, and developed into a cannibal monster, who captured her victims wherever she went and carried them in a basket on her back until she wished to devour them.^ Hok once met two youths, whom she tried to capture, but they ran swiftly away and when she made another attempt they blinded her by throwing sand in her eyes. This monster terrorized the whole country to such an extent that the ancients sought her life, but in vain. The culture-hero, Tcuhu, endeavored to kill Hok. He turned himself into a snake and furnished the children with rattles; when Hok approacHed them they shook these rattles and frightened her. Hok first retired to a distant cave in the Santa Catalina Mountains, but later went south to Poso Verde. The people living there were also oppressed by Hok and desired to kill her. Tcuhu ' sent word to his uncle that there was to be a dance at Casa Grande and asked him to invite Hok to attend. This was a kind of ceremonial dance in which men and women participate, forming a circle and alternating with each other. Several invitations were sent to Hok, but she did not accept; at last she promised to attend the dance and to be there at sunset. Tcuhu danced and smoked with Hok, and the festivities lasted four days and nights. While she was absent the
> Ropes were made of taaman hair up to within a few years by the Pima, who used them on burden- baskets ikikut) and for other purposes.
> The Hopi have a similar bogy, who is personated annually at Walpi in February, at which time she threatens to kill all children. She carries a knife In her hands, and has a basket on her back for the heads of the victims she declares she will decapitate.
s The name Tcuhu Is sometimes interchanged with Montezuma as if the two personages were Identical.
FBWKU] TRADITIONS 49
women gathered Vood and made a fire in the cave where Hok Uved. When she dis- covered what had taken place she flew to the top of her cave and entered it through a crack open to the sky. At the opening Tcuhu stood so as to prevent Hok's escape and slew her as she emerged.
A CREATION LEGEND
In the beginning all was dark and there was neither earth nor sky. Earth Doctor (Tcuwut Marka) was the only being then living.^
Earth Doctor took a particle of sweat from his body and made from iX a small disk, which he held in his hiuid and started to go to the west. When he stopped, the sweat showed signs of life, for it trembled; he proceeded and still the material moved. He halted four times in his course and as he stopped the fourth time the disk, which was the nucleus of the earth, became stable, and neither trembled nor wavered.^ He then knew he was at the middle point of the universe. Earth Doctor then made a bush and created small ants to feed on it. He took a louse from his breast and put it at the root of the bush. This insect foimd a ring of soil that kept growing larger and laiger as Earth Doctor danced near it, until it became the earth. In the same way the solid sky was formed. Earth Doctor pounded ** medicine " in a bowl and shortly afterward there appeared over the siuiace a transparent substance resembling ice. Earth Doc- tor threw this substance toward the north, where it fell but shortly afterward rose again and then sank below the horizon. He then cast another fragment to the west and it fell below the horizon, never to rise again. He threw another fragment into the south; this struck the earth or sky and bounded back, whereupon he picked it up and again threw it to the south. This time it rose and passed over the sky. These fragments became the sun and the moon, both formed in the same way. Earth Doctor spurted a mouthful of medicine-water into the sky and created the stars, first the larger and then the smaller, the last of all being nebulae like the Milky Way. Having formed the celestial bodies, he made seeds of all food used by man, after which he created men and women from a particle of sweat or grease from his body.
Buzzard Doctor lives in the Underworld, where there are many people similar to those who inhabit the earth. The entrance [sipapu] to this underworld is in the east.
As soon as men and women had been created they began to quarrel; this an- gered Earth Doctor and he put them to death. After he had killed all human beings, Earth Doctor and Buzzard emerged together from the Underworld and the former begged the latter to help him re-create men and women. The result was men who were gray-haired at birth. Earth Doctor again destroyed man because he smoked too much, but on the fourth trial there emerged from the earth four men who later became great medicine-men — Land, Buzzard, Tcuhu, and Tohouse.^
The youth Tcuhu became a great warrior and married many women, whom he deserted before children were bom.*
A TLOOD LEGEND
The Pima believed that the flood was caused by Earth Doctor, who stuck his staff ^ into the ground, making a hole out of which water issued, covering the earth. Tcuwut, Tcuhu, and Tohouse crawled into ollas and floated away. When the earth was
1 Thb legend differs fjrom other purely aboriginal creation legends with which the author Is acquainted, In aooounting for the origin of earth and sky.
> See Znfii legend of the search for the "middle," or stable, point on the earth (in IStk Ann. Rep, Bur, mnoi., p. 373).
* Because the men were thus destroyed four times some people ^think there are four worlds.
* The son of Tcuwut went to get his child, but when he took it In his arms he became a snipe and the baby became what the Pima call a water baby.
* Sereral Hopi and Hano legends recount that when the tiponl, or emblematic palladium, was placed on the earth a spring was developed.
20903^—28 ETH— 12 4
50 CASA GRANDE, ABIZONA [btu.axn. 28
covered with water, Humming-bird , led by Buzzard, flew into the sky, crying out that they would return after the water should have subsided. Buzzard soared aloft to an opening in the sky, through which he passed, but his companion could not follow him. Both were caught in the passage and there they himg. Humming-bird cried because it was cold in the sky region, but Woodpecker made a nest of feathers to keep them warm. The flood rose until the water reached them and there may still be seen on the feathers of the woodpecker marks where the water touched him.
The olla in which Tcuhu was concealed floated far away into the southwest, but that containing Earth Doctor went northwest. The third, in which was Tohouse, went east. The tracks of the oUas of Earth Doctor and Tohouse Doctor crossed sev- eral times and as they did so Earth Doctor addressed the other as Elder Brother. There were seven persons saved from the flood, and these were called brothers. Their names are Tcuwut, Tciihu, Tohouse, Buzzard, Woodpecker, Hunmiing-bird, and an unknown. When the water had subsided these seven brothers held a council to deter- mine the position of the middle of the earth. Woodpecker was sent to the east and Humming-bird to the west, to find it. Three times they returned without success, but on their foiuth meeting they reported that they had found the middle of the earth.
Tcuhu plucked a hair from the right side of his head and, putting it in his mouth, drew it back and forth, stretching it and miraculously forming a snake, which he laid on the earth at his north side. He took a hair from the left side of his head and , stretch- ing it out as before, created a second snake, which he laid at the west side. He then laid one at the south and another at the east.^ These snakes prevent the water from flooding the land and cause it to flow in channels or rivers. Tcuhu created ants, which he put on the wet ground; these threw up hills that became dryland. After the water had subsided Earth Doctor, Tcuhu, and Tohouse set themselves to re-create men, having agreed not to inform one another what kind of beings each would make. To prevent one another from seeing their work they faced in different directions — Earth Doctor to the east, Tohouse to the south, and Tcuhu to the west. When their crea- tions were finished it was found that Tcuhu had made men similar in form to those now living, but that Tohouse 's men had webbed fingers like ducks, while those cre- ated by Earth Doctor had but one leg each and subsisted not on food, but on smells, which they inhaled. Tcuhu asked Tohouse why he made his men with webbed fingers. "That they may live in water," responded Tohouse. Tcuhu was dissat- isfied with the beings made by Tohouse, and he threw them into the water, where they became ducks. The creations of Earth Doctor became fishes and snakes; he was much pleased with his children, which descended into the Underworld where he daily visits them.
When Earth Doctor stuck his staff into the ground to cause the flood and water cov- ered the earth, most of the people perished, but some escaped and followed White Feather, who fled to the top of Superstition MountainB. The water rose, covering all the valley until it was as high as the line of white sandstone which is a conspicuous landmark. White Feather, surrounded by his followers, tried all his magic in vain to prevent the further rise of the flood. When he saw he was powerless to prevent this, he gathered all his people and consulted them, saying, "I have exhausted all magic powers but one, which I will now try." Taking in his left hand a medicine- stone horn his pouch, he held it at arm's length, at the same time extending his right hand toward the sky. After he had sung four songs he raised his hand and seized the lightning and with it struck the stone which he held. This broke into splinters with a peal of thunder and all his people were transformed into the pinna- cles of stone which can now be seen projecting from the sunmiit of one of the peaks of the Superstition Mountains.
1 It is thought that dreams come firom the east and that the west sends cold.
FBWKM] TRADITIONS 61
The followers of Tcuhu and TohouBe united and built a house. Four days after this house was begun Tcuhu sent Tohouse to visit a people he had created, in order to learn what language they spoke. When Tohouse found that they spoke Apache and so reported, Tciihu assigned them to the land of cold wind and rain. Tcuhu again sent Tohouse to discover whether there were other people on the earth; return- ing after a time the latter reported to Tcuhu that he had heard of men speaking Mohave, Yuma, and Maricopa, but not Pima. After four days Tcuhu again sent Tohouse to search for any men allied to his people, and he reported finding those who continually raid, Ston, sUm, *4t is hot.*' He retiumed and told Tcuhu he had found lost brothers, because he had detected in their speech a Pima word. Tcuhu said they must be his people; he said also, '* I will give them dark cool nights in which they can sleep, and I will send them dreams and they shall be able to interpret these dreams." All these peoples were gathered into the house Tcuhu had built [Gasa Gnmde?]. But after a while there were bickerings and quarrels among men. The Apache left for the mountains where they said they also would have dreams and thus they became hereditary enemies of the Pima. At this time all the Pima inhab^ ited the Salt River Valley, not far from the site of the present Phoenix.
White Feather and his people lived in a settlement called Sturavrik Cf vanavdaki, near Tempe, the site of which is now a large mound. According to some legends, this chief was the first man who taught the Pima irrigation and he showed them also how to plant com. Through his guidance his people became prosperous and all the Pima congregated at his settlement to trade.
The people of a settlement near Mesa could not build a canal because the ground in the vicinity was so hard, so they asked Tcuhu to aid them. He sang magic songs for four days, and at the fourth song the ground softened and the people easily exca- vated the ditch, but the water would not run in it. Tcuhu found he was powerless to make it do so and advised them to invite Towa Quaatam Ochse,^ an old woman who lived in the west by the great water, to aid them. She was sunmioned and sent word to the Mesa people to assemble in their council-house and await her com- ing. They gathered and awaited her coming but she did not appear. At night a man passing that way saw her standing at the highest point of the canal blowing "medicine" along the ditch. Later there came a great wind that dug out a wide channel and water ran in the canal. The Gasa Grande people, it is said, learned the art of irrigating from those living on the site of Tempe, who were taught by Tcuhu.
Feather-plaited Doctor was an evil-minded youth who lived at Wukkakotk, north of Gasa Grande. Tonto^ visited Feather-plaited Doctor, but the latter would not notice him, although he made the customary offering of four cigarettes. Three times Tonto repeated his visit to Feather-plaited Doctor, and on the third visit the latter accused him of being a gossip and on that account refused to have anything to do with him. On the last visit he told Tonto that although he did not like him he did not object to his visits, but he warned him, if he wished to see him, not to gamble at night and not to have anything to do with women without his permission. At that time there was a man who wished to gamble with Tonto but, forewarned, the latter refused. When Tonto was asked the reason, he revealed his promise to Feather-
1 This personage corresponds to HatrinwuqtS, or Woman of Hard Sabstanoe (shell, stone, and turquoise) of the Hopi.
> The writer's interpreter claimed that tonto is a pure Pima word, hence the fact that in Spanish it slgnlfles " foolish " would seem to he fortuitous. It appears in the term ToUmUac, used by early Span^ iards to designate a "kingdom/' sometimes regarded as synonymous with Moki, also a Pima word. On the theory that toUmUae is pure Pima, the writer derives it from to-ton, and toac or tetu;, a termination which occurs in the name of a mountain (Kihutoec, "mountain of the kiku^ or carrying basket"). The term Totonteac would mean "mountains of the Tontos."
When first mentioned Totonteac was reputed to be a kingdom of great power; later it was found to be a hot spring surrounded by a few mud houses. In the opinion of the writer, the hot springs in the lower part of the Tonto Basin, near the Roosevelt Dam, may represent the locality of the so-called fabulous Totonteac.
52 CASA GBAKDEy ARIZONA [■TH.AirN.28
plaited Doctor and said he must get permiaBion. Ton to was allowed by Feather- plaited Doctor to gamble with this man, but was warned not to play again if he were beaten; but should he win twice he must desist by all means &om further playing.
The game at which Tonto gambled was that known as the *'cane game, '' and on this occasion Feather-plaited Givan marked the canes. Tonto played and won twice from his opponent; he would not play a third time, but carried all he had won to the house of Feather-plaited Civan. Whenever he played with the marked canes, he won, BO that one of his opponents consulted Tcuhu to learn the reason. Tculm informed him that the sticks were endowed with magic derived from the sun, wfaiik gave them supernatural power over all others.
Tcuhii then told a maid to search under trees and gather in the early morning the feathers of eagles, crows, buzzards, and hawks, bind them together, and bring them to him. After these feathers had been brought Tcuhu instructed her to strip every feather to its midrib and cut each into short sections. Having toasted the feathers with meal of popcorn, the girl placed them on a basket tray. She was then instructed to fill two small bowls with "medicine" and to carry them to a spring near the place where Tonto was going to play the next game. Before Tonto began this game he declared he was thirsty and started for the spring, kicking before him the stone ball. When he reached the spring he perceived the girl and fell in love with her. She prom- ised to marry him if her parents were willing. The maid handed Tonto a drink of the *^ medicine " instead of water; at the first draught he began to tremble; a second caused him to shake violently, and at the third feathers began to form all over his body, and shortly afterward he took the form of a bird resembling the eagle. When the maid had witnessed this metamorphosis, she sought the man with whom Tonto had agreed to gamble and told him Tonto had become a bird, at the same time pointing to an eagle perched on a rock near the spring. The man tried to shoot Eagle, but he flew away and alighted on the top of a peak of the Superstition Mountains, which shook violently as Eagle landed thereon.^ In his flight Eagle carried off the maid, now called Baat, with whom he lived . He killed many people dwelling near his home and heaped their bodies in a great pile near the cave in which he made his home. He became so dan- gerous, in fact, that the survivors asked Tcuhu 's aid; he promised to come in four days but did not do so. A new messenger was sent with the same request and he again promised to come in four days but again failed to fulfill his promise. Tcuhu told the messenger to bring him ashes, and the man brought mesquite charcoal, which he did not wish. Tcuhu procured charcoal from cactus fruit and, having ground the seedH into fine meal, he fashioned it into the form of a big knife. He then procured a flexible stick, such as grows in the Wliite Mountains, and other pointed sticks resem- bling bone awls. Having made four of these sticks, he sharpened them and started forth to overcome Eagle, leaving word that if he were killed a smoke would be seen for four days, but that if he killed Eagle, a cloud would hang over the place of the combat. Tcuhu traveled eastward a long distance and came to the mountain wh^re Eagle lived, in between perpendicular precipices, surrounded by deep fissures. Tcuhu metamorphosed himself into a fly and hid himself in this fissure, where he slept that night. On the following day he changed himself back into a man, stuck the sticks into the crevice of the cliff, and by their help climbed up to the crag in which Eagle had his home.^
1 A mountain in the Superstition Range, resembling a monster bird (eagle), is now pointed out from the Roosevelt Dam road.
* This story of Eagle seems to be a variant of that previously recorded in which the avian being killed was the monster Hok. Here Tcuhu found only a captive woman, who said the monster had gone to jnocure victims. Tcuhu having revealed his mission, they agreed on a signal, and he changed into a fly. When Eagle returned, although suspicious, ho went to sleep and the woman whistled three times. At the last whistle Tcuhu returned to human form and decapitated Eagle, throwing his head, limbs, and body to the four world quarters. Then the woman sprinkled "medicine " on a pile of bones, the remains of former vic- tims, and brought them to lite. Thereupon all descended from the mountain over which hovered dense clouds, the signal that the monster was dead.
FGWKBS] HISTORY 53
HISTORY
No prehistoric structure in the Southwest has been more ire- quently described and figured than Casa Grande. This venerable ruin is one of the few in what is now the United States that bears a Spanish name reaching back to the close of the seventeenth cen- tury. Some of the more important contributors to its history are mentioned in the following pages.*
It was once believed that this celebrated ruin was one of the so- journing places of the Aztec on their southerly migration in ancient times, and was generally supposed to be identical with the Qxichil- ticalli (Aztec, "Red House") mentioned by Fray Marcos de Xiza in 1539 and by Pedro de Castadeda and other clironiclers of the expe- dition of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in 1540-1542. There seems no foundation for the association of the people of Casa Grande with the Aztec and considerable doubt exists whether the ruin was ever visited by Coronado or any of his companions.
Almost every writer on the Southwest who has dealt with the ruins of Arizona has introduced short references to Casa Grande, and many other writers have incidentally referred to it in discussing the antiqui- ties of Mexico and Central America. Among the former are Browne,' Ruxton,' and Hinton,* while among the latter may be mentioned Pres- cott,* Brantz Mayer,® Brasseur de Bourbourg,^ Humboldt,^ Miihlen- pfordt,' and^quier.*®
As there are several very complete accounts of Casa Grande, and as these are more or less scattered through publications not accessible to all students, it is thought best to quote at least the earliest of these at considerable length. As will be seen, most of these descrip- tions refer to the historic building, while only one or two shed light on the great compounds, which formerly made up this extensive settlement."
^ The writer Is indebted to Mr. F. W. Hodge, ethnologist in charge of the Bureau of American Eth- nology, for some of the historical material used in this portion of the present work.
> Browne (J. Ross), Adventures in the Apache Country, pp. 114-124, New York, 18G0.
' Ruzton (George Frederic), Sur la migration des Anciens Mexicains; in Nouvelles Annaiea des VoyagHf 5me s^r., t. xxn, pp. 40, 46, 52, Paris, 1850.
< Hinton (Richard J.), The Great House of Montezuma; in Harper's Weekly, xxxm, New York. May 18, 1889.
» Prescott (Wm. H.), History of the Conquest of Mexico, ni, p. 383, Philadelphia [c. 1873].
* Mayer (Brantz), (1) Mexico, Aztec, Spanish, and Republican, n, p. 396, Hartford, 1853. (2) Observap tions on Mexican History and Archeeology; in Smithwnian ConiTtbutiont to Knowledge, ix, p. 15, Wash- ington, 1856.
' Brasseur de Bourbourg (M. I'Abb^), Histoire des nations civilis^es du Mexique et de I'Amdrique- Centrale, t. 2, p. 197, Paris, 1868.
* Humboldt (Friedrich H. Alex, de), Essai politique sur le royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne, 1. 1, p. 297, Paris, 1811.
* Mtthlenpfordt (Eduard), Versuch einer getreuen Schilderung der Republik Mejico, Bd. ii. p. 435, Hannover, 1844.
i*Squier (E. G.), New Mexico and Calilomia; in American Review, Nov., 1848. u See Winship, The Coronado Expedition, in 14th Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol.
64 CASA GRANDE, ARIZONA [eth. ▲nn. 28
Recent students of the route of the Coronado expedition have followed Bandelier^who has shown that the army may have traveled down the San Pedro River for part of its course, thus leaving Casa Grande several miles to the west.
Discovery and Early Accounts
The first known white man to visit Casa Grande was the intrepid Jesuit Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, or Kuehne, the pioneer mis- sionary among the Opata, Pima, Papago, and Sobaipuri Indians from 1687 until his death in 1711. In 1694 Lieut. Juan Mateo Mange, nephew of Don Domingo Jironza Petriz de Cruzate, the newly appointed governor of Sonora, was commissioned to escort the mis- sionaries on their perilous journeys among the strange and sometimes hostile tribes of the region. In June of that year, while making a reconnoissance toward the northeast from Kino's mission of Dolores on the western branch of the Rio Sonora, Mange heard from the Indians of some «W(W grandes, massive and very high, on the mai^ of a river which flowed toward the west. The news was communicated to Kino and shortly afterward was confirmed by some Indians who visited Dolores from San Xavier del Bac, on the Rio Santa Cruz below the Indian village of Tucson. In November (1694) Kino went from his mission on a tour of discovery, finding Casa Grande to be as reported, and saying mass within its waUs.^ The house was described as large and ancient and certainly four stories high. In the immediate vicinity were to be seen the ruins of other houses, and in the country toward the north, east, and west were ruins of similar structures. Kino believed that Casa Grande was the ruin (Chichilticalli) spoken of in 1539 by Fray Marcos de Niza,' whose journey was followed in i\\e next year by Coronado's famous expedition. Ortega, Kino's biogra- pher, speaks of the ancient traditions of the Mexicans (Aztec), favor- ably received by all the historians of New Spain, that this Gila locaUty, as well as the Casas Grandes of Chihuahua, was one of the stopping places on their migration southward to the Valley of Mexico. This beUef was prevalent during the period, and Casa Grande on the Gila is frequently marked on early maps as an Aztec sojourning place. For this reason it was also commonly designated Casa de Montezuma.
Three years later, in the autumn of 1697, Kino, accompanied by Mange, again started from his mission of Dolores and traveled across the country to the Rio San Pedro, on which stream, at a point west of the present Tombstone, the missionary was joined by Capt. Crist6bal M. Bemal with 22 soldiers. Proceeding down the San Pedro, the party reached the Gila on November 16, and on the 18th arrived at Casa Grande.
t Mange in Doc. Hit, Mtx., 4th aer., i, 260, 259, Mexico, 1866.
s (Ortega,) Apoetolioos afanea de la Componia de Jesus, escrito por un Padre de la misma sagrada rriigion de sa Provincia de Mexicx), p. 253, Barcelona, 1754.
FBWKES]
HISTOBY
55
mange's narrative
Fio. 1. Sketch of Casa Grande ruin (Mange).
Mange's account * of the famous ruin (pis. 8, 9) is so interesting and so important for comparison with the condition of Casa Grande as it exists to-day that it is here given in full:
On the 18th we continued westward acroas an extensive plain, barren and without
pasture, and at a distance of 5 leagues we discovered on the other side of the river
other houses and buildings. Sergeant Juan Bautista de Escalante and two companions
Bwam across to reconnoiter and reported that the walls
were 2 yards thick, like a castle, and that there were
other ruins in the vicinity, all of ancient workman- ship. We continued westward and after making 4
more leagues we arrived at noon at the Gasas Grandes,
in which Father Kino said mass, having till then kept
his fast. One of the houses is a great building, the
main room in the middle being four stories high and the
adjoining rooms on the four sides of it being three
stories, with walls 2 yards thick, of strong mortar and
clay, so smooth on the inside that they look like
planed boards and so well burnished that they shine
like Puebla earthenware; the comers of the windows,
which are square, being very straight and without any
hinges or crosspieces of wood, as if they had made
them with a mold or frame; and the same is true of
their doors, although these are narrow, whereby it might be known that this b the work
of Indians. The building is 36 paces long and 21 paces wide, of good architecture. A crossbow shot &rther on 12 other houses are seen, half tumbled down, also with
thick walls and all with roofs burnt, except one room beneath one house, with round
beams, smooth and not thick, which appear to be of cedar or savin, and over them
reeds very similar to them and a layer of mortar and hard clay> making a ceiling or
story of very peculiar character. In the neighborhood many
other ruins may be noted and {terremotosf) [heaps of earth], which
inclose two leagues, with much broken pottery of vessels and
pots of fine clay, painted in various colors, resembling the
Guadalajara pots of this country of New Spain, whence it is
inferred that the settlement or city was very large, inhabited
by a civilized race, under a regular government. This is
^^^ ?.'^^P^.®' evidenced by a main ditch which branches off from the Can Grande ruin . . x ^i/ t . j* <ii. •-.!_• i.
(Mange). nver into the plain, surrounding the city which remains m
the center of it, in a circumference of 3 leagues, being 10 yards wide and 4 feet deep, by which they diverted perhaps one-half of the river, that it might serve them for defense, as well as to provide water for their city subdivisions and to irrigate their crops in the vicinity. The guides said that at a distance of a day's journey there are other edifices [^ of the same kind of work- manship, toward the north, on the other bank of the river in another ravine which joins the one they call Verde, and that they were built by people who came from the region of the north, their chief being called El Siba, which according to their defini-
1 Mange, op. cit., pp. 283-284. The original manuscript joomal in the Archives of Mexico contains a sketch and a ground plan, which are introduced with some changes in an extract from Mange's diary pub- lished in Sohoolcnft's Indian Tribes (m, 801-803, 1853), from a translation by Buckingham Smith, but these do not appear in the printed copy of Mange's Diary in Doc. HitL Met. The sketch and plan (figs. 1, 2) reproduced in the present work are firom photographs of the original manuaoript, procured through the courtesy of Dr. Nicolas Le6n of the City of Mexico. The accompanying translation is from the pnbliaihed Spanish account.
s Evidently those now in ruins near Phoenix, Tempo, and Mesa, in the Salt River Valley.— J. W. F.
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56 CASA GRANDE, ARIZONA [bth.ann. 28
tion in their language means ''the bitter or cruel man/' and that through the bloody wars which the Apache waged against them and the 20 tribes allied with them, killing many on both sides, they laid waste the settlements, and part of them, discouraged, went off and returned northward, whehce they had started years before, and the majority toward the east and south; from which statements we inferred, that it was very likely that these were the ancestors of the Mexican nation, judging by their structures and rolics, such as those that are mentioned under the thirty-fourth degree [of latitude] and those in the vicinity of the Fort of Janos under the twenty- ninth degree, which are also called Casas Grandes, and many others which, we are told, are to be found as far as the thirty -seventh and fortieth degrees north lati- tude. On the bank of the river, it a distance of 1 league from the Casas Grandes, we found a rancheria in which we counted 130 souls, and, preaching to them on their eietnal salvation, the Father baptized 9 of their little ones, although at first they were frightened at the horses and soldiers, not having seen any till then.
Early in March, 1699, during a seventh tour of Pimeria, as the Pima country was called, Father Kino made his final visit to Casa Grande,^ and in 1701 he prepared a map of the countiy, remarkably accurate for its day, in which Casa Grande is charted for the first time.
The next visits to the celebrated ruin of which there is record were made in 1736-37 by Father Ignacio Keller, of the mission of Suamca, not far from the present Nogales, reference to which is made in the Rudo Eusayo. Again, in 1744, the Jesuit father, Jacobo Sedelmair, of the mission of Tubutama, on the Rio Altar, went to the Gila near Casa Grande in an endeavor to cross the northern wilderness from this point to the Hopi (Moqui) country. He describes what was evidently the present main structure as a large edifice with the central part of four stories and the surrounding wings of three stories.^
*'budo ensayo" narrative
Twenty years later, that is, about 1762, another definite descrip- tion of the ruin is given by the author of the anonymous Rudo Ensayo,' attributed to Father J.uan Mentuig, or Nentoig, of the mission of Guazavas, on the Rio Bavispe, a branch of the Yaqui. The author seems not to have visited the ruins himself but to have gathered his information from other missionaries, notably Father
> (Ortega,) ApostoUcos Afanes, etc., op. cit., p. 276.
- Doeumentoa para la Hhtoria de Mixko, 3e s&ie, iv, 847, 1853-57. Sedelmair's account, as Bancroft ( Native Races, iv, 623, 1882) has pointed out, is a literal copy of Mange's Diary in tlie Archives of Mexico. See also Oroeco y Berra, Qeo^afla, p. 106, 1864.
> Rudo Ensayo tentativa de una pieviencional descfipoion Geographica de la Provincla de Sonora, etc., por un Amigo del Bien Comun, San Augustin de la Florida, Afio de 1763. This work, the original of which is in the Department of State of Mexico and a duplicate copy in the Royal Academy of History at Madrid, was published by Buckingham Smith. Under the title Deecripcion geograflca natural y curiosa de la Provincia de Sonora (1764) this essay appears in the DocumeiUo9 para la HiHoria de MHieo^ 3e s^ie, IV 503, and from it the part pertaining to Casa Grande was translated by Buckingham Smith and pub- lished in Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes, m, 304-306, 1853. An English translation of the Rudo Ensayo, by Eusebio Ouitdras, appean in the ReeordM of the American CatkoUc Historical Society, v, 110-264, Phila., 1894.
PBWKBS] HISTORY 57
Keller, to whom reference has been made. This hxteresting docu- ment says:^
PuTBuing the same course for about 20 leagues from the junction [of the San Pedro], the Gila leaves on its left, at the distance of 1 league, the Casa Grande, called the House of Moctezuma because of a tradition current among the Indians and Spaniards,' of this place having been one of the ab6des in which the Mexicans rested in their long transmigrations. This great house is four stories high, still standing, with a roof made of beams of cedar or tlascal and with most solid walls of a material that looks like the best cement. It is divided into many halls and rooms and might well lodge a traveling court. Three leagues distant and on the right bank of the river there is another similar house but now much demolished, which from the ruins can be inferred to have been of vaster size than the former. For some leagues around, in the neighborhood of these houses, wherever the earth is dug up, broken pieces of very fine and variously colored earthenware are found. Judging from a reservoir of vast extent and still open, which is found 2 leagues up the river, holding sufficient water to supply a city and to irrigate for many leagues the fruitful land of that beautiful plain, the residence of the Mexicans there must not have been a brief one. About half a league west from this house a lagoon is seen that flows into the river, and although the surface is not very large it hss been impossible to measure its depth by means of cords tied together, etc.
The Pima tell of another house, more strangely planned and built, which is to be found much farther up the river. It is in the style of a labyrinth, the plan of which, u it is designed by the Indians on the sand, is something like the cut on the n^argin; but it is more probable that it served as a house of recreation than as a residence of a magnate ^ I have heard of other buildings, even more extensive and more correct in art and symmetry, through Father Ignatius Xavier Keller, although I can not recol- lect in what place of his apostolic visits. He spoke of one that measured in frontage, on a straight line, half a league in length and apparently nearly as much in depth, the whole divided into square blocks, each block three and four stories high, though greatly dilapidated in many parts; but in one of the angles there was still standing a massive structure of greater proportions, like a castle or palace, five or six stories high.
Of the re8er\'oir, as in the case of the one spoken of above, the reverend father said that it not only lay in front of the house but that, before ha outlet reached there, it divided into many canals through which the water might enter all the streets, probably for cleansing purposes, when such was desired, a^ is done in Turin and other cities of Europe and was done even in Mexico in olden times. This lafit Casa Grande is perhaps the same as that of which we spoke before and which lies on the other side of the river, for those who have been there agree that there are ruins not merely of a single edifice but of a laige town.
GARCES' NARRATIVE
The next recorded visit to Casa Grande is that of Lieut. Col. Juan Bautista de Anza, accompanied by a force of 239 persons, including Fathers Francisco Garcfe, Pedro Font, and Tom&s Eixarch, who were among the first Franciscans to serve as missionaries in this region after the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767. During an excursion from Tubac, in October, 1775, the party approached the Gila on the 30th, and on the following day, Anza having decided to rest, an opportunity was given of 'Agoing to see the Casa Grande that they call [Casa] de Moctezuma.' ' Garcfe continues : "
1 TrBoslaUon by Eiuebio Ouit6ras, op. cit., pp. 127>128.
'It is Btaown elsewhere (in Amer. AtUhr,, n. s., ix, pp. 610^612, 1907) that this is a misoonoeptlon. The Indians did not intend to suggest a dwelling but the ground plan of a game.— J. W. F.
> In Cones, On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer: The Diary and Itinerary of Francisco Oarofe. . . in 1775>76, 1, 66, 1000.
58 CASA GRANDE, ARIZONA [bth.ann.28
We [Garc^ and Font] traveled about 3 leagues southeast and arrived at tlie casa, whose position is found in latitude 33^ 03^ 3(K^. For the present condition of this casa I refer to the description thereof that Padre Font has given; and in the end will speak of that which I have been enabled to conjecture from what I saw and learned at Moqui.
Later, on July 4, 1776, while at the Hopi (Moqui) village of Oraibi, in northeastern Arizona, Garc^s, who had been inhospitably received by the natives, learned of the hostility that existed between the Hopi and the Pima.^
This hostility had been told me by the old Indians of my mission , by theGilefios, and Cocomaricopas; from which information I have imagined (he discunido) that the Moqui nation anciently extended to the Rio Gila itself. I take my stand (/ten- doTne, ground myself) in this matter on the ruins that are found from this river as far as the land of the Apaches; and that I have seen between the Sierras de la Florida and San Juan Nepomuzeno. Asking a few years ago some Subaipuris Indians who were living in my mission of San Xavier, if they knew who had built those houses whose ruins and fragments of pottery {losa, for loza) are still visible — as, on the sup- position that neither Pimas nor Apaches knew how to make (such) houses or pottery, no doubt it was done by some other nation — ^they replied to me that the Moquis had built them, for they alone knew how to do such things; and added that the Apaches who are about the missions are neither numerous nor valiant; that toward the north was where there were many powerful people; '^ there w^it we," they said, '*to fight in former times (anHguajnente); and even though we attained unto their lands we did not surmount the mesas whereon they lived." It is confirmatory of this that I have observed among the Yabipais some circumstances bearing upon this information; for they brought me to drink a large earthenware cup very lik« the potsherds that are found in the house called (Casa) de Moctezuma and the Rio Gila. Asking them whence they had procured it, they answered me that in Moqui there is much of that. At> I entered not into any house of Moqui, I could not assure myself by sight; but from the street I saw on the roofs some large, well-painted oUas. Also have the Pimas Gilefios told me repeatedly that the Apaches of the north came anciently to fight with them for the casa that is said to be of Mocteziuna; and being sure that the Indians whom we know by the name of Apaches have no house nor any fixed abode, I per- suaded myself that they could be the Moquis who came to fight; and that, harassed by the Pimae, who always have been numerous and valiant, they abandoned long ago these habitations on the Rio Gila, as also have they done this with that ruined pueblo which I found before my arrival at Moqui and of which I have made mention above; and that they retired to the place where now they live, in a situation so advantageous, so defensible, and with such precautions for self-defense in case of invasion.
font's NARRATIVE
It is unfortunate that Garcfe did not describe Casa Grande inde- pendently of his companion. Father Font, but most fortunate that the description and plan of the latter exist, as they afford valuable data for comparison with Mange's account of 1697 and with the present condition of the ruin. Font's narrative reads as follows:'
t Ibid., n, 3M-387.
* Dlarlo A Monterey por et Rio Colorado del Padre Fr. Pedro Font, 1775. The orlgiiial manuscript is in the John Carter Brown Library, Provldenoe, R. I. A recent copy of it, Irom which the aooompansring translation was made and the plan reprodaoed, is in the archiTes of the Bureau of American Ethnology. See also Notioe sur la grande maison dite de Ifoctecusoma, in Temauz-Compans, Voyages, ix, app. yu, 88^-386, 1^38.
FBWKBS]
HI8T0BY
59
J^ORTB
3l8t day [of October, 1775], Tuesday. I said mass, which some heathen Gila Indians heard with very quiet behavior. The sefior comandante decided to give his men a rest to-day from the long journey of yesterday, and in this way we had an oppor- tunity of going to examine the Casa Grande which they call the house of Moc- tezuma, situated at 1 league from the River Gila and distant from the place of th& lagoon [Camani, where they had camped] some 3 leagues to the east-southeast; to which we went after mass and returned after midday, accompanied by some Indians and by the governor ot Vturitdc, who on the way told us a history and tradition which the Pima of Gila River have preserved from their ancestors concerning said Casa Grande, which all reduces itself to fictions mingled confusedly with some catholic truths, which I will relate hereafter. I took observations at this place of the Casa Grande, marked on the map which I afterward drew, with the letter A, and I found it to be without correction in 33° 11^ and with correction in 33° 3^^"; and thus I say: In the Casa Grande of the River Gila, 3l6t day of October of 1775, meridional altitude of the lower limb of the sun, 42° 25^. We examined with all care this edifice and its relics, whose ichnographic plan [fig. 3] is that which here I put, and for its better understanding I give the description and explanation which follow. The Casa Grande, or Palace of Moctezuma, may have been founded some 500 years ago, according to the stories and scanty notices that there are of it and
that the Indians give; because, as it Ft^u tVA,>^4^,a J. u Ca«4 gr4nJ,J*i ^* GcU ^ appears, the Mexicans founded it
when in their transmigration the devil took them through various lands until they arrived at the promised land of Mexico, and in their sojourns, which were long, they formed settlements and built edifices. The site on which this casa is foimd is level in all direc- tions and distant from Gila River about 1 league, and the ruins of the houses which formed the settlement extend more than a league to the east and to the other points of the compass; and all this ground is strewn with pieces of jars, pots, plates, etc., some plain and others painted various colors — white, blue, red, etc. — an indication that it was a large settlement and of a distinct people from the Pima of the Gila, since these know not how to make such pottery. We made an exact inspection of the edifice and of its situation and we measured it with a Unce for the nonce, which measurement I reduced after- ward to geometrical feet, it being approximately the following: The casa is an oblong square and laid out perfectly to the four cardinal points, east, west, north, and south, and roundabout are some ruins which indicate some inclosure or wall which surrounded the house, and other buildings.
fa
ui
SUR
Fio. 3. Oround plan of Compoancl A (Font).
60 CASA GRANDE, ABIZONA [bth. ann. 28
particularly at the corners, where it Beems there was some structure like an interior castle, or watch tower, for in the comer which lies at the southwest there is a piece of ground floor with its divisions and an upper story. The exterior inclosure [fig. 3] is from north to south 420 feet long and from east to west 260. The interior of the casa is composed of five halld, the three equal ones in the middle and one at each extremity laiger. The three (middle) halls have a length from north to south of 26 feet and a width from east to west of 10. The two halls of the extremities (one at each end) are from north to south 12 feet and from east to west 38. The halls are some 11 feet high and all are equal in this respect. The doors of communication are 5 feet high and 2 feet wide and are all about equal except the four first of the four entrances, which it appears were twice as wide. The thickness of the interior walls is 4 feet and they are well laid in mortar, and of the exterior ones 6 feet. The casa is on the outside from north to south 70 feet long and from east to west 50 feet wide. The walls have a pmooth finish on the outside. In front of the door of the east, separated from the casa, there is another building with dimensions from north to south 26 feet and from east to w^est 18, exclusive of the thickness of the walls. The woodwork was of pine, apparently, and the nearest mountain range that has pines is distant some twenty and five les^^ues, and also has some mesquite. The whole edifice is of earth, and according to the signs it is a mud wall made with boxes of various sizes. From the river and quite a good dis- tance there runs a largo canal, by which the settlement was supplied with water. It is now very much choked. Finclly, it is known that the edifice had three stories, and if that which can be found out from the Indians is true, and according to the indi- cations that are visible, it had four, the basement of the casa deepening in the manner of a subterranean apartment. To give light to the apartments there in nothing but the doors and some circular openings in the midst of the walls which face to the east and west, and the Indians said that through these openings (which are pretty large) the Prince, whom they call El Hombre Amargo [The Bitter Man] looked out on the sun when it rose and set. to salute it. There are found no traces of staircases, from which we judged that they were of wood and were destroyed in the conflagration which the edifice suffered from the Apache. The story which the governor of Vturituc related to us in his Pima language, which was interpreted to us by a servant of the sefior coman- dante, the only interpreter of that language, is as follows: He said that in verv' olden time there came to that land a man who because of hii< evil disposition and harsh sway was called The Bitter Man; that this man was old and had a young daughter; and that in his company there came another man who was young, who was not his relative nor anything, and that he gave him his daughter in marriage, who was very pretty, the young man being handsome also; and that the said old man had with him as servants the Wind and the Storm-cloud. That the old man began to build that Casa Grande and ordered his son-in-law to go and fetch beams for the roof of the house. That the young man went far off; and as he had no ax, nor anything else with which to cut the trees, he tarried many days and at the end he came back without bringing any beams. That the old man was very angry and told him that he was good for nothing; that he should see how he himself would bring beams. That the old man went very far off to a mountain range where there are many pines and that, calling on God to help him, he cut many pines and brought many beams for the roof of the house. That when this Bitter Man came, there were in that land neither trees nor plani«;he brought seeds of all and reaped very large harvests with his two servants, the Wind and the Storm-cloud, who served him. That by reason of his evil disposition he grew angry with the two servants and turned them away, and they went very far off ; and as he could no longer harvest amy crops through lack of the servants, he ate what he had gathered and came near dying of hunger. That he sent his son-in-law to call the two servants and bring them back but he could not find them, seek as he might. That thereupon the old man went to seek them and, having found them, brought them once more into his service; with their aid he once more had large crops and thus he continued for
rawMs] HISTORY 61
many years in that land; and after a long time they went away and nothing more was heard of them. He [the governor] also said: That after the old man there came to that land a man called The Drinker and he grew angry with the people of that place and sent much water, so that the whole country was covered with water, and he went to a very high mountain range, which is seen from there and which is called The Mountains of the Foam {Sierra de la Etpufna)^ and he took with him a little dog and a coyote. (This mountain range is called '* of the foam '' because at the end of it, which is cut off and steep like the comer of a bastion, there is seen high up near the top a white brow as of rock, which also continues along the range for a good distance, and the Indians say that this is the mark of the foam of the water, which rose to that height.) That The Drinker went up, and left the dog below that he might notify him when the water came 80 far, and when the water reached the brow of the Foam the dog notified The Drinker, because at that time the animals talked, and the latter carried him up. That after some days The Drinker Man sent the Rose-sucker (Chuparoioa) and the Coyote to bring him mud; they brought some to him and of the mud he made men of different kinds, and some turned out good and others bad. That these men scattered over the land, upstream and downstream; after some time he sent some men of his to see if the other men upstream talked; these went and returned, saying that although they talked they had not understood what they said, and that The Drinker Man was very angry, because those men talked without his having given them leave. That next he sent other men downstream to see those who had gone that way and they returned, saying that they had received them well, that they spoke another tongue, but that they had understood them. Then The Drinker Man told them that those men downstream were the good men and that these were such as far as the Opa, with whom they are friendly; and that the others ui>Btream were the bad men and that these were the Apache, who are their enemies. He [the governor] said also that at one time The Drinker Man was angry at the people and that he killed many and trans- formed them into saguaros [giant cacti], and that on this account there are so many saguaros in that country. (The saguaro is a tree having a green trunk, watery, rather high, and uniformly round, and straight from foot to top, with rows of large spines from above downward ; it usually has two or three branches of the same character, which look like arms.) Furthermore he said: That at another time The Drinker wasyery angry with the men and that he caused the sun to come down to bum them, and that he was making an end of them; that the men begged him much not to bum them and that thereupon The Drinker said that he would no longer bum them; and then he told the sun to go up but not as much as before, and he told them that he left it lower in order to bum them by means of it if ever thejr made him angry again, and for this reason it is so hot in that country in summer. He [the governor] added that he knew other stories, that he could not tell them because the time was up and he agreed to tell them to us another day; but as we had laughed a little at his tales, which he related with a good deal of seriousness, we could not get him afterward to tell us anything more, saying that he did not know any more. This whole account or story I have reproduced in the dialect here given, because it is more adapted to the style in which the Indians express themselves.
Grossman's narrative
Regarding the story of the origin of Casa Grande, it may be well to incorporate here the Pima myth regarding the ruin and the descrip- tion of the structure as given by Capt. F. E. Grossman in 1871 :*
The Pimas, however, claim to be the direct descendants of the chief Sd^-hd above mentioned. The children of Sd^-h5 inhabited the Gila River valley, and soon the
1 In Smithtonkm Report for 1871, pp. 409-409, Washini^n, 1873.
62 CASA GRANDE, ABIZONA [vth.ann. 28
people became numerous. One of the direct descendants of S(y^-h5, King Si^-va-no, erected the Gasas Grandes on the Gila River. Here he governed a large empire, before — long before — the Spaniards were known. King Si^-va-no was very rich and powerful and had many wives, who were known for their personal beauty and their great skill in making pottery ware and ki^-hos (baskets which the women carry upon their heads and backs). The subjects of King Si^-va-no lived in a large city near the Casas Grandes, and cultivated the soil for many miles around. They dug immense canals, which carried the water of the Gila River to their fields, and also produced abundant crops. Their women were virtuotis and industrious; they spun the native cotton into garments, made beautiful baskets of the bark of trees, and were particularly skilled in the manufacture of earthenware. (Remains of the old canals can be seen to this day, and pieces of neatly painted pottery ware are scattered for miles upon the site of the old city. There are several ruins of ancient buildings here, the best pre- served one of which is said to have been the residence of King Si^'-va-no. This house has been at least four stories high, for even now three stories remain in good preserva- tion, and a portion of the fourth can be seen. The house was built square; each story contains five rooms, one in the center, and a room on each of the outer sides of the inner room. This house has been built solidly of clay and cement; not of adobes, but by successive thick layers of mortar, and it^as plastered so well that most of the plastering remains to this day, although it must have been exposed to the weather for many years. The roof and the different ceilings have long since fallen, and only short pieces of timber remain in the walls to indicate the place where the rafters were inserted . These rafters are of pine wood, and since there is no kind of pine growing now within less than 50 miles of the Casas Grandes, this house must either have been built at a time when pine timber could be procured near the building site, or else the builders must have had facilities to transport heavy logs for long distances. It is certain that the house was built before the Pimas knew the use of iron, for many stone hatchets have been found in the ruins, and the ends of the lintels over doors and windows show by their hacked appearance that only blunt tools were used. It also appears that the builders were without trowels, for the marks of the fingers of the workmen or women are plainly visible both in the plastering and in the walls where the former has fallen off. The rooms were about 6 feet in height, the doors are very narrow and only 4 feet high; round holes, about 8 inches in diameter, answered for windows. Only one entrance from the outside was left by the builders, and some of the outer rooms even had no communication with the room in the center. There are no stairs, and it is believed that the Pimas entered the house from above by means of ladders, as the Zimi Indians still do. The walls are perfectly perpendicular and all angles square.)
Early American Reports
The first American visitors to the Gila-Salt Basin appear to have been trappers, who found beaver fairly abundant, especially on the river and its tributaries. In 1825 the Patties,^ father and son, were in the neighborhood of Casa Grande, and Paul Weaver, a trapper, is said to have inscribed his name on its walls in 1833. One of the most renowned of all the pathfinders and explorers of the West, Kit Car- son, led a party of Americans from New Mexico to California in 1829-30. It may be safe to say that every traveler who rested a longer or shorter time at or near the neighboring Pima village of Blackwater visited Casa Grande. These earlier visitors left no record
1 Psttie, Peraonal Narrative. See also J. Roas Browne, Adventures in the Apache Country, p. 118, New York, 1860. A figure of Casa Grande as it appeared In 1860, somewhat modified in NadalUac, L' Am^rique Pr^Istorique, is given in Cozzens, The Marvelloas Country, London, 1874.
FBWKBS] HISTORY 63
of their visits, however, or made at the most only meager references to the ruin. The most important accounts of Casa Grande in the iniddle of the nineteenth century are found in tne official reports of the expedition to California led by General Kearny, in 1846, at the time of the Mexican war.
In 1846 Brantz Mayer erroneously ascribed the discovery of Casa Grande to Fathers Garcfe and Font in 1773. He also mistook Font's measurements of the wall of the surrounding compound for that of the main edifice, for he writes: '
Like most of the Indian works, it was built of unbumed bricks, and measured about 450 feet in length, by 250 in breadth. Within this edifice they found traces of five apartments. A wall, broken at intervals by lofty towers, surrounded the building, and appeared to have been designed for defence.
The error of confounding the dimensions of the main structure with those of the surrounding wall, which Font gave with fair accuracy, has misled several later writers on the ruin.
Emory's narrative
In 1846 the ruins were visited by Lieut. Col. William H. Emory, with the advance guard of the **Army of the West.'* Under date of November 10 of thistt year Emory makes the following entry in his journal and includes an illustration which shows that the main building had not suffered greatly from the elements during the 70 years immediately following the time of Font and Garc6s:'
November 10. — . . . along the whole day's march were remains of zequias [acequias], pottery, and other evidences of a once densely populated coimtry. About the time of the noon halt, a large pile, which seemed the work of human hands, was seen to the left. It was the remains of a three-story mud house, 60 feet square, pierced for doors and windows. The walls were 4 feet thick, and formed by layers of mud, 2 feet thick. Stanley made an elaborate sketch of every part; for it was, no doubt, built by the same race tJiat had once so thickly peopled this territory, and left behind the ruins. [Fig. 4.]
We made a long and careful search for some specimens of household fumiture,or imple- ment of art, but nothing was found except the comgrinder, always met with among the ruins and on the plains. The marine shell, cut into various ornaments, was also found here, which showed that these people either came from the seacoast or trafficked there. No traces of hewn timber were discovered; on the contrary, the sleepers of the ground floor were round and imhewn. They were biunt out of their seats in the wall to the depth of 6 inches. The whole interior of the house had been burnt out, and the walls much defaced. What was left bore marks of having been glazed, and on the wall in the north rpom of the second story were traced the following hieroglyphics [appar- ently not shown.]
From a Maricopa Indian Colonel Emory learned a version of the Pima tradition of the origin of Casa Grande:
I asked him, among other things, the origin of the ruins of which we had seen so many; he said, all he knew, was a tradition amongst them, that in bygone days, a woman
> Mexico, As it Was and As It Is. p, 238, Philadelphia, 1847.
s Notes of a Military Reoonnoissance, from Foi t Leavenwortli, in Missouri, to San Diego, in CaUfomia, etc; Ex. Doc. No. 41, 30th Cong., 1st sess., Washington, 1848.
--my of the West"
■ •1 ■!• rnembere of the
-i - . jsseU Bartlett, was
-.■■miM with a sketch
- - -irunt wrote of Caaa
■ . .:-■•■ "iiildings, all included
■^1^ .-mauling. A considemble ■ ^ . jilj laUen inwards, as ippeani ■. ^oo« wliich fiUa the firet stofv
■ '-*i"y bB node out by the enda
1 - »i iQes which they occupied ; but I - •- ■'^ i""nler to account for the cnimbling - . .oi .r tower riring from the foundation . -..>. Aud may have been seiTral feet, prob^ . .« OS o.mptete. The walls at the base are < i^-* .{imenfliona could not bo ascertained ::-iu is perpendicular, while the eiterior ■ -'l: These walla, as weU as the diviaion ...^ blocks of mud, prepared for the pur- x^« jbout 2 feet in height and 4 feet long. ■nd, the case was moved along and again >.« iiimpleted. This is a rapid mode of .■ have applied it to any purpose but the
FIWMB8] HISTORY 67
erection of fences or dividon walls. The material of this building is the mud of the valley, mixed with gravel. The mud is very adhesive, and when dried in the sun, is very durable. The outer surface of the wall appears to have been plastered roughly; but the inside, as well as the surface of all the inner walls, is hard finished. This is done with a composition of adobe, and is still as smooth as when first made, and has quite a poUsh. On one of the walls are rude figures, drawn with red lines, but no inscriptions. Fiom the charred ends of the beams which remain in the walls, it is evident that the building was destroyed by fire. Some of the lintels which remain over the doors are formed of several sticks of wood, stripped of their bark, but showing no signs of a sharp instrument. The beams which supported the floors were from 4 to 5 inches in diameter, placed about the same distance apart and inserted deeply in the walls.
Most of the apartments are connected by doors, besides which there are circular openings in the upper part of the chambers to admit light and air. The groimd plan of the building shows that all the apartments were long and narrow without windows. The inner rooms, I think, were used as store-rooms for com; in fact, it is a question whether the whole may not have been built for a similar purpose. There are four entrances, one in the center of each side. The door on the western side is but 2 feet wide, and 7 or 8 high ; the others 3 feet wide and 5 in height, tapering towards the top — a peculiarity belonging to the ancient edifices of Central America and Yucatan. With the exception of these doors, there are no exterior openings, except on the western side, where they are of a circular form. Over the doorway corresponding to the third story, on the western front, is an opening, where there was a window, which I think was square. In a line with this are two circular openings.
The southern front has ^fallen in in several places, and is much injured by large fissures, yearly becoming larger, so that the whole of it must fall ere long. The other three fronts are quite perfect. The walls at the base, and particularly at the comers, have crumbled away to the extent of 12 or 15 inches, and are only held together by their great thickness. The moisture here causes disintegration to take place more rapidly than in any other part of the building; and in a few years, when the walls have become more undermined, the whole stmcture must fall, and become a mere rounded heap, like many other shapeless mounds which are seen on the plain. A couple of days* labor spent in restoring the walljs at the base with mud and gravel, would render this interesting monument as durable as brick, and enable it to last for centuries. How long it has been in this ruined state is not known; we only know that when visited by the missionaries a century ago it was in the same condition as at present.
The exterior dimensions of this building are 50 feet from north to south, and 40 from east to west. On the ground floor are five compartments. Those on the north and south sides extend the whole width of the building, and measure 32 by K) feet. Between these are three smaller apartments, the central one being within the tower. All are open to the sky. There is no appearance of a stairway on any of the walls ^ whence it has been inferred that the means of ascent may have been outside.
On the south-west of the principal building is a second one in a state of min, with hardly enough of the walls remaining to trace its original form. . . . The central portion, judging from the height of the present walls, was two stories high; the outer wall, which can only be estimated from the d6bris, could not have been more than a single story.
Northeast of the main building is a third one, smaller than either of the others, but in such an utter state of decay that its original form can not be distermined . It is small, and may have been no more than a watch tower. In every direction as far as the eye can reach, are seen heaps of mined edifices, with no portions of their waUs standing. To the north-west, about 200 yards distant, is a circular embankment from 80 to 100 yards in circumference, which is open in the center, and is probably the remains of
68 CASA QRANDE, ABIZONA [bth. ann. 28
an incloflnire for cattle. For miles around these in all directions, the plain is strewn with broken pottery and metates or com-grindeis. The pottery is red, white, lead- color, and black. The figures are usually geometrical and formed with tafite, and in character are similar to the ornaments found on the pottery from the ruins on the Salinas and much farther north. Much of this pottery is painted on the inside, a peculiarity which does not belong to the modem pottery. In its texture too, it is far superior. I collected a quantity of these fragments, from which I selected thtt laiger pieces. "^
HUGHES's NARRATIVE
Casa Grande was thus described by Lieut. John T. Hughes^ in his^ account of Doniphan's expedition in 1847:
After a march of 6 miles on the 10th of November, passing over plains which had once sustained a dense population, they came to an extensive ruin, one building of which, called the "Hall of Montezuma/' is still in a tolerable state of preservation. This building was 50 feet long, 40 wide, and had been foiu* stories high, but the floors and the roof had been burned out. The joists were made of round beams 4 feet in diam- eter [nc]. It had four entrances — ^north, east, south, and west. The walls were built of sun-dried brick, cemented with natural lime, which abounds in the adjacent coun- try, and were 4 feet thick, having a curved inclination inwards toward the top, being smoothed outside and plastered inside. About 150 yards from this building to the northward is a terrace 100 yards long and 70 wide, elevated about 5 feet. Upon this is a pyramid, 8 feet high and 25 yards square at the top. From the top of this, which has no doubt been used as a watch-tower, the vast plains to the west and north-east, for more than 15 miles, lie in plain view. These lands had once been in cultivation, and the remains of a laige ascequia, or irrigating canal, could be distinctly traced along the range of dilapidated houses.
About the same day they came to the Pimo villages on the south side of the Gila. Captain Johnston observes: ''Their answer to Carson when he went up and asked for provisions was, 'Bread is to eat, not to sell — ^take what you want.' The general asked a Pimo who made the house I had seen . ' 1 1 is the Casa de Montezuma, * said he, 4t was built by the son of a most beautiful woman, who once dwelt in yon mountain. She was fair, and all the handsome men (fame to court her; but in vain. — ^When they came they paid tribute and out of this small store she fed all people in times of famine, and it did not diminish. — At last as she lay asleep a drop of rain fell upon her navel, and jshp became pregnant and brought forth a son , who was the builder of all these houses. ' "
Later Amebioax Reports
HINTON's DESCRIPTION
The observations of a party of which Mr. Richard J. Hinton was a member, who visited Casa Grande on December 13, 1877, are thus recorded by him,' the description being accompanied with a full-page lithograph illustration of Casa Grande :
The Casa Grande itself is the remains of a large building, the waUs of which are composed of a species of gray concrete or groat. They still stand in a crumbling and almost disjointed condition, for a height of from 30 to 45 feet, the inside wall being the highest. The exterior walls at their thickest part are 4 feet 6 inches thick. The interior walls at different points are well preserved, and show a uniform thickness of
1 This account Is taken largely ftrom Capt. A. R. Johnston's narrative, given on pp. 64^. I Richard J. Hinton, Hand-book to Arizona.
FBWKES] HISTORY 69
nearly 4 feet. At the north-east comer there is a great rent, and the walls are entirely separated; the opening here is about 5 feet and occupies the whole of that angle. In the center of each side there are crumbled, outof-shape openings, which on the north and west sides indicate old doors or entrances, but on the other sides appear to have resulted from the crumbling away of the walls. The interior shows a length of 52 feet north and south, and a width of 36 feet 6 inches east and west, while the exterior walls show in the same way a length of 61 by 45 feet 6 inches. Of course the exterior walls are much worn, fiurowed and crumbled. In all probability they were originally not less thiui 6 feet thick. The interior walls still show above the debris traces of three stories, rows of small round holes indicating where the rafter poles had rested. In one room on the west side we were able to count them, and found 28 holes each side of the apartment, showing an average of 6 inches apart, with holes of 4} inches diameter. The interior room or compartment is the best-preserved part of the structure. It is entered only on the east side and on the lower story as now visible, by a small window or aperture originally about 2 feet 4 inches wide, and about 4 feet 6 inches high, rather narrower at the top than at the base. This is the case with the other openings. There are six in all — two each on the interior walls to the north and south, one on the east wall, and one forming the entrance to middle rooms, with none at all on the west side. As to the exterior entrances, they appear to have been on the north and south fronts; those on the east and west being apertures broken by time and decay. There are several apertures in the interior walls, the purpose of which can not be ascertained. One is about 10 inches each way, though it is some- what irregular in form; the other two would be about 7 inches each way. These apertures do not face each other, and consequently were not used to rest beams or rafters upon. The interior walls have been coated with some sort of cement or varnish which has a reddish-orange hue, and which at the present time can be peeled off by a penknife. There are a number of names scrawled on the inside walls, but none of special note. The accumulated debris almost forms a mound on the exterior, while inside the floor is very uneven. The interior room gives out a hollow sound . Outside the rains and winds are rapidly undermining the base of the walls; unless something be soon done to roof the structure and prop the walls, the Gila Casa Grande will be altogether a thing of the past.
BANDBLIER's ACCOUNT
Bandelier's account of Casa Grande is one of the most instructive of later descriptions. This explorer was the first, since Father Font, to give a ground plan of what is styled in the present report Com- pound A (Bandelier, p. 464) in which is represented the relation of the surrounding wall to the main structure. He gives likewise a plan of the mounds and platform of Compound B, before excavations, showing the two pyramids.
Bandelier's description is as follows:^
The walls of the Casa Grande are unusually thick, measuring 1.22 m. (4 feet), and even the partitions 0.92 m. (3 feet). At the Casa Blanca their thickness is only 0.50 m- (22 inches).
As already said, and in other ruins between Casa Grande and Florence, 0.92 and 0.60 m. (3 and^2 feet) were measured by me. . . .
The doorways are higher and wider than in northern ruins, so are the light and air holes. The roof and ceilings, as far as traceable, belong to the usual pueblo pattern,
i Final Report of Investigations among the Indians of the Soathwestern United States, Part n; in Papert of the Ardtxologkal Ifuiitute of America^ American Series, iv, Cambridge, 1882.
70 CASA OBANDE, ABIZOXA [bth. auk. 28
that 18, they oonaUt of round beams supporting smaller poles, on which rested a layer of earth. All the woodwork is destroyed except the ends of the beams, but I was informed that a few posts of cedar wood were still visible some years ago. Cedar only grows at some distance from Casa Grande, but this was no obstacle to the patient and obstinate Indian. I could not find any trace of stairways or ladders. It was remarked in the last century, that the Apaches were the destroyers of the woodwork in the building and something similar was told me; but to what extent this is true, I am unable to determine.
Of the other shapeless mounds surrounding the Great House, or composing the northern cluster of the ruins, I am not in a position to say anything except that they indicate two-story edifices, long and comparatively narrow. Their size without exception falls short of the dimensions of northern communal pueblos, and, not- withstanding the extensive area occupied by the ruins, the population can not have been large. I doubt whether it exceeded a thousand souls. Almost every inch of the ground is covered with bits of pottery, painted as well as plain, and I noticed some corrugated pieces. They all resemble the specimens excavated by Mr. Gushing from the vicinity of Tempe, and what I saw of those specimens convinces me that they belong to the class common to the ruins of Eastern and Central Arizona in general. There was among the potsherds which I picked up myself a sprinkling of pottery that closely resembled the modem ware of the Pimas and Papagos; but as I had already noticed the same kind on the Rio Verde, and had been forced to the conclu- sion that they were ancient, I am loath to consider them as modem at Casa Grande. Of other artificial objects, I saw broken metates, and heard of the usual stone imple- ments. The culture, as indicated by such remains, offers nothing at all particular.
The profusion of pottery scattered far beyond the area covered by the buildings has caused the impression that the settlement was much laiger than I have repre- sented it to be; I have, however, no reason to modify my opinion. I have already stated that clusters of ruins are numerous about the Gila, and at no great distance apart. Intercourse between these settlements, if they were contemporaneously inhabited — of which there is as yet no proof — ^must have been frequent, and the winds and other agencies have contributed toward scattering potsherds over much laiger expanses than those which they originally occupied . The acequias which run parallel to the Gila in this vicinity, and of which there are distinct traces, are usually lined with pieces of pottery which leads the untrained observer to draw erroneous impres- sions.
On the southwestern comer of the northern group of the Casa Grande cluster stands the elliptical tank which is indicated on plate i, figure 59 Piere pi. 5, '' well '*]. Its greatest depth is now 2} meters (8} feet), and the width of the embankment surround- ing it varies between 8 and 10 feet. A large mezquite tree has grown in the center of this artificial depression. As the tank stands on the southwestern extremity of the northern, and not 100 meters (300 feet) [sic] from the southern group, it was prob- ably common to both.
Bandelier's references to the use of the ''great houses" of the Gila are instructive. He writes (p. 460) :
I have no doubt they may have been used incidentally for worship; still it was probably not their exclusive object. It should be remembered that we have in the first half of the seventeenth century descriptions of analogous buildings then actually used among some of the natives of Central Sonora. Those natives were the Southern Pimas, or '^N^bomes, " kindred to the Northern Pimas, who occupy the banks of the Gila near Casa Grande, Casa Blanca, and at intermediate points. Father Ribas, the his- toriographer of Sonora [1645], says that the villages of the N^bomes consisted of solid houses made of laige adobes, and that each village had besides a laiger edifice, stronger, and provided with loopholes which served, in case of attack, as a place of refuge or citadel. The purpose of this building was not merely surmised by Father Ribas,
) HISTORY 71
who had means of acquiring personal knowledge, having been one of the early mis- sionaries in Sonora. The Spaniards had an opportunity of experiencing its use to their own detriment, and the edifice was so strong that its inmates had to be driven from it by fire. Sudi a place of retreat, in case of attack, the Casa Grande and analo- gous constructions in Arizona seem to have been. The strength of the walls, the openings in them, their conunanding position and height, favor the suggestion. That they may also have been inhabited is not impossible; Mr. Gushing 's investigations seem to prove it.
After mentioning certain Pima traditions, Bandelier continues as follows:
The gist of these traditions is that the Pimas claim to be the lineal descendants of the Indians who built and inhabited the large houses and mounds on the Gila and Lower Salado Rivers, as weU as on the delta between the two streams; that they recognize the Sonoran Pimas as their kindred, who separated from them many centuries ago; that they attribute the destruction and abandonment of the Casa Grande and other clusters now in ruins to various causes; and, lastly, that they claim the villages were not all contemporaneously inhabited. Further than that, I -do not at present venture to draw conclusions from the traditions above reported ; but enough is contained in them to justify the wish that those traditions may be collected and recorded at the earliest possible day, and in the most complete manner, in order that they may be critically sifted and made iiseful.
Regarding the kinship of the inhabitants of Casa Grande, Bandelier writes:*
Here the statements of the Pimas, which Mr. Walker has gathered,^ are of special value; and to him I owe the following details: The Pimas claim to have been created where they now reside, and after passing through a disastrous flood, — out of which only one man, Cl-hd, was saved — ^they grew and multiplied on the south bank of the Gila until one of their chiefs, Ci-v&-nd, built the Casa Grande. They call it to-day **Ci-vft-n6-qi" (house of Ci-v&-n6), also "V&t-qi" (ruin). A son of Ci-vft-no settled on Lower Salt River, and built the villages near Phoenix and Tempe. At the same time a tribe with which they were at war occupied the Rio Verde; to that tribe they ascribe the settlements whose ruins I have visited, and which they call "0-6t-gdm- v&tqi'' (gravelly ruins). The Casa Blanca and all the ruins south of the Gila were the abodes of the fore&thers of the Pimas, designated by them as '^Vl-pl-s^t" (great- grandparents), or ^'Ho-ho-qdm" (the extinct ones). (Ci-vft-nd had 20 wives, etc. ['' each of whom wore on her head, like a headdress, the peculiar half-hood, half-basket contrivance called "Ky-jo. " — Papers Archxol. Imt. Amer., iv, 463.]) At one time the Casa Grande was beset by enemies who came from the east in several bodies, and who compelled its abandonment; but the settlements at Zacaton, Casa Blanca, etc., still remained, and there is even a tale of an intertribal war between the Pimas of Zacaton and those of Casa Blanca after the ruin of Casa Grande. Finally, the pueblos fell one after the other, until the Pimas, driven from their homes, and moreover, decimated by a fearful plague, became reduced to a small tribe. A portion of them moved south into Sonora, where they still reside; but the main body remained on the site of their fozmer prosperity. I asked particularly why they did not again build houses with solid walls like those of their ancestors. The reply was that they were too weak in numbers to attempt it, and had accustomed themselves to their present mode of living. But the construction of their winter houses — a regular pueblo roof bent to the groimd over a central scaffold — ^their organization and arts — all bear testimony to the truth of their sad tale — that of a powerful sedentary tribe reduced to distress and decadence in architecture long before the advent of the Spaniards.
> In F^Afi4Mul Report cfthe Arehmologieal InttUuie of America, ISSa-M, pp. SO, 81, Cambridge, 1884.
72 CASA GRANDE, ABIZONA [iith. aich. 28
In his Final Report Bahdelier gives a figure or ground plan of the walled inclosure in which Casa Grande is situated, the only modem representation of the outside wall of Compound A with which the present writer is famiUar. There is also an illustration of the two mounds of Compound B.
gushing' S RESEARCHES
Cosmos Mindeleff thus speaks of F. H. Cushing's researches relating to ruins similar to Casa Grande: ^
In 1888 Mr. F. H. Cuahing presented to the Congr^ International des AmM- canietes ' some ''Preliminary notes" on his work as director of tiie Hemenway south- western archeological expedition. Mr. Gushing did not describe the Casa Grande, but merely alluded to it as a siurviving example of the temple, or principal structure, which occurred in conjunction with nearly all the settlements studied. As Mr. Gushing 's work was devoted, however, to the investigation of remains analogous to, if not identical with, the Casa Grande, his report forms a valuable contribution to the literature of this subject, and although not everyone can accept the broad infer- ences and generalizations drawn by Mr. Gushing— of which he was able, unfortunately, to present only a mere statement — the report should be consulted by every student of southwestern archeology.
PEWKES'S DESCRIPTION
In 1892 the following description of Casa Grande by the present writer was published:"
A short distance south of the Gila River, on the stage route from Florence to Casa Grande station on the Southern Pacific Railroad, about 10 miles southwest of the for- mer town, there is a ruin which from its unique character has attracted attention from the time the country was first visited. This venerable ruin, which is undoubtedly one of the best of its type in the United States, is of great interest as shedding light on the architecture of several of the ruined pueblos which are found in such numbers in the valleys of the Gila and Salt Rivers. The importance of its preservation from the hands of vandals and from decay led Mrs. Hemenway and others, of Boston, to petition Congress for an appropriation of money for this purpose. This petition was favorably acted upon, and an appropriation was made to carry out the suggestions of the petitionere.* ...
Ab one -approaches the ruin along the stage road from the side toward Florence,' he is impressed with the solidity and massive character of the walls, and the great simplicity of the structure architecturally considered . Externally, as seen from a dis- tance, there is much to remind one of the ruins of an old mission, but this resemblance is lost on a closer examination. The fact that the walls of the middle (central) cham-
> In 18th Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., p. 297.
* Berlin meeting, 1888; Compte-Rendu, Berlin, 1800, p. 150 et seq.
s In Journal of American Ethnology and Archeology, n, Boston and New York, 1882.
* The repain and other work carried on by means of this appropriation have been described at length by Mr. Cosmos Mindeleff (in ISth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol.).
Later a oonragated iron roof was erected over Casa Grande to protect it fSrom the elements. This feature detracts somewhat from the picturesqueness of the ruin, but is necessary for the preservation of the stand- ing walls. The bases of the walls, undermined and about to fall in several places, have been strengthened ^th cement and with iron rods strung from wall to wall. This roof was repainted In 1907 out of the appropriation for the repair of the building.
* The writer visited the ruin fh>m this side, but one coming fkvm the Eastern States would probably find it more oanveoient to make the station of Casa Grande on the Southern Padflo the point of departure.
a
F»WKM] HISTOHY 73
b«r rise somewhat above those of. the peripheral ie evident from a distance, long before one approaches the ruin. This architectural feature impurts a certain pyramidal out- line to the pile, rendering it somewhat dilScult to make out the relationship of the diSerent parts. The departure of the outer face of the external walla from a vertical line, which deviation is probably duo in part at least, possibly wholly, to atmospheric erosion and natural destruction , the falling in of the material of which the upper courses are made, is a marked feature of the vertical linej of the external walls on all sides. [Fig. 7.] The debris within the chambers on the present fioor ■ is evidently in part
Fio. T. Caaa Orande lUln, from tbe aouttL
the result of the falling in of roofs and floom of upper st^es, but no large fragments indicating the character or position of such in place could be found.
The orientation of the ruin correBponds lo the cardinal points. From my want of instruments of precision, I was not able to determine its true position or to etal« accu- rately tbe exact orientation of the ground plan; but by means of a pocket compass, it
■ Sertnd pemna have told me that It wss but ■ lev yon Bgo when wooden beanui and liuteli vera ta be Ken (n tUa In the building. Then InfornunU have bIbd t«ld me that wlthhi a short time (he wall* weremach bellsTprnerredthanatpreaeat. As tar as I have examined the TuiD.nota fragment of wood stni renwlni, altbougb the holes from which the vlfat (beams] have been taken can still be readily
74 CASA ORANDEy ABIZONA [BTH.AMir. 28
was seen that the variatiQii of the bounding walls from north-south, east-west lines was not very great. It seems evident that it was the intention of the buildem to align the walls with the cardinal points. «
It may be convenient to consider the chambers of the ruin as if seen by a bird's-eye view, without reference to the different stories which were once found in the building, and gave its elevation. * Practically, at present, indications only of these stories remain.
The plan [see pi. 6] given at the close of this article shows the general arrangement of the rooms, and may be of use in understanding the description of the separate chambers which follows. Examining this plan, it will be seen that the bounding walls of the ruin inclose five chambers which fall in two groups: Twin chambers, one at either end, and triplets in the interval between them. The rooms from their position may very conveniently be designated, from the side of the ruin in which they are: The north, south, east, west, and central chambers. The north and south are alike, and extend wholly across their respective sides of the ruin, so that their east and west walls are por- tions of the eastern and western external walls of the building. With the east and west chambers, however, it is somewhat different. Whereas three of the walls of the north and south chambers are external walls of the building wholly or in part, there is but a single wall of either the east or west rooms which is external. None of the walls of the remaining member of this triplet, the central chamber, excepting possibly those belonging to upper stories , are external . All the chambers of both kinds have a rectan- gular form, and their angles are as a general thing carefully constructed right angles. The vertical and horizontal linoG are seldom perfectly straight, although much truer than is ordinarUy the case in more northern ruins. [Fig. 8.]
Let us take up for consideration the different chambers which have been men- tioned, in order to call to mind any special features in their individual architecture.
North Room (A)
This room occupies the whole northern end of the ruin, and has all the bounding walls of the lower stories entire, with the exception of the northeast comer and a small section of the adjacent northern wall. As one approaches the ruin from the side toward Florence, it is through this broken-down entrance on the northeast comer that one enters Gasa Grande. Although, as will be seen presently, there are several other entrances to the ruin, this passageway is in fact the only means of entrance into the chamber.
The greatest length of the room is from the eastern to the western wall. There are good evidences in this room of at least two stories above the present level of the ground which now forms the floor of the chamber.' As the floorjs are destroyed these former stories now form one room with high bounding walls. On the northern side in the second story of this chamber, there is an artificial break in the wall which indicates that there had once been a passageway. The walls of this opening are not perpendic- ular, but slightly inclined, so that their upper ends slightly approach. The eastern wall of this passageway is now cracked, and will probably fall in a short time. The position of ^e lintel is well marked, but the lintel itself, which was probably of wood, has been removed from its former place, and cavities alone remain, plainly showing, however, its former' size at the two upper comers of the opening. A groove on the inner side of the northern wall, which marks the lines of the flooring of an upper chamber, is well shown, although broken and gapped in many places. Near the
1 It would not be possible to demonstrate how many stories Casa Grande formerly had without excava- tions. Even if the lower floor should be laid bare, there would always remain the difficulty in the deters mination of how many upper stories have been destroyed by the weathering of the walls. I think that it is not difficult to find evidences of four stories at oertain points. The observations which I could make on the present condition of the ruin do not justify my acceptance of the theory that there were more. There is good evidence that there were three stories.
rewRMi HISTORY 75
wefltem end of the northern wall, not far from thft corner, (here is an opening j'lut ftbovs the line of the gecond floor. The line of insertion of a poaible third floor can be eacdly traced above the northern pasMgeway. . . .
The westam wall of the room is pierced by a single circular and a rectangular window, iituated in the same story as the northern passageway above mentioned, about on a level with the top of the door or opening on the nortbem side. [Fig. 9.] Tliit single opening lies midway between the northwestern and southwestern comers of tberoom.
Fio. S. lalertor ol room, abowing doorwa; ind Koei of floor.
llie »authem wall of the north room (A) shows certain architectural details in con- struction which are characteristic. Two openings lead from the chamber A into adjoining rooms. One of these opens into the eastern chamber D; the other into the western, B. There is no passageway from room A into the middle chamber, C, but through the wall into chamber B is a broad opening through that portion of the wall which forms the second story. This is undoubtedly artificial, as the sides of it are smooth and resemble similar jambs in doorways and windows of inhabited pueblos. Their surface wall is smooth, and they are nearly vertical. Below this opening the
76 CABA ORANDE, ARIZONA |kth. akh.ZS
chaiober wall is more M leas brokeo aod enl&rged, ita edges ue rouglti uid in them are rounded cavities. It is next to impomible now to say whether the opening ie the result of an enlargement of a previously eiisting doorway, or simply the result of a breaking away of the wall. The upper portion of the doorway on th« second story is broken and destroyed, A passageway from A into the east room, D, ritualed in the second story, ia very conspicuous, lis sides slope slightly, one side being more out of perpendicular than the other. The width of the opening is thus greater at the base. Between the openings from the north room into chambera B and D, the floor groove
Fla.B. lDleriorofDarthrooiTi,1oaklDgireaI.
of the second story can be easily traced, and well preserved impressions of the ends of the small sticks which were probably placed above (he beams can be readily seen. In several instances it was poeeible to pick out of the adobe a few small ftagmenta of woody remnants of the ends of the small stickn which formerly filled these holee, but as a rule these ftagmentK are very small. The impressions in the adobe, however, where rods formerly existed areas well shown as if the sticks or reeds had been extractad but a few weeks ago.
While room A is by no means the best preserved of the five chambers which comiMse Casa Grande, its walla are still in a fair condition for study. There are but few van*
PBWKE8] HISTORY 77
dalistic markings upon it, and aedde from the fact that the northeast comer is broken down, the walls are in tolerably good condition. Possibly the thing most to be regret- ted in the recent mutilations of this part of the ruin is an attempt by some one to dis- cover by excavation how far the foundations extend below the surface of the ground by iindermining the northwest comer of the ruin on the outside. This excavation reveals the amount of weathering of the wall at the surface of the ground, but it has been left in such a condition that it weakens the whole comer of the building, for it affords an all too good opportunity for additional undermining by the atmosphere, rains, and like agents of erosion.
Room B, West Room
This chaniber, which belongs to the middle triplet of rooms, being the most western member of the three, like its two companions has a rectangular shape, its longest dimension being from north to south. It has an external entrance on the west side, and there are indications of former artificial passageways into chambers A and E. There is an opening into the central chamber 0, but no passable way through. The opening through the wall into room A, as seen from that room, has already been men- tioned. On this side it is very much broken in the first story, but on the second, the upright walls of the former passageway are smooth and litUe broken, except in the upper part, near where the lintel formerly was. The wall of the chamber on the north side, above the former passageway, is more or less broken and looks as if it would tumble in at no distant date.
The eastern wall of chamber B is higher than the western, mftlring the additional story, which forms the western wall of a central chamber. While there is no passage- way into the central chamber C large enough to enter from this side, there are two openings, one above the other, in the wall. The lower of these is rectangular in shape, with the larger dimension horizontal; the upper is elongated, rectangular, with the side vertical. The size of rooms B, C, and D is about the same, 24 feet long by a little over 9 broad.
The single opening from chamber B into the south room £ appears to be the enlarge- ment of two passageways, one on the first, the other on the second story. The former is almost wholly clogged up by fallen debris strewn over the floor of the chamber. A portion of the wall above the latter has fallen into the opening so neatly that it would seem to have been placed there. The upper part of the west chamber on the south side is very much broken, and traces of the uppfer story which probably once existed are dif&cult to discover.
Room D, East Room
The chamber on the east of the ruin, like its fellow B on the west, is elongated in a north-south direction, and plainly shows at least two stories above the present level. One can enter this room from the side, and from it one can readily pass into the central chamber C. It seems in keeping with what is known of ceremonial inclo- sures used by Indians at certain times, that.if the central room was a sacred chamber or used for religious ceremonials, it very properly had an entrance from the eastern room and not from the others. [Fig. 10.]
The exterior entrance to room D is enlarged by the breaking of the walls, and affords evidence that it was one of the principal entrances into the building. It opens into the chamber about midway in its length and shows well-defined lintel marks. On the second story the walls are more or less broken on the eastern side, both externally and internally. A generous passageway from the second story of room D into room A occupies about a fourth part of the width of the north wall. The wall is intact with this exception, and the position of the flooring of the chamber above the surface of the ground can be readOy seen. The ''floor groove *' of the second story is pronounced, that on the east wall being a little lower than that on the west. The
78 CASA GMASDE, ABIZOKA [ktb_a9s. 38
woatb wan of the fiat tUKj •< rhm D ■ imarl; aa opening wUdi wootd mob to indi- CM« tbe pimtiam <d ike jMHiBenj into the ■mtli room ham ita vatical jmilN itill well pfiMcrred, b«t iu lap ham Ulm and m tctt nticfa btokca.
Room E, Soctr Room
The aoath rfaaabcr a< tke nnn, like the nortb. extend* acroH the vlnle end of the ruin. Ita pcnteat kngth m thna cart and weat. Ita nerthern waD kmiB the aoaOtent adc ot the eaat, vcM. and central chambcfa B, D. and C. jnM aa the HMithcm
Tlo. 10. Caa Onude ruin, iMUng DorthmM.
wall of the northern ctmmber A eeparolee thie room from the same membera of the middle eeriee. Ae with its northeni fellow, there are openings into the lateral chain ben B and D, the weetem and eaatcm rooms, but no Higns of the existence of an entrance at any time into the central chamber C. The Boutheastem ai^le of room E, which is at the some time the southeastern comer of the ruin, is broken down so that a gap is formed, by which alone one can enter the room. Possibly this opening is not wholly the product of natural destruction. Two great gaps break the continuity of the southern wall, but the southwest comer of the chamber is entire from the ground to a considerable height.
1 HISTORY 79
The fiuppoeed tormer pasaagewaya into chambers B and D have abeady been de- Bcribed in my consideration of these rooms. When seen from the south room they do not materially differ from what has already been said of them. The western wall of room £ is pierced by a small, square, windowlike opening high up in the second story. Upon this side of the room one can without difficulty make out two stories and the renmants of the third above the present level of the ground. The line of holes in which the floor logs formerly fitted Ckn be traced with ease, and a row of smaller cavities can be readily seen between the passageway into room B and a middle ver- tical line of the north wall. Vandalistic scribblings of varied nature deface this room, and ambitious visitors with no claim for complimentary notice have cut their names upon the smoothly plastered walls. There are also spiral markings resembling forms of pictographs common on the sides of the mesas inhabited by the Tusayan Indians.
Room C, Central Room
The central chamber of Casa Grande, like the other rooms, the eastern and the western, is elongated in a north-south direction. It differs from the others in that it shows the walls of an additional story on all four sides, and has but one entrance. This entrance is from its eastern side. The walls are very smooth and apparently carefully polished. There are well preserved evidences of the flooring, and the smaller sticks which formerly lay upon the same are beautifully indicated by rows of small holes in the northern wall. The eastern opening by which one enters has already been described, as well as the windowlike openings leading into the western chamber.
The walls of the third story on the western side are pierced by three circular openings about 6 inches in diameter, which preserve their ancient outline. The rim of these openings is smoothly polished, which would indicate that they were never used for floor joists; indeed, their position seems to point in the same direction. They were possibly windows or lookouts. On the north and south wall there are similar openings, one on each wall. The round hole in the south wall is situated about on the middle vertical line of the wall, while that on the north is a little to the east of the middle. On the east wall there are three of these small round holes, placed one to the north of the doorway and one to the south. These openings are at times placed as high as the head of a person standing on the floor of the third chamber, but there are some which are only a few feet above the probable level of the floor. They appear to be characteristic of the central room and of the third story.
COSMOS mindeleff's description
The most comprehensive description of Casa Grande is by Mr. Cosmos MindeleflF. (Pis. 8-10.) As this is available to all who have access to the reports of the Bureau of American Ethnology, it is not here quoted in its entirety,- but reference is made to certain points, some of which were first brought out by this talented author.
The name Casa Orande has been usually applied to a single stric- ture standing near the southwestern comer of a large area covered by mounds and other debris, but some writers have applied the term to the southwestern portion of Compound A, while still others have so designated the whole area. The last-mentioned sQems the proper application of the term, but throughout this paper, in order to avoid confusion, the settlement as a whole will be designated the Casa
80 CA8A OBANDE, ABIZOKA [eth. axu. 28
Grande Group, and the single structure, with standing walls, the Casa Grande ruin, or simply Casa Grande.
Probably no two investigators would assign the same limits to the area covered by the group, as the margins of this area merge imper- ceptibly into the surrounding country.
The bird's-eye views here used (pis. 11, 12) to illustrate the relation of Casa Grande to the surrounding mounds are in general correct, although not entirely in agreement with the results of the excavations. According to Mindeleff, the area covered by the Casa Grande Group ''extends about 1,800 feet north and south and 1,500 feet east and west, or a total area of about 65 acres.''
The following description of Casa Grande is from Mindeleff : ^
The Casa Grande ruin is often lefened to as an adobe structure. Adobe construc- tion, if we limit the word to its proper meaning, consists of the use of molded brick, dried in the sun but not baked. Adobe, as thus defined, is very largely used through- out the Southwest, more than 9 out of 10 houses erected by the Mexican population and many of those erected by the Pueblo Indians being so constructed; but, in the experience of the writer, it is never found in the older ruins, although seen to a limited extent in ruins known to belong to a period subsequent to the Spanish conquest. Its discovery, therefore, in the Casa Grande would be important; but no trace of it can be found. The walls are composed of huge blocks of earth, 3 to 5 feet long, 2 feet high, and 3 to 4 feet thick. These blocks were not molded and placed in situ, but were manufactured in place. The method adopted was probably the erection of a framework of canes or light poles, woven with reeds or grass, forming two parallel surfaces or planes, some 3 or 4 feet apart and about 5 feet long. Into this open box or trough was rammed clayey earth obtained from the immediate vicinity and mixed with water to a heavy paste. When the mass was sufficiently dry, the framework was moved along the wall and the operation repeated . This is the tjrpical pis^ or rammed- earth construction, and in the hands of skilled workmen it suffices for the construc- tion of quite elaborate buildings. As here used, however, the appliances were rude and the workmen unskilled. An inspection of the illustrations herewith, especially of Plate Lv [here pi. 10], showing the western wall of the ruin, will indicate clearly how this work was done. The horizontal lines, marking what may be called courses, are very well defined, and, while the vertical joints are not apparent in the illustration, a close inspection of the wall itself shows them. It will be noticed that the buildera were unable to keep straight courses, and that occasional thin courses were put in to bring the wall up to a general level. This is even more noticeable in other parts of the ruin. It is probable that as the walls rose the exterior surface was smoothed with the hand or with some suitable implement, but it was not carefully finished like the interior, nor was it treated like the latter with a specially prepared material. . . . The floors of the rooms, which were also the roofs' of the rooms below, were of the ordinary pueblo type, employed also to-day by the American and Mexican popula- tion of this region. . . . Over the primary series of joists was placed a layer of light poles, 1} to 2 inches in diameter, and over these reeds and coarse grass were spread. The prints of the light poles can still be seen on the walls. . . .
The walls of the northern room are fairly well preserved, except in the north- eastern comer, which has fallen. The principal floor beams were of necessity laid north and south, acipss the shorter axis of the rodm, while the secondary series of poles, 1} inches in diameter, have' left their impression in the eastern and western walls.
1 In 13th Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., p. 309
rawKN] HISTORY 81
There is no setback in the northern wall at the first floor level, though there is a very slight one in the southern wall; none appears in the eastern and western walls. Yet in the second roof level there is a double setback of 9 and 5 inches in the western wall, and the northern wall has a setback of 9 inches, and the top of the wall still shows the position of nearly all the roof timbers. This suggests — and the suggestion is supported by other facts to be mentioned later — that the northern room was added after the completion of the rest of the edifice.
The second roof or third floor level, the present top of the wall, has a decided pitch outward, amounting to nearly 5 inches. Furthermore, the outside of the northern wall of the middle room, above the second roof level of the northern room is very much eroded. This indicates that the northern room never had a greater height than two stories, but probably the walls were crowned with low parapets. . . . The walls of the western room were smoothly finished and the finish is well preserved, but here, as in the northern room, the exterior wall of the middle room was not finished above the second roof level, and there is no doubt that two stories aboye the ground were the maximum height of the western rooms, excluding the parapet. . . .
The walls of the southern room are perhaps better finished and less well constructed than any others in the building. The beam holes in the southern wall are r^ular, those in the northern wall less so. The beams used averaged a little smaller than those in the other rooms, and there is no trace whatever in the overhanging wall of the use of rushes or canes in the construction of the roof above. The walls depart considerably from vertical plane surfaces; the southern wall inclines fully 12 inches inward, while in the northeastern comer the side of a doorway projects fully 3 inches into the room. . . . The walls of the eastern room were well finished, and, except the western wall, in fairly good preservation. The floor beams were not placed in a straight line, but rise slightly near the middle, as noted above. The finish of some of the openings suggests that the floor was but 3 or 4 inches above the beams, and that the roughened surface, already mentioned, was not part of it. . . .
Openings. — ^The Gasa Grande was well provided with doorways and other open- ings arranged in pairs one above the other. There were doorways from each room into each adjoining room, except that the middle room was entered only from the east. Some of the openings were not used and were closed with blocks of solid masonry built into them long prior to the final abandonment of the ruin.
The middle room had three doorways, one above the other, all opening eastward. The lowest doorway opened directly on the floor level, and was 2 feet wide, with vertical sides. . . . The doorway of the second story is preserved only on the northern side. Its bottom, still easily distinguishable, is 1 foot 6 inches above the bottom of the floor beams. It was not over 2 feet wide and was about 4 feet high. ... In addition to its three doorways, all in the eastern wall, the middle tier of rooms was well provided with niches and holes in the walls, some of them doubtless utilized as outlooks. On the left of the upper doorway are two holes, a foot apart, about 4 inches in diameter, and smoothly finished. Almost directly above these some 3 feet, and about 2 feet higher than the top of the door, there are two similar holes. Near the southern end of the room in the same wall there is another^ round opening a trifle .larger and about 4} feet above the floor level. In the western wall there are two similar openings, and there is one each in the northern and southern walls. ... In the second story, or middle room of the middle tier, there were no openings except the doorway in the eastern wall and two small orifices in the western wall.
20903**— 28 ETH— 12 6
82 CASA GRANDE, ABIZONA [kth. ANN. 28
PRESENT CONDITION
Main Buildino
The following description of the Casa Grande ruin (pis. 8-10) contains new facts derived from the author's observations and exca^ vations made in the winters of 1906-7 and 1907-8:
CONSTRUCTION
•
The walls of Casa Grande are of a fawn color slightly tinged with red. Externally they are rough and very much eroded, but the interior walls are plastered, still showing places that formerly, in the words of Father £jno, were as smooth as 'Tuebla pottery."
The walls are constructed of a natural cement, commonly called caliche by the Mexicans, composed of lime, earth, and pebbles; this was made into blocks, which were laid in courses. These blocks are supposed to have been made in position, the materials therefor being rammed into bottomless baskets or wooden frames, that were raised as the work progressed, until the wall reached the desired height. The blocks are not of uniform size, consequently the horizontal joints of the courses are not always the same distance apart. Although clearly shown in the outside walls, these joints are not visible in the interior walls on account of the plastering.
The exterior faces of the walls are not perfectly plumb, the thick- ness of the walls at the top being much less than at the base. Impressions of human hands appear in places in the plaster of the north and the west room. Posts were used to support some of the narrow walls, and stones employed for the same purpose are found in their foundations.
ROOMS
The ground plan of the main building shows that its walls form five inclosures, which may be termed the north, west, south, east, and central rooms. When the walls had reached the height of about 7 feet, these inclosures were filled solid with earth, the upper surface forming the floors of the rooms of the first story. In the north, west, south, and east inclosures there were two rooms above each ground room; the central toom had three stories, being one story higher than the rooms which surrounded it.*
1 Many conflicting statements regarding the former height of Casa Qrande are on record, most authors favoring throe or four stories. There were undoubtedly four stories counting from the level of the plain to the top of the highest wall, as oould be seen from the outside as one approached the structure, but the lowest story was filled solid with earth, so that inside the building there were really only three tiers of rooms, one above the other in the central part of the ruin and two on each of the four sides. The entrance into the lowest room was on a level with the roofs of the surrounding buildings, forming a terrace that surrounded the base of Casa Grande. Entrance to the upper rooms was effected by means of ladders from the outside and by hatchways. The