APPENDIX Outstanding Exhibit-Sites, Modern Pueblos, Local Museums

by ERIK K. REED Regional Archaeologist National Park Service

After reading about the prehistoric inhabitants of the Southwest many people feel that they would like to visit the places where they lived, examine examples of their ancient arts and crafts, and see their present-day descendants. No description can produce the feeling that one experiences when viewing the imposing ruins found in our National Monuments and Parks. Even a short time spent looking at pottery and other artifacts in a museum will give a far better idea of their appearance than will photographs, drawings, or the most detailed descriptions. A visit to a modern pueblo makes it possible to visualize something of the life of bygone centuries and to think of the ancient inhabitants of the area as living, breathing people rather than as lifeless specimens. The following lists have been prepared in an effort to help those who wish to visit the Southwest and to learn about its people through their own experience.

I. OUTSTANDING EXHIBIT-SITES The San Juan Anasazi Culture

MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK.

Great cliff-dwellings and open pueblos of the Classic period. Pit-house, mesa-top villages and cave remains of earlier periods, Modified Basketmaker and Developmental Pueblo. One of the major foci of the Anasazi culture of 300-1300 A. D., and the most accessible and best-exhibited, interpreted by caravan-tours and an outstanding museum. Paved entrance-road from Highway U. S.-160 between Mancos and Cortez, Colorado. Lodge with adequate accommodations open May-October.

CHACO CANYON NATIONAL MONUMENT.

The greatest concentration of open pueblo ruins in a valley floor, another of the major foci of prehistoric Anasazi civilization. The famous 182 huge buildings, Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl, Pueblo del Arroyo, etc.; a restored Great Kiva, an excavated Modified-Basketmaker village; and innumerable small pueblo sites. Undeveloped museum. Very restricted accommodations. In the middle of northwestern New Mexico, 64 miles north of Thoreau (which is on Highway U. S.-66) and 64 miles south of Aztec, New Mexico (on U. S.-550); 25 miles from nearest paved road (State 55, Cuba to Bloomfield).

AZTEC RUINS NATIONAL MONUMENT.

An excavated great pueblo of the Classic period, twelfth and thirteenth centuries, built between 1100 and 1125 A. D., with a completely restored Great Kiva; additional unexcavated pueblo ruins. Lying between Chaco Canyon and the Mesa Verde, these pueblos on the Animas River partake of both phases of Anasazi culture. A small museum adjoining the main ruin. Located close to Highway U. S.-550 and the town of Aztec, New Mexico.

CANYON DE CHELLY NATIONAL MONUMENT.

Striking cliff-dwellings and very early remains. In a spectacular setting of great red-rock canyons occupied by picturesque Navajo Indians. Tree-ring dates from one of the major sites, Mummy Cave, range from 348 A. D.—the earliest date in the San Juan drainage—to 1284 A. D., the next-to-last. No museum. The monument and canyon area extends east of Chinle, Arizona, in the Navajo Indian Reservation. Chinle is 100 miles from Gallup, New Mexico, or seventy-five miles (unpaved) from Chambers, Arizona (which is west of Gallup on Highway U. S.-66). Not accessible in bad weather. An excellent lodge (Thunderbird Ranch, Chinle, Arizona), but rather restricted facilities.

NAVAJO NATIONAL MONUMENT.

Betatakin and Keetseel, great cliff-pueblos of the thirteenth century, picturesquely situated in huge caves in the red sandstone walls of the Tsegi Canyons, west of Kayenta, Arizona, in the Navajo Indian Reservation. No museum. No tourist accommodations. (As in all the other national monuments listed, however, a custodian on duty the year around, resident at headquarters above Betatakin.) Another 100 miles, of rather bad road, from Chinle to Betatakin; or 135 miles from Flagstaff—sixty miles north on paved Highway U. S.-89, about the same distance on fairly good unsurfaced reservation road, and the last dozen miles a quite rough trail. Not accessible in winter or in rainy weather.

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The White Mountains Region

KINISHBA.

A large pueblo of the period 1000-1400, largely excavated and partially restored by the Arizona State Museum, in the Apache Indian Reservation near Fort Apache, Arizona, twenty miles east of Highway U. S.-60. No accommodations.

The Rio Grande Area

BANDELIER NATIONAL MONUMENT.

Unusual cliff-ruins and open sites in beautiful Frijoles Canyon, in the Pajarito Plateau, west of Santa Fe and south of Los Alamos, New Mexico, seventeen miles from paved highway. Museum. Small lodge open May-October.

PUYE.

Large partially-restored pueblo and small cliff-ruins, in the Pajarito Plateau, north of Los Alamos, on the Santa Clara Indian Reservation, fifteen miles from Espanola, New Mexico.

CORONADO STATE MONUMENT.

Two extensive adobe pueblos, Kuaua and Puaray, the former partially restored. Museum. Across the Rio Grande from Bernalillo, New Mexico, just off paved Highway State 44.

PECOS STATE MONUMENT.

Ruins of the great pueblo, finally abandoned in 1838, and of the partially-restored Spanish mission of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Close to Highway U. S.-85, about twenty-five miles southeast of Santa Fe, near modern town of Pecos, New Mexico.

GRAN QUIVIRA NATIONAL MONUMENT.

Ruins of the pueblo and mission of Humanas, abandoned about 1675. No museum; no accommodations. By a poor road twenty-five miles south of Mountainair, New Mexico, which is on Highway U. S.-60.

ABO and QUARAI STATE MONUMENTS.

Sister missions to Humanas, with extensive unexcavated pueblo ruins. No museums. Close to U. S.-60 and Mountainair, New Mexico.

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The Salado Complex

TONTO NATIONAL MONUMENT.

Two fourteenth century cliff-dwellings high in a small canyon overlooking Roosevelt Lake and the Tonto Basin. These well-preserved ruins have yielded fine and unusual archaeological material: the striking Salado polychrome pottery, a variety of expertly-made cotton textiles, even a lot of lima beans. Very small museum exhibit. No accommodations at the monument. Located near Roosevelt, Arizona, and the Apache Trail (State Highway 88).

CASA GRANDE NATIONAL MONUMENT.

A unique great adobe structure, sole survivor of the large pueblo-like towers and compounds built by the Salado in the Gila Basin in the fourteenth century. The site includes several adobe compounds as well as the Casa Grande itself, and also earlier Hohokam remains—unexcavated ball-courts and pit-houses. Small museum. On State Highway 87 close to Coolidge, Arizona.

PUEBLO GRANDE CITY PARK.

A complex mound, partially excavated, of the late period in the Phoenix area. On E. Washington Avenue, Phoenix.

Sinagua Sites

WUPATKI NATIONAL MONUMENT.

Large and small pueblos of 1100-1300 and earlier pit-houses; several Anasazi sites as well as Sinagua—the frontier between these two cultures was not the Little Colorado, but lay some distance west into the Wupatki area, and varied from time to time. Still other cultural influences are observed. One unique feature is a masonry-walled ball-court beside Wupatki Pueblo and near the monument headquarters, fifteen miles east of U. S.-89 and forty-five miles from Flagstaff, Arizona. No museum. No accommodations at the monument.

WALNUT CANYON NATIONAL MONUMENT.

Very small cliff-dwellings in sandstone ledges of a narrow chasm twelve miles east of Flagstaff, not far from Highway 66. No exhibits installed in Museum. No accommodations at the monument.

TUZIGOOT NATIONAL MONUMENT.

An excavated and partially restored hilltop pueblo, which reached its maximum in the fourteenth century. Comparatively large museum 185 housing extensive collection close to Clarkdale, Arizona, and readily accessible from U. S.-89.

MONTEZUMA CASTLE NATIONAL MONUMENT.

A five-story cliff-dwelling of the same period as Tuzigoot pueblo, near Camp Verde, Arizona, and readily accessible from Highway U. S.-89. Small museum. No accommodations at the monument. Also included in this monument is Montezuma Well, nine miles northeast, with small cliff-dwellings in a limestone sinkhole containing a “bottomless” lake. Highly unusual archaeological features at Montezuma Well are cist-graves undercut in soft limestone, and travertine-encrusted prehistoric irrigation ditches.

II. MODERN PUEBLOS ON (AT LEAST APPROXIMATELY) PRE-SPANISH LOCATIONS

ORAIBI on the third or northwesternmost Hopi mesa, materially unchanged for over 600 years, and in a general sense, the other older HOPI INDIAN pueblos—WALPI on First Mesa, SHONGOPOVI and MISHONGNOVI on the middle mesa—which have shifted their locations during the historic period from valley floors to mesa tops. The villages of Hano (Tewa) and Sichomovi on First Mesa, and probably also Shipaulovi on Second Mesa, are eighteenth century foundations. Hotevilla, Bakavi and New Orabi (Kikhochomovi) date from the break-up of Oraibi only about fifty years ago. Toreva and Polacca are purely modern towns. Good dirt roads to the Hopi country from Gallup, Winslow, and Flagstaff. No tourist accommodations.

ZUNI PUEBLO, the one surviving, or reestablished, town of the six early-historic “cities of Cibola.” Fair road, forty miles south from Gallup, New Mexico. Very limited tourist accommodations.

ACOMA on its great mesa, one of the most picturesque of all, little changed since the seventeenth century when the large mission church was built. Fair road, thirteen miles south of U. S.-66, about sixty miles west of Albuquerque.

ISLETA, on Highway U. S.-85 about ten miles south of Albuquerque.

The five Keres pueblos southwest of Santa Fe—SANTO DOMINGO, SAN FELIPE, and COCHITI along the Rio Grande north of Bernalillo, west of U. S.-85; ZIA and SANTA ANA on the Jemez River, northwest of Bernalillo and across the stream from State-44.

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JEMEZ PUEBLO, twenty-five miles northwest of Bernalillo on State Highway 4.

The five Tewa pueblos north of Santa Fe: TESUQUE, on U. S.-64-285; NAMBE, in the foothills to the northeast; SAN ILDEFONSO, on the east bank of the Rio Grande; SANTA CLARA, on the west bank just below Espanola; SAN JUAN, at Chamita, New Mexico.

TAOS, the one modern terraced pueblo, close to Taos, New Mexico, and PICURIES in the foothills to the south.

In the Rio Grande drainage, Laguna and Sandia are historic pueblos only. Laguna was a new foundation, under Spanish direction, about 1700. Sandia was re-established on or near an earlier location, in 1745-1750 by Tiwa Indians brought back from the Hopi country by Spanish priests, after abandonment fifty years earlier of the several Tiwa pueblos between Bernalillo and Albuquerque.

III. LOCAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUMS IN THE SOUTHWEST

Santa Fe:

The Laboratory of Anthropology.

The Museum of New Mexico.

Albuquerque:

The University of New Mexico Anthropology Museum.

Tucson:

The Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona.

Phoenix:

The Heard Museum.

Grand Canyon National Park:

The Wayside Museum of Archaeology.

Petrified Forest National Monument:

Small branch museums at Painted Desert Inn and Puerco Ruin.

Flagstaff:

The Museum of Northern Arizona