It is an interesting relic of a past age and an
extinct race and, if it cannot yield up its secrets to science,
it at least appeals to the spirit of romance and mystery.
Irrigating ditches which were fed from reservoirs supplied their
fields and houses with water. Portions of these old canals are
yet in existence and furnish proof of the diligence and skill of
their builders. The ditches were located on levels that could
not be improved upon for utilizing the land and water to the best
advantage. Modern engineers have not been able to better them
and in many places the old levels are used in new ditches at the
present time.
Whatever may have been the fate of this ancient people their
destruction must be sought in natural causes rather than by human
warfare. An adverse fate probably cut off their water supply and
laid waste their productive fields. With their crops a failure
and all supplies gone what else could the people do but either
starve or move, but as to the nature of the exodus history is
silent.
Just how ancient these works are might be difficult to prove, but
they are certainly not modern. The evidence denotes that they
have existed a long time. Where the water in a canal flowed over
solid rock the rock has been much worn. Portions of the old
ditches are filled with lava and houses lie buried in the
vitreous flood. It is certain that the country was inhabited
prior to the last lava flow whether that event occurred hundreds
or thousands of years ago.
It is claimed that the Pueblo Indians and cliff dwellers are
identical and that the latter were driven from their peaceful
valley homes by a hostile foe to find temporary shelter among the
rocks, but such a conclusion seems to be erroneous in view of
certain facts.
The cliff dwellings were not temporary camps, as such a migration
would imply, but places of permanent abode. The houses are too
numerous and well constructed to be accounted for on any other
hypothesis. A people fleeing periodically to the cliffs to
escape from an enemy could not have built such houses. Indeed,
they are simply marvelous when considered as to location and
construction. The time that must necessarily have been consumed
in doing the work and the amount of danger and labor involved -
labor in preparing and getting the material into place and danger
in scaling the dizzy heights over an almost impassible trail, it
seems the boldest assumption to assert that the work was done by
a fleeing and demoralized mob.
Again, it would be a physical impossibility for a people who were
only accustomed to agricultural pursuits to suddenly and
completely change their habits of life such as living among the
rocks would necessitate. Only by native instinct and daily
practice from childhood would it be possible for any people to
follow the narrow and difficult paths which were habitually
traveled by the cliff dwellers. It requires a clear head and
steady nerves to perform the daring feat in safety - to the truth
of which statement modern explorers can testify who have made the
attempt in recent years at the peril of life and limb while
engaged in searching for archaeological treasures.
Judged by the everyday life that is familiar to us it seems
incredible that houses should ever have been built or homes
established in such hazardous places, or that any people should
have ever lived there. But that they did is an established fact
as there stand the houses which were built and occupied by human
beings in the midst of surroundings that might appall the
stoutest heart. Children played and men and women wrought on the
brink of frightful precipices in a space so limited and dangerous
that a single misstep made it fatal.
It is almost impossible to conceive of any condition in life, or
combination of circumstances in the affairs of men, that should
drive any people to the rash act of living in the houses of the
cliff dwellers. Men will sometimes do from choice what they
cannot be made to do by compulsion. It is easier to believe that
the cliff dwellers, being free people, chose of their own accord
the site of their habitation rather than that from any cause they
were compelled to make the choice. Their preference was to live
upon the cliffs, as they were fitted by nature for such an
environment.
For no other reason, apparently, do the Moquis live upon their
rocky and barren mesas away from everything which the civilized
white man deems desirable, yet, in seeming contentment. The
Supais, likewise, choose to live alone at the bottom of Cataract
Canon where they are completely shut in by high cliffs. Their
only road out is by a narrow and dangerous trail up the side of
the canon, which is little traveled as they seldom leave home and
are rarely visited.
To affirm that the cliff dwellers were driven from their
strongholds and dispersed by force is pure fiction, nor is there
any evidence to support such a theory. That they had enemies no
one doubts, but, being in possession of an impregnable position
where one man could successfully withstand a thousand, to
surrender would have been base cowardice, and weakness was not a
characteristic of the cliff dwellers.
The question of their subsistence is likewise a puzzle. They
evidently cultivated the soil where it was practicable to do so
as fragments of farm products have been found in their dwellings,
but in the vicinity of some of the houses there is no tillable
land and the inhabitants must have depended upon other means for
support.
