THE NAUTILUS. 



Vol. XXXIII APRIL, 1920. No. 4. 



THE NAVAJO NATION. 



BY JAS. H. FERRISS. 



Sixty miles west of the corner post of Arizona, New Mexico, 

 Colorado and Utah, the 1919 summer class in archasology, 

 Arizona University, encamped at the foot of Navajo Mountain. 

 Here is the greatest number of ancient cliff cities and villages 

 and the greatest of known natural bridges. In scenery, colors, 

 heroic size and architecture, it is Grand Canyon in character. 

 Navajo Mountain astraddle the Arizona- Utah line stands on the 

 south rim of the Grand Canyon, a short distance above Marble 

 Canyon and Lee's Ferry. 



In reality the region from the Mesa Verde National Park, 

 Colorado, on the east, to the Zion National Park, Virgin River, 

 Arizona, on the west, it is something of a wonder-spot of the 

 world, and all of it astonishing. The greater cliff ruins, Mesa 

 Verde, Keet Seel, Betatakin and many others as interesting; the 

 Monument Park, a plateau of natural pinnacles and steeples, 

 and the Chinle and Canyon de Chelly valleys are along the 

 eastern border. Then westward lie the painted deserts, petrified 

 forests, the Grand Canyon, the Kaibab forest, underground 

 lakes of Kanab, lava cones of Mount Trumbull, Hurricane 

 Fault, Grand Wash, canyons of Virgin River, plains of wild 

 horses and the largest Indian population in the United States 

 still living in the Indian way. Except to the explorers, archae- 

 ologists, geologists and mineralogists it is the great unknown of 

 America, and the farthest from a railway. 



Dr. Byron Cummings, dean of archaeology, Arizona Univer- 



