138 proceedings: anthropological society 



cially assigned to a compact several storied community house of terraced 

 form represented most abundantly along the Rio Grande. The large 

 houses on the Gila river they called casas grandes and they gave the 

 name rancherias to fragile walled dwellings made of brush and clay 

 supported by logs. Defensive walls were sometimes called trincheras. 

 Each of these names indicates distinct architectural types altho they 

 were not used with accuracy. In late years it happens that all ruined 

 buildings of the Southwest, especially those independent of cliffs are 

 called pueblo ruins, the culture of the people that once inhabited them 

 being designated, the pueblo culture. It is well to preserve the term 

 pueblo for the crowded terraced many storied buildings to which it was 

 originally applied, and when this is done the distribution of the pueblo 

 type in our Southwest is considerably restricted. The stone ruins 

 ascribed to the ancient sedentary inhabitants of Arizona from the upper 

 Verde river west to the Colorado are not true pueblos. In this region 

 there predominated massive stone forts of magnitude and fragile walled 

 houses with stone foundations; a duality everywhere evident. The 

 indications are that both kinds of buildings were constructed and used 

 simultaneously by the same people. The forts being situated on inac- 

 cessible hill tops were asylums for safety, and more perishable buildings 

 on the river terraces were habitations near aboriginal farms. The 

 great number of these forts on the western border of the pueblo region 

 implies a great necessity for defense along the whole western border of 

 Arizona and Sonora in Mexico. 



Dr. Fewkes gave a brief account of the different forts and terrace 

 dwellings on the upper Gila and its tributaries, Sycamore, and Granite 

 creeks, the Chino and Williamson valleys and Walnut creek to the mouth 

 of the Santa Maria and other tributaries of the Colorado, all examples 

 cited substantially agreeing in the duality of architectural type and the 

 absence of true pueblo structure. 



The simple construction of the forts and the rude character of the 

 masonry made of undressed stone, without mortar, was referred to. 

 Views of the remains of dwellings or rancherias on the river terraces were 

 shown and commented upon. Terrace sites indicated by rectangular 

 and circular rows of stones and low mounds occur all along the Chino 

 and Walnut valleys to Aztec Pass. These show no evidences of kivas 

 or sacred rooms, or many storied dwellings. The pottery found near 

 them is rude, sometimes decorated, the pictography is characteristic, 

 the people made extensive irrigation ditches. 



The most important forts mentioned were those on the upper Verde 

 near del Chino, and on the limestone ridge west of Jerome Junction. 

 Two important forts (one is situated near the mouth of Walnut creek 

 and the other at Aztec Pass, the latter being the "Pueblo" first described 

 by Wheeler) were referred to. Maps of the Walnut creek region are 

 defective, the most prominent elevation, Mount Hope, being wrongly 

 located on some of the latest maps issued by the Land Office. Big Burro 

 and other streams west of Aztec Pass have forts overlooking enormous 

 canyons of great scenic interest. 



