GENERAL VIEW OF ARCHEOLOGY OF THE PUEBLO REGION. 585 



age proceed A\"itli great rapidity. Between the Pecos and the Colo- 

 rado are extensive "plateaus of inferior grass lands, timbered moun- 

 tain ranges, narrow arable valleys, and vast stretches of sandy 

 desert. Much of the area exceeds a mile above sea level. The 

 country was probably always deficient in game, neither were wild 

 fruits plentiful, nor was any indigenous food supply abundant. 



These physiographic conditious exercised a coercive influence over 

 the primitive culture of the Southwest, making fixed abodes and an 

 agricultural l)asis of food supply necessary. To the east and north 

 nomadic hunting tribes followed where the food quest led them. 

 They shunned the soutJiwestern desert for the same reason that the 

 buffalo did. Navahoes, Comanches, and Apaches did not invade 

 this region until comparatively recent years, for obvious reasons. 

 In the economic systems of primitive men we find the germs of up- 

 to-date commercialism. Wealth is obtained by producing it and by 

 dispossessing others of it. The tribes mentioned belonged to the 

 predatory class. As game was scarce in the Southwest, there was no 

 reason for their going there until it became worth while for predatory 

 reasons. 



The true indigines of the Southwest were necessarily agricultur- 

 ists. Coming into a region where game and wild fruits afforded 

 insufficient subsistence, they, probably partly from previous experi- 

 ence and partly from immediate necessity, were constrained to sup- 

 plement their food supply by the cultivation of food plants. The 

 preparation of ground for agriculture and the necessary devices for 

 the utilization of water for irrigation induced a comparatively per- 

 manent abode and substantial house building. Settlements, with rare 

 exceptions, were perforce clustered in narrow valleys along water- 

 ways, or in cliffs, or on mesa tops, within reach of streams or peren- 

 nial springs. 



Thus the indigines of the Southwest were and are Pueblos (town 

 builders) through the coercion of physiographic environment. As 

 an ethnic division they are a most indefinite one, embracing several 

 well-established linguistic stocks and numerous ininor dialectic 

 groups, which become more numerous the farther back they are 

 trac(Ml. Every existing Pueblo tribe that has been studied has been 

 found to be composite, formed by combination of sundry ethnic 

 grouf)s more or less amalgamated. Incoming bands, regardless of 

 blood or previous condition, if they came seeking permanent abode, 

 became Pueblos, whether they amalgamated closely by l)l<)od with 

 previous settlers or not, by virtue of their enforced adoi)tion of the 

 mode of life made necessary by the physiographic conditions of the 

 region. Similarity of house life, of food, of method of acquiring the 

 same, of inventions necessary to food producti(m, of utensils for con- 

 serving anil transporting the scant and precious water supply, of 



