INDIAN DWELLINGS WATERMAN 469 



dwelling of the Plateau becomes more marked. Such old structures 

 have recently been reported from eastern Nebraska, where they were 

 excavated by Sterns," and we have historical evidence that they for- 

 merly existed, for they were reported by an observer among the 

 Pawnee in 1825, who saw them actually occupied.^ 



UNDERGROUND STRUCTURES IN THE SOUTHWEST 



In the southwestern United States we enter an area quite different 

 geographically from the one we have been discussing. It has, of 

 course, an even higher degree of aridity, while the surface is exces- 

 sively broken up. Human life would seem to be confronted by much 

 more serious difficulties than elsewhere. Yet certain tribes here 

 reached a much higher level of culture than the other tribes of North 

 America. The native habitations here at the present time have little 

 about them to suggest pit dwellings. On the contrary, they are quite 

 lofty and pretentious structures, sometimes four or five stories high. 

 It is certain, however, that there were formerly pit dwellings in this 

 area; and it is possible to trace the evolution of the modern pueblos 

 from underground structures. 



Several pieces of incontestable evidence point in this direction. 

 In the first place, in the midst of the modern composite structures, 

 which have square rooms and several stories, there are found cer- 

 tain ceremonial chambers, circular and subterranean, entered by a 

 ladder through the roof. These are known by the native term kiva 

 or the Spanish term estufa. The reason for these underground 

 chambers has always been a problem, though Gushing long ago 

 suggested that the people may formerly have lived in underground 

 houses but under later conditions preserved these chambers for 

 religious ceremonies.* 



This idea seems the more plausible when we consider the whole 

 history of architecture in the region. It is a somewhat complicated 

 matter, but certain stages may nevertheless be recognized. Begin- 

 ning with the modern villages and going back, we can recognize an 

 architectural tendency toward greater compactness in the more 

 ancient structures. At the time of the coming of the Spaniards 

 the villages occupied better defensive positions than they do at 

 present. When afraid of enemy attack the people moved their 

 villages to the tops of the mesas, or flat-topped mountains. Some 

 of these early structures which chanced not to occupy good de- 



' F. H. Sterns : Ancient Lodge Sites on tlie Missouri in NebrasJsa, Amer. Anthropologist, 

 Vol. 16 (N. S.), 1014, pp. 135-137. 



'W. B. Doyle: Indian Forts and Dwellings, Ann, Rept., Smithsonian Inst, for 1876, 

 l,p. 460—465 ; reference on p. 462. 



* F. II. Gushing : A Study of Pueblo Pottery as Illustrative of Zuui Culture-Growth, 

 Ann; Rept. Bur. of Amer. Ethnology for 1882-83, pp. 473-521 ; reference on p. 476. 



20397—25 31 



