HOVENWEEP NATIONAL MONUMENT FEWKES 479 



prepuebloan culture, generally extinct or submerged by a new influx 

 of pueblo buildings, may have been an early stage in the evolution or 

 a local development. The later or pueblo form, being more complex, 

 varies more in different regions, although derived from an almost 

 identical prepuebloan type. It is not possible from our limited 

 knowledge to make any final statement regarding the age of these 

 two types of culture or the causes that led to the final abandonment 

 of these buildings. The same reasons that have been advanced for 

 the desertion of the Mesa Verde habitations are no doubt valid for 

 those of the Hovenweep ; migrations due to pressure produced by in- 

 roads of hostiles; desire for better farms and more water; changes of 

 climate, perhaps; even growth of local feuds among different settle- 

 ments, due to congestion of population, may have contributed to the 

 migration of the Hovenweep people. The traces of direction of mi- 

 gration shown by the distribution of buildings suggest a southern 

 migration or toward the sun, where farming conditions were more 

 favorable and inroads of hostile people less frequent. Legends cur- 

 rent among the pueblos support this conclusion. The population of 

 this region was fairly large, or at any rate the size of the houses, 

 with a few notable exceptions, indicate this. The people could not 

 have had very extensive knowledge of where they were going, and 

 there is no evidence of their possessing beasts of burden or other 

 modes" of transportation over long distances. Their struggle for 

 physical existence was fierce, their migratory movement slow, and the 

 evidences are that they harvested fairly good crops for a limited time 

 as they spread over the country. The desire to improve their condi- 

 tion was intensified by the growth of population. Of necessity they 

 sought the river valleys where water was constant and always avail- 

 able, and those unoccupied fields that were fertile were more extensive 

 than any that could be found in a rocky environment. 



Absolutely nothing of the speech of these people is known with 

 certainty. Their language may have been assimilated with some 

 pueblo stock to the south, but with which group we have no means 

 of knowing. Not a single one of their place names survives, so far 

 as researches have gone. No systematic study of somatological data 

 is available to teach the affinities of these people. Their age is un- 

 known and the explanation of why they left their homes is merged 

 into the general history of the conquests of sedentary people in our 

 Southwest and that of our more vigorous incoming tribes. The 

 Tanoan Indians have several place names, which are mentioned by 

 Harrington and others. 



The most important conclusions arrived at by a comparative 

 study of architecture and material culture is that the Hovenweep 

 people were of the same race as those that built the great houses and 



