THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM 



This canon, well known for its cliff ruins, is in the heart of 

 the ancient pueblo region in the present Navajo Indian 

 Reservation in northern Arizona. Its vertical sides of red 

 sandstone, in some places more than 800 feet high, with 

 natural recesses in the rocks and with small cultivable 

 areas at the bottom, made it a natural residential strong- 

 hold for the Indians, who built their houses high up in the 

 caves. The first settlements there are very old, the last 

 quite recent, and it is uncertain whether the occupancy of 

 the cliffs began 500 or 5,000 years ago. The dry climate 

 has preserved the remains of the cliff-dwellers extremely 

 well, and they throw interesting light upon the life and cus- 

 toms of the Indians before the time of foreign contact. A 

 large collection of cliff-dweller pottery is exhibited, the 

 cooking pots and storage jars being of simple coiled ware 

 left unsmoothed and showing in their structure the method 

 of manufacture, the finer kinds of pottery being smooth 

 and decorated. The stone and bone implements used by 

 the cliff-dwellers who lived in a Stone Age, their basketry 

 and weaving and the raw materials used for these are ex- 

 hibited, as well as human remains, excavated from graves, 

 wrapped in yucca cord blankets and covered with baskets. 

 Remains of domestic turkeys and eagles, the latter kept for 

 their feathers, are also shown. This fine collection and the 

 mass of illustrative material accompanying it make possible 

 a comprehensive study of the life of the primitive Indian. 

 The remaining cases on the north side of the hall are 

 devoted to collections from the Navajo and Apache. These 



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