NO. 1873 PREHISTORIC RUINS IN GILA VALLEY FSWKSS 435 



compounds. The ancient mode of life and difference in their style 

 of building from that of Pueblos and Pimas are adduced to support 

 the theory that the latter are not descendants of the inhabitants of 

 the Casas Grandes. It is held that when the ancients left their 

 houses they migrated into other lands, where we should now look 

 for their descendants. This supposed disappearance of the ancients 

 was a favorite theory with some early writers, like Clavijero, who 

 identified the ancients of the Gila Valley as Aztecs and regarded 

 these buildings as marking one of the halting places of the Mexicans 

 in their southern migrations. Some authors have gone so far as to 

 regard the Gila Valley as a cradle of Aztec culture. 1 



Other writers have held that the descendants of the original peo- 

 ples migrated into the northern mountains and later built the cliff 

 houses and pueblos of northern Arizona and New Mexico. It is 

 probable that certain clans were driven away from their homes and 

 forced into other regions by the changed conditions as inroads of 

 hostiles. This theory is in fact supported by legends still told by 

 the Hopi and other pueblo people. It is logical to suppose that other 

 clans of prehistoric builders remained in the valley and continued to 

 live in houses similar to those their ancestors inhabited, even after 

 they had lost the custom of building the massive walled structures 

 that distinguish the ancient phase of their culture. The survivors 

 of those who remained are the modern Pimas Kwahadts and Papa- 

 gos, whose legends distinctly state that the ancients (hohokam) 

 built Casa Grande. 



The abandonment of the custom of building Casas Grandes dates 

 back to prehistoric times, and none of the great buildings in the Gila 

 were constructed subsequent to the arrival of the Spaniards. Casa 

 Grande was a ruin when Kino discovered it, and the great buildings 

 along the Salt River appeared to have been abandoned before Casa 

 Grande was deserted, for old Pima legends state that the Great 

 Houses of the Salt River were the oldest in the valley. The war 

 between nomads and the house-builders of the Gila, who overthrew 

 the Casas Grandes, had practically ceased before the advent of the 

 Spaniards, although in 1694 the Sobypuri along the San Pedro were 

 holding back the Apaches, 2 a hostile encroachment from the east. 



1 No doubt some of the people did migrate southward, but the acceptance of 

 this conclusion does not mean that they later became Aztecs. There is little 

 in common between objects found in the valley of Mexico and that of the Gila. 



2 There is nothing to show that these people overthrew the inhabitants of the 

 Casas Grandes, and it is much more likely that the earliest foes of the people 

 of the Great Houses came from the west, from the Gulf of California. 



3 



