52 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 54 



Bandelier * long ago pointed out the danger of hastily inferring a 

 change of climate from the mere fact that extensive and numerous 

 building sites are now abandoned, and suggested such possible causes 

 of abandonment as war, pestilence, flood, earthquake, or other 

 calamity, destroying the buildings, decimating the tribes, or fright- 

 ening them away. He also declared that numerous ruins do not 

 necessarily indicate a large ancient population, as some of the tribes 

 still preserve traditions of several more or less local migrations and 

 consequently of the occupancy of several village sites ; that epidemics 

 have occurred in historic times; that some of the villages were pro- 

 vided with artificial reservoirs for storing water ; that there are more 

 springs than is generally supposed, such watering places, "artfully 

 closed by the Indians," being now occasionally discovered in the 

 immediate vicinity of the ruins; that a mile from the river banks is 

 not looked on as an inconvenient distance to carry water for house- 

 hold purposes; that springs have been known to be affected by earth- 

 quakes in the Southwest, a fact which might account for their absence 

 now; that pueblos might be ten or fifteen miles from their fields, as at 

 Acoma; and that "Indian corn, of the small variety, bushy, with 

 long ears but a light grain, will grow without artificial watering 

 wherever the rainy season is tolerably regular, as upon the mountain 

 slopes." 



He says further, in the same report : 



I do not in the least doubt the accuracy of the statemenu as to the large number 

 of settlements spoken of. But it does not follow that they were all flourishing at 

 the same time. I cannot sufficiently insist upon the many changes of abode cus- 

 tomary among the most sedentary Indians in their primitive state. . . . The 

 country lacks the elements of support for a large population. That the sedentary 

 Indian changes his location and his plan of living easily, under the pressure of phys- 

 ical causes and of danger from enemies, outweighs any explanations based upon 

 hypothetical climatological changes, or upon geological disturbances supposed to 

 have taken place since the first appearance of man in the country [p. 301]. 



It is a well known fact that the Indian is expert in closing springs. They have 

 been discovered in places where for decades they have been sought in vain; and 

 invariably they have been found to be filled and every trace of them on the surface 

 obliterated in the most skillful manner [p. 305]. 



Speaking of a discovery by Chaves, Bandelier says, quoting 

 Lummis : 



In crossing a barren plain west of his home at San Mateo, and near some undis- 

 tinguishable ruins, he noticed that a bit of ground 'gave' under his horse's feet. 

 Dismounting to investigate, he found that a small area seemed elastic and moved 

 up and down when he jumped. Being of an inquiring turn of mind, he took men out 

 to dig there. They removed about a foot of earth over a place some ten feet square, 

 and came to a deep layer of long strips of cedar bark. Below this was a floor of pine 



1 Bandelier, A. F., Final Report of Investigations Among the Indians of the Southwestern United States, 

 Carried on Mainly in the Years from 1880 to 1885, part ii, in Papers Archxol. Inst. Amer., Amer. ser., iv, 

 11-23, 76-77, 1892. 



