FEWKES] CONCLUSIONS ' PRAT 
an affinity with the Mojaves and Cuchans of Rio Colorado; while, according to Don 
José Cortez, the Tontos belong to the Apache Nation. I have myself found Tonto 
villages intermingled with those of Pinal Lefas, north of Rio Gila, with whom they 
lived on friendly terms, with like customs and habits; except that they subsisted 
almost exclusively upon mescal and pimones . . . and possessed none of the 
fruits of agriculture. Yet the country they now occupy shows traces of ancient 
acequias, and has extensive valleys of great fertility 
The tribe that now occupies the region from Pueblo Creek to the junction of Rio 
Verde with the Salinas is called Tonto. The word in Spanish signifies stwpid, but 
Mexicans do not apply that signification to these Indians; on the contrary, they con- 
sider them rather sharp, particularly at stealing. Therefore, as it is not a term of 
reproach, we may reasonably suppose that, as is frequently the case, it is the Indian 
mame corrupted, perhaps, by Spanish spelling. . . . Don José Cortez, as may 
be seen in chapter vi, calls them Apaches; but Sevedra [sic], who is a well-informed 
Mexican, and, having been much among wild tribes of Indians, is generally considered 
authority in whatever relates to them, says that Tontos are Indians of Montezuma, 
like those of the pueblos of New Mexico. Pimas, Maricopas, Cuchans, and Mojaves, 
also, he adds, belong to the same great nation. In proof of this, he asserts that they all 
have one custom—that of cropping the front hair to meet their eyebrows, 
suffering the rest, back of their ears, to grow and hang down its full length. 
In the present uncertainty as to the ancestors of the three or more 
tribes that inhabited the Walnut Creek region from the time the first 
Spaniards entered the country to the advent of the exploring parties 
whose reports are here quoted, it is not possible to reach a final opin- 
ion with regard to the kinship of these people. The sedentary tribes 
that once lived in the region have been modified, in so far as their 
consanguinity is concerned, by intermixture with nomadic peoples 
(Apache and other tribes). The archeologic evidences indicate that 
they had close affinity to the Mohave and Colorado River tribes and 
to those living about Prescott and along the northern tributaries of 
the Salt River. In order to estimate the value of this evidence, a 
few fortified hills near Prescott were visited and a preliminary exami- 
nation of similar structures at the mouth of Agua Fria was made. 
The ruins on the terraces along Walnut Creek are similar to those on 
the Verde, the ‘‘ bowlder sites’’ of Mindeleff, who thus refers to them:! 
It seems quite likely that only the lower course or courses of the walls of these dwell- 
ings were of bowlders, the superstructure being perhaps sometimes of earth (not adobe) 
but more probably often of the type known as ‘‘jacal””—upright slabs of wood plastered 
with mud. This method of construction was known to the ancient pueblo peoples 
and is used today to a considerable extent by the Mexican population of the south- 
west and to a less extent in some of the pueblos. No traces of this construction were 
found in the bowlder-marked sites, perhaps because no excavation was carried on; 
but it is evident that the rooms were not built of stone, and that not more than a small 
percentage could have been built of rammed earth or grout, as the latter, in disin- 
tegrating leaves well-défined mounds and lines of débris. 
It is probable that the bowlder-marked ruins are the sites of secondary and tem- 
porary ? structures, erected for convenience in working fields near to or overlooked 
by them and distant from the home pueblo. The character of the sites occupied by 
1 Mindeleff, Cosmos, Aboriginal Remains in Verde Valley, Arizona,in 13th Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., p. 237. 
2 It seems to the author more probable that these were permanent dwellings, as viewed in the light of 
corresponding structures on Walnut Creek.—J. W. F. 
