FEWKES] THE CLANS OF SIKYATKI 637 
to have come into Tusayan from the far east or the valley of the Rio 
Grande. The former phratry is not regarded as one of the earliest 
arrivals in Tusayan, for when its members arrived at Walpi they 
found living there the Flute, Snake, and Water-house phratries. It is 
highly probable that the Firewood, or as they are sometimes called the 
Fire, people, once lived in the round pueblo known as Fire-house, and as 
the form of this ruin is exceptional in Tusayan, and highly character- 
istic of the region east of this province, there is archeological evidence 
of the eastern origin of the Fire people. Perhaps the most intelligent 
folklorist of the Kokop people was Nasyuiweve, who died a few years 
ago—unfortunately before I had been able to record all the traditions 
which he knew concerning his ancestors. At the present day Katci, 
his successor! in these sacerdotal duties in the Antelope-Snake mys- 
teries, claims that his people formerly occupied Sikyatki, and indeed the 
contiguous fields are still cultivated by members of that phratry. 
It is hardly possible to do more than estimate the population of 
Sikyatki when in its prime, but I do not believe that it was more 
than 500;? probably 300 inhabitants would be a closer estimate if we 
judge from the relative population to the size of the pueblo of Walpi 
at the present time. On the basis of population given, the evidences 
from the size of the Sikyatki cemeteries would not point to an occu- 
paney of the village for several centuries, although, of course, the 
strict confines of these burial places may not have been determined 
by our excavations. The comparatively great depth at which some 
of the human remains were found does not necessarily mean great 
antiquity, for the drifting sands of the region may cover or uncover 
the soil or rocks in a very short time, and the depth at which an object 
is found below the surface is a very uncertain medium for estimating 
the antiquity of buried remains. 
GENERAL FEATURES 
The ruin of Sikyatki (plates cxv, Cxv1) lies about three miles east of 
the recent settlement of Tanoan families at Isba or Coyote spring, 
near the beginning of the trail to Hano. Its site is in full view from 
the road extending from the last-mentioned settlement to Keam’s 
canyon, and lies among the hills just below the two pyramidal elevations 
called Kiikiichomo, which are visible for a much greater distance. 
When seen from this road the mounds of Sikyatki are observed to be 
elevated at least 300 feet above the adjacent cultivated plain, but at 
the ruin itself this elevation is scarcely appreciable, so gradual is the 
1The succession of priests is through the clan of the mother, so that commonly, as in the case of 
Katci, the nephew takes the place of the uncle at his death. Some instances, however, have come to 
my knowledge where, the clan having become extinct, a son has been elevated to the position made 
vacant by the death of a priest. The Kokop people at Walpi are vigorous, numbering 21 mem- 
bers if we include the Coyote and Wolf clans, the last mentioned of which may be descendants of 
the former inhabitants of Kiikiichomo, the twin ruins on the mesa above Sikyatki. 
2In this census I have used also the apparently conservative statement of Vetancurt that there 
were 800 people in Awatobi at the end of the seventeenth century. 
