14 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 65 
the Navaho. Clayton Wetherill, our guide, rendered us the same 
cheerful and intelligent help that has done so much to make success- 
ful other archeological expeditions, particularly those of Drea 
Mitchell Prudden. 
The expedition of 1914 was under the joint leadership of the 
authors; in 1915 Mr. Guernsey was in charge, assisted by Dr. R. G. 
Fuller. Mr. Charles Amsden, of Farmington, New Mexico, a student 
of archeology, was with us on both trips; Mr. John W. Edwards was 
on the second trip. The field work was done during the months of 
June and July of each year, and the parties reached Kayenta by 
wagon via Shiprock, New Mexico, and the trading post of Teec- 
huzpos. 
The Kayenta trading post was founded by Mr. John Wetherill in 
1909 and therefore is shown on only the more recent maps. It les in 
the northeastern corner of the Navaho Reservation, not far south of 
the Utah-Arizona line, and is situated in the broad valley of Laguna 
Creek, 9 or 10 miles below the mouth of Marsh Pass. North of the 
post rise the jagged red-sandstone peaks of the “ South Comb,” over 
which may be seen the top of “ El Capitan,” an enormous isolated 
pinnacle of black basalt. To the south the valley is closed in by the 
flanks of the Black Mesa (the “ Zith-Le-Jini” of the maps). Be- 
tween the Kayenta district and the Colorado River to the west and 
northwest is the Navaho Mountain plateau, from which radiate num- 
berless tortuous and steep-walled canyons. The exploration of these 
canyons has scarcely been begun, but the energy of Mr. Wetherill 
and Professor Cummings has already disclosed in them such archeo- 
logical treasures as the cliff-houses of Sagi and Nitsi Canyons and 
such geological wonders as the Rainbow Natural Bridge. 
As the Sagi and Nitsi cliff-houses were, and still are, being investi- 
gated by Professor Cummings, the authors chose for their work the 
Monumental Valley district to the north of Kayenta. About the 
middle of the first season, however, the water supply in the Monu- 
ments failed, and at the suggestion of Professor Cummings, who 
happened to be at Kayenta at the time, we took up the exploration 
of the Skeleton Mesa and Marsh Pass regions. This occupied us 
during the second half of the first season and the whole of the second. 
