FEWKE.*] VIRGIN GROUND OF CHAVES PASS RUINS 33 



are elevated above tlie trail through the pass, and from their house 

 tops the observer can look across the valley, iu which flows the Little 

 Colorado, to the Hopi buttes, far to the north. 



Their name, Tciibkwitcalobi, is derived from tciibio, antelope, 

 kwitcala, notch, and ohi, locative. The Navaho name Jettipehika has 

 the same meaning. Both names were due to the fact that the pueblo 

 la3' in mountains where no short time ago antelope were abundant. 



During his stay in Winslow the authoi- heard much about the ruins 

 in Chaves pass and often gazed at the distant southern mountains, 

 which particularly interested him as the possible gateway to Palatk- 

 wabi, the Red land of the South. Chaves pass was fascinating iu its 

 archeological jiossibilities, for it was one of the few breaks iu the 

 rugged MogoUones through which ancient migrations could have been 

 made. Accordingly, after examining the ruin at the mouth of CheA'- 

 lon fork, the author outlitted for a reeonnoissance of the ruins wliich 

 he exijected to find in the pass. 



It need hardly be said that this was virgin ground for archeological 

 work. Xo one, so far as is known, has ever mentioned these aborigiual 

 habitations, which is not strange, considering the gi-eat number of 

 undescribed ruins in this part of Arizona. Ruins at this point were 

 especially interesting from the fact of their elevation and their jjosi- 

 tion almost on the crest of the watershed of two great valleys, the 

 Little Colorado and Gila, both of which were sites of large populations 

 in prehistoric times. It is highly important to discover whether they 

 furnish a connecting link l)etween the two regious. There can be 

 little doubt that the trail through the pass is an old one, and that it 

 was used in the migrations of Indians. 



The two ruins at Chaves pass were built of the lava rock so abund- 

 ant in this region. The larger must have been a puelilo of consider- 

 able size, and covers an area mucli larger than any of the Homolobi 

 group except ruin 2. The elevation on which it is built is consider- 

 ably longer than wide, sloping abruptly, but is easj- of access on all 

 sides. The ruin is apparently of the rectangular tj^pe, with inclosed 

 courts. It is composed of two house clusters connected by a range 

 of rooms one and two' series deep. Its rooms are square, and their 

 outlines can be readily traced, though they are much obscured by 

 fallen walls. In general type there is a close resemblance between 

 the Chaves pass and Verde valley ruins. 



Some attention was given to excavations in the rooms of both of 

 the ruins, but the limited work there was not rewarded with great 

 success. The walls of the rooms were built of blocks of lava j-ock, 

 wliich had tumbled into the inclosures, and it was necessarj- to remove 

 tliese before the flooi's were reached. Very little sand had drifted 

 into the rooms on account of their elevated site, and the outlines of the 

 rooms and the contours of the walls could be readily traced. No 



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