CONCLUSIONS. 



kivas' or sacred 



The ruins of the lower Verde valley represent a comparatively late 

 period in the history of the Pueblo tribes. The pei'iod of occupancy 

 was not a long one and the population was never large, probably not 

 exceeding at any time 800 or 1,000 souls, possibly less than 700; nor 

 were the dwellings in that region all occupied at the same time. 



There is no essential difference, other than those due to immediate 

 environment, between the architecture of the lower Verde region and 

 that of the more primitive types found in other regions, Tusayan for 

 example. The Verde architecture is, however, of a more purely abor- 

 iginal type than that of any modern pueblo, and the absence of intro- 

 duce3'or foreign ideas is its chief characteristic. There are no chim- 

 neysV no adobe walls, no constructive expedients other than aboriginal 

 and rather ]n-imitive ones. The absence of circular 

 council chambers is noteworthy. 

 "TClie circular kiva is a survival of an ancient type — a survival sup- 

 ported by all the power of religious feeling and the conservatism in 

 religious matters characteristic of savage and barbarous life; and while 

 most of the modern pueblos have at the present time rectangular kivas, 

 such, f or example, as those at Tusayan, at Zuni, and at Acoma, there is 

 no^oubt th at th e^circular loriii is the more primitive and was formerly 

 usecl_by some tribes which now liave only the rectangular form. Still 

 the abandonment of the circular and the adoption of the rectangular , 

 form, due to oxptMlicncy and the breaking down of old traditions, was 

 aTvery gradual process and proceeded at a different rate in different 

 parts of_the country. A t the time of the Sx^anish conquest the pre-ii 

 vaili nglV )!!!! ill the old province of Cibola was rectangular, althougU'A, 

 the circular kiva was not entirely absent; while, on the other hand, iaj) 

 the cliff' riiins of Canyon de Chelly, whose date is partly subsequent to 

 the sixteenth century, the circular kiva is the prevailing, if not the 

 exclusive furm. But notwithstanding this the Hopi Indians of Tusayan, 

 to whom many of the Canyon de Chelly ruins are to be attributed, today 

 have not a single circular kiva. The reason for this radical departure 

 from the old type is a simple one, and to be found in the single term envi- 

 ronment. The savage is truly a child of nature and almost completely 

 irnder its sway. A slight difference in the geologic formations of two 

 regions will produce a difference in the arts of the inhabitants of those 



* As this term has been already defined, it is hero used without further explanation. For a full dis- 

 cussion of these structures, see "A Study of Pueblo Architecture," by Victor llindelefl', in Rth Ann. 

 Rep. Bur. Eth., 1886-87, Washington, 1891. 



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