MINDELEFFj 



CONCLUSIONS. 319 



The methods employed in the construction of the buildings of the 

 Casa Grande were thoroughly aboriginal and characteristically rude iu 

 application. A fair degree of adaptability to purpose and environment 

 is seen, indicating that the Gasa Grande was one, and not the first, 

 building of a series constructed by the people who erected it and by 

 their ancestors, but the degree of skill exhibited and amount of inger 

 unity shown iu overcoming difficulties do not compare with that found 

 in many northern ruins. As architects, the inhabitants of the Casa 

 Grande did not occupy the first rank among pueblo-builders. 



It is probable that the Casa Grande ruin as we see it today shows 

 very nearly the full height of the structure as it stood when it was 

 abandoned. The middle tier of rooms rose to a height of three stories; 

 the others were but two stories high. It is also probable that the 

 building was enlarged after being once completed and occupied. At 

 one time it probably consisted of four rooms on the ground plan, each 

 two stories high. The northern tier of rooms was added afterward, 

 and probably also the third room in the central tier. 



The Casa Grande was undoubtedly built and occupied by a branch 

 of the Pueblo race, or by an allied people. Who these people were it 

 is impossible to determine finally from the examination of one ruin, but 

 all the evidence at hand suggests that they were the ancestors of the 

 present Pima Indians, now found in the vicinity and known to have 

 formerly been a pueblo-building tribe. This conclusion is supported 

 by the Pima traditions, as collected by Mr. Bandelier, who is intimately 

 acquainted with the documentary history of the southwest, and whose 

 knowledge of the Pima traditions is perhaps greater than that of any- 

 one else now living. In his vai-ious writings he hints at this connec- 

 tion, and in one place he declares explicitly that the Casa Grande is a 

 Pima structure. None of the internal evidence of the ruin is at vari- 

 ance with this conclusion. On the contrary, the .scanty evidence is 

 iu accord with the hypothesis that the Casa Grande was erected and 

 occupied by the ancestors of the Pima Indians. 



