92 THE CLIFF RUINS OF CANYON DE CHELLY _ [etH.ann.16 
about that some of the inhabitants would remain there all the year. 
Eventually the temporary settlement might outgrow the parent, and 
would in turn put out other temporary settlements. This process 
would be possible only during prolonged periods of peace, but it is 
known to have taken place in several regions. Necessarily hundreds 
of small settlements, ranging in size from one room to a great many, 
would be established, and as the population moved onward would be 
abandoned, without ever developing into regular villages occupied 
all the year. It is believed that many of the single house remains of 
Mr Bandelier’s classification! belong to this type, as do also many cavate 
lodges, and in the present paper it will be shown that some at least of 
the cliff ruins belong to the same category. 
The cliff ruins are a striking feature, and the ordinary traveler is apt 
to overlook the more important ruins which sometimes, if not gener- 
ally, are associated with them. The study of the ruins in Canyon de 
Chelly has led to the conclusion that the cliff ruins there are generally 
subordinate structures, connected with and inhabited at the same time 
as a number of larger home villages located on the canyon bottom, and 
occupying much the same relation to the latter that Moen-kapi does 
to Oraibi, or that Nutria, Pescado, and Ojo Caliente do to Zuni; and 
that they are the functional analogues of the “ watch towers” of the 
San Juan and of Zuni, and the brush shelters or “ kisis” of Tusayan: 
in other words, they were horticultural outlooks occupied only during 
the farming season. 
Mr G. Nordenskiéld, who examined a number of cliff and other ruins 
in the Mancos canyon and the Mesa Verde region, adopts” a very simple 
classification, as follows: 
I. Ruins in the valieys, on the plains, or on the plateaus. 
Il. Ruins in caves in the walls of the canyons, subdivided as follows: 
(a) Cave dwellings, or caves inhabited without the erection of any buildings 
within them. 
(b) Cliff dwellings, or buildings erected in caves. 
From its topographic character it might be expected that the Canyon 
de Chelly ruins would hardly come within a scheme of classification 
based upon those found in the open country; and here, if anywhere, we 
should find corroboration of the old idea that the cliff ruins were the 
homes and last refuge of a race harassed by powerful enemies and finally 
driven to the construction of dwellings in inaccessible cliffs, where 
a last ineffectual stand was made against their foes; or the more recent 
theory that they represent an early stage in the development of pueblo 
architecture, when the pueblo builders were few in number and sur- 
rounded by numerous enemies. Neither of these theories are in accord 
with the facts of observation. The still later idea that the cliff dwell- 
ings were used as places of refuge by various pueblo tribes who, when 


1See a paper by the author on ‘‘Aboriginal remains in Verde valley, Arizona,’ in 13th Ann. 
Rept. Burean of Ethnology, p. 179 et seq. 
?The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde, pp. 9 and 114. 
