MINDELEFF] NAVAHO AND HOPI TRADITIONS 191 
made, for more than 99 Navaho in 100, when asked what became of the 
people who built the old houses in De Chelly, will state that a great 
wind arose and swept them all away, which is equivalent to saying that 
they do not know. There is a tradition in the Navaho tribe, however, 
now very difficult to get, as it is confined to a few of the old priests. It 
recites the occupancy of the canyon before the Navaho obtained posses- 
sion of it, but, curiously enough, this period is placed after the Spanish 
invasion. It is even asserted that there were monks in De Chelly, and 
Mummy Cave, Casa Blanca, and one other ruin have been pointed out 
as the places where they were stationed. No version of this tradition 
definite and complete enough for publication could be obtained by the 
writer, but Dr Washington Matthews, U. S. A., whose knowledge of 
Navaho myths and traditions is so great that it can almost be termed 
exhaustive, has obtained one and doubtless will publish it. 
The Hopi or Moki Indians, whose villages are some three days’ 
journey to the west, have also very definite traditions bearing on the 
occupaney of De Cheliy.! This tribe, like others, is composed of a 
number of related clans who reached their present location from various 
directions and at various times; but, with a few exceptions, each of 
these clans claims to have lived at one time or another in Canyon de 
Chelly. How much truth there is in these claims can be determined 
only when the entire region has been examined and thoroughly studied. 
In the meantime it will probably be safe to assume that some, at least, 
of the ruins in De Chelly are of Hopi origin. 
CONCLUSIONS 
To understand the ruins so profusely scattered over the ancient 
pueblo country we must have some knowledge of the conditions under 
which their inhabitants lived. Were nothing at all known, however, 
we would be justified in inferring, from the results that have been pro- 
duced, a similarity of conditions with those prevailing among the pueblo 
tribes, both formerly and now; and all the evidence so far obtained 
would support that inference. There is no warrant whatever for the 
-old assumption that the “ cliff dwellers” were a separate race, and the 
cliff dwellings must be regarded as only a phase of pueblo architecture. 
More or less speculation regarding the origin of pueblo culture is the 
usual and perhaps proper accompaniment of nearly all treatises bearing 
on that subject. Early writers on the Aztec culture, aided by a vague 
tradition of that tribe that they came from the north, pushed the point 
of emigration farther and farther and still farther north, until finally 
the pueblo country was reached. Pueblo ruins are even now known 
locally as “Aztec ruins.” Logically the inhabited villages should be 
classed as “Aztee colonies,” and such classification was not unusual 
when the country came into the possession of the United States some 
fifty years ago. 

tA résumé of the Hopi traditions was prepared by the writer from material collected by the late 
A.M. Stephen, and published as chapter ili of ‘‘A study of Pueblo architecture,” op. cit. 
