CHAPTER VII. 
RUINS OF HOUSES OF THE SEDENTARY INDIANS OF THE SAN JUAN 
RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 
The finest structures of the Village Indiansin New Mexico, and northward 
of its present boundary line, are found on the San Juan and its tributaries, 
unoccupied and in ruins. Even the regions in which they are principally 
situated are not now occupied by this class of Indians, but are roamed over 
by wild tribes of the Apaches and the Utes. The most conspicuous cluster 
of these ruined and deserted pueblos are in the canon or valley of the Rio 
Chaco, which stream is an affluent of the San Juan, a tributary of the Colo- 
rado. Similar ruins of stone pueblos are also found in the valley of the 
Animas River, and also in the region of the Ute Mountain in Southwestern 
Colorado. Ruins of clusters of small single houses built of cobble-stone 
and adobe mortar, and of large pueblos of the same material, are to be 
seen in the La Plata Valley, and in the Montezuma Valley, west of the 
Mancos River. On the Mancos River are a large number of cliff houses of 
stone, and also round towers of stone, ot which the uses are not at present 
known. Cliff houses are also found on the Dolores River. Other ruins are 
found in the canon of the Rio de Chelly. 
The supposition is reasonable that the Village Indians north of Mexico 
had attained their highest culture and development where these stone struc- 
tures are found. They are similar in style and plan to the present occu- 
pied pueblos in New Mexico, but superior in construction, as stone is supe- 
rior to adobe or to cobble-stone and adobe mortar. They are also equal, if 
not superior, in size and in the extent of their accommodations, to any Indian 
pueblos ever constructed in North America. This fact gives additional 
interest to these ruins, which are here to be considered. 
154 
