AKT. 5 EXCAVATION AND REPAIR OF BETATAKIN JUDD 6 



tions we experienced might easily have forced early abandonment 

 of our undertaking except for the cordial cooperation of Mr. and 

 Mrs. John Wetherill and Mr. Clyde Colville, of Kayenta. To these 

 good friends I make public acknowledgment of my appreciation, 

 however tardily. As with other transients before and since, Mr. and 

 Mrs. Wetherill welcomed me whole-heartedly into their hospitable 

 home; drew generously from their family larder at times of urgent 

 need, and persuaded reluctant Navajo into our service when my own 

 efforts failed. 



I have said our task was left unfinished. The special appropria- 

 tion cited in the first paragraph above was intended to cover the 

 major ruins of Navajo National Monument. There are three such — 

 Betatakin, Keet Seel, and Inscription House. We concentrated upon 

 the first of these. The work there accomplished will be apparent 

 from the pages which follow. That left undone includes repair of 

 the southwest house group and adjacent retaining wall; partial 

 reconstruction of missing rooms whose former positions were plainly 

 evidenced in the east half of the cave ; basal wall repairs with cement 

 and the placement of steel tie rods in certain dwellings, as originally 

 contemplated. The cement and steel we ordered for this purpose 

 from Gallup on April 2 were not delivered in Kayenta, so impassable 

 were the muddy roads, until June 8 — too late to be relayed to 

 Betatakin and positioned. 



Since the World War and return from military service I have 

 constantly entertained the hope that additional funds might be pro- 

 vided with which to complete not only the work herein described 

 but also that intended for Keet Seel and Inscription House. It now 

 appears this hope is not soon to be realized. Fairness to those 

 coworkers who have need for certain facts at my disposal urges 

 presentation of our observations in Betatakin without further delay. 

 Of the sum designated in the act of May 18, 1916, more than one- 

 third was returned to the Treasurer of the United States, as re- 

 quired by law. This refund and the fact that it was not humanly 

 possible in 1917 to conclude the repairs contemplated by Congress, 

 seemingly would justify a new Federal appropriation to insure 

 preservation of the incomparable cliff dwellings of Navajo NationaE 

 Monument. Those ancient villages are not surpassed even by the 

 marvelous ruins of Mesa Verde National Park, Colo., visited by 

 nearly 17,000 persons in 1928 ; they stand as visible reminders of an 

 enlightened, though primitive, people who played a most important 

 part in the conquest of our arid Southwest centuries before Euro- 

 pean mariners dreamed of a New World ; they merit restoration and 

 protection as an irreplacable inheritance of our Nation from its 

 prehistoric predecessors. 



