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Show ORIGIN Pera AND HISTORY OF FIRST INHABITANTS 41 No article of any consequence, of any description, has been found in any of the ruins in New Mexico, other thar. those taken from the cemeteries on the Pajarito plateau, which may not be traced in a degree to a similar one in the handiwork of the present Pueblos, except in this: in their pottery art the influence of the Spaniard and his customs and even the American succession are apparent. The pottery found in the neighborhood of nearly every pueblo ruin, particularly that which has been taken from the ruins in the valleys, although it does differ somewhat in decorative motive, still is nothing else than the pottery of the Pueblos made prior to Spanish invasion and occupancy. The Indian is an imitator, and this characteristic is most prominently exhibited when the pottery of successive periods is carefully and scientifically compared. It is my unqualified judgment that the vast majority of ruined pueblos in New Mexico were at one time inhabited by the ancestors of the present Pueblo Indian; that the cause of destruction of most of them may be attributed to the Apache, the Ute, the Navajo, and the Comanche.?> The pueblo of Acoma, the best of them all, is Indian learned to attack at night. sence, and the prevalence Lastly, the abundance of game, or its ab- plants, influenced of certain nutritive or medicinal the choice of locations. ‘‘The abandonment of villages has been due to various causes. Thus, the Te-was of Santa Clara, assert that their ancestors dwelt in the clusters of artificial grottos excavated in cliffs of pumice-stone west of the Rio Grande. The cave villages of the Pu-yé those of their own people. these elevated and sparsely and Shu-fin-né are claimed by the Te-was as A few years watered of drought places, and compelled to descend them upon to abandon the river banks, where they had resort to irrigation for raising their crops, whereas at the caves they grew corn and squashes by means of the rains alone. ‘The Queres of Cochiti positively state that similar artificial caves which line the walls of the Rito de los Frijoles, or Ty-u-on-yi, were formerly the habitations of their tribe, and that constant hostilities of the Te-was and the Navajé6s, as well as the gradual disintegration of the very friable rock, compelled their abandonment. The latter is very plainly visible. In proportion as the material is easy to work, it deteriorates easily and crumbles. The ma- jority of such caves have fallen in on the front, and against such accidents there was no remedy.’’ Mr. Bandelier overlooks the fact that there may have been more than one occupation of the caves and cliff-dwellings of the Pajarito plateau. The aneestors of the Te-was and those of the Keres may have occupied the places named, and still not be the original builders of the cliff habitations. Late ex- cavations have shown two floors in some of the rooms, one on top of the other, the one above covering up the absolute proof of a prior occupation, corn stalks, corn, and other evidences of an agricultural people. 25 Smith, varado Buckingham, and Fr. Juan Referring Florida, de Padilla to the destroyed p. 65. Discovered pueblos which Account going of what in Search Hernando de Al- of the South Sea. he saw in the Rio Grande-Tiguex, |