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Show ing the entire valley. Furthermore, these Yuman- speaking people possessed a culture strikingly like that of the earlier Patayan people. These Yumans practiced agriculture in much the same way, raising the same products, lived in domed brush and mud houses along the banks of the river, made similar reddish- brown pottery vessels, and cremated their dead. Linguistic evidence divides the Yuman peoples into two branches, the Delta and River groups, a division which is shown by archeological research to have also existed in prehistoric times. During the historic period, the Hopi Indians of northern Arizona carried on extensive trade relations with the Mohave Indians ot the Colorado River. That these trade routes were utilized in earlier times is shown by the presence of late prehistoric Hopi pottery of fourteenth century and later types in sites along the Colorado River and westward in the Mohave Desert area. From all of these indications it is highly probable that the modern Mohave and Yuma Indian tribes represent the descendants of the earlier Patayan people. However, this question cannot be definitely answered until a number of Patayan sites have been carefully excavated and thoroughly studied. The sites are small and inconspicuous, since there are no standing remains of permanently built houses. Anasazi Culture.- North and northeast of the Hohokam and Mogollon domains is the vast and rugged area which was home to the people known as the Anasazi, the ancient people, so called by the Navajo Indians who settled among the ruined villages of this culture several hundred years ago. The land appears incapable of supporting the sizeable prehistoric population indicated by the countless thousands of ruins dotting the plateau. However, the present cycle of degradation, or ar- royo- cutting, and the consequent lowering of the water table, is largely of modern origin, materially aided by overgrazing since about 1880. Formerly, within the memory of living persons, numerous tree- lined streams occurred over the plateau country, with grass thickly covering the surrounding valleys. Segie Canyon in northern Arizona illustrates this quite well. Less than 100 years ago the broad valley floor was covered with grass and trees Figure 43.- Pueblo Bonito- Chaco Canyon National Monument, N. Mex. 90 |