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Show THE SEARCH FOR DINETAH 65 reaching northern Colorado by a.d. 1300. They tended to follow a northeastern path along the Wasatch Mountains. They moved east into the more rugged and less favored San Juan country at a slower pace. Because they moved into the San Juan region slowly, these people were probably not in a position to pressure the Anasazi. More likely, they competed for the use of Athabascan hunting and gathering lands. In this way, they put pressure on the Navajos, who were between them and the Anasazi. This would have driven the Navajos into lands that were densely settled by Anasazi groups. Pressure from both groups could explain, in part, why the Anasazi withdrew from the area. It also may have set in motion the land conflicts between the Utes and Navajos that were to become serious later, in the Spanish period. This explanation of the conflict agrees with Navajo oral traditions that the People were in the Southwest when Chetro Ketl was built and, later, abandoned. It also fits with the belief that Flint Way was begun at the Sun Temple at Mesa Verde. Navajo culture during this period is not well known. Small rites may have slowly grown into larger chantways like Flint Way and Male Shooting Way, Mountain Way, and Beauty Way at this time. These related chants use hunting and agricultural symbols in more equal numbers than later chants do. They feature Bear and Snake, who are some of the oldest figures in Navajo religion. One Navajo said that a group of chants began at the same time as Male Shooting Way near Mesa Verde. These included the Wind, Hail, Water, and Plume Ways. Enemy Way probably also developed at this time. It links the very old Monster Way stories brought from Canada with the later Mountain and Beauty Ways. Enemy Way may have come from a more basic war rite that was learned on the northern Plains and included painting the face black. Such a ritual shows that the Navajos' long journey included constant warfare. After A.D. 1300, the Navajos roamed in small bands throughout the area of northeastern New Mexico and the Four Corners. Often they had to contest the La Plata Mountains with the Utes. Some of the Navajos' kinsmen, perhaps the ancestors of the Western Apaches, had also come down through the intermountain area. They lived in Arizona, east of the Colorado River and north of the Gila River. The Navajos and Apaches probably raided isolated settlements like Awatobi and the older, more remote Zuni |