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Acculturation in the Navajo Eden:
New Mexico, 1550-1750

Table of Contents
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PART I                A Story of Three Cultures                                                             1

CHAPTER 1         The Navajo Eden: The Dinétah                                                         3
CHAPTER 2         The Eastern Ancestral Puebloans                                                    23
CHAPTER 3         The Spaniards Enter and Settle, 1540–1700                                   94
CHAPTER 4         The Tanoan and Keresan Rio Grande Puebloans                           134

PART II              Acculturation in the Dinétah                                                      173

CHAPTER 5         Keresan and Tanoan Religions and Societal Organizations             175
CHAPTER 6         Navajo Origin Myth and Societal Organization                              199
CHAPTER 7         Protohistoric Rio Grande Ceremonialism                                       228
CHAPTER 8         Gods of the Navajo Night Chant                                                   242
CHAPTER 9         Universal Female and Male Deities                                                288

References                                                                                                                 309
Maps                                                                                                                         323
Index of Principal Sources                                                                                          327

EXTENDED CONTENTS

PART I    A Story of Three Cultures

CHAPTER 1    The Navajo Eden: The Dinétah                                                       3 
        A Navajo Ceremonial                                                                                            3
                Dancing Gods                                                                                               3
                The Clown                                                                                                    4
                The Patient                                                                                                    4
                The Medicine Man                                                                                        4
                The Visitors                                                                                                   6
                The Night Chant                                                                                            6
        
        Naabeehó Dine-é—the Navajo People—and the Anasazi                                    7
        
        Naabeehó Bizaad, the Navajo Language                                                              8
        
        Navajo and Other Apachean Speakers                                                                 9
        
        The Dinétah, or Navajo Homeland                                                                     11
                Northwestern New Mexico                                                                         11
                The Navajo Eden                                                                                        11
                Navajo Genesis                                                                                           13
                Northeast of Eden: the Navajo Reservoir Project                                         13
                Northwest of Eden: Oil and Gas Wells                                                         14
                Navajo Pueblitos                                                                                         14
        
        When the Navajo Reached the Dinétah                                                                15
                Roque Madrid, 1705                                                                                   15
                The Rabal Documents, 1744                                                                        16
                The Ute Indians                                                                                           17
                Spanish Records, 1600s                                                                              18
                        The Chama River Valley                                                                    18
                        The Jemez Province                                                                           19
        
        Synthesis                                                                                                             20
        Notes                                                                                                                  21
        Figure Notes                                                                                                        21

CHAPTER 2    The Eastern Ancestral Puebloans                                                 23
        The Navajo View                                                                                                23
        
        The Puebloan View                                                                                             24
        
        The Archaeologist’s View                                                                                    25
        
        Cycles of Growth and Decline                                                                             25
                A Two-century Dynamic                                                                             25
                The Chaco Cycle                                                                                        26
                The Mesa Verde Cycle                                                                               26
                The Two-part Chama and Jemez Cycle                                                       26
                Sequential Cycles                                                                                        28
        
        The Eastern Puebloan Region                                                                              28
        
        Basketmakers and Pueblo Builders                                                                      30
                Basketmaker I, ca. 1500 B.C.E. to 50 C.E.                                                 31
                Basketmaker II, 50 to 500                                                                           31
                Basketmaker III, 500 to 750                                                                        32
                Pueblo I, 750 to 900                                                                                    32
                Pueblo II, 900 to 1100; Pueblo III, 1100 to 1300                                        33
        
        Mesa Verde                                                                                                        33
                The Explorers                                                                                              33
                The Discoveries at Mesa Verde                                                                   36
                        The “Green Mesa”                                                                            36
                        Cliff Palace at Chapin Mesa                                                             37
                        Spruce Tree House at Chapin Mesa                                                  40
                        Long House at Wetherill Mesa                                                          42
                        Kodak House and Others at Wetherill Mesa                                     44
        
        The Greater Mesa Verde Region, Including the Totah                                          44
        
        Mesa Verde National Park, a History                                                                  45
                1880s to 1906                                                                                            45
                The 20th Century                                                                                        46
                        The Fewkes Era                                                                                46
                        Badger House Community on Wetherill Mesa                                   48
                        Mesa-Top Ruins on Chapin Mesa                                                      49
                The 21st Century                                                                                         49
        
        Chaco Canyon                                                                                                    50
                The BM-II to P-II Environment                                                                   50
        
        Chaco Great Houses                                                                                           52
                The Explorers                                                                                              52
                        The Simpson Expedition                                                                    52
                        Richard Wetherill, the Hyde Brothers, and Pueblo Bonito                52
                        The National Geographic Society, the Smithsonian Institution,
                            and Neil M. Judd                                                                           53
                        Edgar Lee Hewett and Chetro Ketl                                                  54
                        The Chaco Project, 1971–1981                                                        55
                 Chaco Great House Discoveries                                                                 56
                        Large Sites and Great Houses                                                           56
                        The Importance of Pueblo Alto                                                         57
                        "Intrusive” Mesa-Verdeans                                                               59
                 Downtown Chaco: Pueblo del Arroyo, Pueblo Bonito, and Chetro Ketl       61
                        Pueblo del Arroyo                                                                              61
                        Chetro Ketl                                                                                        61
                        Pueblo Bonito                                                                                    63
                Downton Chaco                                                                                          67
        
        Chaco Outliers                                                                                                    68
                Aztec Ruins National Monument                                                                  68
                Salmon Ruin                                                                                                68
                Northern Outlier Communities: Chimney Rock, the Lowry Group,
                  and Far View                                                                                            72
                        Chimney Rock                                                                                    72
                        The Lowry Group                                                                              73
                        Far View on Chapin Mesa                                                                 74
                The Southern Perimeter: the Rio Puercos of the East and West                     75
                        Rio Puerco of the East                                                                       75
                        Rio Puerco of the West                                                                      75
        
        The Chama and Jemez P-IV Cycles, 1300–1540                                                 76
                The Distribution of P-III and P-IV Sites along the Northern Rio
                       Grande Valley                                                                                      76
                The Chama Valley                                                                                       78
                        The Large P-IV Chama Sites                                                             78
                        The Small P-II and P-III Chama Sites                                               81
                The Jemez Province                                                                                     82
                        The Mountainous North                                                                     82
                        The Riverine South                                                                             84
        
        The Galisteo Basin                                                                                               84
        
        Recapitulation of P-IV Eastern Ancestral Puebloans                                             88
        
        Figure Notes                                                                                                       89

CHAPTER 3    The Spaniards Enter and Settle, 1540–1700                                94
        Protohistory: A Summary                                                                                    94
        
        Entrance of the Spainards                                                                                    96
                The First Explorers, 1492–1539                                                                  96
                        Cristóbal Colón, 1492–1504                                                             96
                        Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, 1527–1536                                      101
                        Fray Marcos de Niza, 1539                                                             102
                Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, Conqueror, 1540–1542                        103
                The Minor Explorations of the Rio Grande Valley, 1581–1591                  108
                        Francisco Sánchez Chamuscado and Fray Agustín
                          Rodríquez, 1581–1582                                                                  108
                        Antonio de Espejo, 1582–1583                                                       110
                        Gaspar Castaño de Sosa, 1590–1591                                             111
                Juan de Oñate y Salazar, Colonizer, 1598–1626                                        113
        
        The Puebloans and the Settled Spaniards                                                           116
                The Benavides Era, 1626–1630                                                                116
                Growth and Repression, 1639–1661                                                         118
                The Unrest Grows, 1662–1675                                                                 122
                Popé and the Revolt of the Puebloans, 1676–1680                                    122
                Diego de Vargas in New Mexico, 1682–1704                                           125
                        His New-world Predecessors                                                           125
                        The University of New Mexico Vargas Project                              126
                        Don Diego and His Two Worlds                                                      126
                        The Spanish League—2.6 Miles                                                       128
        
        The Navajo and the Settled Spaniards                                                                128
                The “Benavides” Chama Valley Sites                                                          128
                The Puebloan Refugee Theory and a Two-phase Occupation
                  of the Dinétah                                                                                          130
        
        Figure Notes                                                                                                     132

CHAPTER 4    The Tanoan and Keresan Rio Grande Puebloans                      134
        The Tanoan Rio Grande Environment                                                                134
        
        The Tanoan Languages                                                                                      135
                The Northern Tiwa Villages                                                                       135
                The Tewa Villages                                                                                     137
                The Towa Villages                                                                                     138
        
        Tanoan Prehistory, Before 1300                                                                        140
                The Northern Tiwa, Towa, and Northern Tewa                                         140
        
        Tanoan Prehistory, 1300–1500                                                                         143
                The Northern Tiwa, Towa, and Northern Tewa                                         143
                        The Northern Tiwa                                                                          144
                        The Towa 145
                        The Northern Tewa and the Chama Valley                                     148
                        The Northern Tewa and the Pajarito Valley                                   150
        
        Recapitulation of Tanoan Ethnicity                                                                      155
        
        The Keresan Rio Grande Environment                                                               156
        
        The Keresan Language Isolate                                                                           157
        
        Keresan Prehistory, Before 1300                                                                      158
        
        Eastern Keresan Prehistory, 1300–1540                                                           158
                Frijoles Canyon of the Pajarito Plateau                                                      158
        
        Western Keresan Prehistory, 1300–1540                                                          160
                Acoma                                                                                                      163
                Santo Domingo                                                                                         163
                Cochiti and San Felipe                                                                              164
                Zia and Santa Ana                                                                                    165
        
        The Pervasive Keresan Core Culture                                                                 166
        
        Recapitulation                                                                                                   169
        
        Figure Notes                                                                                                     170

PART II             Acculturation in the Dinétah

CHAPTER 5    Keresan and Tanoan Religions and Societal Organizations     175
        Ethnographers and Informants                                                                           175
        
        The Keresan Origin Myth                                                                                 178
                Three Stages                                                                                            178
                Emergence at Sipapu                                                                                179
                        The Myths                                                                                       179
                        An Interpretation                                                                            181
                Personages of the White House Stage                                                       182
                        The Warrior Twins                                                                          182
                        The Kachinas                                                                                  183
                        The Delight-Makers, or Kossa                                                        184
                Keresan Acculturation at White House                                                      187
        
        The Keresan Present                                                                                         188
                Koshare at Keresan Pueblos                                                                     188
                Kachinas, Ogres, and Whippers                                                                189
                        Kachinas                                                                                         189
                        Ogres and Whippers                                                                        191
        
        The Tewa and Other Tanoans                                                                           194
                Moieties, not Clans                                                                                   194
                Absence of Kachinas                                                                                195
                Tewa Deities                                                                                             195
                Kossa                                                                                                       196
        
        Summary                                                                                                          197
        Figure Notes                                                                                                     197

CHAPTER 6    Navajo Origin Myth and Societal Organization                         199
        Ethnographers and Informants                                                                           199
                Washington Matthews, 1843–1905                                                           199
                Father Berard Haile, 1874–1961; Leland C. Wyman, 1897–1988             201
                Gladys Amanda Reichard, 1893–1955                                                      203
                Franc Johnson Newcomb, 1887–1970; Lefthanded, 1867–1937               204
        
        The Navajo Origin Myth                                                                                    207
                The Four Worlds of the Navajo: The Myths                                               207
                        The Black First World                                                                      207
                        The Blue Second World