These seceding bands are probably that branch of the Bears who
claim their origin in the west. Some time after this, but how long after
is not known, a plague visited the canyon, and the greater portion of
the people moved away, but leaving numbers who chose to remain. They
crossed the Chinli valley and halted for a short time at a place a short
distance northeast from Great Willow water ("Eighteen Mile Spring").
They did not remain there long, however, but moved a few miles farther
west, to a place occupied by the Fire people who lived in a large oval
house. The ruin of this house still stands, the walls from 5 to 8 feet
high, and remarkable from the large-sized blocks of stone used in their
construction; it is still known to the Hopituh as Tebvw?ki, the
Fire-house. Here some fighting occurred, and the Bears moved westward
again to the head of Antelope (Jeditoh) Canyon, about 4 miles from
Keam's Canyon and about 15 miles east from Walpi. They built there a
rambling cluster of small-roomed houses, of which the ground plan has
now become almost obliterated. This ruin is called by the Hopituh "the
ruin at the place of wild gourds." They seem to have occupied this
neighborhood for a considerable period, as mention is made of two or
three segregations, when groups of families moved a few miles away and
built similar house clusters on the brink of that canyon.
[Illustration: Plate V. Standing walls of Awatubi.]
The Fire-people, who, some say, were of the Horn people, must have
abandoned their dwelling at the Oval House or must have been driven out
at the time of their conflict with the Bears, and seem to have traveled
directly to the neighborhood of Walpi.
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