As already said, it is admitted that the
Snake were the first occupants of this region, but beyond that fact the
traditions are contradictory and confused. It is probable, however, that
not long after the arrival of the Horn, the Squash people came from the
south and built a village on the Middle Mesa, the ruin of which is
called Chukubi. It is on the edge of the cliff on the east side of the
neck of that mesa, and a short distance south of the direct trail
leading from Walpi to Oraibi. The Squash people say that they came from
Pal?t Kwabi, the Red Land in the far South, and this vague term
expresses nearly all their knowledge of that traditional land. They say
they lived for a long time in the valley of the Colorado Chiquito,
on the south side of that stream and not far from the point where the
railway crosses it. They still distinguish the ruin of their early
village there, which was built as usual on the brink of a canyon, and
call it Et?ps?kya, after a shrub that grows there profusely. They
crossed the river opposite that place, but built no permanent houses
until they reached the vicinity of Chukubi, near which two smaller
clusters of ruins, on knolls, mark the sites of dwellings which they
claim to have been theirs. Three groups (nyumu) traveling together were
the next to follow them; these were the Bear, the Bear-skin-rope, and
the Blue Jay. They are said to have been very numerous, and to have come
from the vicinity of San Francisco Mountain.
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