Stephen in Chapter I. Tradition ascribes great importance to this
village. At the time of the Spanish conquest it was one of the most
prosperous of the seven "cities" of Tusayan, and was selected as the
site of a mission, a distinction shared by Walpi, which was then on a
lower spur of the first mesa, and by Shumopavi, which also was built on
a lower site than the present village of that name. Traditions referring
to this pueblo have been collected from several sources and, while
varying somewhat in less important details, they all concur in bringing
the destruction of the village well within the period of Spanish
occupation.
On the historical site, too, we know that Cruzate on the occasion of the
attempted reconquest of the country visited this village in 1692, and
the ruin must therefore be less than two centuries old, yet the
completeness of destruction is such that over most of its area no
standing wall is seen, and the outlines of the houses and groups are
indicated mainly by low ridges and masses of broken-down masonry, partly
covered by the drifting sands. The group of rooms that forms the south
east side of the pueblo is an exception to the general rule. Here
fragmentary walls of rough masonry stand to a height, in some cases, of
8 feet above the d?bris. The character of the stonework, as may be seen
from Pl. V, is but little better than that of the modern villages. This
better preserved portion of the village seems to have formed part of a
cluster of mission buildings.
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