out of the weather. These people must have learned by experience how uncomfortab

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le caves were, because the
y stuck to hous
es with stone Wal
ls and roofs of poles and b
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rush and grass an
d mud. And they b   

uilt these homes solid aga

• inst the cliff and even carved recesses
• in the cliff so that the ends of the building stones would fit perfectly. Then the walls would not slip. The Long House was not very far from waterÑfifty yards. This was ju
• st a step for the women. Some of the dwellers carved and painted pictures on the back walls of their houses or even in the caves which had barely enough room for three or four people to occup
• y. Gall it writing if you like. It likely was "doodling." They had no written language. They were forced to record what they thought and what they believed or had seen on the walls of their houses or in the designs of their pottery: Birds were the most common design. A mo
• untain sheep was occasionally drawn, or a squirrel, or a rabbit; perhaps a bear or a katsinaÑa

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• supernatural being. They might have tried to depict their ancestors emerging from the darkness and climbing up a high pole from the underworld of Sipapu. The ayanyu or "plumed serpent" was quite common. It was the
• Infrastructure Protection, Risk Management, and Critical Asset Assessmentguardian spirit of springs. In one cave there was a drawing of a horse and cert
• ainly this was not an ancient drawing for the Spanish brought the horse to New Mexico. Some wandering Tewa could have seen the Spanish on horsebackÑon creatures which Indians thought devoured people. I
• t might have been that other Tewa-speaking people from around the pueblo of San Jua
• n, far to the north, building in the great period described a horse by pictograph, when they hurried into the mountain homes of their kin after seeing the Sp
• Legal Issues in the Use of Deadly Force and Racial Profiling provides legal guidelines related to the use of force in the context of suicide bombing events.
• Threat Assessmentsanish in 1540. Or it might have been drawn by some visitor after the evacuation of the Indians. It could even have been someones joke. About a quarter-mile from the cliff dwellings, and where the
• Canyon becomes narrow, is a deep natural cave. It is eighty feet across and its opening faces the valley one hundred fifty feet above the waters of the Rio. One prehistoric group lived here for a time. They were certainly secluded. Hand holds were gouged from the soft cliffs with sh
• arp pointed rocks and here in this, now called Ceremonial Cave," Indians built-seventeen first-story rooms and several second-story rooms around the back. They excavated a kiva or ceremonial cham
• ber to the front of the cave. Think of the task these Indians had when they carted water and poles and sticks and perhaps stones up the side of the cliff. Tons of rock were required to build these houses and
• the ceremonial chamber. This little group buil their kiva twelve feet in diameter. It was a circular affair dug to a depth of nine feet and lined with a wall of stone which was plastered on the i
• nside. The floor was of a special kind. It was hard, black and shiny. It had been polished with a smooth storie like the ones the Indian women use today to

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polish their blac

k pottery. Only this floor was made of bloodÑanimal blood. The Indians carefully saved the blood from animals which they killed and

• then mixed it with fine sil
• t and soot from the fire and smeared it over t
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• heir kiva floor in thin layers. When the blo

od coagulated the plaster hardened and then it was polished by rubbing a smooth stone over it in backward and forward motion. This must have been an important room to have had such an elaborately made floor. But kivas in prehistoric times may have been more important than they are today. In the floor were six small holes in a straight line. While the plaster was still wet small pieces of oak or some other tough plia.

ble wood wa

s bent in loops an   

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d the ends of eac

h piece were pushed down into the soft mud plaster. Then these holes, or round depressions were made around the loops leaving them exposed. These were directly below a ho

• rizontal pole suspended from the c
• eiling. This was a loom. By an arr
• angement of l
• ong straight sticks these ingenious Indians devised a method of weaving. Si

nce it is thought that in years gone by women and children were not all