| Navajo National Monument | |
|---|---|
IUCN category III (natural monument or feature)
| |
Keet Seel cliff dwellings
| |
  | |
| Location | Navajo & Coconino counties, Arizona, USA |
| Nearest city | Kayenta, Arizona |
| Coordinates | 36°40′42″N 110°32′27″WCoordinates: 36°40′42″N 110°32′27″W |
| Area | 360 acres (150 ha) |
| Created | March 20, 1909 |
| Visitors | 61,195 (in 2018) |
| Governing body | National Park Service |
| Website | Navajo National Monument |
Navajo National Monument
| |
| NRHP reference No. | 66000176 |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
Navajo National Monument is a National Monument located within the northwest portion of the Navajo Nation territory in northern Arizona, which was established to preserve three well-preserved cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloan People: Keet Seel (Broken Pottery) (Kitsʼiil), Betatakin (Ledge House) (Bitátʼahkin), and Inscription House (Tsʼah Biiʼ Kin). The monument is high on the Shonto plateau, overlooking the Tsegi Canyon system, west of Kayenta, Arizona. It features a visitor center with a museum, two short self-guided mesa top trails, two small campgrounds, and a picnic area. Rangers guide visitors on free tours of the Keet Seel and Betatakin cliff dwellings. The Inscription House site, further west, is currently closed to public access.
The Sandal Trail is an accessible self-guided walk that provides views of the spectacular canyonlands and rugged topography near the visitor center. Interpretive signs provide information on local flora and other topics. The 1-mile (1.6 km) round-trip trail ends at an overlook of the Betatakin ruins across the 560-foot-deep (170 m) Betatakin Canyon. The National Monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.
Keet Seel
Keet Seel or Kiet Siel (Kįtsʼiil), which stands for "broken pottery scattered around" in Navajo, is a well preserved cliff dwelling of the ancient Anasazi (ancestral puebloans) people located in a branch of the Tsegi Canyon
in the Kayenta region. The site was first occupied at around 1250,
during a time in which a large number of people were believed to be
aggregating in sites such as this in this part of the American
Southwest. There was a construction boom at Keet Seel between 1272 and
1275, with construction then slowly tapering off and halting completely
at 1286. Once construction halted in 1286, there was no evidence of
structures being built until its subsequent abandonment some 20 years
later. It is believed that, at its peak, up to 150 people inhabited this
site at one time. Due to the extremely dry climate and natural
overhanging cliff the site's dwellings and artifacts are well preserved.
Keet Seel is considered by many archaeological experts to be one of the
best preserved larger ruins in the American Southwest.
Betatakin
Betatakin means "House Built on a Ledge" in Navajo. In Hopi, the name of the place is Talastima, or "Place of the Corn Tassel".
Betatakin is smaller than nearby Keet Seel, with about 120 rooms at the
time of abandonment. However, like Keet Seel, Betatakin was constructed
of sandstone, mud mortar, and wood. Today only about 80 rooms remain,
due to rock falls inside the alcove. Betatakin only has one kiva,
whereas Kiet Siel has several. Betatakin was built in an enormous
alcove measuring 452 feet high and 370 feet across between 1267 and 1286 The first excavations occurred in 1909 under Byron Cummings, University of Utah, and continued into the 1950s and 1960s under archaeologists like Jeffery Dean. During its two-decade heyday Dean estimated a maximum population of about 125 people.
Discovery
The
site of Keet Seel was known to resident Navajos in the area for decades
or longer prior to the first Anglos arriving in 1895 (the Wetherill
brothers). Originally part of a ranching family from Colorado, the
Wetherills' keen interest in the ancient Anasazi (ancestral puebloans)
led them to pursue numerous expeditions into the heart of the Kayenta
region, largely uncovering a number of sites that had remained
undiscovered to Anglos until then. The Wetherills took many artifacts
from the ruins which the Navajos had left untouched for centuries. Richard Wetherill
is credited for selecting the term Anasazi, which refers to the ancient
people (ancestral puebloans) that inhabited this region and means
"Revered Ancestors" in Navajo. It was not until 1909, after Navajo
National Monument was created, that John Wetherill, Byron Cummings, and
Navajo guide Clatsozen Benully first recorded Betatakin.
The Wetherill Brothers made a living from giving guided tours of sites
in and around the Tsegi Canyon and Utah. Later in their careers, the
Wetherill brothers were largely involved in efforts for the preservation
and protection of the sites that made up Navajo National Monument. The
artifacts which the Wetherills had removed from the Anasazi sites were
sold or shipped to far-flung locations so that today little is known of
the artifacts' whereabouts.
Subsistence
The
Anasazi (ancestral puebloans) of this area were a sedentary group that
largely based their subsistence on agriculture. Their primary crop at
the sites within Navajo National Monument was maize, with beans and cucurbits
also being incorporated into their diet. While the people of the Tsegi
Canyon system relied heavily on agriculture for their food, they also
hunted wild game that was indigenous to the area.
It is thought that these Anasazi people lived in these cave
dwellings to optimize the amount of sustainable land to produce crops.
By living in these caves, and not on the mesas or the canyon floors,
they were able to use this land towards agricultural production to
ensure their success in this high elevation, desert environment. The
ruins that make up Navajo National Monument were a large number of rooms
used for storage, suggesting that at some point their crop production
was successful enough to dedicate a significant amount of their living
area towards storage purposes.
Dwellings/Architecture
Betatakin ruins in Betatakin Canyon.
The structures contained within this cave site were constructed
mainly of sandstone blocks plastered together with mud and mortar. In
marked contrast to earlier constructions and villages on top of the
mesas, the cliff dwelling of Navajo National Monument reflected a
region-wide trend towards the aggregation of growing regional
populations into close, highly defensible quarters during the mid to
late 13th century.
While much of the construction in this site remains similar to
common ancestral Pueblo architectural forms, including such features as Kivas,
a circular tower (at Keet Seel), and pit-houses, the limited space that
this site presented created a much more densely populated living area.
At its peak, Keet Seel had more than 150 rooms and 6 kivas, while
Betatakin had about 120 rooms and only one kiva.
Jacal
walls were also found to be used at this site. Jacal walls were made
from a screen of upright wooden poles plastered together with mud. The
dry conditions and protection from the elements at Keet Seel allowed for
preservation of these architectural characteristics.
There were also a number of structures believed to be built at
the base of the cliff as well. But due to this area not being protected
by the over-hanging cliff wall, its exposure to the elements led to its
destruction by erosion. At Keet Seel, archaeological excavations have
revealed that there were 25 room clusters beneath the overhanging wall,
each that included one common living room, with anywhere from one to
four storage rooms surrounding a small courtyard. The layout of these
dwellings greatly mirrored that of the Pueblo III structures at Mesa Verde, whereas Betatakin had about 20 room clusters.
Abandonment
Although
many archaeologists agree that there is a definitive and sharp exodus
from this region in the Southwest, there has been considerable debate on
the determining factors that forced people to migrate out of this area.
Archaeologists have determined that there was a distinct decrease in
the amount of annual precipitation between AD 1276 and 1299, a period of
time that is now referred to as the "Great Drought". With the limited
amount of rainfall in an already arid environment, there is no doubt
that there was a considerable amount of increased stress put on the
agricultural systems that these people depended on.
There is evidence later in the record to suggest the beginning of
an episode of deep arroyo cutting, that would have damaged what was
left of the usable agricultural land. Increased deposition of sediment
onto agricultural lands caused the lowering of the water table, thus
making the land inadequate for farming. Regardless of their reasoning,
near the end of the thirteenth century it's evident that the
Anasazi(ancestral puebloans) people migrated towards places with more
stable and abundant water sources, suggesting that the agricultural land
in this area had become unsuitable to sustain the population levels
that once inhabited this spectacular cave site.
Hopi legends tell a different tale. According to oral tradition, the area known as Wunuqa (modern day Tsegi Canyon) was abandoned as part of a spiritual quest.
In particular, the Snake Clan inhabited the Navajo National Monument
ruins, along with the Horn Clan. The Horn Clan forced the Snake Clan
out, due to the children of the Snake Clan biting other children and
causing death. This may be an allegory for some historical occurrence, in which one group forced another out for a perceived fault or slight.
