tations
of clouds, whirlwind, and lightning are noticed. The red ware has
disappeared, and a chocolate-colored ground takes its place.

All have noticed the superiority of the ancient pottery over that of the
present tribes. Says Prof. Putnam. "A comparison of this ancient pottery
with that made by the present inhabitants of the pueblos shows that a
great deterioration has taken place in native American art, a rule which
I think can be applied to all the more advanced tribes of America. The
remarkable hardness of all the fragments of colored pottery which
have been obtained from the vicinity of the old ruins in New Mexico,
Colorado, Arizona, and Utah, and also of the pottery of the same
character found in the ruins of adobe houses, and in caves in Utah,
shows that the ancient people understood the art of baking earthenware
far better than their probable descendants now living in the pueblos of
New Mexico and Arizona."<38>

We have learned that the remnant of an aboriginal people, now living in
the inhabited pueblos of the West, present us, in their primitive usage,
with the fading outlines of a culture once widespread in the section
of country we have examined. Many of the early sedentary tribes have
vanished completely. Traditions state that other tribes have moved
southward into regions unknown. "The picture which can be dimly traced
to-day of this past is a very modest and unpretending one. No great
cataclysms of nature, no wave of destruction on a large scale, either
natural or human, appear to have interrupted the slow and tedious
development of the people before the Spaniards came. One portion rose
while another fell, sedentary tribes disappeared or moved off, and wild
tribes roamed over the ruins of their former abode." At present but a
few pueblos are left to show us what the people once were. But the fate
of the Pueblo of Pecos hangs over them all. The rising tide of American
civilization is rapidly surrounding them. Before many decades, possibly
centuries, the present Pueblo tribes will yield to their fate. They,
too, will be numbered among the vanished races of men.

REFERENCES

(1) The manuscript of this chapter was submitted to Mr. Ad. F.
Bandelier, of Highland, Illinois. As agent for the
Archaeological Institute of America, he spent three years in
explorations in the Pueblo country.
(2) See an excellent historical account by Bandeliers: "Papers
of the Archaeological Ins