came in conflict with Bear clans who were entering the
province from the east. Certain it is that if the Kokop people once
inhabited Fire-house they must have been joined by other clans when
they lived at Sikyatki, for the mounds of this pueblo indicate a
village much larger than the round ruin on the brink of the mesa
northeast of Keam's canyon. The general ground plan of the ruin
indicates an inclosed court with surrounding tiers of houses,
suggesting the eastern type of pueblo architecture.

The traditional knowledge of the destruction of Sikyatki is very
limited among the present Hopi, but the best folklorists all claim
that it was destroyed by warriors from Walpi and possibly from Middle
Mesa. Awatobi seems not to have taken part in the tragedy, while Hano
and Sichomovi did not exist when the catastrophe took place.

The cause of the destruction of Sikyatki is not clearly known, and
probably was hardly commensurate with the result. Its proximity to
Walpi may have led to disputes over the boundaries of fields or the
ownership of the scanty water supply. The people who lived there were
intruders and belonged to clans not represented in Walpi, which in all
probability kept hostility alive. The early Tusayan peoples did not
readily assimilate, but quarreled with one another even when sorely
oppressed by common enemies.

There is current in Walpi a romantic story connected with the
overthrow of Sikyatki. It is said that a son of a prominent chief,
disguised as a _katcina_, offered a prayer-stick to a maiden, and as
she received it he cut her throat with a stone knife. He is said to
have escaped to the mesa top and to have made his way along its edge
to his own town, taunting his pursuers. It is also related that the
Walpians fell upon the village of Sikyatki to avenge this bloody deed,
but it is much more likely that there was ill feeling between the two
villages for other reasons, probably disputes about farm limits or the
control of the water supply, inflamed by other difficulties. The
inhabitants of the two pueblos came into Tusayan from different
directions, and as they may have spoken different languages and thus
have failed to understand each other, they may have been mutually
regarded as interlopers. Petty quarrels no doubt ripened into
altercations, which probably led to bloodshed. The forays of the
Apache from the south and the Ute from the north, which began at a
later period, should naturally have led to