frequently enter the park, but they cannot
be persuaded to approach the cliff-dwellings. The "little people," they
tell you, live there, and neither teaching nor example will convince
them that these invisible inhabitants will not injure intruders. Some
of these Indians allege that it was their own ancestors who built the
cliff-dwellings, but there is neither record nor tradition to support
such a claim. The fact appears to be that the Utes were the ancient
enemies of this people. There is a Ute tradition of a victory over the
ancient pueblo-dwellers at Battle Rock in McElmo Canyon.

There are, on the other hand, many reasons for the opinion that the Hopi
Indians of the present day, so far at least as culture goes, are
descendants of this remarkable prehistoric people. Besides the many
similarities between the architectural types of the Mesa Verde and the
pueblos of the modern Hopi, careful investigators have found suggestive
points of similarity in their utensils, their art forms, and their
customs. Doctor Fewkes cites a Hopi tradition to that effect by
mentioning the visit of a Hopi courier a few years ago to prehistoric
ruins in the Navajo National Monument to obtain water from an ancestral
spring for use in a Hopi religious ceremonial. If these traditions are
founded in fact, the promising civilization of the Mesa Verde has sadly
retrograded in its transplanting. Hopi architecture and masonry shows
marked retrogression from the splendid types of the Mesa Verde.

When the telephone-line was under construction to connect the park with
the outside world, the Indians from the adjoining Ute reservation became
suspicious and restless. Upon hearing its purpose, they begged the
superintendent not to go on with the work, which was certain to bring
evil to the neighborhood.

"The little people," they solemnly declared, "will not like it."

They assured the superintendent that the wires would not talk.

"The little people will not let them talk," they told him.

But the line was completed and the wires talked.

The park is reached by motor and rail. From Denver, Salt Lake City, and
Santa Fe railroad routes offer choice of some of the biggest country of
the Rockies. From either direction a night is spent en route in a
mountain mining-town, an experience which has its usefulness in
preparation for the contrasted and unusual experience to come. Entrance
is through Mancos, from which motor-stages thread the maze of canyons