i had regular kivas, partially subterranean, of rectangular
shape, and that they were situated in open courts. This would indicate
that the space east of the oldest part of the ruin may have been the
sites of these chambers. The old priests whom I have consulted in
regard to the probable positions of Awatobi kivas have invariably
pointed out the mounds north of the mission walls in the eastern
section of the ruin as the location of the kivas, and in 1892 I proved
to my satisfaction that these directions were correct.

There is no reason to suppose that the kiva was a necessity in the
ancient performance of the Tusayan ritual, and there are still
performed many ceremonials as secret and as sacred as any others which
occur in rooms used as dwellings or for the storage of corn. Thus, the
Flute ceremony, one of the most complicated in Tusayan, is not, and
according to legends never was, performed in a kiva. On the contrary,
the secret rites of the Flute society are performed in the ancestral
Flute chamber or home of the oldest woman of the Flute clan.
Originally, I believe, the same was true in the case of other
ceremonials, and that the kiva was of comparatively recent
introduction into Tusayan.[75]

Speaking of the sacred rooms of Awatobi, Mindeleff says: "No traces of
kivas were visible at the time the ruin was surveyed," but Stephen is
quoted in a legend that "the people of Walpi had partly cleaned out
one of these chambers and used it as a depository for ceremonial
plume-sticks, but the Navaho carried off their sacred deposits,
tempted probably by their market value as ethnologic specimens." It is
true that while from a superficial examination of the Awatobi mounds
the position of the kivas is difficult to locate, a little excavation
brings their walls to light. It is likewise quite probable that the
legend reported by Stephen has a basis in fact, and that the people at
Walpi may have used old shrines in Awatobi, after its destruction, as
the priests of Mishoninovi do at the present time; but I very much
doubt if the Navaho sold any of the sacred prayer emblems from these
fanes. It is hardly characteristic of these people to barter such
objects among one another, and no specimens from the shrines appear to
have made their way into the numerous collections of traders known to
me. There is, however, archeological evidence revealed by excavations
that the room centrally placed in the court north of the mission
contained