aring on certain Tusayan traditions. It is claimed by the
traditionists of Walpi, especially those of the Patki[3] or
Water-house phratry, that their ancestors came from a land far to the
south of Tusayan, to which they give the name Palatkwabi. The
situation of this mythic place is a matter of considerable conjecture,
but it was thought that an archeological examination of the country at
or near the headwaters of the Rio Verde and its tributaries might shed
light on this tradition.

It is not claimed, however, that all the ancestors of the Tusayan
people migrated from the south, nor do I believe that those who came
from that direction necessarily passed through Verde valley. Some, no
doubt, came from Tonto Basin, but I believe it can be shown that a
continuous line of ruins, similar in details of architecture, extend
along this river from its junction with Salt river to well-established
prehistoric dwelling places of the Hopi people. Similar lines may
likewise be traced along other northern tributaries of the Salt or the
Gila, which may be found to indicate early migration stages.

The ruins of Verde valley were discovered in 1854 by Antoine Leroux, a
celebrated guide and trapper of his time, and were thus described by
Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner in the following year:

The river banks were covered with ruins of stone houses and
regular fortifications; which, he [Leroux] says, appeared to
have been the work of civilized men, but had not been
occupied for centuries. They were built upon the most
fertile tracts of the valley, where were signs of acequias
and of cultivation. The walls were of solid masonry, of
rectangular form, some twenty or thirty paces in length, and
yet remaining ten or fifteen feet in height. The buildings
were of two stories, with small apertures or loopholes for
defence when besieged.... In other respects, however, Leroux
says that they reminded him of the great pueblos of the
Moquinos.[4]

A fragment of folklore, which is widely distributed among both the
aboriginal peoples of Gila valley and the modern Tusayan Indians,
recounts how the latter were at one time in communication with the
people of the south, and traditions of both distinctly connect the
sedentary people of Tusayan with those who formerly inhabited the
great pueblos, now in ruins, dotting the plain in the delta between
Gila and Salt rivers. That archeology might give va