Native American

The various peoples inhabiting Mexico and Central America in early pre-Columbian times were accustomed to record various events, especially in regard to their calendar and the religious ceremonials in relation to it, on long strips of skin or bark. These were usually painted on both sides and folded together like a screen. Several of these codices are still in existence from the Nahua and Zapotec areas in Mexico, but only three have come down to us from the Maya region which is included in the peninsula of Yucatan, the states of Tabasco and Chiapas in Mexico, and portions of Guatemala and Honduras.

The following pages contain the results of archaeological investigations carried on by the writer for the American Museum of Natural History from May to August, 1903, in the Yakima Valley between Clealum of the forested eastern slope of the Cascade Mountains and Kennewick, between the mouths of the Yakima and Snake Rivers in the treeless arid region, and in the Columbia Valley in the vicinity of Priest Rapids.

Bordering upon the United States on the extreme southwest, for a distance of more than two thousand miles, is a republic which represents a civilization possibly as old as that of Egypt; a land, notwithstanding its proximity to us, of which the average American knows less than he does of France or Italy, but which rivals them in natural picturesqueness, and nearly equals them in historic interest.

It is remarkable that this magnificent ruin (pl. 1) so long escaped knowledge of white settlers in the neighboring Montezuma valley. Cliff Palace is not mentioned in early Spanish writings, and, indeed, the first description of it was not published until about 1890.

The three manuscripts which we possess of the ancient Maya peoples of Central America, the Dresden (Dr.), the Madrid (Tro.-Cort.) and the Paris (Per.) manuscripts, all contain a series of pictorial representations of human figures, which, beyond question, should be regarded as figures of gods.

Sandoval, Hastin Tlo'tsi hee (Old Man Buffalo Grass), was the first of the four chiefs of the Navaho People. I had known him for years. In late November 1928, he came to the Mesa Verde National Park, where I was then living, for the purpose of having me record all that he knew about his people.