Wukoki Pueblo

Located in the Wupatki National Monument, the Wukoki Pueblo is a classic example of early pueblo construction. The earliest known observation of the ruins was made in 1851 during the U.S. Army exploration of Brevet Captain Lorenzo Sitgreaves. Guided by the mountain man, Antoine Leroux, the Sitgreaves party had the assignment of exploring the Zuni and Colorado River valleys. (See Anthropology Laboratories of Northern Arizona University (NAU), "History of Archaeological Studies at Wupatki")

Contrary to many of the ruins in the American Southwest, Wukoki and Wupatki, are prominently located on hills overlooking the vast stretches of the Colorado Plateau.  Wukoki in particular appears to have been strategically located for observation purposes. If there was an alert watcher on top of the towers, he or she could have seen someone coming many miles away. The site easily reminds me of the pictures I have seen of European castles. The sites for the dwellings was certainly not located for close proximity to running water, the only significant stream in the area, the Little Colorado River, is about five miles from the site of the pueblo. In this map, Wukoki is in the center of the map.The site marked "B" is the Wupatki ruin. The white line running on the right of the map is the Little Colorado River.

 If you click on the map, in the expanded view, the pueblo is located at the end of the faint road running from approximately the Wupatki pueblo towards the northeast. North is at the top of this map.

It looks like there is a fairly prominent wash just to the south and east of the site of Wukoki. I would speculate that at the time the pueblo was occupied, some of these watercourses may have held more water than they do today, meaning some instead of none.

One of the early anthropologist/archaeologists of Southwest region was Jesse Walter Fewkes who became the director of the Smithsonian's Bureau of American Ethnology in 1918. The Bureau's founding director was John Wesley Powell of Grand Canyon fame. Fewkes was one of the early educated explorers of the Wupatki pueblo complex and wrote in his book Two summers work in Pueblo ruins, (Fewkes, Jesse Walter. Two Summers Work in Pueblo Ruins. Washington: G.P.O., 1904) the following at page 56: [spelling as in the original but I tried to correct typographical errors]

The racial and clan kinship of the former inhabitants of these pueblos is somewhat problematic, but it is quite likely that the people were akin to the Hopis. This is shown not only by the character of the houses, but also by the pottery and various other objects found near them. Both legendary and archeological evidences point to the conclusion that the people who once inhabited the pueblos near Black falls came from the north, and were related to those who once lived in cliff houses and other habitations on the Rio Colorado and its tributary, the San Juan. Hopi legends say that the Snake clans formerly lived at Tokonabi, on the Rio Colorado, and that they migrated southward and built a pueblo about 50 miles west of the present Hopi towns, which they called Wukoki. This pueblo, it is said, still has high-standing walls. The direction and distance of the Black falls ruins from Walpi correspond pretty closely with those given in the legend, and while it may not be possible to identify any single ruin of this cluster as Wukoki, the traditional Wukoki of Hopi legend is not far from Black falls. The tradition that the inhabitants of these ruins came from the north is supported by the close resemblance in character and decoration between their pottery and that of the San Juan ruins.

It might naturally be supposed that there would be a close likeness between the pottery of the Black falls ruins and that of Homolobi, and that kinship once existed between the inhabitants of these pueblos on the same river. Close study, however, shows marked differences, and the author is led to the belief that while both were pueblo people, and, therefore, similar in culture, the clans which inhabited Homolobi were not the same as those which lived in the Black falls villages. The clans which lived at Homolobi came from the far south, through Chaves pass, while those at Wukoki came from the opposite direction. Both evidently sought refuge in the Hopi pueblos, where their descendants now live together. The clans from Homolobi were the Patki, Patun, and Tabo (Piba), whose route to the Hopi towns was by a trail which extends directly north past the "Giant's chair." The clans from Wukoki were the Teua and others who migrated almost eastward when they sought their home in Tusayan.