Navajo Administrative History

Many people dug in ruins in search of profit, but one man came to epitomize the exploitation of American prehistory. Richard Wetherill, a rancher from Mancos, Colorado, discovered Cliff Palace Ruin while in search of a stray calf in the Mesa Verde region of southwestern Colorado in December 1888. His appetite whetted, Wetherill found many more such places in the weeks and months that followed. He lived a hardscrabble existence prior to his discovery, eking out a living for his extended family with the less-than-profitable family enterprise, the Alamo Ranch. By all accounts an intelligent if stubborn and iconoclastic person, Wetherill became obsessed with the lost civilization he found. He excavated first for his own edification, later for commercial ends. In 1892, he and Gustav Nordenskiold of Sweden made a collection of artifacts that returned to Europe with Nordenskiold. Jingoistic Americans pointed to this as purposeless despoliation of the American past for the gratification of European sensibilities, and Wetherill became the focus of the anger of different groups. Unconcerned with the clamor of easterners and unaffected by derogatory remarks, he ignored their complaints and continued to dig.

A complicated web soon encompassed Wetherill. Because he was a westerner and was familiar with the desert Southwest, he had much to offer anyone interested in making collections from ruins. Wetherill's services were for sale, and among those who hired him were Talbot and Frederic Hyde, the heirs to a soap fortune who donated what they found to the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In the eyes of many in the scientific community, this relationship gave the museum an unfair advantage in the race to assemble museum collections. Institutions and individuals allied with Wetherill had better access, and those who did not assailed them for that advantage.

As anthropologists and archaeologists developed scientific standing, Wetherill became a threat to their future. To proto-professionals with something to prove, Wetherill became anathema. He had both the knowledge and the desire to thwart them. Wetherill knew the location of more southwestern ruins than any living Anglo, and he neither hesitated to dig nor deferred to the scientists of his time. With motives inspired in part by fear and jealousy, anthropologists and archaeologists were outraged by Wetherill's actions. To protect its growing interests, the scientific community galvanized against him. Scientists redefined their terminology to create a category for Wetherill. After Wetherill excavated Chaco Canyon, another extraordinary prehistoric area, the derogatory label of "pot-hunter" was attached to his name.

The specter of Richard Wetherill haunted American archeology. As a result of his widespread digging and the cottage industry that developed around it, the scientific community pressed for legislation to protect American antiquities. After a six-year battle, "An Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities," more commonly known as the Antiquities Act, became law in 1906. This allowed the president to create from public land a new category of reserved areas, the national monuments. Like the provisions to reserve forest land, the Antiquities Act gave the chief executive unchecked power over the federal domain.

Despite its amorphous nature, the Antiquities Act proved a useful tool for the preservation of lands in the West. Although also used to reserve great natural areas such as the Grand Canyon and the Olympic Mountains, it was well-suited for archeological preservation. Between its passage in 1906 and the end of 1908, it became the authorizing legislation for eight national monuments, three of which were archeological in character. One of these, Chaco Canyon National Monument, was established at least in part to thwart Richard Wetherill's homestead claim at Pueblo Bonito, the largest of the ruins. [3]

Wetherill and his family also had a history on the Tsegi Plateau. The Wetherills first visited the region early in 1893. Although the clan traveled through Marsh Pass, they did not stop. Two years later in December 1894 and January 1895, another Wetherill family group came to the western reservation. The group of eight men and twenty animals split into three. One team, comprising Richard Wetherill, his brother Al, and brother-in-law Charlie Mason, came south from Utah through Monument Valley to Marsh Pass. From Marsh Pass, they followed Laguna Creek up Tsegi Canyon, excavating the small mounds they found along the way. When the three reached the finger-like canyons of the Tsegi, Richard Wetherill chose one of the central branches, unaware that it led toward a spectacular prehistoric ruin.

The choice seemed at first a mistake. As the party followed the streambed as it gradually rose through the canyon, they saw no sign of human habitation. A chain of lagoons and waterfalls spread out over a few miles offered essentials for life, and wild ducks among the reeds and grasses meant an opportunity to hunt. But in search of prehistoric sites, the party appeared to have little luck.

Richard Wetherill's lead mule, Neephi, was responsible for a change in their fortunes. One night, the mule broke his hobbles and wandered off. In the morning, Wetherill followed. In a serendipitous repeat of his good fortune half a decade before at Mesa Verde, he rounded a turn in the canyon and suddenly in front of him appeared a large eye-shaped cave with a large cliff dwelling stretching from side to side. The cave was enormous, the structures within every bit as impressive. Again Wetherill had stumbled on one of the prizes hidden in the wilds of the Southwest.

With this previously unexcavated gem at their disposal, the party decided to stay. They spent four or five days at the ruin, later called Keet Seel, "broken pottery" in the Navajo language, performing a preliminary survey of the rooms and noting a number of features. Yet in keeping both with his personal interest and the dominant mode of thought concerning ruins at the time, Wetherill perceived an extraordinary opportunity to make a collection of artifacts. When the party returned, he contacted his benefactors, the Hyde brothers, and made plans for an expedition. But the expedition never materialized, as Talbot Hyde's interest in Chaco Canyon superseded Richard Wetherill's desire to work in the Tsegi. [4]

The commercial dimension of his work in archeology was important to Wetherill, but he also fell in the tradition of talented amateurs that has characterized the archeological profession. Like Heinrich Schliemann, the discoverer of Troy, Wetherill had no training but great interest. Unlike Schliemann, he lacked a personal fortune. Avid in his interest, he also needed to make a living from his work. [5]

As a result, Richard Wetherill had to depend on his backers. He was not wealthy and could not afford either an unsuccessful or an unsupported expedition. Despite his desire to excavate and understand the prehistoric Southwest, he was an economic being. He worked on the projects the people who supported his work chose. With a wide range of backers and explorers who sought to make collections, Wetherill dug many other archeological sites. He could afford to wait to return to Keet Seel. Of all the potential excavators roaming the Southwest, he was the only one who knew where it--and hundreds of other places like it--were.

In 1897, as part of an expedition with both intellectual and commercial objectives, Richard Wetherill brought another party to Keet Seel. Rumors that the Field Columbian Museum planned a winter exhibition into the Grand Gulch area in southern Utah prompted Wetherill to try to organize his own. Again he contacted the Hyde brothers; again their interest in Tsegi Canyon did not match his own. But George Bowles, the scion of a wealthy eastern family, and his tutor, C. E. "Teddy" Whitmore, arrived in Mancos with the desire to have an adventure. Richard Wetherill was only too pleased to direct their interest toward Grand Gulch, Utah, and Keet Seel.

The expedition began its work in search of basketmaker relics in Grand Gulch. Wetherill's prior discovery of these pre-pueblo people whetted his desire to document their existence. After fulfilling this intellectual pursuit, Wetherill divided his party and headed toward Marsh Pass. He sought to return to Keet Seel, where he promised his sponsors they would find more pottery than their animals could carry out. They dug throughout the ruin, making a large collection.

At the end of their stay, Bowles and Whitmore were kidnapped and held for ransom by a nearby band of Paiute or possibly Navajo Indians. Wetherill had to send to Bluff City, Utah, for silver to buy back the prisoners. The exchange was made, and within a few hours, the two haggard young men returned to the camp after nearly four days in captivity, their appetite for adventure satiated. [6]