decided uponÑor a kiva might

have been a place where a group of hunters gathered before going
on a hunt to pray that their hunt would be successful. We will n

ever know what went on
in t 575.835.5630

he secret cha

mbers at Tyuonyi, or as a matter of fact, in any other prehistoric kiva. And speaking of kivas or ceremonial chambers, some groups preferred to have theirs in the cliffs, hewn out like the smoky cave rooms but generally larger. And the kivas, like the cave rooms, were plastered half-way up the walls whenever they became smoked. This happened quite often if fires were kept bu

rning. The greatest period of occupation of Hidden Valley must have begun sometime during the fifteenth century. It was to last about a hundred

year

s. Wit

h the beginning of

this Great Period, the pe

riod in which Puwige and all of the t

alus houses were most likely built a

nd occupied, there ce

rtainly must have been some social or ceremon

ial organization similar to

that in the modern pueblos.


There we

re like


ly two moieties

. The dual s

ystem where every person in the village belonged to


  

one of two kivasÑeither" Turquoise or Squ

ash, or, Winter EMRTC
or Summer respe
ctively. Presumab