Leaf Water Pueblo and Its People

Chama River from Kapo'uinge

In the summer of 2011 I lived in a house on Medanales Mesa in northern New Mexico.  It was a fascinating experience to live there.  In my walks around the area, I often encountered evidence that others had long lived on the mesa and below in the Rio Chama valley:  pottery shards, petroglyphs, stones laid out in geometric shapes, etc..  Across the arroyo in my back yard was another mesa jutting out like a ship's bow towards the river.  On this mesa were the ruins of an ancient pueblo.  I often wondered about the history and name of this place, but back then I could find little information about it.  Three years later I have been lucky to discover much more about this place.  It's name is Kapo'uinge or the Leaf Water Pueblo in the Tewa language.  It was built, burned and abandoned more than a century before Columbus ever set sail from Spain.

The spirits of these ancient neighbors felt all too real at times.  I promised that one day I would write a short history remembering and honoring these people.  Today I fulfill that promise.

Geography

Key to any geography of human settlement in the dry Southwest is water.  More a loose collection of homes than a village, modern Medanales sits in the green, irrigated valley formed by the Rio Chama, a tributary of the Rio Grande.  The Chama River starts in Colorado and flows into the Rio Grande at Espanola, NM.  The lower Rio Chama runs roughly northwest to southeast with the Parajito Plateau and Jemez Mountains to the south and west. Across the river to the east and north is a series of broad mesas -including the Medanales Mesa- rising up to the San Juan Mountains.

Today the Rio Chama is dammed to form lake reservoirs at El Vado and Abiquiu.  The waters of the Rio Chama feed the gardens at Georgia O'Keeffe's studio home in Abiquiu, and several small communities are scattered along Highway 84 running parallel to the river.  Near Espanola are several reservations belonging to Puebloan peoples including the Ohkay Owingeh (formerly San Juan) and Santa Clara pueblos.  Several other of New Mexico's 19 existing pueblos are nearby.

History

Ohkay Owingeh and Santa Clara are both inhabited by the Tewa people.  Their oral histories say they came from the north.  Archeological findings point to a complicated coalescence of migratory peoples from the Colorado Plateau (north) and Rio Grande Valley giving rise to the modern Tewa.

Around 1250 CE, a seeming combination of drought (1276-1299 CE), encroachment from the north by other peoples, soil erosion, and internal social upheavals drove thousands of Ancestral Puebloan People (also called Proto-Puebloan or best known by the pejorative Navajo word Anasazi) to flee the Colorado Plateau from settlements such as Mesa Verde.  Some fled south and appeared to first settle on the sparsely populated Parajito Plateau.  The new settlers enlarged communities such as at the Puye Cliff Dwellings which the Santa Clara Pueblo people say are the ruins of their ancestors.

1200 - 1300 CE:  Coalition I (Pindi) Phase:

• First immigrants from the Colorado Plateau flee to modern New Mexico and settle on the sparsely populated Parajito Plateau.
• c. 1250 CE:  Settlers from the Parajito Plateau then appear to settle the previously sparsely populated Chaco Valley.  The oldest and longest continuously settled pueblo in the Chaco Valley appears to be Tsama'uinge, a few miles northwest of Kapo'uinge.
• Kapo'uinge likely settled in this period.
• 1280 CE:  Dating of wood samples from Mesa Verde on the Colorado Plateau find the latest known tree cut during this period for building was in 1280 CE.  After this period all building appears to have ceased.
• Evidence points to a prolonged drought in the Southwest from 1276-1299 CE which may have led to famine, warfare and the breakdown of Proto-Puebloan societies in Mesa Verde.

1300 - 1350 CE:  Coalition II (Wiyo) Phase:

• Between 1275 and 1320 CE, archaeologists find evidence that the population of the Tewa areas more than doubled as northern Proto-Puebloan migrants moved into the area -just as the Tewa oral histories say.
• c. 1350 CE:  Several pueblos show evidence of attack and burning.  Riana Pueblo near Lake Abiquiu is burnt and abandoned.  The remains of a man are found under the burnt timbers of Riana along with a ceremonial headdress that would have been greatly valued.  It appears the inhabitants were killed or fled.  Either because of a taboo regarding the ruins or because they were unable to return safely, any survivors of Riana do not seem to have returned to collect valuables and bury their dead.  
• c. 1350 CE:  Kapo'uinge is also burned and abandoned.  

1350 - 1598 CE:  Classic Phase:

• Populations begin to coalesce into larger settlements in the better watered Rio Grande Valley at Santa Clara, Ohkay Owingeh, etc.  Smaller outlying settlements are abandoned.  This process may have resulted from continuing droughts, attacks by hostile neighboring groups, or a mix of factors.
• Poshuoinge near Abiquiu is built around 1375 and appears to have been inhabited until around 1500 CE.
• Kapo'uinge appears to have been abandoned in this period but nearby Tsama'uinge is occupied and greatly expands.
• c. 1500:  Populations in the Chaco Valley plummet as people consolidate into settlements in the Rio Grande Valley.  The introduction of new diseases such as smallpox, yellow fever, malaria, etc. from arriving Europeans also are likely to have begun penetrating to populations in New Mexico over the next 100 years.  Without the immunities survivors passed on to their descendents in Africa, Asia, and Europe, Native Americans die in huge numbers.  Some estimates and early Spanish mission journals point to 80% or more of whole villages dying.
• 1539 CE:  The first Spanish expeditions reach the Zuni Pueblos southwest of the Chaco Valley.
  

  

  Image of from the National Park Service at Poshuouinge Ruins, New Mexico.
  Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

1598 CE - present:  Historic Phase

• 1634 CE:  By this time Tsama'uinge has been abandoned.

Kapo'uinge

Kapo'uinge, or the Leaf Water Pueblo, appears to have been one of the oldest proto-Tewa/Tewa villages built in the Chaco River Valley.   The triangular wedge of land upon which Kapo'uinge is built has a small cave which appears to have been used as a shrine.  The entire pueblo may have been built in part to be near this shrine.

Leaf Water was a relatively small pueblo built on a mesa in a roughly U shape with the open side facing a steep embankment going down to the Chama River.  At its maximum the pueblo appears to have had 130 rooms.

The pueblo's site offered many advantages. The river just feet below offered water and flat land for crops. The mesa provided protection and a clear view for miles in various directions. Across the adjacent arroyo was the adjacent Medanales Mesa and an unusual hill jutting up above the surrounding mesas.

El Cerrito/Crowsnest from Kapo'uinge

Now called El Cerrito (Spanish "the hill") or Crowsnest by area residents, the hill has ruins of steps leading up to the summit.  Locals continue to leave candles and offerings on the top.  Thus, this hill likely served as a sacred site and shrine.

The land today is owned by an archaeological conservancy with the surrounding lands privately owned.  It is marked as LA 300 on archaeological maps.

What happened to the people of Kapo'uinge after the pueblo was apparently attacked and burned? Survivors likely integrated into other nearby pueblos such as Tsama'uinge.  Some may have gone on to found and settle Poshuouinge.  Later as the entire Chaco Valley was abandoned, the descendents of Kapo'uinge likely coalesced with other Tewa in the Rio Grande Valley pueblos.

Recommended Reading
The PreHispanic Tewa World