and swept the Navajos out of Canyon de Chelly, another archeological
treasure-trove for Simpson to mull over. The Americans then turned south, marching through eroded pinyon-juniper country. Somewhere on Black Creek, between the modern sites of Window Rock and Lupton, Simpson had an exper
ience which he describes in his journal under September 13, 1849:
A deer was killed by a soldier this morning, after running the gauntlet of numerous shots from the command— myself, among the number, throwing away a pistol shot. This is the first deer which has been killed by any of the party. The scarcity of
this kind of game may therefore readily be inferred. Indeed, a more wretched country for game of every kind I have never seen that we have been traversing since we left Santa F e . ^
The animal referred to was most likely a mule deer. There are no whitetails in this part of Arizona today.
Simpson apparently saw no elk on the expedition, although the species was present, at least in the Carrizo Mountains (a northern spur of the Chuskas), until about 1 8 5 0 . ^ ®
Swinging past the future site of Fort Defiance, the column re
turned to Santa Fe by way of Canyon Bonito and Zuni. The information gathered on the reconnaissance was later used in charting military ex
peditions, directing emigrant trains, aiding the selection of Indian reservations, and determining the route of a transcontinental railroad.
In addition, Simpson made a treaty with the Navajos, which though never ratified, provided a basis for future agreements. 99100
99. Simpson, p. 108.
100. W.W. Hill, The Agricultural and Hunting Methods of the Navajo Indians (Yale University Publications in Anthropology No. 18), New Haven, 1938, p. 167. A Navajo informant told ethnologist W.W. Hill that after 1850 the nearest region where elk might be found was the La Plata Range of southwestern Colorado.
In August, 1851, another expedition left Santa Fe for the un
charted wilderness that lay toward the Colorado River. Captain Lorenzo Sitgreaves, the topographical engineer in charge of the column, was told, in part, to search for a wagon route described by Lt. Simpson after the reconnaissance of 1849. But he was also an element in another diversion against the Navajos, and Colonel Edwin Sumner provided him with an escort
fif
fifty infantrymen. Lt. John G. Parke (later to lead his own expeditionin southern Arizona) was Sitgreaves' assistant, while Antoine Leroux
served as the expedition guide. Dr. S.W. Woodhouse, the naturalist, began his journey in Philadelphia and collected his way across Texas before joining the expedition to Arizona.
For about a month Sitgreaves* party remained in the vicinity of Zuni. In September they started west down an intermittent stream, the Zuni River, which empties into the Little Colorado (see Fig. 3, p. 235).
Dr. Woodhouse saw a few cottonwoods along the Zuni, and at one point he found a beaver dam on which cattails grew.*®*' Near the stream was a good growth of grama grasses and juniper.
The column continued westward down the Little Colorado after
reaching the mouth of the Zuni. The river flowed across a rolling, grassy plateau devoid of trees. Willow thickets grew along the banks, and Wood-house reported beaver lodges shortly after leaving the Zuni. 102 Farther
downstream, in the direction of the San Francisco peaks, cottonwoods and willows became more abundant. In places, deep bayous, overgrown with 101102
101. Lorenzo Sitgreaves, Report of an Expedition Down the Zuni and Colorado Rivers (Washington, 1853), p. 36.
102. Ibid.
98 rushes, formed alongside the main bed of the river. 103 The nearby mesas,
covered with a thick growth of "unnutritious" grasses, reminded Sitgreaves of the high plains adjacent to the northern Rockies.
Where the river entered the Painted Desert, both mule deer and pronghorn appeared, the deer mainly limited to the b o t t o m s . T h e Little Colorado soon made a bend to the north, winding over a wide, muddy plain in a system of channels. Because of an increasing shortage of grass and wood for fuel, the expedition struck west for the San Francisco peaks,
traversing lava fields and an expanse of undulating plains with some juniper and a fine cover of grama grasses. Mule deer were seen again, and Sitgreaves comments on the presence of pronghorn: "Herds of antelope were seen in all directions, but they kept to the open country, and were
shy and difficult to approach." ^ 5 As the Sitgreaves party approached the San Francisco peaks, weathering several skirmishes with Yavapai
Indians, hunters attempted unsuccessfully to shoot some pronghorn for the camp m e s s . ^ ® In some area, between the mountains and the Little Colo
rado, Woodhouse saw fresh grizzly tracks several times, and later he verified the presence of the species on San Francisco Mountain itself He regarded grizzlies as generally common in the mountains of Arizona. 103104105106*
103. Sitgreaves, p. 8.
104. Ibid.. p. 36.
105. Ibid., p. 11.
106. Ibid., p. 13.
107 Ibid., p. 37.
It was now October as the expedition ascended the lower slopes of San Francisco Mountain, passing through the pinyon-juniper belt to a
forest of ponderosa pines interspersed with aspen. Grass was thick in the mountain glades, but water was limited to occasional springs. Off to the southwest was a vista of grassy plains dotted with parklike stands of ponderosa pine and some oaks. Mule deer and pronghorn continued to be abundant.
Dr. Woodhouse saw no sign of elk while crossing Arizona, although he recollected seeing the animals in Indian Territory while on his way west. He did not refer specifically to seeing bighorn, but he stated
that they were found in mountainous districts. Likewise, Woodhouse con
sidered black bears abundant in timbered regions of Arizona, although he did not describe any incidents involving them.
Sitgreaves remarks in his j ournal that the cry of a mountain lion stampeded the expedition's mules while the party was camped one night on the slopes of San Francisco Mountain. 108 Woodhouse also heard lions after
dark while the column was in the mountain forests, but he added the opin
ion that lions were not plentiful in the Southwest.
Moving down off San Francisco Mountain, the Sitgreaves party negotiated the open, grassy parkland of tall pines. Waterfowl were flushed from pools hidden in the deep grasses. The rich grassland per
sisted as the men headed west. On the flanks of Bill Williams Mountain it flourished amid open forests of juniper, pines, and oaks. The
expedition proceeded directly toward the Colorado River, the terrain
alternating between open grassland and patches of pinyon-juniper woodland. 108
108. Sitgreaves, p. 12.
100
This was the only region in which Woodhouse reported wild turkey, but Sitgreaves considered them abundant along the route from the San
Fran-110