Honanki and Palatki were first reported by Dr. Jesse Walter Fewkes, of the Smithsonian Institute. He conducted test excavations at the sites in 1895 and in 1911 during his study of Hopi migration traditions. Fewkes named the sites (using Hopi words): Honanki, meaning "Bear House" and Palatki, meaning "Red House". As you tour the sites, please remember they are VERY fragile and easily damaged. At Palatki, the slope of loose soil in front of the western pueblo and the collapsed wall are particularly fragile. The walls of Honanki are over 700 years old and many are more fragile than they appear; please don't climb on them. Don't touch the pictographs - many are only red mud that will crumble at a touch, and natural oils from your fingers can contaminate the pigments preventing future chemical analysis. The Coconino National Forest has stabilized parts of the ruin, but much work still needs to be done. Please help us protect this significant site by staying on the trail and keeping off the walls.
Palatki and its sister site of Honanki at Loy Butte are the two largest cliff dwellings in the Sedona Red Rocks area. Honanki represents one of the largest population centers in the Verde Valley; this period in Southern Sinagua prehistory is called the "Honanki Phase" and is named after this impressive cliff dwelling. Many of the cliff dwellings in the Red Rock/Secret Mountain Wilderness area were occupied during the "Honanki Phase". The actual occupation of Honanki was probably between AD 1130-1280, based upon a tree-ring date of 1271, for a wooden window lintel in the upper ruin, as well as pottery shards. Palatki habitation is dated as AD 1100-1300. When the sites were abandoned, the inhabitants probably moved to pueblos along Oak Creek and the Verde River, such as the Cornville group and Tuzigoot.
Honanki originally contained about 60 rooms and an unknown number of pictographs. Many have been destroyed by time, pothunters and vandals. The pictographs you see here have not yet been scientifically studied. What little we know about them suggests they were created over a long period of time and include several design styles. The earliest may date to the Archaic period (3000-8000 years ago), before the cliff dwellings were constructed. Most of the pictographs can be attributed to the Southern Sinagua (about AD 900-1300) and to the Yavapai and Apache, who lived in the region between 1400-1875. Turn of the century inscriptions by Anglo pioneers and later ones by their relatives can also be seen.
Palatki consists of two separate pueblos (about 30-50 people of the Southern Sinagua tradition occupied the site), suggesting two family or kin groups may have lived here, one in each pueblo. In fact, the circular-shield-like pictographs about the eastern Pueblo have been interpreted by some archaeologists as being a kin or clan symbol. The larger eastern unit shows population growth by the addition of the two rooms at its west end. The small room added to the east side was probably a storage room, used in common by all the occupants of the east pueblo. The western unit is smaller and contains what may have been a kiva (a ceremonial room), indicated by the raised bench at one end. Population growth is also suggested by the addition of the second story on top of the juniper bark roof of the original room.
If you look above the main eastern ruin, you will also see some historic period dates and initials. The entwined hearts were made by Jess Purtyman in 1910 to express his affection for Elizabeth Hartley. The Purtymans and Hartleys were among the first settlers in the red rock country. The Purtymans arrived in the late 1890's. In 1908, Jess Purtyman homesteaded in Oak Creek Canyon near what is now the Encinoso Picnic area. The Hartleys lived at the mouth of Hartwell Canyon, the next major canyon to the north of this (Red) canyon. The canyon was originally named after the Hartleys, but was changed to Hartwell in the 1940's.
It is against the law to dig in ruins, remove artifacts, or vandalize pictographs by writing on the walls of the cliff. Such selfish acts not only destroy irreplaceable scientific information, but they rob the rest of us of our right to see and enjoy these works of the past.
The 1996 Omnibus Appropriations Act allows public land management agencies to charge for admission with 80 percent of the fees remaining at the collecting site to pay for maintenance and site improvement. The Coconino National Forest - Sedona Ranger District began fee collection at Palatki in the summer of 1997. The goals of the project are resource protection, interpretation, stabilization and documentation, and enhancement of the visitor experience.