The Indians faithfully delivered to me all objects which they found in their digging, with the exception of turquoises, many of which, I have good reason to suspect, they concealed while our backs were turned and, in a few instances, even before our eyes.
The accompanying plan of Sikyatki (plate CXVI) shows that it was a rectangular ruin with an inclosed plaza. It is evident that the ancient pueblo was built on a number of low hills and that the eastern portion was the highest. In this respect it resembled Awatobi, but apparently differed from the latter pueblo in having the inclosed plaza. In the same way it was unlike Walpi or the ancient and modern pueblos of Middle Mesa and Oraibi. In fact, there is no Tusayan ruin which resembles it in ground plan, except Payüpki, a Tanoan town of much later construction. The typical Tusayan form of architecture is the pyramidal, especially in the most ancient pueblos. The ground plan of Sikyatki is of a type more common in the eastern pueblo region and in those towns of Tusayan which were built by emigrants from the Rio Grande region. Sikyatki and some of the villages overlooking Antelope valley are of this type.
In studying the ground plans of the three modern villages on East Mesa, the fact is noted that both Sichomovi and Hano differ architecturally from Walpi. The forms of the former smaller pueblos are primarily rectangular with an inclosed plaza in which is situated the kiva; Walpi, on the other hand, although furnished with a small plaza at the western end, has kivas located peripherally rather than in an open space between the highest house clusters. Sichomovi is considered by the Hopi as like Zuñi, and is sometimes called by the Hano people, Sionimone, "Zuñi court," because to the Tewan mind it resembles Zuñi; but the term is never applied to Walpi.[107] The distinction thus recognized is, I believe, architecturally valid. The inclosed court or plaza in Tusayan is an intrusion from the east, and as eastern colonists built both Hano and Sichomovi, they preserved the form to which they were accustomed. The Sikyatki builders drew their architectural inspiration likewise from the east, hence the inclosed court in the ruins of that village.