The name of Canyon del Muerto is said to derive from two mummies that were found below the ruin shown here. Both bodies were wrapped in yucca fiber. This structure was partially restored in the 1930's and is generally known as Mummy Cave.

Our guide Donna also connected the canyon's name with a massacre that occured a couple of miles farther up the canyon. This happened in 1804 when Antonio Narbonna and a group of Spanish soldiers came into the area. Donna told the following story: Most of the men were away on a hunting trip into the Luckachukai Mountains when the Spaniards arrived. The women, old men and children who remained behind hid in a shallow recess about half way up the canyon wall. They hoped the Spaniards would not see them. They were betrayed by a young woman who called out to them. She was angry because she had been refused permission to marry a man in her clan. The Spaniards stood on top of the cliff above the recess and shot into it, killing 115 people. Those not killed were enslaved.

Another story told about the massacre is that one woman wrestled with a Spaniard at the edge of the cliff and both fell to their death. The Navaho call the alcove where the people hid Adah aho' du' nili - Two fell off.

I do not have a photo of the cave, but the painting below - which is on a rock wall not far from the massacre site - appears to show a column of Spaniards and may be contemporary with the incursion.