Researchers and volunteers from the Navajo Nation and the Bureau of Land Management are studying how Navajos may have used smoke signals in the early 1700s.

The study is based on pueblitos that are located throughout New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah. Researchers believe Navajos lit fires at the pueblitos to warn others about threats from other tribes or Spanish explorers.

"If you hear an enemy approaching, you climb into these things and pull up the ladder, and you can seal yourself in for a while," Ron Maldonado, the program manager of the Navajo Nation Historic Preservation Department, told the Associated Press.

To test the theory, researchers will send up flares at various pueblitos and determine how far the smoke can be seen.

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Study looks at early Navajo use of smoke signals (AP 4/20)