They stopped pushing my puzzle altogether when it was almost completely up. No one will respond to it in any way at all. I posted about this somewhere else & someone seemed to think that I just needed to stick them in the right spot (or put the chief in the right spot) but they will NOT touch it. Its just about as far up as it will probably go & the only thing the chief will do is contemplate the tribe, inspect the food, etc. when I try placing him on or near the statue. THe villagers will "see a good place to anchor the statue" but nothng else. Sigh.

Try placing your chief at the bottom of the path rather than on top of the statue - that worked for me.

Me too. I had the same problem but put them at the bottom of the path and it worked.