Prehistoric Indians of the Southwest

by H. M. Wormington

SUMMARY

We may summarize the Mogollon problem as follows: In west-central New Mexico and east-central Arizona have been found certain sites which do not follow entirely the same pattern as Anasazi or Hohokam sites. There are a number of possible theories to explain the development of the [culture] represented by these sites. It may have been derived from the Anasazi, it may represent an early fusion of the Anasazi and Hohokam cultures or, it may be a separate cultural entity which possibly developed from the eastern branch of the ancient Cochise Culture. During the earliest periods it had certain traits which, in the opinion of many archaeologists, make it necessary to consider it a separate [basic culture]. Houses were of the pit house type with long sloping entrances. Agriculture was practiced, but there was a great dependence on the gathering of wild foods and on hunting. The [atlatl] was used, as well as the bow. Pottery was made by a coiling and scraping technique, was fired in an [oxidizing atmosphere], and was usually well polished. A painted ware with red designs on a brown background and a red-on-white ware were later added and textured pottery increased in importance. Pipes were made of clay and of stone. Bone awls were often notched on one side. The dead were usually buried outside the houses. There were some cremations.

From about 700 or 800 A.D. on, there is evidence of more and more outside influences. By around 950 or 1000 A.D. there were so many changes in the Mimbres Valley that the resulting blend is often referred to as a separate [culture]. Single pit houses were replaced by multi-roomed pueblolike structures built above the ground. Black-on-white pottery was the dominant ware and reached a high degree of excellence. The dead were usually buried under house floors. Cranial deformation was widely practiced. The Mimbres Valley was deserted in the middle of the twelfth century and we can only conjecture where the people who had inhabited it went.

As may readily be seen, the whole Mogollon problem appears to be very [complex]. This is always the case when a [culture] or an area is first investigated and the long job of studying it is in its initial stages. Apparently the Mogollon people influenced their neighbors to the north and to the west, and were influenced by them, but we are not yet in a position to evaluate these trends.

CHAPTER VI
THE SINAGUA PEOPLE[18]

In northern Arizona have been found many remains of prehistoric people who were contemporaneous with and had certain traits in common with the Anasazi, and it was originally thought that they all belonged to this [culture]. Later, and more intensive, studies have shown that the problem is more [complex] than was first believed. Apparently various tribes were represented, and at present archaeologists are not in agreement as to the cultures to which all of these groups should be assigned.[29] The people of the Kayenta region were Anasazis, but in north-central and northwestern parts of the state lived other people whose affiliations are not yet known with certainty. It has been suggested that the best known group may represent a branch of the Mogollon but it has not been definitely assigned to this culture.

This group is called the Sinagua. It first occupied the area about the San Francisco Mountains and, later, the Verde Valley. The characteristic pottery is a brown utility ware of paddle-and-anvil manufacture, fired in an [oxidizing atmosphere]. The surface is smoothed and sometimes polished. Tree-ring dates have not been satisfactorily established for the earliest period, but, on the basis of pottery finds, it has been estimated that the San Francisco Mountain area was occupied between 500 and 700 A.D. by people who lived in round and rectangular pit houses with center firepits and long sloping entrances to the east. Roofs were of sloping poles covered with earth.

These were followed by fairly deep, timber pit houses. Walls were made of a series of upright poles lashed together, with larger poles set in corners to provide support for a roof platform. The entire structure was covered with grass or bark, and earth was banked over it. These timber pit houses at first had long sloping entrances to the east, but these were later reduced to serve as ventilators, and entrance was through the roof.

In locations unsuitable for the construction of pit houses, there were also surface or near-surface houses. In places where drainage was poor and the ground was boggy, they were built on artificially constructed earth mounds some eight to twelve inches high. These have been called platform or alcove houses. They are roughly rectangular and have a small extension or alcove which was used as an entrance. The alcove may have served a further purpose and supplied additional storage space, although rectangular surface granaries made of timber seem to be associated with these houses.

Fig. 57—Map of the Southwest showing probable areas occupied by the Sinagua group and the Patayan [Culture]. Dotted area, Sinagua; 1. Southern branch, 2. Northern branch. Hatched area, Patayan; 3. Cohonina branch, 4. Prescott branch. (Based on maps by Colton[18][19] and McGregor.[87])

Sometime between 1046 and 1070 A.D., probably in 1066, a volcano fifteen miles northeast of the present town of Flagstaff erupted. This volcano, now known as Sunset Crater, covered some 800 square miles with a black ash, and forced the early inhabitants to flee from their homes on the lower slopes of the San Francisco Mountains. This seeming disaster, however, was really a very fortunate occurrence, for the fine black material strewn over the countryside by the volcano provided a mulch which aided in conserving moisture and made the practice of agriculture possible over a wider area.

Fig. 58—Montezuma Castle National Monument, Arizona. (Courtesy National Park Service.)

Not only did the original Sinagua people return to the area, but Hohokam and Pueblo people moved in too, bringing with them their own special traits. The Hohokam introduced their type of architecture and their distinctive ball courts, and the Anasazi introduced the Pueblo architecture which was adopted by the Sinaguans. At first, masonry was used to replace timbers in pit houses, but in a very short time the Sinagua people began building surface masonry dwellings and multi-roomed pueblos became the rule.

During the years of the great drought of 1276 to 1299, many more people left the area and moved farther south into the Hohokam territory where some Sinaguans had already settled. Shortly after 1300 A.D. the Flagstaff area was abandoned. Some people stayed in the Verde Valley and built large pueblos. This southern branch is best known from the impressive sites of Tuzigoot[13] and Montezuma Castle, now National Monuments. Others may have gone farther south and mixed with the Hohokam in the Gila Basin, and some may have moved to the Little Colorado area and may be among the ancestors of the present Hopi Indians.

CHAPTER VII
THE PATAYAN [CULTURE]

The prehistoric people who lived in the valley of the Colorado River below the Grand Canyon are the least well known in the Southwest, for most information about them has been derived only from surface surveys. Originally, the term Yuman was applied to these people, for Indians speaking a Yuman language were found there by the first white men to visit the area.[35] Some archaeologists still use this term, and it is commonly applied to the [culture] found in the lower Colorado River basin and adjacent areas in California.[116] Others feel that it is unwise to apply a linguistic term to a prehistoric culture and use the term Patayan, a Walapai word meaning “the old people.”[16] It is postulated that the Patayan or Yuman is a [basic culture] or root to which should be given the same status as the Anasazi and Hohokam.

A large population was found in this area when it was visited by Father Kino in 1700, and it is thought that there must have been a great concentration of population in this fertile valley and delta for a long time. In the lower basin of the Colorado River and in the desert area which adjoins it, has been found evidence of ancient people who worked in stone but did not make pottery.[115] A period followed in which more territory was occupied and in which pottery was made. The finding of datable pieces of trade wares in the valley indicates a period of occupation of some 1500 years by people familiar with ceramics.[116]

Archaeologists studying the Patayan or Yuman [culture] encounter many difficulties. The culture seems to be characterized by a great poverty of material remains, possibly because of a greater use of perishable materials which have not been preserved. Also, until Boulder Dam was built, the river overflowed its banks every year and covered the land with a layer of silt, thus burying much evidence of occupation.[17]

In western and northwestern Arizona, the portion of this area which lies within the scope of this book, the one group of people which has been more or less definitely assigned to the Patayan [culture] is known only from the finding of distinctive, brown utility-wares. The main center of this tribe seems to have been in the Colorado River valley below Black Canyon.

There are also two other groups of northwestern Arizona which may, or may not, prove to be manifestations of the Patayan pattern. The area below the Grand Canyon and north of the San Francisco Mountains, bounded on the east by the Little Colorado River and on the west by the Grand Wash Cliffs, was occupied between about 700 and 1100 A.D. by a group of people to which the name Cohonina has been applied.[16] These people lived both in deep and in very shallow pit houses with walls made of timber. It has been suggested that the deep pit houses may represent a Sinagua [trait] and that the near-surface houses were the true Cohonina form. Masonry was used in the construction of some of the deep pit houses and granaries and forts. The latter are large rectangular buildings with thick walls and parapets which were probably loop-holed. The building of such structures would suggest unsettled conditions. Some time after 1100 A.D., masonry pueblos were built.

Cohonina pottery was a gray ware made by the [paddle-and-anvil] process, sometimes scraped for final finishing, and fired in a [reducing atmosphere]. Red paint was often applied over the surface of the vessel after firing. It is impermanent and is commonly called “fugitive red”. Occasionally crude designs were applied with a thin black paint. Jars were the most common form, but some bowls were also made. Arrowheads were of a distinctive type. Cohonina points are slender and roughly triangular, although sometimes the maximum breadth is above the base. They are serrated and unnotched. Little is known of methods of disposing of the dead. It is suspected that cremation was practiced, but that the bones were not gathered after burning.

To the south in the vicinity of Prescott, Arizona, between about 900 and 1000 A.D., lived another group of people.[16] They too built some masonry forts and made gray, paddle-and-anvil pottery with a coarse [temper] containing much mica. Decorations were in black paint. The firing atmosphere was poorly controlled, and there is a variation in color from gray to orange or red, although the paste is the same.

If all this seems needlessly confusing, it must be remembered that even the archaeologists most intimately concerned with the problem are confused too. Only the most fragmentary evidence has been found, but they know that an important chapter in the prehistory of the Southwest lies in the valley of the Colorado River and adjacent areas. They know that eventually they will be able to read it, and, as a result, they will have a greatly improved perspective in their attempts to analyze the whole of prehistoric life in the Southwest. Before the final pages are deciphered, however, so much remains to be done that very likely there will be even more confusion before there is clarification.