ONEOFMANYFEATHERS'
Ancestral Puebloans of the Southwest
Written by Dr. Ned Eddins
Photographer: Dr. Ned Eddins
E-mail Dr. Ned Eddins
Anasazi, Mogollon, and Hohokam Indians settled in the Southwest between three hundred B.C. and one hundred A.D. The Pueblo Indians of today are the direct decedents of these Indian Cultures that raised corn, irrigated fields, and built massive stone structures in Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde hundreds of years before the first recorded Europeans saw North America.
American Indians have their own origin beliefs, just as do Christians, Jews, Moslems, Buddhists, and other religious groups. None of the religious origin beliefs stand up under the scrutiny of scientific and archeological evidence, but this does not mean the religious beliefs are wrong. This article on the "Ancient Ones" is based on archeological studies, and is not intended to reflect on the religious beliefs of anyone.
The arrival of the first Americans to the North American continent is not agreed on by all archeologists. Low sea levels in the late Pleistocene period created the Bering Strait land bridge between Eastern Siberia and Alaska. Most authorities now believe that the indigenous peoples of the Americas crossed the Bering Strait in three separate migrations (Stone, Dillehay). The largest of these groups, the Amerind, includes most Native Americans south of the Canadian border. The second migration was the Na-Dene. Belonging to this group are the Athapascan speaking populations of Canada and the United States. The Apache and Navaho in the southwestern United States belong to this group. The third group was the Aleuts and Eskimos of Alaska, Canada, and the Aleutian Islands.
There is scientific evidence that link Native American populations to Asia and eastern Siberia. American Indians resemble some Asian populations in outward appearance, in the distribution of blood group types, and in genetic composition as reflected by molecular data, such as DNA (Cordell, Paleoamericans).
There is also growing evidence that some of the inhabitants came by sea. Archeologist Jim Dixon believes that costal migration from Siberia to the tip of South America began as early as 14,000 years ago (Koppel). Monte Verde, a well-studied site in central Chile, is dated at 12,500 years ago (Dillehay, Paleoamericans). The first South Americans were clearly very different from their North American counterparts. Their culture was not uniform like Clovis; it was made up of a wide variety of regionally distinct cultures that pre-date Clovis times (Dillehay).
Based on spear points found with skeletal remains of mammoths near Clovis, New Mexico, the first people known to have inhabited North America are referred to as the Clovis Indians. The period for the Clovis culture is 11,200-10,900 B. P. (Cordell, Stone). B. P. means before the present, which is prior to 1950 when the baseline for radiocarbon dating was established (Walker). Older sites in Pennsylvania and Virginia have been found, and are being investigated, but so far, these sites do not meet all of the criteria required by many archeologists to be classified as older than the Clovis period. Clovis sites have been located in North America from Alaska to Panama.
This suggests that within several hundred years the Clovis people had spread throughout North America. The Clovis period is marked by partially fluted projectile points associated with mammoths.
Another site found near Folsom, New Mexico had different projectile points, and the skeletal remains were not as old as the Clovis period. Paleo-Indian points of the Folsom period are found with the remains of extinct bison rather than mammoths which dominated the Clovis kill sites. Folsom points have a larger fluted areas and are shorter. The Folsom period extended from 10,900-10,200 B. P. (Cordell, Stone).
Five great Indian cultures thrived in the western hemisphere for centuries. The Incas of South America, and four cultures from central and southern Mexico: Mayan, Olmec, Zapotec, and the Teotihuacan cultures. Indians from these Mesoamerican (Mexico City to Honduras) cultures moved into the southwestern United States. They brought with them their knowledge and technological advancements (Southwest Indian Council).
Many archeologists agree on a wide trade network between the southwest Indians and Mexico, especially with the Toltec, but discount the migration from Mexico. They believe the southwest Indians emerged from the Archaic period, 6000 B. C. to 500 A.D. (Stone). During the Archaic period, Indians begin to rely more on wild plants as a source of food. Archaic Indians moved with changing seasons and environments, but these movements no longer ranged over the vast distances covered by the big game hunters of the late Pleistocene period. Language and culture diversified as specific bands began to consider specific areas and even specific campsites as home (Walker).
Three distinct cultures settled into the southwest between 300 B.C. and 100 A.D.
Four Corners Area
Mogollon
The Mogollon (mo-ge-yon) people occupied mountainous areas of Arizona and New Mexico in approximately 200 B.C. The Mogollon culture eventually expanded to the southern rim of the Colorado Plateau. The Mogollon were initially hunter-gatherers, but as their civilization advanced, they acquired corn, squash, beans, tobacco, and cotton from Mesoamerica. The focus on agriculture necessitated moving from pithouses to more permanent villages.
The mountainous region where the Mogollon lived between 900 and 1200 A.D. had good soil and abundant moisture for growing maize. Deer, antelope, and other wild game were plentiful in the Mogollon mountains. Despite this, they had abandoned the mountains by 1200 A.D., and moved south to Mexico.
Hohokam
The Hohokam Indians settled in the Gila and Salt River valleys of southern Arizona around 300 B.C. They built rectangular pithouses and lived in small villages. Although the Hohokam relied a great deal on hunting and gathering, they were good farmers and water engineers. Between A.D. 300 and 500, the Hohokam constructed over a thousand miles of irrigation canals. Some of these canals were up to fifty feet wide and dug with massive organized labor using stone tools (Walker).
Hohokam settlements spread from the Tucson basin, into the Phoenix area, and as far north as present-day Flagstaff. The Hohokam carried on a wide trade network between the Anasazi, Mogollon, and Mesoamerican Indians. During the 1400s, the Hohokam population reached the point that it could no longer sustain itself, and the great Hohokam Empire collapsed.
Anasazi the Ancestral Puebloans
In approximately 100 A. D., the Anasazi settled on a high plateau in an area much different than the rest of the Southwest. The plateau that they settled on was the Colorado Plateau. This large mountainous region encompasses the Four Corners area, as well as, other parts of Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico.
Archeologist recognize two major periods in the archeological record of the Anasazi, or Ancestral Puebloans: the Basketmaker and Pueblo.
Basketmaker Period 1-750 A. D.
The early Anasazi lived in shallow depressions in the ground covered by a canopy of brush and mud called pithouses. The Ancestral Puebloans made and used baskets as containers, some were woven tight enough to hold water. The Anasazi did not make pottery during this period, but they did raise Mesoamerican corn and squash with dry farming and some flood irrigation. The introduction of corn allowed the Anasazi to settle in one area. At first, the corn was planted in small plots, and while it was growing, the people resumed their hunter-gather pursuits. Over several hundred years, the agriculture of the Ancestral Puebloans advanced to the point that they could live and sustain themselves in permanent villages.
By 500 A.D., the Basketmakers had made several significant changes in their culture. Larger villages were being built with more storage bins, signifying increased yields of corn. In addition to improved farming methods, the Anasazi trading range expanded to the Pacific Coast, onto the Plains, and through the Mogollon and Hohokam , into Mesoamerica. Beans a good source of protein were being cultivated, however pinion nuts, yucca fruit, berries, and wild game were still a major part of the diet. Plants were used for baskets, clothing, and other tools, especially yucca fiber. The Anasazi still hunted and gathered to supplement the cultivated crops of corn, squash, and beans.
In 600 A.D., farming was the mainstay of the Ancestral Puebloan economy. Agriculture revolved around three major crops, corn, beans, and squash. Enough corn was being raised to create a surplus, and large storage rooms were prominent features of the Pueblo communities. By the late Basketmaker phase, the Anasazi had acquired more possessions, stored food, adopted the bow and arrow, domesticated turkeys, and made pottery. Plain gray pottery, and occasionally black on white pottery, was being used as storage containers for the excess food.
A good deal of archeological studies of the Ancestral Puebloans centers around pottery. Some pottery made in the plateau area carried bold black-on-white designs, while other kinds included plain and textured, or corrugated cooking vessels. Black-on-red pottery from northern Arizona was traded throughout the Four Corners, as was red-on-buff styles from Utah. Shapes included jars, bowls, pitchers, ladles, canteens, figurines and miniatures. Pottery contains hidden clues about the people who make it. Temper (gritty binding material) in the clay may be traceable to the geologic area where the pottery was made. The surfaces of bowls may retain pollen from food plants, or scrapings from a meal. The style and design of pottery changes through time and varies across regions. Consequently, ceramic fragments ("sherds") can indirectly show when a household or village was occupied. Archeologists use broken pieces of pottery to reveal information on social groups, and the trade networks that they use. (Anasazi Heritage Center).
Pueblo Phase 750-1300 A.D.
The term Pueblo refers to an Indian culture that was unique to the Southwest, not to a particular tribe. Even though the Pueblo Indians shared many common elements, each Pueblo village had its own social order and religious practices.
At the start of the Pueblo era, the Ancestral Puebloans built the traditional pithouses lodges and semi-subterranean kivas. In addition, above ground storage structures called Jackals were being built. Eventually, the Pueblo families moved out of the pithouses into the Jackals.
Reconstructed Jackal at Mesa Verde
By 750 A.D., an elite group of Ancestral Puebloans had started to build in Chaco Canyon. The area west and north of Chaco Canyon had two wet seasons, rain in the summer and rain or snow in the winter; to the south and southeast, there was a single rainy season in the middle to late summer (Walker). The people of Chaco Canyon were perfectly situated to carry on an extensive corn trade between the two regions. The Chacoans themselves made relatively little pottery, or grew much corn. They were the corn brokers, and by gaining power over the corn, they ultimately gained power over a vast region of the Southwest (Walker). During the next two centuries(900-1000), the Ancestral Puebloans spread over every arable acre of the San Juan Basin. More than ten thousand separate sites were established.
Pueblo Bonita (2003)
Pueblo Bonito is the most celebrated of the Chaco Canyon great houses. Over time, the workers shaped an estimated one million blocks of sandstone weighing some thirty thousand tons to construct Pueblo Bonito. Along its back perimeter, the rooms stood five stories high. At its peak, Pueblo Bonita had seven hundred or more rooms, thirty-seven family kivas, and two community kivas. Built in several stages, Pueblo Bonita covered over four and one-half acres at one time. A study by University of Arizona researchers showed the workers hauled spruce and fir timbers more than fifty miles to construct the floors and roofs. The timbers were packed from the Chuska Mountains to the west and the San Mateo Mountains to the south (Sharp).
Pueblo Bonita in 1100A.D.
In contrast to the usual practice of adding rooms to existing structures as needed, many archeologists believe that the great houses in Chaco Canyon were planned from the start. Construction on some of these buildings spanned decades and even centuries. These houses were not traditional farming villages occupied by large populations. They may instead have been impressive examples of "public architecture" that were used periodically during times of ceremony, commerce, and trading when temporary populations came to the canyon for these events (Chaco Culture Brochure).
Archaeologists have discovered at least one hundred and fifty great house style structures outside Chaco Canyon. These Pueblos were called Outliers. An elaborate road and trail system connected the outlying villages with Chaco Canyon. These roads spread the Chaco Indian influence to over forty thousand square miles. In addition to the corn trade, the Chaco Indians developed a trade in turquoise, pipestone, shells, carved flutes, mosaic baskets, and fine pottery, as well as, copper bells and macaw feathers from Mexico.
About 1000 A.D., the seasonal rains arrived with more consistency. This rain pattern continued for the next one hundred and thirty years. Large surpluses of corn filled the Chaco storehouses. The Chacoans exploded in a building frenzy that turned Chaco Canyon into the greatest settlement in North America. This period is referred to as the Chaco Phenomenon.
Percentage wise few people actually lived in Chaco Canyon itself, perhaps twenty-five to three thousand. The Chaco elite controlled the surplus corn trade, and the Chaco priests convinced the farmers that they controlled the seasons and the rains.
The Chacoans were expert astronomers. Fajada Butte, near the mouth of Chaco Canyon, was the most sophisticated astronomical observatory in the Southwest.
Sun Dials on Fajada Butte
On Fajada Butte are petroglyphs believed to be ancient calendar markings. A large circular spiral and a small spiral are pecked in the cliff behind three large stone slabs. At midday on the summer solstice, the sun shines between the stone slabs and creates a dagger of light that bisects the large spiral. On midday of the winter solstice, two daggers bracket the large spiral. During the spring and the fall equinoxes, a small dagger of light bisects the small spiral. The slabs also cast shadow on the large spiral that marks the moon’s eighteen point 6 years cycle of its orbit (Chaco Culture Brochure).
The unraveling of the Chaco society began with a drought in 1130 A.D. Lack of rain depleted the storehouses, and made the farmers question the power of the Chaco priests. The Chaco Phenomena was over. The Chaco population scattered in a series of migrations. One group built the Salmon Pueblo, which soon failed. On the banks of the Animas River, the migrants from Salmon and Chaco helped build the last great Anasazi Pueblo. When white settlers first saw the ruins of this Pueblo, they called it, Aztec. The ruins were so impressive the settlers could not believe that indigenous Indians had built such an elaborate village; it had to have been built by Aztecs from Mexico (Walker).
The early Pueblo period was a time of territorial expansion and cultural transition. Cotton cloth, above-ground houses, and improved pottery all came about during this period. After the demise of the Chaco Pueblos, there was marked contraction in Pueblo territory. The peak population of the Ancestral Puebloans in southwestern Colorado, A.D. 1000-1300, is estimated at twenty-five thousand to fifty thousand inhabitants. Today, the same area (Montezuma County) supports eighteen thousand to twenty thousand people (Anasazi Heritage Center).
Mesa Verde
As the Chaco system begin to fail, two other areas in the Four Corners area had increases in population, Mesa Verde and Kayenta along the Virgin River of Utah and Arizona. During the early Mesa Verde development, there were a great many villages on the valley floor, as well as, in the mouths of canyons. After 1150 A.D., the Mesa Verde area had the largest number of people in the Southwest.
Painted Hand
Hovenweep Castle
The round tower construction of Hovenweep and at Painted Hand is a mystery that is yet to be resolved by archeologists.
Lowry Pueblo
The main Lowry Pueblo was built in stages on top of abandoned pithouses of the eighth century peoples. Initially it consisted of only five rooms, and over a thirty year period was expanded to include forty rooms and eight kiva, or ritual rooms. The central part of the Pueblo had two or three stories. Not all rooms and kiva were used at the same time. Some rooms were for sleeping, some for storage, some for work areas, and some for social and religious events. The presence of a great kiva suggest that Lowry Pueblo was a regional urban ritual center. At its population climax, Lowry housed about one hundred people. It was abandoned around 1150 A.D. (BLM sign)
By 1200 A.D., the small outlying villages on the mesas and in the valleys were being abandoned. The people were moving into larger more protected villages. Increases in the number of people in cliff dwellings reduced the inhabitants ability to raise enough agriculture products to feed themselves. Around 1276, a long drought begin that continued until the end of the century, and by 1300 A.D., the San Juan Basin was completely abandoned (Walker). The major migrations from the Mesa Verde area were to the Rio Grande and Little Colorado River areas in New Mexico, although there were some to the Hopi of northeastern Arizona and the Zuni of western New Mexico.
Many reasons are given for the Ancestral Puebloans leaving the Four Corners area. Prolonged drought, famine, disease, raids by marauding nomads, exhaustion of resources, and quarrels among the Puebloans are given as causes for abandoning the Pueblos. There is no evidence of invading outsiders, but there is evidence of intra-regional conflict at some sites. According to Cordell there was "…numerous burned dwellings and human skeletons that had been burned and cannibalized..."
The idea of widespread warfare in the Four Corners region remains controversial, but new evidence suggests that some villages suffered violent attacks during the 1200s. Sand Canyon Pueblo, in the Montezuma Valley below Mesa Verde, was burned, and as many as two hundred and fifty people killed. Archaeologist, Stephen LeBlanc believes that the Ancestral Puebloans split themselves into at least three warring factions: Mesa Verde, Montezuma Valley, and the Aztec area. These otherwise peaceful agrarian people may have turned to violence when faced with starvation (Walker).
The cliff dwellings and the Pueblo villages in the Mesa Verde area had been abandoned several hundred years before the first white men saw them. On July 29, 1776, Father Francisco Dominguez and Father Silvestre Escalante left Santa Fe with eight men to explore a trading route to Monterey, California. Father Escalante recorded in his journal the presence of ancient Indian villages near the Delores River.
Upon an elevation on the river’s [Delores River] south side, there was in ancient times a small settlement of the same as those of the Indians in New Mexico...
The Anasazi Heritage Center near Delores, Colorado is located close to where Escalante made his observations. The nearby "Escalante Ruins” have been excavated and stabilized.Subterranean kivas had long been used by the Ancestral Puebloans for social and religious gatherings. The small hole in the center is called a Sipapu. During the Chaco era, kivas were built above ground and were surrounded by rectangular walls. These great kiva were fifty to sixty-five feet in diameter.
Escalante Kiva
Hovenweep and Lowry Ruins on the valley floor were undoubtedly observed by the mid-1800s. Two Story Cliff House in Mancos Canyon was photographed in 1874 by Donald Jackson, who had photographed the Yellowstone and Jackson Hole area a few years earlier.
Spruce Tree House
Spruce Tree House and Cliff Palace were discovered by Richard Wetherill and Charlie Mason in December of 1888 (Wenger).
Cliff Palace
In 1901, Richard Wetherill homesteaded land in Chaco Canyon that included Pueblo Bonito, Pueblo Del Arroyo, and Chetro Ketl. Wetherill remained on his homestead in Chaco Canyon and operated a trading post at Pueblo Bonito until 1910, when he was killed by a Navajo. Wetherill is buried in a small cemetery near Pueblo Bonito (Chaco Culture).
1680 Pueblo Revolt
Pueblos villages of northwestern Arizona and western New Mexico were first visited by Spanish expeditions in the sixteenth century. The first recorded contact with the Zuni was made by Fray Marcos de Niza in 1539. Coronado’s Expedition reached the Zuni villages a year later, and found out that the Zuni villages were not the seven cities of Cibola, as Coronado had believed from Niza's report.
After the Spanish Conquistadores, the Franciscan Friars come to convert the Pueblos to the Christian religion. One of the earliest missions was San Geronimo de Taos. At that time, the Taos Indians had lived in the Taos Valley of New Mexico for more than 800 years.
The Franciscans Friars imposed taxes on the Pueblo Indians. The only way Puebloans had to pay these taxes was with labor, corn, pottery, and blankets. At first, most of the Pueblo Indians accepted the Franciscan Friars, but over the years, resentment grew against the taxation and the Spanish religion and oppression. Each Pueblo village had strove to become an independent entity, but finally, the Pueblos united to drive out the Spanish.
The Taos people played a prominent role in the *Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Pope, the leader of the rebellion, lived at the Taos Pueblo. Fifteen years after being driven out, the Spanish retook the land, and the missions were re-established.
Warfare between the Pueblos and the neighboring tribes of Navaho, Ute, and Comanche took its toll on the Pueblo villages. Following the Mexican War, the Taos people resisted the Americans, just as they had others that had tried to take their lands. In 1847, Pueblo Indians killed the newly appointed Governor, Charles Bent. Prior to be appointed Governor of New Mexico, Bent had established Bent’s Fort on the Arkansas River. Despite the occasional warfare, the **Taos Pueblo was the major southwest trade center during the fur trade period (Weber).
The southwest Pueblos with multiple languages and ethnic groups are the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the United States. The Hopi village of Oraibi and the village of Acoma were built and have been continuously occupied since 1150 A.D. (Southwest Indian Council).
It should be noted that the Ancestral Puebloans were not the only American Indians building large structures in the United States during this time period. The American Indians mound builders, primarily east of the Mississippi, built spectacular structures. Cahokia was a flourishing population center and a city in every sense of the word when London was a few scattered huts. Mound building in one form or another flourished from 3000 B.C. until the mid-19th century. Recent archeological data indicate some forms of agriculture as early as 10,000 B.C. *** Today, over fifty percent of the worlds agriculture comes from plants first domesticated by American Indians. The Mississippian Culture Civilization in North America reached it's peak around 1450 A.D. although it lasted well into the 18th century with the Natchez. Other forms of mound building lasted well into the late 19th century (mound builder internet site).
Just as the Pueblos, the Mound Builders were many different cultures that shared common traits.
About the author.
O. N. Eddins is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine by profession. He was born and now resides in Afton, Wyoming, which is near Jackson Hole and the Grand Tetons-a landmark for the Indian and Mountain Man. The majority of Mountains of Stone was written in a secluded camp near an old Indian trail from Jackson Hole and the Tetons to the Snake River plains. By horse and pack string, Dr. Eddins has ridden many of the trails described in Mountains of Stone. His campfires have been built in the same places as those of mountain men and explorers one hundred and ninety years before him.
As a serious student and historical critic of the mountain man fur trade and the Lewis and Clark Expedition, he is well qualified to write a novel on Native American Indians and how they were impacted by the first explorers and mountain men to reach the upper Missouri, Rocky Mountains, and the Oregon Country.
Dr. Eddins was an approved judge of both the American Quarter Horse and the American Paint Horse Associations, as well as, a certified ski instructor. He is researching and writing, Winds of Change, the sequel to Mountains of Stone. The time frame of his next book is 1810 to 1843.
The Council for Indian Education wrote this about his book Mountains of Stone, "...a fascinating story...well researched with good descriptions of various tribes and their cultures."
*By the mid-sixteen hundreds, the Spanish Rancheros near Santa Fe and Taos had thousands of horses. The Pueblo Rebellion of 1680 forced the Spanish out of New Mexico and many of these horses were left behind. The Spanish government had issued decrees forbidding Indians to own or ride horses, but as slaves or as workers on the Spanish Rancheros, Indians had gained experience-handling horses. The Pueblo Indians and other tribes in the area took full advantage of these horses.
** The first European contact with the Comanche was about seventeen hundred at a trade fair in Taos. Ute Indians accompanied the Comanche there. The Ute who were related to the Comanche probably supplied them with their first horses. By 1706 the Comanche were well known to the Spanish in New Mexico because of their horse stealing raids on Spanish Rancheros. Taos served as a trade center in the early horse days, as well as, a center for mountain men throughout the southwest fur trade era.
*** Three-fifths of the modern world's agriculture comes from plants first domesticated by Native Americans. America’s Indians were the first to cultivate: Irish potato, sweet potatoes, manioc, several varieties of beans, squash, pumpkins, peanuts, tomatoes, chocolate, rubber, long staple cotton, and tobacco.
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