History Is in the Land: Multivocal Tribal Traditions in Arizona's San Pedro Valley
by T. J. Ferguson and Chip Colwell
University of Arizona Press, 2006 Cloth: 978-0-8165-2499-0 | eISBN: 978-0-8165-3268-1 | Paper: 978-0-8165-2566-9 Library of Congress Classification E78.A7F384 2006 Dewey Decimal Classification 979.17
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Arizona’s San Pedro Valley is a natural corridor through which generations of native peoples have traveled for more than 12,000 years, and today many tribes consider it to be part of their ancestral homeland. This book explores the multiple cultural meanings, historical interpretations, and cosmological values of this extraordinary region by combining archaeological and historical sources with the ethnographic perspectives of four contemporary tribes: Tohono O’odham, Hopi, Zuni, and San Carlos Apache.
Previous research in the San Pedro Valley has focused on scientific archaeology and documentary history, with a conspicuous absence of indigenous voices, yet Native Americans maintain oral traditions that provide an anthropological context for interpreting the history and archaeology of the valley. The San Pedro Ethnohistory Project was designed to redress this situation by visiting archaeological sites, studying museum collections, and interviewing tribal members to collect traditional histories. The information it gathered is arrayed in this book along with archaeological and documentary data to interpret the histories of Native American occupation of the San Pedro Valley.
This work provides an example of the kind of interdisciplinary and politically conscious work made possible when Native Americans and archaeologists collaborate to study the past. As a methodological case study, it clearly articulates how scholars can work with Native American stakeholders to move beyond confrontations over who “owns” the past, yielding a more nuanced, multilayered, and relevant archaeology.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
T. J. Ferguson owns Anthropological Research, LLC, in Tucson, Arizona, where he is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh received his PhD from Indiana University and his BA from the University of Arizona. Before coming to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, he held fellowships with the Center for Desert Archaeology and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
REVIEWS
“Ferguson and Colwell-Chanthaphonh present a powerful example of what a decolonized indigenous archaeology looks like. . . . [This is] an elegant, brilliantly written account of the many histories of the San Pedro Valley. It is a model for a new kind of archaeological writing.”—American Antiquity
“Together these scholars cogently lay out a coherent theory, method, and model for conducting collaborative archaeological ethnohistory in Native American communities, which will stand for many years to come as the archetype of interdisciplinary and politically conscious work.”—Journal of Anthropological Research
“This book embodies tribal sensibilities that have long been overlooked by the scientific community. The researchers have listened to tribal members and respect their esoteric knowledge. Much has been written about collaborative endeavors between scientists and tribes: this book has delivered a study that should be used by researchers who wish to embark on projects involving indigenous people. But more significantly, this book incorporates living, native people who can articulate their history and traditions in a language that scientists can understand and respect.”—Wicazo Sa Review
“The authors do a masterful job of tacking back and forth between the documentary record, contemporary native knowledge, archaeological data, and oral traditions. . . . The outcome of this innovative, collaborative endeavor is an enriched understanding of the prehistory of the region and the scholarly legitimization of the voices of indigenous descendant populations.”—Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
“History Is in the Land is about (re)making connections and there are precious threads to weave most readers into the people-history-land-scape. Employing their native collaborators’ tribal affiliations and individual perspectives as driving forces, the authors step back, allowing the San Pedro Valley to prompt O’odham, Hopi, Zuni, and Apache voices. . . . This path-clearing book is a recommended acquisition for all those who work on or think on or about the ample common ground at the interface of heritage, community, land, and policy.”—Journal of Arizona History
“[The book] gives a glimpse of different ways that the same landscape holds meaning for different cultures and proves that people do not own history but rather that history is in the land.”—Kiva
— -
TABLE OF CONTENTS
{FMT}Contents{\}
List of Figures
List of Tables
Foreword, by Robert W. Preucel
Acknowledgments
1 One Valley, Many Histories
2 Landscapes as History and Sites as Monuments
3 Place and History in the San Pedro Valley
4 Our Cousins to the East
5 "Ang kuktota"
6 The Lost Others
7 Landscapes of a Living Past
8 From an Anthropologist's Notebook
9 Expanding Knowledge with Collaborative Research
Appendix 1. Catalog of Artifacts Studied at the Amerind Foundation
Museum
Appendix 2. Catalog of Artifacts Studied at the Arizona State Museum
References Cited
Index
{FMT}Figures{\}
1 The Upper San Pedro Valley looking southwest.
2 Location of the tribes participating in research.
3 Meeting with the Tohono O'odham Culture Committee.
4 Places in southeastern Arizona included in research.
5 Dalton Taylor explains Hopi clan migrations at Reeve Ruin.
6 The Zuni research team studying ceramics at the Amerind Foundation
Museum.
7 Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh interviews Harlan Williams at Musangnuvi.
8 A model of the cultural landscape.
9 The Greater Southwest in 1701.
10 Jose Enriquez with an O'odham calendar stick.
11 A cultural landscape matrix for Hopi interpretations of ancestral
sites.
12 An archaeological timeline for the San Pedro Valley.
13 The Zuni research team at Alder Wash Ruin.
14 The distribution of Classic period sites in the Lower San Pedro Valley.
15 Changes in the site plan of Second Canyon Ruin.
16 Changing styles of pottery found in the San Pedro Valley.
17 An excavated kiva at the Davis Ranch Site.
18 An artist's reconstruction of Reeve Ruin.
19 Western Pueblo traits in the San Pedro Valley.
20 The remains of a Sobaipuri house at Alder Wash Ruin.
21 Sobaipuri structures overlying Hohokam pithouses at Alder Wash Ruin.
22 A digital reconstruction of Presidio de Santa Cruz de Terrenate.
23 A portion of Camp Grant in 1869.
24 The Tohono O'odham advisors at Gaybanipitea.
25 Anita Antone reflects on the role of O'odham women.
26 Bernard Siquieros and T. J. Ferguson at Gaybanipitea.
27 The advisors discuss O'odham and Apaches at Gaybanipitea's fort.
28 A plan of Gaybanipitea showing the location of the fort.
29 Edmund Garcia recounts the origin of the O'odham people.
30 The advisors connect Hohokam artifacts to Tohono O'odham traditions.
31 A rock-lined pit and a roasting pit.
32 The environments of the San Pedro Valley and the Santa Cruz Valley.
33 The O'odham advisors discuss their sense of belonging to the valley.
34 The location of villages on the Hopi Mesas.
35 Dalton Taylor discusses Hopi history at Flieger Ruin.
36 The Hopi researchers inspect a Hohokam pithouse near Fairbank.
37 A Hopi gourd rattle with a swastika design.
38 Linear rock alignments interpreted as water control devices.
39 Reeve Ruin seen from above.
40 A fragment of cotton textile from the Soza Canyon Shelter.
41 Harold Polingyumptewa at the Soza Ballcourt.
42 Leroy Lewis and Harold Polingyumptewa at Reeve Ruin.
43 Harold Polingyumptewa at the Davis Ranch Site kiva.
44 A spiral petroglyph at Villa Verde.
45 Petroglyphs interpreted as marks of the Bear Clan.
46 Petroglyphs interpreted as Snake Clan and Sand Clan marks.
47 A petroglyph interpreted as a clan mark or migration symbol.
48 Petroglyphs interpreted as ritual signs or clan marks.
49 Leroy Lewis sorting ceramics at the Arizona State Museum.
50 Gila Polychrome pottery from the Davis Ranch Site.
51 Salado polychrome bowls.
52 A Babocomari Polychrome bowl.
53 A plain ware jar from Reeve Ruin.
54 Floyd Lomakuyvaya and Harold Polingyumptewa examine perforated plates.
55 The Zuni research team at Reeve Ruin.
56 Perry Tsadiasi points to "memory pieces" at Gaybanipitea.
57 John Bowannie, Octavius Seowtewa, Jerome Zunie, and Patrick Lyons at
the Davis Ranch Site.
58 Salaa', or rocks used in ceremonial dress as tinklers.
59 The Zuni research team at an agricultural field.
60 The Zuni research team studying artifacts at the Arizona State Museum.
61 Octavius Seowtewa points to a triangle-dot motif on a bowl, symbolizing
rain.
62 Design elements on Salado vessels representing Achiyaladaba and a rain
cloud.
63 A Gila Polychrome bowl.
64 A Tonto Polychrome jar from Reeve Ruin.
65 Bone rasps from Babocomari.
66 A ceremonial whistle from Babocomari.
67 Turquoise inlay pieces from the Davis Ranch Site.
68 A hunting fetish from Bayless Ruin.
69 Perry Tsadiasi, Jerome Zunie, and Roger Anyon study the "Big Bell."
70 A spiral petroglyph with figure south of Charleston.
71 The Zuni research team leaves Reeve Ruin.
72 Howard Hooke and Jeanette Cassa compare Sobaipuri and Apache brush
houses.
73 Aravaipa band territory during the mid-nineteenth century.
74 Aravaipa Canyon today.
75 Places Bi ja gush kai ye traveled to before and after the Camp Grant
Massacre.
76 Gashdla' Cho O'aa (Big Sycamore Stands There).
77 An 1885 plat map showing Apache settlements subsumed by Dudleyville
residents.
78 Reservation boundaries and the Aravaipa band's traditional territory.
79 Stevenson Talgo and Howard Hooke at Gashdla' Cho O'aa.
80 Places with Apache names in the San Pedro Valley and Aravaipa Canyon.
81 Jeanette Cassa and Vernelda Grant discuss pictographs near Nadnlid Cho.
82 Larry Mallow Sr. and Jeanette Cassa explain how Apache pottery is made.
83 Models of ethnogenesis and archaeological cultures.
84 The Hopi research team inspects damage to Flieger Ruin by
pothunting.
History Is in the Land: Multivocal Tribal Traditions in Arizona's San Pedro Valley
by T. J. Ferguson and Chip Colwell
University of Arizona Press, 2006 Cloth: 978-0-8165-2499-0 eISBN: 978-0-8165-3268-1 Paper: 978-0-8165-2566-9
Arizona’s San Pedro Valley is a natural corridor through which generations of native peoples have traveled for more than 12,000 years, and today many tribes consider it to be part of their ancestral homeland. This book explores the multiple cultural meanings, historical interpretations, and cosmological values of this extraordinary region by combining archaeological and historical sources with the ethnographic perspectives of four contemporary tribes: Tohono O’odham, Hopi, Zuni, and San Carlos Apache.
Previous research in the San Pedro Valley has focused on scientific archaeology and documentary history, with a conspicuous absence of indigenous voices, yet Native Americans maintain oral traditions that provide an anthropological context for interpreting the history and archaeology of the valley. The San Pedro Ethnohistory Project was designed to redress this situation by visiting archaeological sites, studying museum collections, and interviewing tribal members to collect traditional histories. The information it gathered is arrayed in this book along with archaeological and documentary data to interpret the histories of Native American occupation of the San Pedro Valley.
This work provides an example of the kind of interdisciplinary and politically conscious work made possible when Native Americans and archaeologists collaborate to study the past. As a methodological case study, it clearly articulates how scholars can work with Native American stakeholders to move beyond confrontations over who “owns” the past, yielding a more nuanced, multilayered, and relevant archaeology.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
T. J. Ferguson owns Anthropological Research, LLC, in Tucson, Arizona, where he is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh received his PhD from Indiana University and his BA from the University of Arizona. Before coming to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, he held fellowships with the Center for Desert Archaeology and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
REVIEWS
“Ferguson and Colwell-Chanthaphonh present a powerful example of what a decolonized indigenous archaeology looks like. . . . [This is] an elegant, brilliantly written account of the many histories of the San Pedro Valley. It is a model for a new kind of archaeological writing.”—American Antiquity
“Together these scholars cogently lay out a coherent theory, method, and model for conducting collaborative archaeological ethnohistory in Native American communities, which will stand for many years to come as the archetype of interdisciplinary and politically conscious work.”—Journal of Anthropological Research
“This book embodies tribal sensibilities that have long been overlooked by the scientific community. The researchers have listened to tribal members and respect their esoteric knowledge. Much has been written about collaborative endeavors between scientists and tribes: this book has delivered a study that should be used by researchers who wish to embark on projects involving indigenous people. But more significantly, this book incorporates living, native people who can articulate their history and traditions in a language that scientists can understand and respect.”—Wicazo Sa Review
“The authors do a masterful job of tacking back and forth between the documentary record, contemporary native knowledge, archaeological data, and oral traditions. . . . The outcome of this innovative, collaborative endeavor is an enriched understanding of the prehistory of the region and the scholarly legitimization of the voices of indigenous descendant populations.”—Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
“History Is in the Land is about (re)making connections and there are precious threads to weave most readers into the people-history-land-scape. Employing their native collaborators’ tribal affiliations and individual perspectives as driving forces, the authors step back, allowing the San Pedro Valley to prompt O’odham, Hopi, Zuni, and Apache voices. . . . This path-clearing book is a recommended acquisition for all those who work on or think on or about the ample common ground at the interface of heritage, community, land, and policy.”—Journal of Arizona History
“[The book] gives a glimpse of different ways that the same landscape holds meaning for different cultures and proves that people do not own history but rather that history is in the land.”—Kiva
— -
TABLE OF CONTENTS
{FMT}Contents{\}
List of Figures
List of Tables
Foreword, by Robert W. Preucel
Acknowledgments
1 One Valley, Many Histories
2 Landscapes as History and Sites as Monuments
3 Place and History in the San Pedro Valley
4 Our Cousins to the East
5 "Ang kuktota"
6 The Lost Others
7 Landscapes of a Living Past
8 From an Anthropologist's Notebook
9 Expanding Knowledge with Collaborative Research
Appendix 1. Catalog of Artifacts Studied at the Amerind Foundation
Museum
Appendix 2. Catalog of Artifacts Studied at the Arizona State Museum
References Cited
Index
{FMT}Figures{\}
1 The Upper San Pedro Valley looking southwest.
2 Location of the tribes participating in research.
3 Meeting with the Tohono O'odham Culture Committee.
4 Places in southeastern Arizona included in research.
5 Dalton Taylor explains Hopi clan migrations at Reeve Ruin.
6 The Zuni research team studying ceramics at the Amerind Foundation
Museum.
7 Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh interviews Harlan Williams at Musangnuvi.
8 A model of the cultural landscape.
9 The Greater Southwest in 1701.
10 Jose Enriquez with an O'odham calendar stick.
11 A cultural landscape matrix for Hopi interpretations of ancestral
sites.
12 An archaeological timeline for the San Pedro Valley.
13 The Zuni research team at Alder Wash Ruin.
14 The distribution of Classic period sites in the Lower San Pedro Valley.
15 Changes in the site plan of Second Canyon Ruin.
16 Changing styles of pottery found in the San Pedro Valley.
17 An excavated kiva at the Davis Ranch Site.
18 An artist's reconstruction of Reeve Ruin.
19 Western Pueblo traits in the San Pedro Valley.
20 The remains of a Sobaipuri house at Alder Wash Ruin.
21 Sobaipuri structures overlying Hohokam pithouses at Alder Wash Ruin.
22 A digital reconstruction of Presidio de Santa Cruz de Terrenate.
23 A portion of Camp Grant in 1869.
24 The Tohono O'odham advisors at Gaybanipitea.
25 Anita Antone reflects on the role of O'odham women.
26 Bernard Siquieros and T. J. Ferguson at Gaybanipitea.
27 The advisors discuss O'odham and Apaches at Gaybanipitea's fort.
28 A plan of Gaybanipitea showing the location of the fort.
29 Edmund Garcia recounts the origin of the O'odham people.
30 The advisors connect Hohokam artifacts to Tohono O'odham traditions.
31 A rock-lined pit and a roasting pit.
32 The environments of the San Pedro Valley and the Santa Cruz Valley.
33 The O'odham advisors discuss their sense of belonging to the valley.
34 The location of villages on the Hopi Mesas.
35 Dalton Taylor discusses Hopi history at Flieger Ruin.
36 The Hopi researchers inspect a Hohokam pithouse near Fairbank.
37 A Hopi gourd rattle with a swastika design.
38 Linear rock alignments interpreted as water control devices.
39 Reeve Ruin seen from above.
40 A fragment of cotton textile from the Soza Canyon Shelter.
41 Harold Polingyumptewa at the Soza Ballcourt.
42 Leroy Lewis and Harold Polingyumptewa at Reeve Ruin.
43 Harold Polingyumptewa at the Davis Ranch Site kiva.
44 A spiral petroglyph at Villa Verde.
45 Petroglyphs interpreted as marks of the Bear Clan.
46 Petroglyphs interpreted as Snake Clan and Sand Clan marks.
47 A petroglyph interpreted as a clan mark or migration symbol.
48 Petroglyphs interpreted as ritual signs or clan marks.
49 Leroy Lewis sorting ceramics at the Arizona State Museum.
50 Gila Polychrome pottery from the Davis Ranch Site.
51 Salado polychrome bowls.
52 A Babocomari Polychrome bowl.
53 A plain ware jar from Reeve Ruin.
54 Floyd Lomakuyvaya and Harold Polingyumptewa examine perforated plates.
55 The Zuni research team at Reeve Ruin.
56 Perry Tsadiasi points to "memory pieces" at Gaybanipitea.
57 John Bowannie, Octavius Seowtewa, Jerome Zunie, and Patrick Lyons at
the Davis Ranch Site.
58 Salaa', or rocks used in ceremonial dress as tinklers.
59 The Zuni research team at an agricultural field.
60 The Zuni research team studying artifacts at the Arizona State Museum.
61 Octavius Seowtewa points to a triangle-dot motif on a bowl, symbolizing
rain.
62 Design elements on Salado vessels representing Achiyaladaba and a rain
cloud.
63 A Gila Polychrome bowl.
64 A Tonto Polychrome jar from Reeve Ruin.
65 Bone rasps from Babocomari.
66 A ceremonial whistle from Babocomari.
67 Turquoise inlay pieces from the Davis Ranch Site.
68 A hunting fetish from Bayless Ruin.
69 Perry Tsadiasi, Jerome Zunie, and Roger Anyon study the "Big Bell."
70 A spiral petroglyph with figure south of Charleston.
71 The Zuni research team leaves Reeve Ruin.
72 Howard Hooke and Jeanette Cassa compare Sobaipuri and Apache brush
houses.
73 Aravaipa band territory during the mid-nineteenth century.
74 Aravaipa Canyon today.
75 Places Bi ja gush kai ye traveled to before and after the Camp Grant
Massacre.
76 Gashdla' Cho O'aa (Big Sycamore Stands There).
77 An 1885 plat map showing Apache settlements subsumed by Dudleyville
residents.
78 Reservation boundaries and the Aravaipa band's traditional territory.
79 Stevenson Talgo and Howard Hooke at Gashdla' Cho O'aa.
80 Places with Apache names in the San Pedro Valley and Aravaipa Canyon.
81 Jeanette Cassa and Vernelda Grant discuss pictographs near Nadnlid Cho.
82 Larry Mallow Sr. and Jeanette Cassa explain how Apache pottery is made.
83 Models of ethnogenesis and archaeological cultures.
84 The Hopi research team inspects damage to Flieger Ruin by
pothunting.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC