3/27 Notes

1
3/27 Notes

• Cultural Geography Quiz 3 End of Class
• Pick up all old work
• First---finishing up last lecture
• Spanish Mexican SW

2
More Spanish Explorers of the Southwest

• Padre Eusebio Francisco Kino
• 1692-1711
• Reached Tucson
• Jesuit
• Technology
• Livestock
• Agriculture

What did he see?
3
Spanish Presidios

• Military Forts
• Protection
• Indian Raiding
• Livestock (cattle, horses) abundant
• Farming nearby
• Tucson, Tubac, El Paso
• Ended in 1821.

4
Spanish Missions

• San Xavier del Bac (White Dove of the Desert)
• Kino 1692
• 1770s rebuilt by Franciscans
• Just SW of Tucson
• Still active church
• Still active farming
• Tumacácori.

http//www.smrc-missiontours.com/
5
Big PontEuropean ? Native American Exchange

• Cattle, Horses
• Sheep, Goats, Pigs
• Citrus, Figs
• Metal tools
• Guns
• Distilled Alcohol
• Epidemic Diseases
• Writing

6
Big PointNative American ? European
Exchange

• Corn
• Beans
• Squash
• Turkey
• Chili Pepper
• Tomatillo
• Sunflower

• Walnut
• Acorn
• Mesquite Bean
• Agave
• Pine Nut
• Amaranth
• Chocolate

7
1800s Historical Dates

• Mexican Independence 1821
• Mexican-American War 1846
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 1848
• Gadsden Purchase 1854

8

• Todays Topics
• Athapaskans in the Southwest
• Includes Navajo and Apache
• Where they came from, when
• Early life ways, history, modern times
• Focus on environment interactions
• Leave most of the human issues for other courses

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Athapaskans in 1900
How to Connect North and South?
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Where and When

• Linguistically
• Athapaskan (Navajo and Apache)
• Migration started 1000-1500 years ago
• Glottochronology
• Crossed many environments
• SW arrival1400s

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Glottochronology

• Study of language divergence
• Language starts with a basic vocabulary
• People, languages split apart
• Words replaced at a constant rate??
• With time, a language splits into two
• If replacement rate is known, date of common
  language can be determined (not precise dates)
• Ex Lune (L.) Monday
• Fr. Lundi, Sp. Lunes

12
White River Ash

• East lobe 1250 bp
• 1000 km long, thick
• May have triggered dispersal of 500 people
• North lobe 1890 bp
• Smaller, but still catastrophic

13
The Athapaskan Entry 3 Models

• Late Entry High Plains Route (Post-1525)
• Early Entry via the Great Basin
  (Pre-1400)
• Early Entry via an Intermountain Route (A.D.
  1400-1450)

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Late Entry High Plains Hypothesis
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Early Entry Great Basin Hypothesis
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Early Entry Mountain Route
Navajo Oral Traditions
Navajo plant/ animal names
Early sites (1541) ONLY in Dinetah
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• Ancestral Navajo Homeland
• NW New Mexico, Dinétah
• Farming, hunting, gathering, traiding, raiding

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Early Navajo Forked-pole Hogans

• Forked-pole hogans enable tree-ring dating
• Same structure type used til 20th century
• Same site layout
• Earliest Dates mid-1500s

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Pueblitos

• Built 17101755
• Small masonry rooms with great views
• Conflict with Utes.

20
Navajo Depopulation of Dinetah
A severe drought which began in about 1730 had
major impact on the Navajos by 1748 This
drought and appear to have caused the southern
and western migration of Navajo Populatuions
andtheir abandonment of the Dinetah Marshall
1995203 see also Reeve 195820
But did it??????
21
Navajo Depopulation of Dinetah
22
Navajo Expansion out of Dinetah
Navajo Nation (current)
Dinetah
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• Navajo Transition to Pastoralism
• After Dinetah is depopulated
• Expansion WestSan Juan Basin, etc. better
  grasslands--- Why????

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• Long Walk to
• Ft. Sumner (Bosque Redondo)
• 250-400 miles
• East bank of Pecos River
• Now a state monument

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Impossible Environmental Conditions

• 9,000 people mostly Navajo, some Apache
• Perhaps 10,000 acres, 4,000 farmable
• Pecos water unpalatable (salt 3-6 ppt)
• Riparian woodland quickly depleted

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• Unfortunate Timing Climatically
• Early 1860s drought
• Crops failed and/or plagued with pests
• Thousands died

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Return to Pastoralism

• Sheep, goat numbers skyrocket and fluctuate
• Exceed carrying capacity (600,000), stripped
  vegetation
• 1930s US enforced stock reduction
• From 1,300,000 to 400,000 sheep
• Another disaster.

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Carrying Capacity

• Maximum stocking rate possible while maintaining
  range resources
• How many sheep can graze on this land
• How to determine?
• Measure forage production lbs./yearac
• Measure nutritional demand lbs./yearanimal
• Divide production/demand animals/ac
• Can be applied to all species, at all scales.

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• WesternApache
• FormerMogolloncountry
• Lifeways
• Hunting
• Gathering
• Farming
• Ethnographic case study (Archaic?).

Current W. Apache lands
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Hunters and Gatherers

• Gathering
• Agave
• Mesquite
• Cactus Fruits
• Grass Seeds
• Pine Nuts

• Hunting
• Deer
• Antelope
• Rabbits
• Squirrels
• Rodents
• Birds

31
Apache Wikiup Minimalist Housing

• Pole frame, hide and vegetation covering
• Allowed seasonal migration hunting, gathering

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Novel Twist on Apache Farming

• Late spring planting
• When corn 1.5 feet tall (before monsoons)
• Water final time, then leave
• Gather acorns, nuts, etc.
• Send someone back to see if corn made it
• Come back in fall to harvest
• Dubbed casual farming
• Might be recent analog to late Archaic.

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Agave Harvest

• Could be collected most of the year
• Good for many food items

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• Peeled Trees
• Strip off bark
• Eat inner bark cambium
• Emergency food vs. consistent behavior?

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• Increment core the tree
• Crossdate pre-scar ring growth
• Upper Gila example six peelings date to 1865, an
  emergency year (US Army)

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Athapaskan Summary

• Migration from North
• 1400s arrival?
• Depopulation NOT Environmental
• Transition to Pastoralism NOT Environmental
• Strategic Subsistence Systems