Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nr4z6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-21T01:42:13.825Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pueblo Indian Migrations: An Evaluation of the Possible Physical and Cultural Determinants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Stephen C. Jett
Stephen C. Jett*
Affiliation:
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The numerous theories that have been proposed to explain the abandonment of the San Juan and other areas by the Anasazi at the end of Pueblo III times are discussed.

The theory of the Great Drought of A.D. 1276-1299 is rejected as a total cause because the Chaco Canyon center was abandoned long before this “drought.” Drought in general is questioned because climatic data indicate that in some cases inhabitants of more favored areas migrated to less favored areas.

The theory of disastrous arroyo-cutting suffers from insufficient evidence. In addition, it does not seem to have taken place at Canyon de Chelly, and it would not have been able to affect the mesa-top farms at Mesa Verde.

The theory of Athapaskan raiders is favored by the defensive trend of Pueblo architecture. Although probably weaker militarily, the nomads could have caused abandonments by use of guerrilla tactics. Despite a lack of positive archaeological evidence, the possibility of a sufficiently early arrival of the Athapaskans is suggested by legend, glottochronology, and indirect archaeological evidence in the Largo-Gallina area.

Inter- and intra-village feuds would not cause large areas to be deserted, especially if land shortages were the cause of conflict, and the hypothesis of devastating disease fails to account for the population increases of Pueblo IV times and is not supported by historical data.

It is concluded that multiple causes will have to be cited to explain all the Pueblo abandonments but that nomadic raiders appear to be the best general explanation, given the available data.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , January 1964 , pp. 281 - 300
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1964

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bailey, R. W. 1935 Epicycles of Erosion in the Valleys of the Colorado Plateau. Journal of Geology, Vol. 43, No. 4, pp. 337-55. Chicago.Google Scholar
Bannister, Bryant 1959 Tree-ring Dating of Archaeological Sites in the Chaco Canyon Region, New Mexico. MS, doctoral dissertation, 1959-138, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Bannister, Bryant 1960 Southwestern Dated Ruins. VII. Tree-Ring Bulletin, Vol. 23, Nos. 1-4, pp. 19–21. Tucson.Google Scholar
Bliss, Wesley L. 1960 Impact of Pipeline Archaeology on Indian Prehistory. Plateau, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 10–13. Flagstaff.Google Scholar
Alice, Brues 1946 Alkali Ridge Skeletons, Pathology and Anomaly. In: John Otis Brew, Archaeology of Alkali Ridge, Southeastern Utah. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Vol. 21, pp. 327-9. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Bryan, Kirk 1922 Erosion and Sedimentation in the Papago Country, Arizona. United States Geological Survey, Bulletin 730, pp. 19–83. Washington.Google Scholar
Bryan, Kirk 1925 Date of Channel Trenching in the Arid Southwest. Science, Vol. 62, pp. 338-44. New York.Google Scholar
Bryan, Kirk 1928 Change in Plant Associations by Change in Ground Water Level. Ecology, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 474-8. Brooklyn.Google Scholar
Bryan, Kirk 1929 Flood-water Farming. Geographical Review, Vol. 19, pp. 444-56. New York.Google Scholar
Bryan, Kirk 1941 Pre-Columbian Agriculture in the Southwest, as Conditioned by Periods of Alluviation. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 219-42. Albany.Google Scholar
Bryan, Kirk 1954 The Geology of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 122, No. 7. Washington.Google Scholar
Carter, George F. 1945 Plant Geography and Culture History in the American Southwest. Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology, No. 5. New York.Google Scholar
Colton, Harold S. 1960 Black Sand. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Cooley, Maurice 1962 Late Pleistocene and Recent Erosion and Alluviation in Parts of the Colorado River System, Arizona and Utah. United States Geological Survey, Professional Paper 450-B, pp. 48-50. Washington.Google Scholar
Correll, J. Lee 1962 Navajo Land Claim. Navajo Times, Vol. 3, No. 34, pp. 8, 12. Window Rock.Google Scholar
Danson, Edward Bridge 1957 An Archaeological Survey of West Central New Mexico and East Central Arizona. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Vol. 44, No. 1. Cambridge.Google Scholar
De Harport, David L. 1959 An Archaeological Survey of Canon de Chelly. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Harvard University. Cambridge.Google Scholar
De Harport, David L. 1961 Abstract 543. Abstracts of New World Archaeology, Vol. 2, pp. 86-8. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Douglass, A. E. 1919 Climatic Cycles and Tree Growth, Vol. 1. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication 289. Washington.Google Scholar
Douglass, A. E. 1922 Some Aspects of the Use of the Annual Rings of Trees in Climatic Study. Smithsonian Institution, Annual Report. Washington.Google Scholar
Douglass, A. E. 1928 Climatic Cycles and Tree Growth, Vol. 2. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication 289. Washington.Google Scholar
Douglass, A. E. 1935 Dating Pueblo Bonito and Other Ruins of the Southwest. National Geographic Society, Contributed Technical Papers, Pueblo Bonito Series, No. 1. Washington.Google Scholar
Douglass, A. E. 1936 Climatic Cycles and Tree Growth, Vol. 3. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication 289. Washington.Google Scholar
Drake, Robert J. 1959 Nonmarine Molluscan Remains from Recent Sediments in Matty Canyon, Pima County, Arizona. Southern California Academy of Science, Bulletin, Vol. 58, Pt. 3. Los Angeles,Google Scholar
Gifford, James Collier 1957 Archaeological Explorations in Caves of the Point of Pines Region. Unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Gladwin, Harold Sterling 1947 Tree-rings and Droughts. Medallion Papers, No. 37. Globe.Google Scholar
Gladwin, Harold Sterling 1957 A History of the Ancient Southwest. Bond Wheelright Company. Portland, Maine.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Grenville 1942 The Social Organization of the Western Apache. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Gregory, Herbert E. 1915 The Oasis of Tuba, Arizona. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 5. Albany.Google Scholar
Gregory, Herbert E. 1916 The Navajo Country. United States Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 380. Washington.Google Scholar
Gregory, Herbert E. 1917 Geology of the Navajo Country. United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 93. Washington.Google Scholar
Hack, J. T. 1942 The Changing Physical Environment of the Hopi Indians of Arizona. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Vol. 35, No. 1. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hall, Edward Twitchell Jr. 1944 Recent Clues to Athapaskan Prehistory in the Southwest. American Anthropologist, Vol. 46, No. 1, pp. 98–105. Menasha.Google Scholar
Hargrave, Lyndon Lane 1935 Report on Archaeological Reconnaissance in the Rainbow Plateau Area of Northern Arizona and Southern Utah. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Harrington, John P. 1940 Southern Peripheral Athapaskawan Origins, Divisions, and Migrations. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 100, pp. 503-32. Washington.Google Scholar
Hester, James J. 1961 Early Navajo Migrations and Acculturation in the Southwest. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, 1961-181, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Hibben , Frank C. 1938 The Gallina Phase. American Antiquity, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 131-6. Menasha.Google Scholar
Hibben , Frank C. 1949 The Pottery of the Gallina Complex. American Antiquity, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 194–202. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Hotter, Harry 1956 The Chronology of the Athapaskan Languages. International Journal of American Linguistics, Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 219-32. Baltimore.Google Scholar
Huscher, Betty H. and Harold, A. 1942 Athapaskan Migration via the Intermontane Region. American Antiquity, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 80-8. Menasha.Google Scholar
Huscher, Betty H. 1943 The Hogan Builders of Colorado. Southwestern Lore, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 1–92. Gunnison.Google Scholar
Joyce, Herold 1961 Prehistoric Settlement and Physical Environment in the Mesa Verde Area. University of Utah Anthropological Papers, No. 53. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Judson, Sheldon 1953 Geology of the Hodges Site, Quay County, New Mexico. River Basin Surveys Papers, No. 5, Pt. 2, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 154, pp. 285–302. Washington.Google Scholar
Kelley, J.Charles 1952 Factors Involved in the Abandonment of Certain Peripheral Southwestern Settlements. American Anthropologist, Vol. 54, No. 3, pp. 356-87. Menasha.Google Scholar
Keur, Dorothy 1944 A Chapter in Navaho-Pueblo Relations. American Antiquity, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 75–86. Menasha.Google Scholar
Kidder, Alfred Vincent 1962 An Introduction to the Study of Southwestern Archaeology, with a Preliminary Account of the Excavations at Pecos. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Kluckhohn, Clyde and Dorothea, Leighton 1947 The Navaho. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Kroeber, A. L. 1925 Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 78. Washington.Google Scholar
Kroeber, A. L. 1959 Reflections and Tests on Athabascan Giottochronology. Ethnographic Interpretations 8, University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 47, No. 3. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research 1962 Tree-Ring Catalogue, Navajo Land Claim, MS. Tucson.Google Scholar
Leopold, Luna B. 1951 Vegetation of Southwestern Watersheds in the Nineteenth Century. Geographical Review, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 295–316. New York.Google Scholar
Leopold, Luna B. and John P., Miller 1954 A Postglacial Chronology for Some Alluvial Valleys in Wyoming. Geological Survey Water Supply Paper, No. 1261. Washington.Google Scholar
Leopold, Luna B. and Snyder, C. T. 1951 Alluvial Fills near Gallup, New Mexico. United States Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper, No. 1110-A. Washington.Google Scholar
Lindsay, Alexander J. 1961 The Beaver Creek Agricultural Community on the San Juan River, Utah. American Antiquity, Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 174-87. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Linton, Ralph 1944 Nomad Raids and Fortified Pueblos. American Antiquity, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 28–32. Menasha.Google Scholar
Martin, Paul S., Schoenwetter, James, and Arms, Bernard C. 1961 Southwestern Palynology and Prehistory: The Last 10,000 Years. Geochronology Laboratories, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Mera, H. P. 1935 Ceramic Clues to the Prehistory of North Central New Mexico. Laboratory of Anthropology Technical Series Bulletin 8. Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Miller, John P. and Wendorf, Fred 1958 Alluvial Chronology of Tesuque Valley, New Mexico. Journal of Geology, Vol. 66, No. 2, pp. 177-94. Chicago.Google Scholar
Nelson, N. C. 1914 Pueblo Ruins of the Galisteo Basin, New Mexico. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 15, Pt. 1. New York.Google Scholar
Nichols, Robert F. 1962 Mesa Verde Tree Ring Material, Reports No. 3-9, MS. Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. Tucson.Google Scholar
O'bryan, Deric 1950 Excavations in Mesa Verde National Park, 1947-1948. Medallion Papers, No. 39. Globe.Google Scholar
Parsons, Elsie Clews 1939 Pueblo Indian Religion, 2 Vols. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Petersen, H. V. 1950 The Problem of Gullying in Western Valleys. In Applied Sedimentation, edited by Trask, Parker D., pp. 407-36. John Wiley and Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Reed, Erik K. 1944 The Abandonment of the San Juan Region. El Palacio, Vol. 51, No. 4, pp. 61–74. Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Reed, Erik K. 1956 Outstanding Exhibit-sites, Modern Pueblos, Local Museums, pp. 181-6, in H. M. Wormington, Prehistoric Indians of the Southwest. Denver Museum of Natural History, Popular Series No. 7. Denver.Google Scholar
Reed, Erik K. 1958 Excavations in Mancos Canyon, Colorado. University of Utah Anthropological Papers, No. 35. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Rohn, Arthur H. 1963 Prehistoric Soil and Water Conservation on Chapin Mesa, Southwestern Colorado. American Antiquity, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 441-55. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Schulman, Edmund 1956 Dendroclimatic Changes in Semiarid America. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Sears, Paul B. 1958 Environment and Culture in Retrospect. In “Climate and Man in the Southwest,” edited by Smiley, Terah L., University of Arizona Bulletin, Vol. 28, No. 4, Program in Geochronology, Contribution No. 6. Tucson.Google Scholar
Smiley, Terah L. 1951 A Summary of Tree-Ring Dates from Some Southwestern Archaeological Sites. University of Arizona Bulletin, Vol. 22, No. 4, Laboratory Bulletin of Tree-Ring Research No. 5. Tucson.Google Scholar
Smith, H. V. 1956 The Climate of Arizona. University of Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 279. Tucson.Google Scholar
Thompson, Laura 1950 Culture in Crisis. Harper and Brothers, New York.Google Scholar
Thompson, Laura and Joseph, Alice 1947 The Hopi Way. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Titiev, Mischa 1944 Old Oraibi. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard, University, Vol. 22, No. 1. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Toulouse, Joseph H. Jr. 1945 Early Water Systems at Gran Quivira. American Antiquity, Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 362-72. Menasha.Google Scholar
Underhill, Ruth 1956 The Navajos. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
United States Department of Commerce, Weather Bureau 1955-1962 Climatological Data, Arizona (various volumes), Kansas City and Asheville.Google Scholar
United States Department of Commerce 1957-1962 Climatological Data, New Mexico (various volumes), Asheville.Google Scholar
United States Department of Commerce 1962 Annual Summary 1961. Climatological Data, Colorado, Vol. 66, No. 13. Asheville.Google Scholar
WOodbury, Richard B. 1961 Climatic Changes and Prehistoric Agriculture in the Southwestern United States. New York Academy of Sciences, Annals, Vol. 95, Article 1. New York.Google Scholar
Wormington, H. M. 1956 Prehistoric Indians of the Southwest. Denver Museum of Natural History, Popular Series No. 7. Denver.Google Scholar