The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

Home , Apacheria, Apache (instrumental), Apache Kid, Chiricahua, Cibecue Creek (Arizona), Mazatzal Mountains

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

Angie Krall Vincent E. Randall

Technical Report No. 2007-03 Desert Archaeology, Inc.

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

Angie Krall Vincent E. Randall

Technical Report No. 2007-03 Desert Archaeology, Inc. 3975 N. Tucson Boulevard, Tucson, Arizona 85716 • July 2009

PREFACE

The realignment of State Route 260 (SR 260) be- Cores and frontiers depend on vantage point, tween Payson and Heber follows a long tradition however. In this report, KenCairn and Randall ad- of trail blazing through the lands below the Mogol- dress the presumption of the interpretation that lon Rim region. For over 3,000 years, people have described the region as frontier. They examine the passed through the region, perhaps following the region as a homeland and an essential and central route of the modern highway through spring-fed part of the history and identity of Apache, even as meadows and perennial streams. For at least 350 private and public entities have claimed the lands years, the stewards of this land have often been of the Mogollon Rim and native peoples have been Apache and Yavapai. moved to reservations. For modern Apache, the area is a “bridge” be- An extensive view of the Apache use of the tween the modern Yavapai-Apache Nation, Tonto, sub-Mogollon Rim was drawn from published and White Mountain, and San Carlos Reservations. unpublished ethnographic work on Apache places, Tribal members recall trails traveled by foot, don- cultural resource management reports, and the key, horse, or car, as well as camps made under the records of the public agencies who protect and trees, ramadas, or wickiups. A history of subsis- manage Apache places. An understanding of the tence activities, personal rituals, and social occa- human agency that shaped this landscape is pro- sions is encoded across the landscape. Where vided by Apache and Yavapai consultants who Apache confronted the pioneers of the American talked with the project ethnographers about how frontier and their military forces are better known the Mogollon Rim region has changed over the and mapped by all. course of their lives. They also shared the place- Apache and Yavapai archaeological sites are knowledge they received from their parents and the remains of a mobile people who lived lightly grandparents. The narratives of the people who on the landscape, which means that archaeological informed Goodwin, Buskirk, and Basso, as well as investigations are not sufficient to fully evaluate those who worked with Anthropological Research, the effects of development on Apache cultural re- L.L.C., converge and diverge as the result of the sources and traditional places. To ameliorate the many experiences, many memories, and many in- analytic divide between the archaeological meth- terests that are tied to the region. od, which draws inference from material remains, This study of the Apache homeland was con- and the fundamental connections modern Apache ducted by Anthropological Research, L.L.C. The and Yavapai make with the central Arizona land- project was guided by T. J. Ferguson, initiated with scape, the Arizona Department of Transportation Roger Anyon, written and researched with Angie (ADOT) and the Tonto National Forest (TNF) re- Kralj KenCairn and Vincent Randall, and edited quested an ethnographic project be conducted as and brought to completion by Chip Colwell- part of the State Route 260 Payson-to-Heber pro- Chanthaphonh. Ahéhye’e to those tribal members ject. who contributed their knowledge to help us better The S.R. 260 project is a cultural resource man- understand their history and the history of the re- agement project conducted by Desert Archaeology, gion: Levi DeHose, Jerome Kessay, Sr., Gregg Inc., in advance of the realignment of 74 km (46 Henry, Lorin Henry, Ramon Riley, Eva Watt, Don miles) of state highway between Payson and Decker, Mary Smith Garner, Everett Randall, Heber, Arizona. All archaeological sites are con- Elizabeth Rocha, Victor Smith, Ed Cassa, and fined to the westernmost portion of the project area Jeanette Cassa. Researchers and consultants were below the Mogollon Rim on TNF land. The use of aided by John Welch of the White Mountain the project area by modern Apache and their an- Apache Historic Preservation Office, Beverly cestors was not as confined; therefore, the ethno- Malone and Karl Hoerig of the White Mountain graphic research considered the entire corridor and Apache Cultural Center and Museum, Vernelda the surrounding region. Grant of the San Carlos Historic Preservation and The goal of the archaeological Treatment Plan Archaeology Department, Seth Pilsk at the San for the SR 260 project was to examine the region Carlos Department of Forestry, and Chris Coder at crossed by the highway as a frontier, beyond and the Yavapai-Apache Nation Cultural Resources between more dominant population centers in the office. Scott Wood, Jen Berke, and Michael Sullivan pre-Columbian and the historic eras (Herr 1999). of the TNF offered their knowledge of Apache iv Preface archaeology and history on the forest. Ronald ing those at the McGoonie site, Ponderosa Camp- Louis Stauber provided the cartography, and this ground, and Plymouth Landing interpreted herein, final presentation was produced by Emilee Mead are (or will be) discussed in a series of descriptive and Donna Doolittle of Desert Archaeology. technical reports titled, “Their Own Road.” This report is one in a series of final reports being produced as part of the SR 260 project. The Sarah A. Herr results of the archaeological investigations, includ- Desert Archaeology, Inc.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Western Apache history, as it relates to the area; (2) explanation of how the project area is part State Route 260 (SR 260) Payson-to-Heber project of the Western Apache homelands; and (3) inspec- implemented by Desert Archaeology, Inc., is sum- tion of archaeological sites, maps, and artifacts by marized in this report. This project was conducted Western Apache cultural advisors to determine to mitigate the impact of highway realignment and how they are related to Apache use of the study improvement on cultural resources along a 74-km- area. (46-mile-) long stretch of right-of-way between Data recovery at three archaeological sites ex- Payson and Heber (Milepost 256 to Milepost 302) hibited recognizable Apache or Yavapai remains. (Herr 1999). These include a possible ramada at the McGoonie Ethnohistoric research included preliminary site, AZ O:12:25/AR-03-12-04-743 (ASM/TNF); an fieldwork in 2000 (Ferguson and Anyon 2000), fol- Apache occupation component at the Plymouth lowed by more intensive work to identify Western Landing site, AZ O:12:89/AR-03-12-04-1411 (ASM/ Apache cultural sites and historic places in and TNF); and a roasting pit at the Ponderosa Camp- near the right-of-way. Fieldwork involved consult- ground site, AZ O:12:19/AR-03-12-04-1159 (ASM/ ants from the San Carlos Apache Tribe, White TNF). Ethnographic fieldwork also revealed im- Mountain Apache Tribe, and Yavapai-Apache Na- portant Apache cultural and historical sites, in- tion. To complement the 2000 fieldwork, KenCairn cluding an Apache camp near Milepost 259, an conducted a literature review of Western Apache Apache trail up See Canyon near Christopher history and culture, as well as a series of interviews Creek, an Apache camp at Indian Garden/Kohl’s with consultants from the White Mountain Apache Ranch, and an Apache ceremonial ground near the Tribe and the Yavapai-Apache Nation. Individuals present intersection of SR 260 and Forest Service were chosen for their specific knowledge of the (FS) 512, the road to Young, Arizona. In this study, study area. Three goals guided the research with ethnohistoric interpretations are blended with ar- Apache cultural advisors: (1) documentation of the chaeological investigations to better understand Apache cultural landscapes in and around the project the nature of Apache archaeology.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface ...... iii

Executive Summary...... v

List of Figures...... ix

List of Tables...... xi

INTRODUCTION ...... 1

Project Methods...... 5 Previous Research in the Project Area ...... 6

THE WESTERN APACHE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE ...... 7

The Mountain People ...... 8 Origins and Migrations...... 10 Western Apache Clans in the Study Area ...... 14 Western Apache Place Names in the Study Area...... 15

SHÍ KÉYAA: THE WESTERN APACHE HOMELAND AND STATE ROUTE 260...... 15

Homeland and Social Organization ...... 17 Western Apache Frontiers and Territorial Boundaries...... 18 Western Apache Cultural and Historical Sites in the Study Area...... 23 Trails and Travel ...... 32 Returning Home ...... 34 The Loss of Homeland ...... 35

APACHE ARCHAEOLOGY ...... 37

Ancient Índé Camp (The Plymouth Landing Site)...... 39 The McGoonie Site...... 46 The Ponderosa Campground Site...... 48 Differentiating Apache and Yavapai Sites...... 49 Relationships to Ancient Sites...... 50 Apache Archaeologists...... 51

NOT A DOG IN SIGHT: CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE CHALLENGES ...... 52

References Cited...... 55

LIST OF FIGURES

1. The study area...... 2

2. The four chief mountains encircling the Western Apache cultural landscape...... 4

3. Visiting the McGoonie site, AZ O:12:25/AR-03-12-04-743 (ASM/TNF): left to right: Beverly Malone, Ed Cassa, Sarah Herr, Jeanette Cassa, and Scott Wood; Eva Watt seated ...... 6

4. Interview with White Mountain Apache advisors: left to right: Gregg Henry, Lorin Henry, Karl Hoerig, Eva Watt, and Beverly Malone...... 7

5. Significant Apache sites in the study area...... 8

6. Places of clan origin and clan occupation in the study area...... 11

7. Selected Western Apache place names in the study area...... 15

8. Women played a central role in Apache social organization; here, two women pose near the East Fork of Clear Creek, Arizona in 1900 ...... 18

9. An example of an Apache farm, likely in the early 1900s ...... 19

10. Vincent Randall’s demarcation of the dil zhé’é territory in juxtaposition with Goodwin’s Western Apache group territories...... 20

11. General vicinity of Apache camp location, near Milepost 259 ...... 26

12. Indian Garden, AZ O:12:32/AR-03-12-04-53 (ASM/TNF), with patches of agave...... 27

13. Spring at Indian Garden, AZ O:12:32/AR-03-12-04-53 (ASM/TNF)...... 27

14. Apache ceremonial grounds south of State Route 260, with Forest Road 181 in the background...... 29

15. The northern side of the dance ground at the Apache ceremonial grounds ...... 30

16. Apache scouts at Camp Verde in the late 1800s ...... 36

17. Protohistoric period sites identified by Grenville Goodwin around 1937 ...... 40

18. Plan view of the Plymouth Landing site, AZ O:12:89/AR-03-12-04-1411 (ASM/TNF) ...... 41

19. Apache camp in the 1920s, an example of wickiups with pointed roofs ...... 44

20. Eva Watt and Beverly Malone identify globemallow used to strengthen the clay mixture for making pottery and hearths ...... 45

21. Possible Apache ramada, Feature 32, at the McGoonie site, AZ O:12:25/ AR-03-12-04-743 (ASM/TNF) ...... 46 x List of Figures

22. A modern example of an Apache tłoh daa gos kán, or ramada, at the interpretive site at the White Mountain Apache Cultural Center and Museum...... 47

23. An agave plant near Christopher Creek...... 48

24. Agave roasting pit, Feature 4, at the Ponderosa Campground site, AZ O:12:19/ AR-03-12-04-1159 (ASM/TNF); metates are located in the pit fill...... 49

25. The Plymouth Landing crew: left to right: Darryl DeHose, Teofilo Gooday, Josh Watts, and Jefferson Gatewood...... 52

LIST OF TABLES

1. Apache cultural advisors participating in fieldwork and interviews...... 6

2. Significant Apache sites in the study area...... 8

3. Places of clan origin and clan occupation in the study area...... 12

4. Selected Western Apache place names in the study area...... 16

5. Protohistoric period sites identified by Grenville Goodwin around 1937 ...... 40

SHÍ KÉYAA: THE WESTERN APACHE HOMELAND AND ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE MOGOLLON RIM

INTRODUCTION have with the Mogollon Rim and the Payson Basin regions, the SR 260 project area, and its observable The Mogollon Rim is a dramatic geological fea- archaeological sites. Desert Archaeology con- ture, an escarpment more than 305 m (1,000 ft) ducted this project to mitigate the impact of high- high in many places, extending almost 320 km (200 way realignment on cultural resources along a 74- miles) across central Arizona. Marking the south- km- (46-mile-) long stretch of right-of-way between ern edge of the sweeping Colorado Plateau, the Payson and Heber, Milepost 256 to Milepost 302 precipice splits the landscape, dividing the earth (Herr 1999). The information presented here helps both physically and metaphorically. The idea that address the eight themes developed as historic the Mogollon Rim was a frontier throughout the concepts for the project, including (1) demography; region’s long history is thus an apposite concept (2) exchange, trade, and commerce; (3) subsistence; for scholars to explore. Indeed, the project research (4) technology; (5) architecture; (6) socio-political- design developed by Desert Archaeology for the ideological systems; (7) government; and (8) trans- SR 260 project investigates the theoretical concepts portation and communication (Wood et al. 1987). of a frontier across space and time (Herr 1999). Three Apache tribes participated in this re- Defined as a sparsely populated area between search: the Yavapai-Apache Nation, the White homelands, the frontier concept fits well within the Mountain Apache Tribe, and the San Carlos contexts of the pre-Columbian and American oc- Apache Tribe. The study area for this ethnohistoric cupations of the region. Research for this study, investigation includes the SR 260 right-of-way and however, indicates a frontier approach is less ap- adjacent areas identified by Western Apache con- plicable to Apache concepts of land use and his- sultants as relevant to the cultural landscape. Thus, tory. To Western Apache people, the Mogollon the study area includes the greater Payson Basin, Rim is not a frontier, it is the very heart of the shí bounded by Fossil Creek Canyon and the Mazatzal kéyaa, their traditional homeland. Mountains on the west, the towns of Rye, Gisela, A comprehensive Apache archaeology has Young, and Cibecue to the south, Carrizo Creek on eluded researchers for decades, due largely to the the east, and Heber and the Mogollon Rim to the ephemeral nature of Apache settlement and land north (Figure 1). During project research, Apache use (Donaldson and Welch 1991; Ferg 1992; Greg- consultants identified numerous traditional settle- ory 1981). The paucity of Apache material remains ments, farms, collection areas, artifacts, landmarks, does not necessarily imply a sparse population or a and trails. This information is woven into a narra- “frontier zone.” The relatively light material im- tive that includes previous research of clan origin print of the Apache results from a survival strategy sites, historic battle sites, and archaeological sites oriented primarily toward gathering, hunting, and that constitute an Apache signature on the land. raiding that left few physical remains on the land- According to Western Apache consultants in- scape. For Ramon Riley, a White Mountain Apache terviewed for this study, Apache groups who tra- tribal member, the SR 260 project area is part of the ditionally used the project area and its environs “center of the earth”—illustrating how the Mogol- were the dil zhé’é, or Tonto Apache, and clans of lon Rim is more a cynosure than a periphery the Cibecue Group. Goodwin (1942:21) docu- within Western Apache territory. The frontier and mented that the Cibecue clans were known by homeland theoretical perspectives are not entirely other Apaches as the dzil tadn, or “mountain peo- incompatible, however, as they can work together ple.” Vincent Randall, however, contends that they in a complementary fashion to portray a historic were also known as dil zhé’é. Goodwin (1935) re- reality seen from multiple perspectives. The taking ferred to all Apacheans who spoke Athabaskan of the Apache homeland, for instance, is a result of and lived within the present boundaries of Arizona the American frontier’s historical development. during historic times as Western Apache—except A cultural perspective is provided here on the the Chiricahua and the Apache Mansos. He classi- historical associations the Western Apache people fied these Apachean peoples into five groups

2 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

Figure 1. The study area. based on their apparent cultural and linguistic dif- and instead, refer to them collectively as one peo- ferences: White Mountain, San Carlos, Northern ple, the dil zhé’é (Newton 1998; Newton and Terziz Tonto, Southern Tonto, and Cibecue. Goodwin 1997b). While the dil zhé’é generally favored the (1935, 1942) further divided these groups into lands Goodwin delineated, they also traveled ex- bands defined by their territorial limits. According tensively beyond their immediate territory to to Goodwin, the bands and semibands of the gather food and to visit relatives. Cibecue and Southern Tonto and the Cibecue groups were the White Mountain tribal elders recount how their primary inhabitants of the project area and its en- relatives traveled through dil zhé’é country, as far virons. as the Camp Verde area. Therefore, the three The Apache elders and advisors interviewed Tribes involved in this study share a common his- for this and previous studies do not distinguish tory and land. It is only through the vagaries of between the Northern and Southern Tonto groups history and federal Indian policy that Western

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 3

Apache peoples occupy separate reservations with study area since 1850 revealed a constellation of distinct political structures. Due to previous mis- Western Apache clan migration routes, clan origin conceptions about Apache social organization and sites, and clan territories. Research drawn from the land use, many of the Apache people consulted Goodwin Papers in the archives of the Arizona during this study contend that the representation State Museum (ASM) provided a series of Apache of Apache history, to date, has been inadequate place names associated with the study area and incorrect. This report, then, endeavors to pro- (Goodwin 1932, 1933b). Of note, in this report, we vide a richer history from an Apache perspective, depend primarily on Goodwin’s Apache orthogra- while simultaneously incorporating existing litera- phy. ture and research, and noting cases of conflicting Interviews with Apache cultural advisors indi- information. cate the project area and its environs were part of a The goal of consulting Apache tribal members large decentralized territory punctuated by sea- in this research was to develop a historical narra- sonal and temporary Apache camps, plant and tive that portrays Apache conceptions of history mineral collection areas, hunting areas, ceremonial and land use in the area. Three specific research grounds, travel and trade routes, hiding places, objectives were identified to attain this central and battlegrounds. In illustrating these places, the goal: (1) documentation of the Apache cultural study area is divided into western and eastern sec- landscape in and around the project area; (2) ex- tors. Cultural advisors relayed how the rugged planation of how the project area is a part of the breaks of the Mogollon Rim constitute an ecologi- Western Apache homelands; and (3) inspection of cal niche rich in plant and animal diversity, and archaeological sites to determine how they relate to how this area lent itself well to a highly adapted Apache use of the project area. hunting and gathering regime supplemented by Research about the Apache cultural landscape small agricultural plots and raiding. We initially included interviews with Apache research consult- focus on those areas that exhibit intensive and con- ants, vehicular surveys of the project area with sistent Apache occupation and land use over time. Apache advisors to identify traditional places and Fieldwork and interviews during this study re- their role in defining the cultural landscape, and veal important Apache cultural and historical sites, archival and library research. The concept of including an Apache camp near Milepost 259, an Apachean cultural landscapes used in this chapter Apache trail running up See Canyon near Christo- builds upon Basso’s (1996a) celebrated work on pher Creek, an Apache farm and camp at Indian Apache place-making, a way traditional Apache Garden/Kohl’s Ranch, and an Apache ceremonial concepts of self and community are communicated ground near the present intersection of SR 260 and through landscapes. “If place-making is a way of FS 512, the road to Young, Arizona. Traditional constructing the past, a venerable means of doing travel routes and trails Apaches used throughout human history,” as Basso (1996a:7) observes, “it is the study area are also examined. The concept of also a way of constructing social traditions and, in shí kéyaa is ultimately examined through the lens of the process, personal and social identities. We are, the post-reservation era, a period known both as a in a sense, the place-worlds we imagine.” Members time of homecoming and also as a time when the of local Apache communities use the landscape in homeland was broken apart by the waves of at least three ways: (1) observation of its appear- American colonialism. ance; (2) use for physical activities that may leave a Several Apache cultural advisors visited ar- mark on the land; and (3) communication by for- chaeological excavations conducted by Desert Ar- mulating descriptions and representations of the chaeology to view, first-hand, the exposed ar- land shared in the course of social gatherings chaeological features and to help identify Apa- (Basso 1996a:73). chean archaeology in the field. Other Apache re- The important association of Apache culture search participants who were not able to visit the with high places—mountains within the Western sites at the time of excavation examined maps and Apache cultural landscape—became particularly artifacts to help interpret site function and mor- evident during this study. One section is accord- phology. According to Apache cultural advisors, ingly dedicated to this theme, describing the cul- data recovered at three sites exhibit recognizable tural importance of the four chief mountains that Apache remains. These include the McGoonie site, delineate the landscape of the Western Apache where there is a ramada; the Plymouth Landing (Figure 2). An examination of Goodwin’s (1935, site, where there are the remains of a probable 1942) work documenting Apache land use in the Apache camp; and the Ponderosa Campground

4 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

Figure 2. The four chief mountains encircling the Western Apache cultural landscape. site, with a roasting pit. Archival research located a che archaeological sites. Ethnohistoric interpreta- 1935 Arizona state map with vague locations of tions are thus blended with documentary and ar- Protohistoric period sites documented by Good- chaeological investigations to better understand win, providing additional information about Apa- the nature of Apache archaeology.

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 5

Project Methods were asked to identify Apache cultural sites and historic places in and near the right-of-way (Anyon The field research and interviews for this pro- 2000). On 16 May 2000, an area from Payson to ject were conducted in two phases. The first phase Christopher Creek was investigated with all re- consisted of fieldwork by T. J. Ferguson and Roger search participants. At Christopher Creek, the Yava- Anyon of Heritage Resources Management Con- pai-Apache Nation research team decided they were sultants, L.L.C. (HRMC) in May 2000 (Ferguson at the eastern end of the area they were familiar and Anyon 2000). The second phase was con- with, and they returned home. On 17 May 2000, ducted by T. J. Ferguson and Angie Kralj KenCairn the research teams of the San Carlos Apache Tribe under the auspices of Anthropological Research, and the White Mountain Apache Tribe visited ar- L.L.C. In the second phase, KenCairn conducted a chaeological sites in the project area, including the literature review and a series of interviews de- McGoonie site and Ponderosa Campground (Fig- signed to expand on the preliminary research. ure 3). The two research teams continued the tour KenCairn conducted one additional field trip with of the existing highway in an area extending to Apache cultural advisors to the Apache ceremonial Heber. At that time, the Plymouth Landing site had ground in the eastern section of the study area in not been identified as a possible Apache occupa- 2003. Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh assisted in the tion site. editing and writing of the final report. Vincent In the fall of 2002, Ferguson and KenCairn con- Randall’s participation was central to this project, ducted meetings at the cultural center offices of the from the research phase to reviewing and editing Yavapai-Apache Nation and the White Mountain this report. Apache Cultural Center and Museum to identify At the beginning of fieldwork in 2000, Anyon individuals willing to be interviewed about the and Ferguson conducted meetings with Apache project area (Table 1). Following the meetings, cultural advisors and tribal research consultants to KenCairn conducted a literature review and re- identify Apache consultants who could aid in the search at ASM, Sharlot Hall Museum Archives, research and to review the project goals and re- Museum of Northern Arizona Library, Northern search issues. These included members of the Arizona University Library, and Rim Country Mu- Yavapai-Apache Nation, the White Mountain seum. KenCairn also conducted a series of inter- Apache Tribe, and the San Carlos Apache Tribe. views with Apache consultants from the White Research consultants from the San Carlos Tribe Mountain Apache Tribe and the Yavapai-Apache included Ed Cassa and Jeanette Cassa. Seth Pilsk Nation during the fall of 2002 through the spring from the San Carlos Department of Forestry served of 2003 (Figure 4). as a driver and research facilitator. Research con- When discussing Apache archaeology, consult- sultants from the White Mountain Apache Tribe ants examined color-coded site maps and artifacts included Levi DeHose, Jerome Kessay, Sr., Ramon from relevant archaeological sites to provide inter- Riley, and Eva Watt. Beverly Malone from the pretation of the possible Apache sites within the SR White Mountain Apache Cultural Center and Mu- 260 project area. Some interviews were taped with seum served as driver and research facilitator. the approval of the consultants; individuals were Gregg Henry, a White Mountain Apache tribal paid a consultant’s fee for their services. KenCairn member and a member of the Desert Archaeology also interviewed Alan Ferg (ASM), Jim McKie field crew accompanied the research team. Re- (Prescott National Forest [PNF]), Chris Coder search consultants from the Yavapai-Apache Na- (Yavapai-Apache Nation), Scott Wood (TNF), Mi- tion included Mary Smith Garner, Everett Randall, chael Sullivan (TNF), and Jennifer Berke (TNF) for Elizabeth Rocha, and Victor Smith. They were ac- their perspectives on Apache archaeology and his- companied by Vincent Randall, Chairman of the toric land use. Yavapai-Apache Nation at the time, and Chris On 11 December 2002, Desert Archaeology Coder, Tribal Archaeologist, who served as driver hosted a field trip to the Plymouth Landing site. and research facilitator. Sarah Herr, Project Direc- The Yavapai-Apache Nation research team in- tor for Desert Archaeology, accompanied the re- cluded Calvin Johnson, Kenny Davis, Vincent search participants during all fieldwork. Scott Randall, and Chris Coder. Also in attendance were Wood, TNF Archaeologist, accompanied the re- Mark Elson (Desert Archaeology), Sarah Herr (De- search team during the morning of 17 May 2000. sert Archaeology), Scott Wood, Jennifer Berke, Jon A vehicular survey of the project area was con- Schumaker (ADOT), and Katherine Leonard ducted during which Apache research consultants (ADOT).

6 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

DeHose and Kessay 2003; Ferg 2002; Henry and Henry 2003; Randall 2003; Randall and Smith 2003; Randall et al. 2002; Riley 2003; Rocha 2003; Smith and Randall 2002; Stein 2003; Watt 2003a, 2003b; Watt and DeHose 2003; Wood et al. 2003). In the text that follows, unless otherwise cited, information and quotes from consultants are derived from these interviews. Final drafts were reviewed by Vincent Randall, who added extensive information on the cor- rect dil zhé’é spelling of words Figure 3. Visiting the McGoonie site, AZ O:12:25/AR-03-12-04-743 (ASM/TNF): and clan and place names. It left to right: Beverly Malone, Ed Cassa, Sarah Herr, Jeanette Cassa and Scott is important to note that Wood; Eva Watt seated. Goodwin’s Apache orthogra- phy relied heavily on a few On 9 April 2003, KenCairn organized a final informants; therefore, there is a whole spectrum of field trip to the eastern end of the project area with Apache word spelling and meaning that cannot be members of the White Mountain Apache Tribe to entirely captured in this report. visit and further discuss an Apache ceremonial site identified by Eva Watt in 2000. The White Moun- tain Apache participants included Eva Watt, Levi Previous Research in the Project Area DeHose, Gregg Henry, and Beverly Malone. Also in attendance were Jeremy Haines (Apache-Sit- Four recent ethnohistoric overviews have fo- greaves National Forests) and Louise Senior cused on Apache or Yavapai history and their roles (SWCA). within the Mogollon Rim and Payson Basin (New- Thus, the core of this research involved multi- ton 1998; Newton and Terzis 1997a, 1997b; Weaver ple interviews with Western Apache research con- 1998). Archaeological and ethnographic research sultants and expert anthropologists (Coder 2003; has also been conducted in the Apache-Sitgreaves

Table 1. Apache cultural advisors participating in fieldwork and interviews.

Name Tribe Apache Group and/or Clan Levi DeHose White Mountain Cibecue Band of the Cibecue group; Eagle Clan Jerome Kessay, Sr. White Mountain Carrizo Band of the Cibecue group; Bear Clan Gregg Henry White Mountain Cibecue Band of the Cibecue group Lorin Henry White Mountain Cibecue Group; tł’ùk’à dìgaìdń (row of white canes people) Ramon Riley White Mountain Sevenmile group; Road Runner Clan Eva Watt White Mountain Cibecue Group; Bear Clan Don Decker Yavapai-Apache dil zhé’é Mary Smith Garner Yavapai-Apache – Everett Randall Yavapai-Apache – Vincent Randall Yavapai-Apache dil zhé’é; yúané (over the rim people) Elizabeth Rocha Yavapai-Apache dil zhé’é; White Earth Clan Victor Smith Yavapai-Apache dil zhé’é; White Earth Clan Ed Cassa San Carlos Apache – Jeanette Cassa San Carlos Apache –

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 7

Plateau of northern Arizona. Archaeologically, the area is sometimes described as a transition zone or “frontier” between the “core” culture areas of the pre-Columbian southwest (Herr 1999). The study area is characterized by rugged bands of mountains, such as the Mazatzal Range, the Sierra Ancha, and the Mogollon Rim, and sub-rims that trend east-west. Cultural landscapes are the unique combination of natural geography, historical events, and social interpreta- Figure 4. Interview with White Mountain Apache advisors: left to right: Gregg tion. As Sauer’s (1963:343) Henry, Lorin Henry, Karl Hoerig, Eva Watt, and Beverly Malone. now famous adage goes, “Culture is the agent, the Forests, Verde River, and nearby areas (Ciolek- natural area is the medium, the cultural landscape Torrello 1981, 1990; Fuller 1988; Hough 1903; Ken- is the result.” Although an academic concept, the Cairn and Randall 2007; Senior 2005; Whittlesey et idea of cultural landscapes neatly matches how al. 1998). Previous studies were also conducted to Western Apaches use the land to sustain collective establish a reservation in trust for a group of Tonto memories, to guide community identity, and to fix Apaches at Payson, Arizona (Esber 1977; Houser moral attitudes. Place names and stories associated 1972; Sparks 1972). with landscapes among Apaches serve as meta- Newton’s (1998) report was designed to iden- phors that influence how members of a society tify significant Western Apache traditional places view themselves. In so doing, cultural landscapes within four land exchange areas around Payson, influence patterns of social action. This aspect of Arizona. Tonto Apaches identified one significant cultural landscapes is well documented by Basso cultural site during this study, the Butterfly (1996a, 1996b) in his study of the storied land- Springs Camp site, AR-03-12-04-149 (TNF), or doo scapes of the Western Apache. Generations of in- lébu tú, a pre-reservation Apache habitation site. teraction with the cultural landscape have gener- Researchers also identified a possible Apache ated an enormously powerful sense of place wickiup ring inside a masonry room block at Pay- among Western Apaches that still contributes to son Rock Ruin, AR-03-12-04-144 (TNF) (Newton the vitality of the conceived Apache homeland 1998:40, 58). Mitigation recommendations and in- discussed below (Figure 5; Table 2). formation were submitted to TNF to determine if Basso (1996a) provides the platform for under- any of those places could be classified as tradi- standing how actual places on the Western Apache tional cultural properties or sacred sites. landscape are connected to an instructive story or legend designed to guide people along their paths in life. As they grew up making seasonal rounds, THE WESTERN APACHE CULTURAL children learned and remembered these stories LANDSCAPE throughout their lives as they passed or camped near these places. Adults were reminded of sound The Western Apache cultural landscape en- instruction as they passed by or recounted these compasses a diverse set of environmental life places during difficult times. “You look at it and zones ranging from the high peaks to the low de- think about it and it will make you wise,” as one serts of east-central Arizona. At its heart is the mother instructed her children while gazing upon Mogollon Rim region where the SR 260 project is Long Mountain (Basso 1996a:122). being conducted. This area is commonly under- Because Apaches moved regularly and took stood as a transition between the basin and range very little with them, these places held their stories country of southern Arizona and the Colorado and their lessons and knowledge of the ancestors.

8 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

Figure 5. Significant Apache sites in the study area (see Table 2).

Table 2. Significant Apache sites in the study area. mountain is a story” (Ferguson and Anyon 2000). These places and stories have the power to bring Numbera Place the past into the present, maintaining their impor- 1 General Crook Trail tance to Western Apaches today. Anchoring stories 2 Battle of Big Dry Wash and cultural memory in place are the mountains 3 Highline Trail that enshrine the Western Apache cultural land- 4 Kohl’s Ranch scape. 5 Indian Garden 6 Ponderosa Campground roasting pit 7 Plymouth Landing The Mountain People 8 McGoonie site 9 Apache Camp During this study, it became evident that 10 Diamond Rim mountains hold a place of particular importance 11 Sacred peaks within the Western Apache cultural landscape and 12 See Canyon Trail worldview. Ramon Riley states that Apaches 13 Hole-in-the-Ground originated from the beginning because of the moun- 14 Where Canyons Come Together tains. He adds that the Apache are essentially a 15 Apache Ceremonial Ground “mountain people,” although they were known to 16 Chediski Peak travel to the desert regions to raid and collect food. 17 Naegelin Rim Goodwin (1942:620) documented oral histories from Apache elder Henry Irvin that identified per- aSee Figure 5. haps one of the first clans to appear in the study

area at the breaks of the Mogollon Rim. They are In a world ever changing and dangerous, these known as the dzìłt’à dn, or “foot of the mountains places represented a constant wellspring of knowl- people,” so named because they always lived at edge for every passerby. Thus, the stories and les- the foot of mountains. sons attached to specific landmarks within the A legend associated with this clan claims this Western Apache cultural landscape create focal group, along with several other Apache clans, points for a collective memory required for physi- came from a place called tálbà kò wà (dance camp) cal and emotional navigation. Ramon Riley states under a point of the mesa where the Hopi live that “as Apaches traveled they told stories about north of the Little Colorado River (Goodwin what happened here and there.” Jeanette Cassa of 1942:620). According to Goodwin (1942:21), Apa- the San Carlos Apache Tribe explained that “every che groups refer to the Cibecue Band as the dzìłt’à

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 9

dn, which includes living members of the similarly Ramon Riley also described the mountains as called clan mentioned above. As Randall noted, protective places and places of prayer. He notes Goodwin really documented the term as used pri- that, in the past, “it was easy to dominate people in marily by other Apache groups to refer to the Ci- the flat areas, but not in the mountains.” Riley said becue clans specifically, and by some, the White that songs are sung about the sacred mountains, Mountain Apache Tribe more broadly. reminding people that all mountains are sacred. The Apache affinity for mountainous land- Elder Levi DeHose explained that most of the sa- scapes is also manifest in the recognition of the cred herbs and medicines came from the high tim- four sacred mountains that anchor the Western berlands and that the tops of the peaks are the high Apache cultural landscape. For eons, these four places of prayer. Thus, Western Apaches regard sacred mountains have delineated the traditional mountains as particularly significant landmarks territories, the “center of the world,” for Western within their cultural landscape, places where their Apaches. Although different clans sometimes as- ancestors found spiritual consolation, protection, cribe different peaks, these are generally known as medicine, and plentiful food and water. the four chief mountains: Black Mountain to the The study area is full of high places and rugged east (Mount Baldy), Blue or Turquoise Mountain to terrain, largely represented by the Mazatzal Moun- the south (Mount Graham, a peak near Fort tains, the Sierra Ancha Range, and the Mogollon McDowell, or the northern portion of the Sierra Rim itself. Several Apache place names have been Madre), Red Mountain to the west (within the Four recorded within the western portion of the study Peaks region at the southern end of the Mazatzal area, documented by Goodwin (1933b) as the terri- Mountains), and White Mountain to the north (San tory of the Southern Tonto Band. The Mazatzal Francisco Peaks). The area surrounded by these Mountains, in the western section of the study area mountains is often referred to as the center of crea- just west of Payson, are known to some Apaches as tion and the emergence place of Western Apaches tse nul tł’ij (rocks zigzag) and are referred to in the and their culture. The story of the four sacred literature and by Apache research consultants as a mountains is told to each young woman at her natural boundary between Western Apache groups sunrise ceremony when she comes of age and to and Yavapai groups to the west. These mountains the boys inside the sweat house. Apache children house gáán it tei das zin (gáán’s home or red gáán are also told about the life circles that occur within sitting), a place west of Gisela. Several Apache those sacred mountains. Ramon Riley explained: clans also settled around the Mazatzal Moun- tains—the na gòn’án (bridged across people) who Songs are sung about these four mountains. All originated near the natural bridge, the nos cho indé mountains are sacred because they are closer to (big manzanita people) on the northern end, and God. They supply food, deer, and cover. The the tsitł nihe nadn aiyén (walnut people) who also mountains contain spiritual areas where people settled on the northern end of the range. The dil would do ceremonies over and over, where a lot zhé’é call the Mazatzals yaa haí yan chi’ hé (stingy of healing has taken place. They are also called “holy grounds.” When walking in “the center” with the sun). one must be sober to do the ceremonies that help The northern terminus of the Sierra Ancha each other. There are songs from time immemo- pushes into the study area from the south, break- rial about these mountains. ing into the foothills of the Green Valley Hills that are bounded by SR 260 on the north. In Apache, During interviews, Apache cultural advisors of- these mountains are referred to as dził nį téél ten described mountains as places of protection (mountains broad). The tsédák’ ìjn (rocks spotted and places of prayer, often in the same breath. Eva sloping up people) settled on the northern termi- Watt described mountains as essential for taking nus of the Sierra Ancha between Gisela and the cover and for garnering spiritual solace. She re- head of Spring Creek. Other important Apache called that Mount Graham and the Santa Catalinas landmarks in the western section of the study area north of Tucson were used for both: “Yes, we were are te da na dji’, a mountain south of Round Valley, trying to be invisible…we hid in mountains like the Diamond Rim just north of SR 260, and the Lit- the Santa Catalinas and Mount Graham. We call tle Green Valley. these sacred mountains. I used to go to Mount Apache place names for significant high points Graham many times to pray. These two mountains on the landscape in the eastern section of the study have lots of food and medicines. We usually go to area were identified by Goodwin (1932) in the ter- Mount Graham to get all the medicine we need.” ritory of the Carrizo, Cibecue, and Canyon Creek

10 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

bands. In this portion of the study area, Promon- was a great flood. After this, the white-painted tory Butte, just north of SR 260 and Christopher lady [Changing Woman] who survived the flood Creek, figures prominently on the Western Apache in a log, arrived at Boyton Canyon where she had cultural landscape. While an Apache name was not a daughter [Tu baa chís ch’iné] for Hzo. Tu baa chís ch’iné later bore a son, the Killer of Enemies, who identified for Promontory Butte itself, important sanctified the land by killing all the monsters, landmarks are identified in relation to this huge making the land safe and holy. When you have a buttress of the Mogollon Rim. These include tse ya sanctifier like this, he serves to help make the di bi tl’ij near Promontory Butte, te gul tsis south of land something of your own. the butte, and it sa go kan, a black round timbered mountain just east of Promontory Butte. Oral his- Other Apache oral traditions speak of the mi- tories also tell of several Western Apache clans gration of several Apache clans into east central who settled on and around Promontory Butte. Arizona (Goodwin 1942:620; see also Opler 1983; These include the tł’ùk’à dìgaìdń (row of white Palmer 1992). These clan migrations show a great canes people), apparently among the first clans to deal of movement into and through the study area. arrive there, the dzìłt’à dn (foot of the mountains One story relayed by Henry Irving, a Tonto Apa- people), the t’ì st’én’áyé (cottonwood extending to che, to Goodwin, speaks of the migrations of the the water people), the tsédè sgàidn (horizontally clans known as and related to the dzìłt’à dn (foot of white rock people), and k‘į ‘yà ’án (below a house the mountains people). A portion of the story is people). adapted below to identify clans who entered into Other important landmarks in the eastern sec- and settled within the study area. tion of the study area include da i ts os, known today as Catholic Peak, and da iz lea, also known as Long ago, all our people were living at táļbà kò wà Gentry Mountain. Additionally, Goodwin (1942: (dance camp). This place is right under a point of Map VI) documented Apache clans who settled on the mesa where the Hopi live. In those days, when we first came to this earth, there was noth- and around Horse Mountain and Christopher ing. We were living with the Hopi and the Na- Mountain, just south of SR 260. These include the vaho [sic] in that country. We were getting on all k’àitséhįt’ì dń (rock strung out into willows people), right, but Slayer of Monsters went up to his fa- mú’sìn (owl’s song people), and k’à bìd’à dń (arrow ther, Sun, and got a horse from him. From that feather people). time on trouble started, so our people moved south across the Little Colorado…when we started south, the Hopi and the Navaho [sic] Origins and Migrations didn’t want to come, so they stayed behind in the north…when our people got across the Little Colorado, they came down to mú’sìné (owl’s Ramon Riley explains that Apaches emerged song: Horse Mountain north of Pleasant Valley “here among the sacred mountains and the center and just south of Promontory Butte), where they of creation” (Figure 6; Table 3). In an interview, he found some houses built in the rock. Below here shared an Apache creation story connected to the at kì’dàłgài (white house above) there were al- Meteor Crater, approximately 80 km (50 miles) ready some people living there when the dzìłt’à north of the project area, where the Devil and the dn got there. Creator played a card game for human life and the Creator won the people back. Another Apache The k’àitséhįt’ì dń (rock strung out into willows creation story revolves around Changing Woman, people) also settled near mú’sìné (owl’s song) who also emerged from Boyton Canyon in the Se- shortly before the dzìłt’à dn. The dzìłt’à dn lived dona area and subsequently birthed Apaches and with the k’àitséhįt’ì dń. They were related to them. Then they moved below to t’úíłtcí’síkâ n (red Apache culture. Another creation story is centered pond). Then they moved on to k’àìxą t’ì (willows in Fossil Canyon, 32 km (20 miles) northwest of the sprouting out: head of Cherry Creek above project area, where the Creator made human fig- Pleasant Valley) where they farmed. Then they ures out of mud. Vincent Randall related an ab- lived around ‘íłts’ agògà (white streak in opposite stract of the traditional dil zhé’é story of creation. directions). Then they moved to tc’ó’ùłdjédjì’ (spruces jutting out in a point: near Promontory They [Apaches] were created out of the land. Butte)…then some dzìłt’à dn people went to They emerged from the underworld, or the First k’àitséhįt’ì (rock strung out into willows: a place World through Montezuma’s Well. They then in Navaho [sic] or Hopi country). Now some moved into the Second World where people were k’àitséhįt’ì dń (rock strung out into willows people) able to talk to animals. In the Third World there started south to łédìļγùj (juncture of two canyons:

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 11

Figure 6. Places of clan origin and clan occupation in the study area (see Table 3).

the junction of Rye and Tonto creeks). There they area) to the southwest on the other side of settled and became łédìļγùjn (the juncture of two tł’ò’hìdzò (top covered with grass) to t’ì syú’sìk’à d canyons people). Afterward some dzìłt’à dn (at the standing cottonwood). There they became moved westward to tc’ìłndì’yégùldìzìs (Green Val- t’ìsyú’sìk’à dn (at the standing cottonwood peo- ley) and then on to tł’uk’à dngài (Star Val- ple). There are Yavapai t’ìsyú’sìk’à dn who origi- ley)…After coming westward the dzìłt’à dn went nated from this clan. Some k’àitséhįt’ì dń (rock off toward Camp Verde. Then some tł’uk’à dngài strung out into willows people: originating in a dn (Star Valley people) came from k’aìxą t’ì (wil- place in Navaho [sic] or Hopi country) who lived lows sprouting out) to the tł’uk’à dngài (Star Val- at k’àìxą t’ì (willows sprouting out: at head of ley) and settled. Then some people came to t'é‘gò Cherry Creek above Pleasant Valley) became the tsùgè (yellow streak running out from the water: k’àìxą t’ì dn (willows sprouting out people) Payson area) and settled. They became t'é‘gò (Goodwin 1942:620-622). tsùdn (yellow streak running out from the water people). Then some t'é‘gò tsùdn went to k’aìńtcí (reddened willows: Round Valley near Payson) This migration story is one way Western and became k’aìdńtcí dn (reddened willows peo- Apaches understand how their people came to be ple). Then some t'é‘gò tsùdn went deer hunting in this region. Ramon Riley also states that Apa- over on the East Verde. They found a spring run- ches had connections to the ancient non-Apache ning down over the ground that made a mark. peoples of the study area, often trading for beads. This place they called nà gòzùgè (marked on the His mother told him that all Apaches came into the ground: in and around Weber Canyon just north White River area first and then dispersed into of the East Verde River). They settled here and other areas and became different groups, such as became nà gòzùgń (marked on ground people). Then some ná gòzùgń moved to bìk’íd (on a hill the Mescalero and the Chiricahua (see Opler 1941). top) and became bìk’ídn (on a hill top people). Wilcox (1981) posits that Athabaskans, ancient Western Apaches, migrated from Alaska and Then some ná gòzùgń and bìk’ídn women went far Western Canada onto the plains into New Mexico down the East Verde to where it is called and then to Arizona from the east. In interviews, tc’ìłndì’yé nàdn’á. They settled and became Chris Coder noted that earlier Apache people lived tc’ìłndì’yénàdn’áiyé. Then some of them settled at a on the eastern plains for 3,000 years until the Co- place on the East Verde River, way above manche began pushing them out in the seven- tc’ìłndì’yé nàdn’á, at nòstcò’ò djìņ (big manzanitas extending up darkly: at the northern end of the teenth century with the double-barreled shotgun Mazatzal Mountains). These became nòstcò’ò djìņ and the horse. Ferg (2002) thinks that Apaches may (big manzanitas extending up darkly people). have migrated from southwestern New Mexico at Then some people started from t'é‘gò tsùgè (yel- the same time as the Spanish, although he also low streak running out from the water: Payson believes there were probably multiple entries.

12 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

Table 3. Places of clan origin and clan occupation in the study area.

Map GG Apache Clan Name(s) and Numbera Numberb English Gloss Project Area Association 1 15 nàdà’b ì łnà’d ì tĭn (mescal with road Farms near head of Spring Creek Valley named for place across people) where people of the Cibecue group habitually crossed here on the way to Gisela to gather mescal; one of the clans from the north (dance camp) 2 16 tsédák’ ìjn (rocks spotted sloping up Group who camped between Gisela and head of Spring people) Creek; one of the clans from the north (dance camp) 3 17 sái’édìgaìdn (line of white sand Farms and settlements on Tonto Creek in Gisela area; one joining people) of the clans from the north (dance camp) 4 19 t‘ót'àgń; t‘ót'àdń; tút’agń; tú ha gain Named for a place where water flows on both sides of a (water at the foot of hill people)c hill on Strawberry Creek, settled southwest of Irving Power Plant on Fossil Creek; originally from the vicinity of San Francisco Peaks 5 28 nos cho indé (big manzanita people)c, Upper East Verde; also in the northern end of Mazatzal nòstcò’ò djìņ (big manzanitas Mountainsc; no farms; mixed with Yavapai; procured corn extending up darkly people), from other Apaches on Tonto Creek; one of the clans from d ínòstco’ò djìņ (big cottonwood the north (dance camp) extending up darkly people), t'ì stcò‘ ’òdjìņ 6 32 tsitł nihe nadn aiyén (walnut people)c, Settled right below the Mogollon Rim; also lived in the tc‘ìłndì ‘yénà dn’áiyé (standing Tonto Creek areac; settled and farmed in the northern end walnut people)c, tc‘ìłndì ‘yénà of Mazatzal Mountains, called “blue farms,” and in the dn’áidń (walnut trees people) Gisela area; one of the clans from the north (dance camp) 7 33 kái ni chiidn (red willow people)c, In middle section of Star Valleyc; also at Round Valley k’aìntcí dń, k’aìdńtcí dn, k’aìhàtcí dń near Payson; one of the clans from the north (dance camp) (reddened willows people) 8 34 nà gòzùgń, nà gòzùgè (marked on Named for place in Weber Canyon just north of the East ground people), bìk’íd, bìk’ídn Verde River; one of the clans from the north (dance camp) (on a hilltop people), 9 35 t’é‘gò tsùdn (yellow land people)c, Settled and farmed in present site of Paysonc; one of the t’é‘gò tsùgè (yellow streak running clans from the north (dance camp) out from the water) 10 40 na gononé (bridge people)c, Originated and had small farms near Natural Bridge on ná gòn’án (bridged across people) Pine Creek; moved down along Mazatzal Range 11 47 dzìłt’à dn (foot of the mountains So named because always lived at foot of mountains; ac- people) quired name in the north; clan who originally settled between the head of East Verde River and Promontory Butte; close to Cibecue group; one of the clans from the north (dance camp) 12 51 tèdìļyùjn, łe dil ghushnc (juncture of Farms and settlements at juncture of Rye and Tonto two canyons people) creeks; one of the clans from the north (dance camp) 13 53 k’à bìd’à dń (arrow feather people) Lived in region of Horse Mountain, then moved westward to Payson area (té go shogé) 14 55 n àdìlsìk à dn, nadit kálin (wild From Oak Creek region, moved to Verde River and set- gourd growing people) tled below Irving Power Plant; settled on head of Cherry Creek; one of the clans from the north (dance camp)

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 13

Table 3. Continued.

Map GG Apache Clan Name(s) and Numbera Numberb English Gloss Project Area Association 15 57 tł’ùk’à dìgaìdń (row of white canes Came into Western Apache country with present name and people), tłú kąądní gaìdń (bamboo first settled in the vicinity of Promontory Butte; close to the people) Cibecue group; also identified as living in the Star Valley area; one of the clans from the north (dance camp) 16 60 yà gòhè gàidņ(whiteness spread out In vicinity of White Rock Mesa, west of Pine Creek and descending people), yà gògàidn north of East Verde River; one of the clans from the north (dance camp); another legend says clan partly originated in the west, possibly Yuman; the dil zhé’e version states the clan was named after the white limestone cliffs around Camp Verde 17 – tú na go zugé (crooked water Where SR 260 crosses the East Verde River people)c, na go zúgn (crooked lines people)c 18 – kai ché hi díídn (willows growing Occupied the northern section of Star Valleyc out of rocks people)c 19 – kai bil che go teetł (the willows that Lived in the southern end of Star Valley where the water spread out people)c backs up in pondsc 20 – gad dzilé (cedar clan)c Clan who lived near the Natural Bridge northwest of Pay- son and Ashfork/Perkins Ranch, west of Flagstaffc 21 – yúané (long valley clan, over the Known to have inhabited areas all along the top of the rim clan)c Mogollon Rim from Heber to the west, specifically between Flagstaff and Strawberryc 22 – tugaiden (white water people)c, A big spring upriver from where SR 260 crosses the East tú ha gain c Verde River; also documented as living in the Payson area 23 11 t’ì st’én’áyé, t’ì st’é’dn’áidn, tíís tedni Settled and farmed at the foot of the Mogollon Rim, east of ayénc (cottonwoods extending to Promontory Butte; one of the clans from the north (dance the water people) camp) 24 12 tsé dès gàidn (horizontally white Named for white formation of crumbling rock on Canyon rock people) Creek near present-day Chediskai Lookout; some lived with Tontos near Promontory Butte; one of the clans from the north (dance camp) 25 13 k‘į ‘yà ’án; kí ha hi ánic (below a Settled and farmed in Gentry Canyon close to juncture of house people) Canyon Creek; some lived among Tontos near Promontory Butte; one of the clans from the north (dance camp) 26 24 dà’ ìzk’àn (flat topped people) Settled and farmed in Gentry Canyon not far above the confluence with Canyon Creek. 27 25 ts ì’ts’éhè sk ì dń, tíís té di tiden Named for a place near Young in Pleasant Valley (trees on a hill top people) 28 30 t’ì slè dńt’ì dn (cottonwoods joining Two groves of cottonwoods meeting a grove on Cedar people ), t’ì slè dńt’ì he Creek 29 38 tsébìná zt’ì’é (rock encircling Place at the mouth of Gentry Canyon in Canyon Creek people) Valley 30 44 gàd’ò’áhń (juniper standing alone On Cibecue Creek people)

14 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

Table 3. Continued.

Map GG Apache Clan Name(s) and Numbera Numberb English Gloss Project Area Association 31 48 k’àitséhįt’ì dń (rock strung out into Place in Navajo or Hopi country, first settled at Christopher willows people) Mountain and Horse Mountain south of Promontory Butte; also settled at head of Cherry Creek at the base of Naegelin Rim; Upper Star Valleyc 32 49 k’àìxą t’ì dn (willows sprouting out On head of Cherry Creek above Pleasant Valley people) 33 50 k’ài b łnágó tèè ln (wide flat of Named for place on head of Cherry Creek above Pleasant willows people) Valley; lower end of Star Valleyc 34 52 mú’sìn (owl’s song people) Settled and farmed near Horse Mountain north of Pleasant Valley aSee Figure 6. bNumbers Goodwin (1942:Map VI) assigned to document clan origins. cDenotes information provided by Vincent Randall.

Forbes (1966) suggested the Apache arrival in the Indeed, much of Coronado’s route is still largely Southwest was as early as the late 1300s. unknown (Colwell-Chanthaphonh 2005). By the Perry (1991) proposes that the Western Apache late 1600s, Spanish reports fully document that heritage evolved from cultures of the North Apache groups were living north of the Gila River American Arctic, following the central Rocky (Forbes 1959; Schroeder 1974:340-366; Worcester Mountains south into the White Mountains. Coder 1941). has spoken to Hopis who remember stories of the first Apache sightings, which were before the Na- vajo, describing them with “over the calf” boots, Western Apache Clans in the Study Area green skins (untanned signifying a people on the move), cold weather gear, eating raw meat, and Basso’s (1970) research with the Cibecue Apa- only making a fire if it was very cold. Hopis say che defines a clan as a group of descendants who they were trading partners and were never true established the first agricultural site to which the enemies. clan is associated, “home” referring to the legen- In 1539 and 1540, Marcos de Niza and Francisco dary place of origin. The clan system was the pri- Vàzquez de Coronado reported no one living be- mary means of checking divisive tendencies, and it tween the Salt River and Zuni. Schroeder enabled the recruitment of clan kin for raids and (1974:333) interpreted this absence of people to ceremonies while facilitating a loosely collective mean that the Western Apache did not enter the means of exercising authority, fulfilling obliga- area until much later. However, Goodwin (1942:66- tions, and exercising restraint (Basso 1970:10-13; 67) states: Goodwin 1933a). Goodwin (1942:97) notes that the true power of clans lay in their wide network of Apache camps were well hidden, and Apaches obligations to members of the same clan, which, in did not show themselves to forces as imposing as turn, formed the threads of intra-group blood kin- Coronado’s. It is possible to say that the same ex- ship bonds. Clan names often refer to specific pedition could have passed through the identical physical features of the landscape or where past stretch of country in the latter part of the nine- events occurred—thereby directly tying Apache teenth century without encountering a sign of the clan lineages to physical places. As cultural advisor Apaches… According to Apache tradition, they Vincent Randall states: were all concentrated at the foot of the Mogollon Rim and in the country immediately south of it Those [men] who married out of their family and during their early period in the region. If this is clan group served to bind people together over a true, the area Coronado’s expedition passed large territory forming a web of familial relations. through may not have been occupied by Apache Clan interrelationships were a mechanism of sur- at the time, though they may have been no more vival, reinforcing familial responsibilities. Being a than a day’s journey to the north or northwest. part of a clan told an Apache person that they

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 15

were never alone. You always have relatives. In Star Valley, or kaidn chíí, Randall identified at Even if you were an only child, your cousins least three clans: (1) the kai ché hi díídn (willows were thought of as brothers and sisters. If you growing out of rocks people) who occupied the lost your grandparents, your great uncles and northern section of the valley; (2) the kái ni chiidn aunts were also thought of as your grandparents. (red willow people) living in the middle section; All of this gave one a great sense of security. and (3) the kai bil che go teetł (the willows that spread out people) who lived in the southern end Table 3, on clans, includes information docu- where the water backs up in ponds. Randall notes mented by Goodwin (1942), as well as those clans that these clans would have been closely interre- identified by Apache cultural advisors Vincent lated, and men would have had to marry farther Randall, Victor Smith, and Ramon Riley. In Table afield. 3, the clan numbers associated with the clan names are the original numbers assigned by Goodwin. These numbers also correspond to those associated Western Apache Place Names in the Study Area with migration routes documented by Goodwin. The clan origin places and other settlement loca- A number of places within the study area have tions plotted on Figure 6 are intentionally broad, been documented by Goodwin (1932, 1933b) as with the hope that a general idea of Apache land having Apache names. Randall also supplied two use is garnered while protecting exact locations. Apache place names for this region. Figure 7 and In the western portion of the study area, Ran- Table 4 provide many of these place names in the dall identified four clans who lived in the area of study area. the upper East Verde River: (1) the nos cho indé (big manzanita people); (2) the tsitł nihe nadn aiyén (walnut people), directly under the Mogollon Rim SHÍ KÉYAA: THE WESTERN APACHE where there is a housing development today; (3) HOMELAND AND STATE ROUTE 260 the tú ha gain (white water bubbling up people) near a big spring down by a creek that frothed Clan origin places and those places given white; and (4) the tú na go zugé (crooked water Apache names comprise an integral part of the people), where SR 260 crosses the East Verde Western Apache cultural landscape and represent River. Randall also states that the t’é’gò tsùdn (yel- core areas imbued with historical and spiritual low land people) lived and farmed around t’é’gò meaning to Western Apache people. Just as a clan tsùgé, in the Payson area. has an origin place, an Apache individual traces

Figure 7. Selected Western Apache place names in the study area (see Table 4).

16 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

Table 4. Selected Western Apache place names in the study area.

Numbera Apache Place Name Topographical Location 1 te go tsuge, té go shogéb Payson farms 2 tsi be n kai an na g n a’ (hole there) Natural Bridge near Pine 3 tse da na dji’ Mountain just south of Round Valley 4 tset tso na n a’ (rock yellow resting) Big yellow rocks at head of Gisela Valley 5 tse nul tl’ij (rocks zigzag), Mazatzal Mountains yaa haí yan chi’ hé (stingy with the sun)b 6 tsé dáhb, ché dáhb Mogollon Rimb 7 tset si kat Near edge of Mogollon Rim northeast of Strawberry 8 ti tcó go do des giz Fossil Creek Canyon 9 dzit bi da li dzi dei (past point) Above Pine, possibly Milk Ranch Point 10 taazi danan éb, taji da ln dja (turkeys piled up, Tonto Town/Tonto Village; also the favored campsite of the or turkey roosting place) influential Mazatzal Band chief chátí páhin (brown hat) 11 mba na tl’ij, má’naa tłiz (where the coyote Farms at Strawberry settlement fainted) 12 bi lśit Blacktail Deer Park, 1.6 km (1.0 mile) above East Verde Bridge 13 gáán it tei das zin (red gáán sitting; gáán’s A red cliff in the Mazatzal Mountains just west of Gisela home) 14 tcan tane, tsan tineb (manure lots) Below the East Verde Bridge 15 nàdà ‘b ì łnà’dì tĭn (mescal with road across) Farms near head of Spring Creek 16 k’ai bi tci (willows red) Round Valley south of Payson 17 got si lsat (juniper growing) Near Natural Bridge farms 18 tc’o joje si bcat (young yellow pine growing) Near Natural Bridge farms 19 tlu bs’a bet na gol kai (comes with white) Near Natural Bridge farms 20 tł’uk’à dngài (caves white) Star Valley 21 te dili guj (together canyons) Farms at junction of Rye and Tonto creeks 22 na go zuge na dí tin Payson to Pine Road crossing of the East Verde River 23 dził nį téél (mountains broad), dzil ni teelé Sierra Ancha 24 tł’ùkà dngaì Little Green Valley 25 e nail gûĵc Cherry Creek 26 na di tin; yúanéb Heber area 27 da i ts os Catholic Peak near Pleasant Valley 28 tsi dzees z’ it Pleasant Valley, west of Gentry Mountain 29 da iz lea Gentry Mountain 30 tlû q a de laai lsok, tłú kąą dib Carrizo Canyon 31 tû al ai, tú ha gai White Springs, head of Cibecue Creek 32 tse ya di bi tl’ij (rocks below zigzag) Near Promontory Butte 33 tse des kai (rocks white) Farms in Canyon Creek, near Chediskai lookout 34 tse des îî Farms in Walnut Creek west of Cibecue 35 tse bi na gûz k In Canyon Creek just above its mouth near Cliff Ruins 36 tsī yi bsī nas tlī Big ruin at Grasshopper 37 chî ch ie choh si koat On Carrizo Creek about 3.2 km (2.0 miles) above mouth of Jump Off Canyon 38 it tsa go kan A black round timbered mountain just east of Promontory Butte (possibly Turkey Peak) 39 tsi dzes l’sit Young, Pleasant Valley farms 40 ki das an (house resting) Ruin at Pleasant Valley 41 kái tse he t’i (willows rocks in a line) On head of Cherry Creek 42 kái ha t’i (willows across in line) On head of Cherry Creek 43 te gul tsis At southern foot of Promontory Butte aSee Figure 7. bInformation provided by Vincent Randall, labeled as “Mogollon Rim” on the map.

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 17

his or her origin to a clan. This tradition firmly an- culturally significant places in proximity to SR 260 chors Apache individuals and clans to place. To between Payson and Heber. Western Apaches, this place, better described as a homeland, is known as shí kéyaa. Shí kéyaa can be defined as a spiritual center bounded by the four Homeland and Social Organization chief mountains and as a territory with fluid boundaries, also known as a indé bii shí kéyaa, or “Apache One would find it difficult to understand the territory.” Randall explains: traditional Apache homeland without discussing the basic units of pre-reservation social organization. The two were inextricably linked, the group- A clan name would tell you who you are within the shí kéyaa, or Apache homeland. Your relatives ings adapting in size and composition to travel can also be reference points for who you are, but efficiently and to exist in an often challenging envi- you would always refer to your homeland first. ronment. The gota (or go táh), or family group, was Apaches have a real sense of being that relates to the basic unit of Western Apache social organiza- being a part of the earth… Apaches are like the tion that was usually, but not always, made up of a Israelites who have returned to their homeland, matrilocal extended family (Basso 1970:5; Randall the Land of Canaan, after being dispersed for 2003). This consisted of three to eight gowa (or 4,000 years. That is how Apaches feel about this kowa), the occupants and location of a single nu- country—this became their homeland. Clan places and homeland do not mean as much as clear household. The “local group” was made up they used to, but the sense of it is still there. Peo- of two to six gota who conducted all economic ac- ple still come back. It is a base where people tivities and often had exclusive rights to farming come from; it gives one identity and there is al- sites and hunting areas. A headman who led by ways a homeland to come back to, a place to re- virtue of his knowledge and experience guided tire, a magnet. each. Advisor Elizabeth Rocha explained that there Western Apache consultants interviewed for were also important women who were not “medi- this study were chosen by their respective tribal cine women” per se, but healers, herbalists, and cultural preservation departments for their specific midwives (Figure 8). Individuals of the matriline- knowledge of, and historical connection to, the age who formed the core of a family cluster shared study area. All agree that the western section of the membership in the same clan and were identified study area around the Payson Basin was generally by the clan of its core lineage (connected to a leg- utilized by the dil zhé’é, Tonto Apache, while the endary place of origin), and not necessarily by its Cibecue Apache group was known to have fre- territory. As Basso (1970:8) writes, “Basically, peo- quented the eastern section of the study area more ple who had grown up together in the same area often. Eva Watt, a Cibecue Apache elder, describes could operate best as a team.” In other words, the study area as being mainly “Tonto country,” matrilocality kept a woman, trained in procure- but also an area in which her people from Cibecue ment, in places well-known to family groups, and other groups now part of the White Mountain while the men knew the travel routes and land- Apache Tribe and San Carlos Apache Tribe trav- marks to negotiate their way into prime hunting eled, camped, hunted, and gathered food. During areas. During this study, Jerome Kessay, Sr., ex- the first field trip in 2000, Randall told researchers plained that Apaches did rotations throughout the that he and other dil zhé’é do not know as much study area and memorized where they had been. about the country east of Christopher Creek. He For these reasons, “it was better to draw [partners] said this is due to the collective memory loss re- from within the local group” (Basso 1970:8). sulting from compartmentalizing Apache clans on According to Basso’s informants, bands, local reservations. Beyond this point, members of pri- groups, and family clusters were spatially distinct, marily the Cibecue group, most of whom are part but clans were scattered across Apache country. of the White Mountain Apache Tribe, would be The clan system, Basso (1970:10) writes, “is an in- familiar. The San Carlos Apache tribal members tricate network joining and cross-cutting bands continued the field trip on to the town of Heber, and family groups.” According to Basso’s infor- the easternmost boundary of the study area. This mants, a clan is thought of as a group of descen- section is designed to expand on the notion of the dants who established the first agricultural site to Western Apache shí kéyaa and the knowledge of which the clan is associated (Figure 9). Therefore,

18 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

to the pre-reservation Western Apache, “home” referred to the legendary place of clan origin. As noted above, the clan system originated as the primary means of checking divisive tendencies and enabled the recruitment of clan kin for raids and ceremonies. By the 1870s, most Apaches were settled at the reservations of Fort Apache, Camp Verde, and San Carlos, still within the larger Western Apache territory. According to Basso (1970:17), the old band and local group distinctions have broken down and the ceremonial system is depleted due to the adoption of a cash and credit economy, adoption of West- ern technology, forced adherence to the western legal system, obliga- Figure 8. Women played a central role in Apache social organization; here, tory school attendance, and mis- two women pose near the East Fork of Clear Creek, Arizona, in 1900. (Pho- sionaries. tograph courtesy of Sharlot Hall Museum, Prescott, Arizona.) Therefore, many Western Apa- che people still live within their original homeland, Western Apache frontiers were often informed although they are now largely limited to reserva- by the territorial boundaries of other indigenous tions. However, many others were separated from tribes. These included the yú da hé (Navajo) and sai their original homelands and relocated to unfamil- ka kiné (Hopi) north of the Mogollon Rim, the sai iar territory. The most compelling example that kiné (Pima) and gu níí (Yavapai) countries to the emerged during this study was the story about the west and south, and other Apache groups such as relocation of dil zhé’é people to the San Carlos Res- the tłíí na (Chiricahua Apaches) to the south. These ervation, far to the south. territories were later stressed and modified from all sides by other cultural groups expanding their own newly founded territories. The first were the Western Apache Frontiers and Territorial nakaiyé, or “wanderers” (Spanish), and later came Boundaries the en dah, or “enemy people” (Euro-Americans). The dil zhé’é also knew this latter group as bi naa do When asked about the notion of Western ttiz (blue eyes). Apache “frontiers” or territorial boundaries, Ran- It is important to note that the discussion of dall explained that Apache people often recognized western and eastern sections in this report is some- natural boundaries between Apache groups and what arbitrary, and serves primarily to clarify loca- other tribes, such as rivers and mountain ranges. tions in a complex study area. Indeed, all research For example, Randall noted that the Verde River consultants stressed that many other Apache and the Mazatzal Mountains were territorial mark- groups moved through the area and beyond on ers loosely dividing Yavapai and Apache groups. clan and seasonal migrations. For example, the dil Goodwin (1942:9) also noted this propensity to use zhé’é traveled well beyond their typical homeland natural landmarks as boundary markers between to collect pinyon nuts in the Grand Canyon coun- different Apache groups: try. When asked if there was any competition over Apache territories among the different Apache [Apache] groups had recognized territorial limits, groups, Randall answered: and any intrusion into the land of another group was only temporary. Rivers or mountains or hills You were related somehow to all of these clans, dividing valleys where water ran were bounda- so you never had any competition or discrimina- ries. Farming sites belonged wholly to the group tion per se. This is the problem: anthropologists within whose territory they lay and were almost wanted us to draw territories in that way, which never shared by people of separate groups. was unheard of to us. Though people had special

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 19

through a long U.S. policy of Na- tive American pacification that West- ern Apache peoples occupy separate reservations with unique political structures. Goodwin (1942:2-5) documented the Northern Tonto territory as encompassing the headwaters of the Verde River and the lands north of the Mogollon Rim to the San Francisco Mountains. He divided the group into four bands: the Mormon Lake, Fossil Creek, Bald Mountain, and Oak Creek bands. Goodwin differentiated Southern Tonto bands as inhabiting lands bounded by the Sierra Ancha on the east, the Mazatzal Figure 9. An example of an Apache farm, likely in the early 1900s. (Photo- Mountains on the west, and the graph courtesy of Sharlot Hall Museum, Prescott, Arizona. East Verde River on the north. These were divided into one band homes. You would often visit your relatives, and six semibands. These bands and semibands spend a little time down there. We were wander- were further divided into more discreet groups ers, though we had the special place called shí composed of blood-related clan members (Good- kéyaa. But just as much as that was, this other win 1935). place was too. Maybe not all the time, maybe this winter we spent down here with Victor’s [Smith] As noted above, Western Apache cultural advi- clan, the white earth people [in the Verde Valley sors interviewed for this study did not identify area]. So I would feel comfortable coming down themselves as members of a particular band, but here to live with my uncle Victor. But maybe next rather as “Tonto” or “Cibecue” Apaches, and in winter I may go over to Payson, or to the Tonto relation to their particular clan. Vincent Randall Basin because they are my relatives over there agrees that his people, the dil zhé’é, ranged over all too. And the same thing is true, in the summer- the area documented by Goodwin, but faults the time other clans could come up and live with us anthropologist for erroneously dividing one people on top [of the Mogollon Rim], because we were back into that country. into the Northern Tonto and Southern Tonto. “There is no Mason-Dixon line between the two,”

Randall said. “This line is false and divisive. That In somewhat different terms, Basso (1970:5) de- is a real false assumption. As a result, what hap- scribed the territories among Apache bands as pens today—because no one really understands sharply defined, although intermarriage occurred the concept—among our ownselves is to divide between them. He also documented that trespass- ourselves.” ers could be forcibly removed or killed, and open Randall’s main complaint of Goodwin’s re- conflict was not uncommon. He further noted that search is that few dil zhé’é people were interviewed the Western Apache bands were based on territory to gain a better understanding of how they per- only and had slight linguistic differences. Vincent ceived themselves, their band and clan relation- Randall submits that the sharper territorial divi- ships, and their homeland. For this study, Randall sions occurred between the larger dil zhé’é and dzil drew a boundary of the original dil zhé’é territory tadn groups (Tonto and Cibecue), as opposed to the (Figure 10). He made the point that his knowledge band level. is drawn from his work with Western Apache eld- Today, descendants of the dil zhé’é and dzil tadn ers and relatives, as well as his own memories live scattered about on all four of the Western growing up. He began delineating the Tonto terri- Apache reservations, as tribal members of the tory in the northwest in the area of present-day Yavapai-Apache Nation, White Mountain Apache Ashfork and Drake where the Cedar Mountain Tribe, Tonto Apache Tribe, and San Carlos Apache clan lived in Perkinsville Valley. A permeable terri- Tribe. Those involved in this study share a com- torial line ran along the Black Hills and the Mazat- mon history as Western Apache people. It is only zal Mountains southeast of the Cedar Mountain

20 Shí Kéyaa: TheWestern Apache Homelandand Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

Figure 10. Vincent Randall’s demarcation of the dil zhé’é territory (a) in juxtaposition with Goodwin’s (1942:4) Western Apache group territories (b).

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 21

clan area all the way south of Globe and Miami, After an examination of Goodwin’s social divi- just south of the junction of the Gila River and San sions of the Southern Tonto, Northern Tonto, and Pedro River. The line ran back up north, just east of Cibecue groups known to have been the predomi- the Globe area and up through the San Carlos, nant Apache inhabitants of the study area as of at Canyon Creek, and Cibecue areas. Then it pro- least 1850, it is apparent that the bands and clans ceeded north and west over the Mogollon Rim and within these groupings, had, and still have, close just west of the Show Low area. The line continued reciprocal relationships and intermarriages with north to the Snowflake area and ran back west just other groups in close proximity and those a great south of Holbrook and Winslow, north of the San distance away. While certain groups like the t’é’gò Francisco Peaks and then back around south to the tsùdn (yellow land people) who occupied the Pay- Ashfork area. The territorial line represents a loose son area were known to claim specific areas such boundary that was often crossed on hunting and as the farms in the Star Valley area, the clan system gathering forays, raiding expeditions, and family of the Western Apache groups served to weave a visits. web of relationships across a vast landscape con- Although Goodwin’s organization of groups necting smaller territories into a larger Western and bands does not always reflect how Western Apache homeland. Apaches identify themselves—especially among dil The so-called Southern Tonto grouping settled zhé’é people—and it has generated a measure of the largest part of the study area—almost all the political disorder, his documentation of Western western section and some of the western portion of Apache occupation of particular areas is useful to the eastern section. Goodwin (1942:35-36) docu- this study. During his research in the 1930s, mented the major band of this group as the Mazat- Goodwin addressed the problem of classifying zal Band, which was closely associated with the Apaches into territorial units, stating that, “there Mazatzal Mountains in the western section of the has been more confusion of group and band names study area. This group apparently also ranged east in the Western Apache division than elsewhere” from the Mazatzal Mountains across Tonto Creek (Goodwin 1942:9). Thus, classifying Western into the present-day area of Tonto Village, one of Apache groups into smaller, more discreet social their main camps and a place frequented by their divisions was his way of addressing the “confu- influential chief chátí páhin (brown hat), also sion,” so researchers could discuss the subject known as Grey Hat. Riley recalls that Brown Hat more easily. Goodwin did not always draw arbi- and his people also lived in the Heber area, al- trary territorial lines, but rather, made a concerted though they were later taken to Camp Verde. effort to understand social divisions based on cus- Goodwin notes that many in this group spent their tom and speech. He believed the band and semi- time in the Mazatzal Mountains, but some farmed bands of the Southern Tonto were the most identi- at various places along Tonto Creek. Some of the cal in these categories: last remaining members of this band remain at the small community of Gisela. They themselves say: From nàgòzògè (near Pine) The first semiband of the Southern Tonto south to t’ájìdà’hndjà’ (turkeys roosting), Tonto on grouping was documented as inhabiting the west- Tonto Creek, all the people were alike and spoke ern slope of the Sierra Ancha from the head of Gun the same. But from nàgòzògè, north and north- Creek south to the Salt River. These folk were west, the [Northern Tonto] talked differently from us. Those east of the Sierra Ancha [Cibecue known to often camp near the eastern reaches of group] are unlike us, as are those south of the Tonto Creek near the northern terminus of the Si- Salt River [San Carlos group] toward San Carlos erra Ancha where there is continuously flowing (Goodwin 1942:41). water and good acorn gathering areas (Goodwin 1942:36). An influential headman in this area was Goodwin (1942:9) concedes there was also an over- tcìltcì’òì’ané (rectum), who had a camp at the head arching bond among all the Western Apaches that of Greenback Creek. transcended territorial divisions: “In spite of the The second semiband was composed largely of distinctions mentioned, the majority of the Western people belonging to three related clans and one Apaches generally felt themselves to be one people unrelated clan who still occupied their legendary with fairly common interests. In comparison, Nava- origin places as of 1850 (Goodwin 1942:37): (1) the ho [sic] and Chiricahua were considered to be quite nàdà’ b ì łnà’d ì tĭn (mescal with road across people) apart.” on Spring Creek; (2) the tsédák’ ìjn (the rocks spot-

22 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

ted sloping up people) near Turkey Creek between farmed near Christopher Mountain and Horse Spring Creek and Gisela; and (3) the sái’édìgaìdn Mountain south of Promontory Butte. These clans (line of white sand joining people) who farmed at ranged north over the Mogollon Rim on hunting the junction of Rye and Tonto Creeks. trips and in the summer to gather certain seeds The third semiband was composed primarily of and berries, although most of the year was spent clans claiming origin at places within its lands south of the Mogollon Rim. One story of the dzìłt’à (Goodwin 1942:38)—the t’é’gò tsùdn (yellow land dn living near Promontory Butte describes how people) from the Payson area and the kái ni chiidn this clan killed people of the Pinal Band far to the (red willow people) from the Round Valley area. south. In retaliation, the Pinal Band sent a raiding These clans farmed at both of these sites, and the party up to Promontory Butte and attacked the t’é’gò tsùdn “owned” farming sites at Star Valley dzìłt’à dn at tc’ó’ùłdjédjì’ (spruces jutting out in a and Green Valley almost exclusively. A principle point) and killed several dzìłt’à dn. The survivors headman in this area was bàyá gòtì’ (notified of a fled to Cibecue where many have remained ever war dance). Riley recalls that the famous Chief Red since (Goodwin 1942:40). Ant also lived in Star Valley at certain times of the According to Goodwin (1942:43-48), the bands year. of the so-called Northern Tonto grouping ranged Apaches in the fourth semiband were made up north and west of the Mogollon Rim on the margin of two unrelated clans (Goodwin 1942:38-39)—the of Navajo country and west into the Verde Valley. tsił nihe nadn aiyén (walnut people) who claimed to The two groups most closely associated with the originally have settled off the northern end of the study area were the dù tł’ìjì’hà’hì’é łnde’ (turquoise Mazatzal Mountains near the site of “blue farms” boiling up people), or Mormon Lake Band, on the and the na gononé (bridge people) who moved into northwest, and the t’údù tł’ìjndé’ (blue water peo- this area from the east fork of the Verde River. ple), or Fossil Creek Band, on the west. The dù Both clans ranged north to the East Verde River. tł’ìjì’hà’hì’é łnde’ consisted of many Southern Tonto The fifth semiband was also composed of two clans due to intermarriage, and in the spring, this unrelated clans—the yà gòhè gàidņ (whiteness group traveled south of the Mogollon Rim into the spread out descending people) who claimed its Fossil Creek region to collect agave (mescal) and to origin place in the open grassy country sloping visit relatives among the t’údù tł’ìjndé’. The latter toward the East Verde in the vicinity of White were named for the blue water of Fossil Creek, the Rock Mesa and the nà gòzùgń (marked on ground location of their favorite camps on the far western people) who claimed to have originated in Weber margin of the study area. Goodwin points out that Canyon. These clans also farmed on the East Verde this is a regional name applied to people living in below the present-day Payson to Pine road, in the this area and is not a band name they used to refer Pine area, on Pine Creek near the Natural Bridge at to themselves. This grouping was composed of Strawberry, and at the south fork of Strawberry Apache and Yavapai peoples interrelated through Creek. The people in this grouping rarely went marriage. Goodwin (1942:47) argues that the south of the East Verde River. They did, however, Northern Tonto were the most distinct of all the range north beyond the Mogollon Rim through the Western Apache groups due to their intermarriage Long Valley country to hunt and collect wild seeds with the Yavapai and their exposed settlements on in the summer. In the winter, they generally stayed the borders of hostile Navajo, Havasupai, and south of the Mogollon Rim in the milder climate. Hualapai, causing them to become predominantly The sixth semiband consisted mainly of four re- hunter-gatherers as opposed to part-time farmers. lated clans (Goodwin 1942:40). These included the Randall notes that intermarriage mainly occurred dzìłt’à dn (foot of the mountains people) who lived between Yavapai bands and the yà gòhè gàidņ. primarily between the head of the East Verde and Interestingly, Goodwin (1942:48-49) documen- east along the foot of the Mogollon Rim to Prom- ted yet another way Western Apaches identified ontory Butte, with farms on the East Verde, on the themselves spatially within the study area, distinct side of Promontory Butte, and at tc’ó’ùłdjédjì’ from band and clan affiliations: (spruces jutting out in a point) just east of Promon- All those people living on top of the Mogollon tory Butte. The k’àitséhįt’ì dń (rocks strung out into Rim or north and northeast of it in the high tim- willows people) and the k’ài b łnágó tèè ln (wide flat bered country were called yú nà jí’ndé because of willows people) farmed in a canyon north of they lived in the north... All the people living Pleasant Valley, and the mú’sìn (owl’s song people) along the foot of the Mogollon Rim from Oak

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 23

Creek [in the Verde Valley] to Promontory Butte, between clan and family groups in the Verde Val- as well as along the foot of the mountains from ley and Cibecue areas. Elizabeth Rocha, a dil zhé’é Promontory Butte to Gisela, were called ndé in Camp Verde, mentioned that her family, origi- itł’áhé (people below) because they lived up un- nally from the Fossil Canyon region, had connec- der the Mogollon Rim and at the foot of the tions to Cibecue people. She recalls that her family mountains… All those living directly west of the Verde River from Clarkdale south to the mouth traveled east on a trail through the Pine and Pay- of the East Verde River, as well as in the region of son areas and on through the study area to visit the Lower East Verde River, were called yàái’ò friends and relatives in the Cibecue area. She re- nà’dá’yú ‘dndé (west people) because they lived to calls that Cibecue Apaches also came into the the west… Two other terms, ní’íłní’dndé’ (in the Verde Valley area, some marrying Yavapai. Levi middle people) and ndé bìndí’é (people half way DeHose, a Cibecue Apache, also recalls Apache between), and a third, bìgìjndé‘ (people between) families coming from Camp Verde to Cibecue to indicate areas which included all the Apache be- keep in contact with friends and kin. He remem- tween the Mazatzal Mountains on the west, the Sierra Ancha on the east, the Mogollon Rim on bers two medicine men, Robert Hinton and Fran- the north between Pine and Promontory Butte, ces William, who performed ceremonies in the and the present town of Tonto on the south. Verde Valley and Cibecue areas. Vincent Randall recalls another, dá ghąą (Silver Allen) from the According to Goodwin’s informants, these Gisela area. They traveled by horses and donkeys, terms had nothing to do with differences or simi- taking the old SR 260 route back and forth. larities in speech or custom, but rather, “exemplify According to Vincent Randall, Eva Watt’s a close feeling of geographic association which nephew, Watt’s family often traveled to the Camp existed between the Southern Tonto and Northern Verde area to visit family on their seasonal rounds Tonto groups” (Goodwin 1942:49). Additionally, as late as the 1920s. During these trips, her family the White Mountain Cibecue and San Carlos collected salt at the famed Verde Valley salt mine groups referred to the Northern and Southern (see Morris 1928). A part of the salt they collected Tonto groups collectively as the dil zhé’é. was for personal use, and the other portions were Goodwin (1942:2-5) organized the Cibecue sold and traded back in the Cibecue area. Thus, the group into territorial units he labeled as the Car- study area was a central homeland of several rizo, Cibecue proper, and Canyon Creek bands Western Apache clans during the pre-reservation who occupied or used the territory that extended era dating back to at least 1850, and probably far north from the Salt River to the Mogollon Rim and earlier. The region later served as a “bridge” be- beyond, and on the west by the Sierra Ancha tween family groups confined to reservations of Mountains that begin just southeast of the town of the Yavapai-Apache Tribe and White Mountain Gisela. Goodwin (1942:22) documented the Cibe- Apache Tribe. Western Apache research consult- cue Band proper as having gone on frequent hunt- ants identified several culturally and historically ing trips along the Mogollon Rim in the Pinedale significant sites along this core area and “bridge,” and Heber region and that the western boundary of which SR 260 is now a part. roughly followed the divide between Cibecue Val- ley and Canyon Creek. The Canyon Creek Band of the Cibecue group was documented as having Western Apache Cultural and Historical Sites widely scattered farms on Oak Creek, in Gentry in the Study Area Canyon running into Canyon Creek, on Canyon Creek, and at a place on Cherry Creek at the east- Jerome Kessay, Sr., explains that Apaches liked ern foot of the Sierra Ancha (Goodwin 1942:23). the area between Payson and Heber and the sur- This group traveled north of the Mogollon Rim as rounding sub-Mogollon Rim region due to the far as Chevelon Butte, and claimed the eastern good water sources and the abundance of food in margin of Pleasant Valley all the way west to the the thick timber. Eva Watt noted it was a coveted crest of the Sierra Ancha where they often hunted area for its good farm plots and abundance of and made summer camps. firewood. Several locales within the study area Advisor Eva Watt states that the study area is remain in the cultural memory of Western Apache “directly in the middle of the Apache homeland,” consultants as places where Apaches camped, and, as noted above, refers to the large bulk of it as farmed, collected, prepared food, and performed “Tonto country.” Several research consultants ceremonies. As noted, research during this study mentioned an old and still common connection revealed constellations of Apache land use in spe-

24 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim cific areas. These are comprised of Apache place the acorns from the Emory oak (Quercus emoryi) in names, clan origin and settlement locations, and particular. This oak is called chíí chit in Apache. Protohistoric period sites identified by TNF ar- Apaches still gather acorns and prepare a tradi- chaeologists. These are illustrated here to give a tional acorn stew (Newton 1998:35). sense of historical focal points within the study Just a few kilometers east of Payson is tł’uk’à area and the Western Apache shí kéyaa. dngài (caves white), or Star Valley, an area with particular resonance for several Western Apache Fossil Creek to Carrizo Creek research consultants. Don Decker, a dil zhé’é Apa- che, describes it in this way: “An interesting obser- In the western section of the study area, Fossil vation that I can make and tell you right now is Creek and Fossil Creek Canyon are ubiquitous in that, you know you mentioned Star Valley. That the literature and ethnographic interviews as being a kind of ‘holy grail’ of Apache society that places several clans occupied. These include the had origins there and that emanated to other t‘ót’àgń (water at the foot of hill people) and the n places like Gisela and Tonto Basin.” àdìlsìk à dn (wild gourd growing people). Two no- Randall identified three clans who lived in Star table landmarks northwest of the Payson area are Valley: the kai ché hi díídn (willows growing out of the Natural Bridge and SR 260 crossing of the East rocks people) occupied the northern section of the Verde River where it exhibits many bends. The valley, the kái ni chiidn (red willow people) used Natural Bridge area, known as tsi be n kai an na gn the middle section, and the kai bil che go teetł (wil- a’ (hole there), is noteworthy for its cluster of lows that spread out people) inhabited the south- camps and farms of the na gononé (bridge people) ern end where the water backs up in ponds. Eva and three Apache place names: got si lsat (juniper Watt said Apaches often camped in the popular growing), tc’o joje si bcat (young yellow pine grow- Star Valley, “just to be in the crowd.” Watt’s ing), and tlu bs’a bet na gol kai (comes with white). mother’s father lived in the northern portion of Star Randall identified the tú na go zugé clan Valley. Additionally, Elizabeth Rocha recalls that (crooked water people) as having occupied the Apaches collected fossils for jewelry in this valley. area near the present day SR 87 crossing of the East Approximately 13 km (8 miles) south of Star Verde River. Goodwin (1933b) also documented Valley is the small community of Gisela, another three Apache place names in this vicinity: bi lśit area exhibiting a great deal of Apache land use (Blacktail Deer Park), tcan tane (manure lots), and through the generations. The sái’édìgaìdn (line of na go zuge na dí tiu. white sand joining people) and the tc‘ìłndì ‘yénà The Payson Basin area was also important in dn’áidń (walnut trees people), in particular, farmed terms of Apache land use and history. Randall here. Two important Apache places were docu- identified the t’é’gò tsùdn (yellow land people) as mented by Goodwin (1933b) in the vicinity of Gis- the prime occupants of this area. Goodwin ela: tset tso na n a’ (rock yellow resting) and gáán it (1942:621) also documented this group as farming tei das zin (red gáán sitting). Many Apaches re- in Round Valley, Star Valley, and Green Valley. He turned to this area from reservations just after the further documented the k’à bìd’à dń (arrow feather turn of the last century. people) as settling in the Payson area after leaving In the eastern portion of the study area, Prom- Horse Mountain, 24 km (15 miles) to the east. ontory Butte, Horse Mountain, Christopher Moun- Western Apache research consultants remember tain, Pleasant Valley, and Cherry Creek seem to several Apache camps in the Payson area. Levi have been important focal points within the West- DeHose recalls that Apaches camped at Texas ern Apache homeland. As noted, Promontory Spring, 1.6 km (1.0 mile) south of Payson. Eva Watt Butte figures prominently in the study area. Vin- remembers Apaches camping at Butterfly Spring in cent Randall identified an Apache trail on its east- the vicinity of present-day Payson; other reports ern flank, running north-south along Christopher also indicate Apaches used this area (Newton Creek and See Canyon, possibly the route followed 1998:58; North et al. 2005). by Apache renegades involved in the battle of Big Apache elders have pointed out that there were Dry Wash discussed below (Ferguson and Anyon also several favorite acorn gathering places in the 2000). Four of what may be among the earliest Payson area (Newton 1998). This vital staple is Apache clans to settle in the study area are situated found throughout the study area and, after agave, here, including: the dzìłt’à dn (foot of the moun- was the most important food item for Western tains people), tł’ùk’à dìgaìdń (row of white canes Apaches. Randall said that Apache people favored people), tsédè sgàidn (horizontally white rocks people),

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 25

and k‘į ‘yà ’án (below a house people). Goodwin ject area in May 2000. The location is adjacent to (1932) also documented an Apache place name, tse the highway right-of-way, approximately 1,000 m ya di bi tl’ij (rocks below zigzag), on the western (3,280 ft) northeast of Lion Spring, almost 5 km (3 flank of Promontory Butte. miles) due east of Star Valley (Figure 11). After Just south of this landmark and SR 260 are two Apache research consultants identified the camp, other prominent high points on the landscape, archaeologist Chris Coder undertook a reconnais- Horse Mountain and Christopher Mountain. The sance of the area and reported finding glass and k’àitséhįt’ì dń (rock strung out into willows people) metal fragments in an area exceeding 150 m (490 were known to have settled in the vicinity of both ft). The deciduous trees within the area of the mountains. The mú’sìn (owl’s song people) and the camp also set it apart from the surrounding ever- k’à bìd’à dń (arrow feather people) were known to green woodland. Eva Watt recalls coming to this have inhabited mainly Horse Mountain. On a cryp- camp with her family in the 1920s, during trips tic map stored at ASM, Goodwin indicated the between Cibecue and Camp Verde. The Apache locations of several Protohistoric period Apache name for this camp is translated as the “place camps. Scott Wood, TNF Archaeologist, inter- where you come dancing around a pine tree” (Fer- preted several of these locations on Horse Moun- guson and Anyon 2000). tain as Apache sites (see below). Watt recalls that the camp was occupied by Approximately 18 km (11 miles) southeast of several families, with six or seven people in each Horse Mountain and Christopher Mountain is tsi family group. She described how people built dzees z’ it, or Pleasant Valley, the site of old Apache wickiups and brush windbreaks at this site, one farms and the small community of Young. The ts that was primarily used as a base camp for collect- ì’ts’éhè sk ì dń (trees on a hill top people) farmed ing acorns, squawberries, pinyon nuts, and man- and lived in the Pleasant Valley area. In this area, zanita berries, as well as a stopping place between Goodwin (1932) documented one Apache farm, tsi the Cibecue area and Camp Verde. Watt noted that dzes l’sit (young area), and ki das an (house resting), the camp is located 0.8 km (0.5 miles) from a a place name. Several clans made their homes spring, Lion Spring, a typical location for Apache within the Cherry Creek drainage just north of settlements. During a subsequent interview, Watt Pleasant Valley. From Pleasant Valley north, these expanded on the Apache strategy for establishing include the k’àìxą t’ì dn (willows sprouting out camps in safe places, hidden from enemies. people), k’ài b łnágó tèè ln (wide flat of willows people), n àdìlsìk à dn (wild gourd growing people), They would tuck camps in the mountains and the and k’àitséhįt’ì dń (rock strung out into willows hills out of the wind. You might find pottery in people). Goodwin (1932) also documented two these places. They carried water in pottery or in Apache place names in this vicinity: kái tse he t’i the tús [pitched baskets]. In the mountains they looked for squawberries and manzanita berries. (willows rocks in a line) and kai ha t’i (willows The people who camped here came from the across in a line). Young Road on their way to Camp Verde. They The far eastern boundary of the study area is came toward the end of August through Septem- represented by Carrizo Creek and Carrizo Canyon ber and came back into White River country in that sheltered the original Carrizo Band of the Ci- October. becue group (Goodwin 1942:21). The tł’ùk’à dìgaìdń (row of white canes people) were also known to Watt remembers camping here with her family have had camps and farms here. Goodwin (1932) when she was 9 or 10 years old. The family with documented a place name in this area, chî ch ie choh her included her four older brothers, her grand- si koat. Roughly 19 km (12 miles) north of the head- mother, and her grandfather. The group traveled waters of Carrizo Creek is the community of mainly on foot, although some had horses. She Heber. The area around Heber was known as na di recalls that, at that time, SR 260 was an old wagon tin or yúané, the latter signifying its location “over road running through Payson and that Apache the rim.” According to Levi DeHose, Apaches people habitually camped along this route. While worked in the sawmills in Heber in historic times. speaking of the camp, Watt also recalled an area west of Payson where Apache people camped and Apache Camp Near Milepost 259 held ceremonials near Butterfly Spring. Watt also describes how her mother’s father lived in the up- Eva Watt and Vincent Randall identified an per part of Star Valley. She notes that there were Apache camp during the first field trip to the pro- also Apache camps in the Little Green Valley area.

26 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

Eva Watt reports that she was told Apache people used to plant corn, beans, potatoes, and squash here before she was born. She remembers visiting Indian Garden when it had an “Abe Lincoln fence” (a split rail fence) around it that Apache people helped build. This type of fence was commonly associated with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) of the 1930s. There is a monument to the Texas-Arizona CCC dating to 1933, at this location (Stein 2007). Watt said that the spring at Indian Garden was Figure 11. General vicinity of Apache camp location, near Milepost 259. improved by placing rocks around it to keep the animals Vincent Randall’s relatives had told him of this out. The spring provided water for the Apache camp in the 1960s and 1970s (Ferguson and Anyon who camped around the eastern and western sides 2000). He believes it dates to pre-reservation and of the site (Figure 13). reservation times. In a later interview, Randall de- In a subsequent interview, Watt reported that scribed how the camp was probably a “perma- Apaches also collected agave in the area and re- nent” Apache campsite that certain clans used members at least two roasting pits in the vicinity. year-round, year after year. However, Randall is She notes that they are of the “itchy” variety, a quick to note that people were not usually at a small kind of agave that left an itchy feeling in the camp continuously throughout the year. The area mouth known as na das gese. As with the Apache is in a temperate zone, he says, “not too cold and camp mentioned above, Watt and her family not too hot.” He adds that when elders were too passed by Indian Garden on the way to Camp old to keep traveling, they would sometimes stay Verde. Watt reported an old corn field was located in year-round camps like this one near water and a immediately south of SR 260 (Ferguson and Anyon good store of wood. Randall explained that elders 2000). Later, Watt expanded on Apache farming could stay in a place like this all year if people practices, reporting that Apaches planted in April were able to take care of them. or May and harvested in September or October. Information about the exact location of the pro- Before they had horses, Apaches planted by ject right-of-way and impact areas was not avail- hand using a digging stick. They later used a plow able during the fieldwork, thus, it is unclear how drawn by a horse, and today, tractors are com- the Apache campsite may be impacted by highway monly used to plant corn. Watt expressed her dis- construction. Apache research consultants did ex- like of tractors, stating that the blades are never set press concern, however, that this site should be right and they cut too deep of a furrow so that the protected from project impacts. seeds go too far in the ground to germinate prop- erly. Apaches moved to different farming spots Indian Garden, AZ O:12:32/AR-03-12-04-53 each year. Watt remembers weeding and hoeing (ASM/TNF)/Kohl’s Ranch early in the morning. If there was no grass in the field, Apaches would plant and forget about the Apache research consultants identified the area field until harvest. They planted three to five of around present-day Indian Garden, also known as their strongest kernels together in a hole, but never Kohl’s Ranch, as an area where Apaches cultivated more than five. These plants grew together and large farm plots (Figure 12). This area, with a flow- might later be thinned so the others could grow. ing spring, is known most commonly by Apaches Watt recalls that the study area, the sub-Mogollon as Indian Garden, and its Apache name that trans- Rim area, was coveted by Apaches for its good lates as “Gambel oak” (Ferguson and Anyon 2000). farming plots and proximity to good water sourc-

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 27

dian Garden from San Carlos after San Carlos was established as a reservation. He also recalls that the area around Tonto Village, or “Tonto Town,” was known traditionally as taazi dananjé (turkeys piling up or turkey roosting place). This area is about 3.2 km (2.0 miles) west of Indian Garden. Jerome Kessay, Sr., was told there were Apaches living at Indian Garden long before white settlers came to the area. Later, Apaches from Camp Verde fleeing the U.S. Cavalry and Apache scouts camped at Indian Garden. Stories also tell of people running away Figure 12. Indian Garden, AZ O:12:32/AR-03-12-04-53 (ASM/TNF), with from the San Carlos Reservation patches of agave. back to Camp Verde by way of Indian Garden. Thus, the area in and around Indian Garden served as a traditional Apache farming plot and camp, an agave collecting area, and a resting place for Apaches escaping the U.S. Cavalry and the unfamiliar land and reservation life at San Carlos. Information about the poten- tial impact of the SR 260 construction project on Indian Garden was not available during fieldwork. The Apache research consultants, however, expressed that this site should be protected from project impacts.

Apache Trail and the Battle of Big Figure 13. Spring at Indian Garden, AZ O:12:32/AR-03-12-04-53 (ASM/ Dry Wash TNF). During fieldwork in 2000, re- es. She believes there was more rain back then and search consultant Vincent Randall reported an more moisture in the ground, adding that people Apache trail running up Christopher Creek and did not have to do run-off farming back then. Ran- See Canyon northward past Promontory Butte dall explained that the U.S. Cavalry destroyed (Ferguson and Anyon 2000). He explained that the many of the small family farming plots. During the trail may be associated with Apache history that “relocation” era of the 1950s, the Bureau of Indian concerns a group of Apache men, some of whom Affairs (BIA) administered reservation lands. The were Tontos, who killed Colvig, chief of the San people were relocated into drier farm plots away Carlos Agency police and “broke out” of the San from the Verde River (Middle Verde area). They Carlos Indian reservation in 1882. Goodwin were taught to level the land and make bigger (1942:23) also indicates Canyon Creek, Cibecue, fields, “Western style.” and Carrizo band members in this number. Other Randall noted that Apaches, “clanish” as they sources (Kessel 1974; Meise 1998:23; Welch et al. were, would return to old family farm plots at In- 2005) indicate this group of rebels was led by a

28 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim warrior named Natiotish who was “restless and Private Pete of the Company E Scouts, Third Cav- belligerent” after the killing of an Apache medicine alry, who purportedly saw two of his brothers and man, Nockaydelklinne, during the Battle of Cibe- his father among the rebels and threw down his cue with the U.S. government on 30 August 1881. gun and ran to be with his people. Sieber appar- Natiotish and several of his followers escaped from ently told him to halt and when he did not, shot San Carlos not long after the events at Cibecue and him in the back of the head (Meiss 1998:40). traveled west and then north into the study area, According to Randall, knowledge of this killing raiding ranches and taking livestock over the next and all evidence of Captain Smiley’s brother’s exis- several months, killing eight people. Randall re- tence was covered up. Randall knows of an calls that the rebels were reported to have stolen Apache woman, Eva Engle, who is a relative of horses and killed a rancher near Young at the Q some of the Apache individuals involved in the Ranch or Ellison Ranch before heading northwest; battle. The version Meise (1998:35) documented he explains that “these Tontos (yúané) were making describes the unwillingness of the Apache scouts for their homeland” above the Mogollon Rim to- to proceed further, stating that the enemy was too ward the Flagstaff area. far ahead and that the country ahead was “bad Meise (1998) documented that the group of medicine and that they did not care for it.” Chief of Apaches entered Pleasant Valley where they Scouts Al Sieber spurred them on when they came burned Al Rose’s house and subsequently moved upon a fortified ambush built for what the rebels to the Sigbee brothers’ Bar X Ranch, north of the believed to be one company in pursuit, not several. valley. From the Sigbee Ranch, the Apaches went The military troops began to deploy and an anx- north toward the homestead of Isadore Christo- ious soldier fired a weapon, alerting the Apaches pher, at Christopher Creek (Granger 1983:148), a to the presence of the soliders, eliminating the ele- Frenchman attempting to mine in the area. The ment of surprise (Meiss 1998:39). Just as the troops Apaches burned two log cabins, and according to converged on the rebel camp itself, an intense hail- Meise (1998:27), went west and camped in the first storm raged over the battle site. Natiotish’s survi- canyon east of the East Verde River and subse- vors took advantage of the darkness and confusion quently traveled north up over the Mogollon Rim. of the storm and many escaped. It has never been Randall, alternatively, had heard the rebels trav- clear how many “hostiles” died in the skirmish, eled up a trail in See Canyon and then went west and estimates range from six to 22. along the top of the Mogollon Rim. Goodwin One Irish immigrant cavalryman, Joseph (1942:23) documented that the group of Apaches McLernon, was the only fatality among the Ameri- were pursued to Chevelon Fork north of the can soldiers. The morning after the battle a young Mogollon Rim, about 40 km (25 miles) northeast of Apache woman and her baby were discovered. the See Canyon trail identified by Randall. The woman had been wounded in the thigh and According to Randall, Captain Smiley, an the leg had to be amputated on site. She endured Apache scout from the Camp Verde area, marched the operation without a sound and was later scouts and a detachment of soldiers east along the loaded on a mule for the trip back to Fort Apache. top of the Mogollon Rim to try to cut off the rebel Historians say the Battle of Big Dry Wash was a Apaches before they made it over the rim by way turning point in the Indian wars, the last large of the trail on the eastern side of Promontory Butte. skirmish of its kind in the battle for the Apacheria Several other groups of scouts and U.S. Cavalry (Meise 1998:45). The era of widespread Apache were dispatched from Fort Apache, Fort McDow- raiding soon ended. ell, Fort Thomas, and Fort Whipple (Meise 1998: The See Canyon trail has significance in Apache 28). A skirmish ensued on 17 July 1882, allegedly at history in addition to the possible escape route for a site on the Mogollon Rim now known as Big Dry Apaches fleeing the U.S. Cavalry. During his re- Wash, approximately 24 km (15 miles) almost due search of the area, Scott Wood has suggested that north of Payson near General Springs. the Hole-in-the-Ground site near the head of See Randall reports that the Apache version of the Canyon was a trade node for Hopi traders who Battle of Big Dry Wash describes how U.S. Cavalry may have traveled down Chevelon Canyon to ex- soldiers shot Captain Smiley’s brother in the back change items with Apaches. Wood suggests Hopi of the head for changing sides during the battle Yellow Ware pottery may be a part of the Apache after he realized he was fighting his relatives. Ac- archaeological signature in the area, as evidenced cording to C. P. Wingfield, one of Seiber’s scouts, by its association with roasting pits on the Naege- Captain Smiley’s brother’s name may have been lin Rim—approximately 11 km (7 miles) southwest

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 29

from the mouth of See Canyon and the trail—and on 9 April 2003, Watt was able to identify the spe- other locations (see also North et al. 2005:171). cific locale as south of the FR 512/SR 260 intersec- More research is necessary to determine if Hole-in- tion on the northern side of the junction of FR 512 the-Ground was indeed a trade node and if Hopi and FR 181, just south of the diaphanous Aspen Yellow Ware is, in fact, part of the Apache archaeo- Lake. logical signature. Watt explains that Apache groups from Che- Whatever the case, See Canyon on the eastern diskai and Oak Creek came through the area on side of Promontory Butte was likely a direct route the way to Camp Verde. She said that Apaches over the Mogollon Rim used by many different camped and participated in social dances at this groups in recent times and probably much earlier. location. Apache groups often gathered for social The route may connect with the present-day High events in the fall and in the spring, with families Line Trail Apache research consultants and ar- passing word of a gathering. After a fall gathering, chaeologists believe may have been an ancient trail Apaches returned to their winter homes at harvest used for hundreds of years by Apaches and others time. Watt says that even though they may have in the region. Moreover, Apache clans documented used the same camp over and over, they also liked as settling around Promontory Butte, perhaps to camp in new places. some of the first clans to inhabit the region, un- More specifically, Watt reports that a girl’s pu- doubtedly used this route during their seasonal berty ceremony, or na ih es (preparing her)— migrations (Goodwin 1942:607-624). These in- known as the “Sunrise Dance” in popular literature cluded the tł’ùk’à dìgaìdń (row of white canes peo- (Basso 1966:124)—took place there in conjunction ple), dzìłt’à dn (foot of the mountains people), tsédè with a social dance in the 1920s. Watt was a young sgàidn (horizontally white rock people), and k‘į ‘yà girl when she and her family walked to this loca- ’án (below a house people). tion from the Cibecue area on a horse trail to at- The precise location where this trail crosses the tend a na ih es (Figure 14). She does not remember SR 260 right-of-way was not determined during any roads in the area at the time, only clear horse fieldwork. Additional archaeological survey and trails that were easy to follow because of blazed possibly remote sensing is needed to determine its trees for travel aid. Levi DeHose, also a Cibecue exact route. According to Stein (2003), a historic Apache elder, adds that the horses knew the way horse trail is located in the general vicinity. by smell. Whether the Apache trail and the historic horse It was here that people from the Oak Creek area trail are associated requires more research. met Tonto groups from the Camp Verde and upper Mogollon Rim areas. They chose this place as a Apache Ceremonial Grounds

During the 2000 field trip to the project area, Eva Watt identified the location of Apache ceremonial grounds near SR 260 and the junction of the Young Road, just southeast of Willow Springs Canyon on the Apache-Sit- greaves National Forests (Fer- guson and Anyon 2000). Re- searchers originally documented the site to be within 100 m (328 ft) of the existing SR 260 highway. Because the site was identified at the end of a long day, the precise location and extent of the ceremonial grounds were not determined. During a Figure 14. Apache ceremonial grounds south of State Route 260 (looking south- second field trip to the area east), with Forest Road 181 in the background.

30 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

“middle ground,” near the horse trail. Watt says that this individual was a man, usually a grandfa- there was no water when she came here in the ther of the girl, who was appointed as the nan tán 1920s, but today there is a water catchment, Aspen (chief or foreman) of the ceremony. The ndeh guhy- Lake, possibly caused by the road developments of aneh are responsible for choosing a site to hold the FR 512. Watt does not remember an Apache name na ih es. In the Cibecue area, the necessary attrib- for the site but recalls a special willow in this area utes include an abundant source of water, prox- called sul. The willow was used in ceremonies and imity to a large supply of wood, and ample space for making flutes. Watt remembers the aspens in for the dance area (Basso 1966:128). While this locale, but says there were not so many pon- Nanakáh’s ndeh guhyaneh may not have had many derosa pine, stating that “these are new trees,” and choices for dance areas while traveling, the site that there were more cedar trees then. identified by Watt exhibits all the necessary pre- Watt explains that the girl’s puberty ceremony requisites and existed as a known “middle was organized for a young girl named Nanakáh ground,” where different Apache groups gathered. who was from the döole (Butterfly Clan). While Watt explained that because most of the traveling to Camp Verde, Nanakáh had received Apaches were traveling on from this site, they only her first menses. Traditionally, the family organ- built temporary lean-tos, hunting deer and turkey ized a na ih es within four days of a girl’s first during their short stay. She remembers that the blood. If the family did not have the dance within camps were on the southern side of FR 181 and on that four-day period, the girl would become sick, the northern side of the dance ground, near the and she would not live a suitable or healthy life. aspen (Figure 15). The women went 0.8 km (0.5 This was a challenge for a traveling group, and miles) north to collect water from Willow Spring, Watt says they were all in a hurry to get there. Be- now Willow Spring Lake Reservoir. This distance cause Apaches were often traveling, it was not un- from water is congruent with other Apache camps common to have ceremonies on the fly. Approxi- in the project area that are 0.8-1.6 km (0.5-1.0 miles) mately 20 people gathered for this ceremony from permanent water. Watt recalls that even in within four days, a testament to the clan network the 1920s, Apaches stayed hidden from possible allowing for the invitation to spread over a vast enemies. She relays a historic superstition in which landscape in time for people to travel there. Basso people hid if the wind started blowing and dust (1970:10) also documented the clan system as the went into the air. They would think this was a sign primary means of enabling the recruitment of clan Geronimo was in the area, because he was known kin for ceremonies and other large-group activities. to raise dust storms. Some Apache groups were Some people came with burden animals, such as also afraid of Apache Kid. When they were in hid- horses and donkeys, while others had wild horses. ing, mothers gave children agave to keep them Watt states that it took 1.5 days to walk from Che- quiet. diskai to this location; her family brought cornbread for the ceremony. To initiate a na ih es, the girl’s parents select a group of elder persons called ndeh guhyaneh who decide where and when the ceremony will be held and who the girl’s god- parents or sponsors will be (Basso 1966:127). The latter are called na ihl esn (she makes her ready; she prepares her) who, as Watt puts it, “teach her how to be a lady and how to do her chores.” Watt states that it would be an elder man or woman of the girl’s group who would oversee the dance. Figure 15. The northern side of the dance ground at the Apache ceremonial Basso (1966:127) documented grounds.

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 31

Watt states that one would probably not see Changing Woman is the mother creator of all any evidence of the event left behind on the Apaches and the founder of Apache culture. This ground today, but that there were some temporary power stays with the girl for four days, making her structures built for the ceremony. Basso (1966:135) ritual objects powerful and capable of curing and documented that four to seven structures were bringing rain. During this time, the girl is sacred, constructed in a typical dance camp. These could and is regarded as personifying Changing Woman include a semipermanent wickiup in which the girl herself (Basso 1966:151). Other aims of the na ih es are and members of her family lived until four days to instill the advantages of physical strength, a good after na ih es, large shades for food preparation, disposition, and prosperity. For the community, and small food shelters. In 1960, during prepara- the ceremony unifies family and clan, strengthens tions for a na ih es in Cibecue, Basso (1966:138) ob- kin obligation, establishes reciprocal obligations served a scene of great activity. between unrelated persons, relieves anxieties, and encourages moral behavior (Basso 1966:167-170). Hauling wood…the men joke constantly and Immediately after the ceremony, the girl’s there is much laughter. Women, some with ba- power is available and of benefit to everyone in the bies in cradleboards strapped to their backs, put camp. At this time, she is considered holy and con- the finishing touches on the shades or bend over tinues to live at the dance ground with her family. their manos and metates grinding corn shoots into pulp for tulipay (corn alcohol). Young chil- Watt relayed that her family camped with the girl’s dren race about wildly playing tag and lassoing kin for these four days. dogs. The older people, always keeping some- The na ih es is still performed today. While it is what apart from the others, watch the proceed- no longer necessary to do the ceremony within ings quietly, occasionally calling out bits of ad- four days of a girl’s first menses, it is important to vice. Few activities bring so many relatives do it as soon as possible. It now generally occurs in together in one place and the atmosphere is one July or August. Many traditional elders still con- of relaxation and congeniality. The bonds of kin- sider the na ih es an extremely important ceremony ship are reinforced with the bond of a common religious purpose. that benefits the pubescent girl, as well as the entire community (Basso 1966:124-125). Relations Typically, four to five nights before a na ih es, a among the girl’s family and blood kin must be bi goh ji tal (half-night dance) is held, followed by strong, because there is too much work for even similar dances each night through the eve of the na one extended family to organize and fund an ade- ih es. This may have been the social dancing that quate na ih es. Some girls do not receive the cere- Watt describes as the dance held in conjunction mony due to contemporary religious views, with the sunrise ceremony. The day before the na strained familial relations, or its prohibitive cost. ih es, a sweat bath is held in the morning and is Levi DeHose said that there are many sacred attended by the male relatives of the girl, her na ihl sites within a day’s travel of the ceremonial ground esn, and a medicine man who makes the ritual that include piles of rocks and shrines people paraphernalia for the na ih es (Basso 1966:143). On would go around to. He adds that wherever one this day, food is exchanged between the girl’s par- sees a pile of rocks, it could be a cairn marking a ents and her na ihl esn. At dusk, the girl is dressed special event that occurred there. He explains that, up for a short ceremony during which the medi- unfortunately, many have been destroyed. He says cine man presents the paraphernalia she will carry there are also many sacred plants in the area. The and wear during the larger ceremony. One piece of aspen bark was used as medicine, and the ilchitzen important ritual paraphernalia is a decorated (wind tree)—possibly limber pine—is also in the wooden staff called a gish ih zha ha (cane) that sym- area. This was used in the Mountain Dance and bolizes longevity. The girl dances with this staff was prized for its soft needles. DeHose also says throughout the ceremony and uses it years later as that Apaches traveled through this area on their a walking staff. way to Holbrook for commodities. People traveled The na ih es itself is an extremely complex and the trail on top of the rim, along the cliff, and then powerful ceremony whereby the medicine man dropped back down near this area. He recalls coming calls forth the power, or di yih, of Changing through this way on horseback from Young in the Woman through song and directs Changing 1940s, noting there were very few White people Woman’s power into the pubescent girl. The main living in the Young area at the time. He says the theme of the na ih es is Changing Woman’s act of road from Young is now much improved. DeHose giving the girl long life. To traditional Apaches, recalls that a sunrise dance also occurred west of

32 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

Young in Pleasant Valley, approximately 24 km (15 the Cibecue area through the project area. She also miles) south of the ceremonial grounds Eva Watt recalls a precursor to the modern highway that identified. It was held near a formation referred to went through Payson. According to Watt, Apaches by Apaches as the “backbone of the earth.” He camped along this route over and over again. notes that Apaches also gathered acorns around Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the Young. Apache sites along the SR 260 highway alignment Watt expressed that this location is a sacred site may indicate the route(s) of a trail or trails by the and should be protected; DeHose explains that, Apache to cross the sub-Rim country. The specific “We still respect these places within our memo- alignments of these trails and of subsequent road ries—these are powerful traditions.” Due to its safe alignments vary through time due to different des- distance from the SR 260 right-of-way, the site will tinations and, with the later auto roads, engineer- probably not be directly impacted by the project. ing requirements, but the ancient Apache trails However, land managers and archaeologists on the may have set the general course for all future Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests should man- horse, wagon, and auto roads through the region, age and protect the site as a traditional cultural including a wagon road, AZ O:15:113/AR-03-12- property. 04-652 (ASM/TNF); a forest highway, AZ O:12:33/ AR-03-12-04-878 (ASM/TNF); and eventually, a state highway (Herr, Thiel, and Stein 2000; Stein Trails and Travel and Herr 2000). One old wagon road may have been used by Throughout this research, Apache consultants some Apaches and avoided by others. O:15:113/ described the important activity of travel and the 04-652 was documented as having existed in the routes Apaches used. Before reservations forced early 1900s, and went from Payson to Young people into a more sedentary lifestyle, Apaches through Little Green Valley to Tonto Creek, where moved across the study area on long worn trails Kohl’s Ranch and Indian Garden are today (Zacha- created by their ancestors or by themselves during riae 1991). It then turned southeast, paralleling seasonal collection forays. Later, they also followed present-day SR 260 to the 13 Ranch, and then wagon trails Euro-American settlers established. turned south along Gordon Canyon Creek, cross- Western Apache research consultants believe the ing Bear Springs and Haigler Creek. It then veered latter often followed old Apache routes created southeast into Pleasant Valley. This may be the hundreds of years earlier. road Levi DeHose speaks of as the “new road” that Many commonly known Apache travel routes Apaches from Young refused to use. Additionally, in the study area ran east to west within the sub- the present-day Highline Trail that runs at the base Mogollon Rim region, first connecting the territo- of the Mogollon Rim along the whole length of the ries of the dil zhé’é and the dzil tadn, and later con- study area may have been an Apache travel route necting the mixed kin groups living on reserva- of great age (Wood et al. 2003). tions near Camp Verde, Fort Apache, and San Advisor Gregg Henry was told that Apaches Carlos. Elizabeth Rocha’s great-great-grandparents used the Mogollon Rim as a travel guide in coun- were passed over by the U.S. Cavalry when they try that one could easily be lost. He explained that lived in Fossil Canyon. Rocha explains that her they used the top or the base to guide them family was not necessarily hiding there, but simply through the rugged country. Eva Watt agreed with lucky enough to be living there when Apaches this statement, saying that her family used the were being rounded up and forcibly marched to Mogollon Rim as a guide while traveling back and reservations. She was told that the family had con- forth between Camp Verde and Cibecue. Henry nections in Cibecue and frequently traveled to visit said a name for the route along the top of the them, following a trail through Pine and Payson, Mogollon Rim was tsé da in tin (trail along the cliff). and on further through the study area. Rocha also Indeed, it seems natural features informed how recalls that some Apaches came from Cibecue Apaches traveled. Watt notes that Apaches often through the project area to marry Yavapai in the also used mountain ridges as travel routes. Camp Verde area. She also notes that the Kinsey Some travel routes also ran north-south family and her grandfather, Jack Kinsey, often through the study area. Vincent Randall identified traveled back and forth through the study area. an Apache trail that followed See Canyon on the Eva Watt remembers her family using three or eastern side of Promontory Butte (Ferguson and four trails that led to Camp Verde from Young and Anyon 2000). It was this route that Randall be-

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 33

lieves Apache rebels used to flee U.S. Cavalry and Apaches had to travel constantly to find food and Apache scouts just prior to the Battle of Big Dry that meant traveling light: Wash discussed above. Scott Wood also posits that Apaches traveled a trail over the Mogollon Rim to They had to travel so often. For instance, acorns the Hole-in-the-Ground landmark to trade with the were not all in one place so they had to go from Hopi. The route may have been the same Apache grove to grove. They had to pack everything and trail Vincent Randall identified as the Hole-in-the- as they gathered for the winter, they brought everything back to a winter camp to store. They Ground site, located on top of the rim within about carried certain tools everywhere with them. My 1.6 km (1.0 mile) of where this trail tops out. great-grandmother carried her knife, a bone awl, Farther west, there is a route over the Mogollon and sinew buckskin in her Apache boots. My Rim DeHose recognized near the Apache ceremo- great-grandfather carried a staff that also looked nial grounds discussed above. He recalls that, in like a spear. Men always carried their bows and historic times, Apaches traveled a route from arrows and would gather the makings for them Young on their way to Holbrook to collect com- as they would go. modities. He says that earlier, Apaches also traveled the tsé da in tin (trail along the cliff) that Traveling light was also geared toward the more dropped back down off the Mogollon Rim, south human dimension. Rocha describes how group of the site identified by Watt. Apaches from Che- size lent itself to survival: diskai would go up a draw north of Chedeskai and would get up on a road to follow it west. Goodwin [Women] would try not to make too many children because it was so hard to feed everybody (1942:600-629) documented that several Apache through hunting and gathering. Men would often clans who had their main camps south of the be gone hunting raiding, so less chance of getting Mogollon Rim often traveled north over the rim on pregnant that way. Women would also nurse a hunting and food-collecting trips. Apache trails long time between children. They also had medi- were also flexible, not always bound as a strict lin- cines to prevent pregnancy. Things were too hard ear feature. As archaeologist Chris Coder ob- to have a lot of children, especially when moving served: around so much. As soon as people were more sedentary, they had more children, like my Trails were always changing too. I think there is mother, who had nine. that Anglo concept of trails that are always point to point. In the old days, trails changed depend- During the research, several terms were used to ing on where people were camped and what fam- describe travel in the study area. Eva Watt im- ily you were with. It turned into a spider web of parted the Apache word tsis pitis (to go up over the trails. There are the trader’s trails and there are mountain), something Apaches did often in the the social trails. There are the trails that people study area that is banded by the Mazatzal Moun- used who came from one cultural zone to another to do stuff, then there were trails within that zone tains, the Sierra Ancha, the Mogollon Rim, and the that overlapped and changed constantly depend- benches that mark the sub-Mogollon Rim region. ing on where people camped, water source to DeHose shared an Apache term, yo a nayo, also water source. used to indicate the act of going “over the mountain,” or more specifically, the act of going up over As much as Apaches were connected to certain the Mogollon Rim. Vincent Randall offers yet an- places on the landscape, they were equally at- other term for movement over the Mogollon Rim— tached to movement across the landscape. Eva Watt yúáné yú (over the rim). Randall belongs to the recalls that Apaches migrated and traveled mostly yúáné clan, also known as the “over the rim” or in the summer, but hunkered down in a winter “long valley” clan, which originated in the country camp when it began to get cold. When it was time northwest of the Mogollon Rim and the study area. to plant, people moved toward the small farming The area around Heber is also called yúané, signify- plots. Contrary to expectations, many Apaches set ing its location above the rim. up winter camps in higher areas with an abun- Before Euro-Americans settled the region, dance of wood instead of going lower where it was Apaches also traveled great distances outside their warmer. Victor Smith explains that Apaches traditional homelands. Ramon Riley remembers moved around a lot and did not have one place. elders speaking of collecting shells in California They moved for the food, and then later, wherever and the Gulf of Mexico and traveling to the Missis- they could make a living. Elizabeth Rocha said that sippi to hunt buffalo. He says that Apaches also

34 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

traveled to the Baja portion of Mexico, known as who either escaped from a reservation or traveled the “white foaming lake.” Watt also says Apaches back to their original homelands during a grace traveled often to Mexico from Cibecue. She says period after the turn of the twentieth century. Vin- they traveled west through the study area to Camp cent Randall explains that it was during this period Verde, south to Phoenix, and then on southwest when folks such as the tú na go zugé (crooked water through Tucson. people) left the San Carlos Reservation and went Despite the efforts of the U.S. government to immediately back to their homeland near the Up- confine Western Apaches to reservations, Apache per East Verde River to farm once again. Randall people still made an effort to travel to food collec- also spoke of an old man named Otto Mocasque tion areas and familiar hunting grounds. DeHose whose father came straight back to the Clear Creek states that several groups continued to live tradi- area, just northwest of the study area, because tionally in the Oak Creek area just before and right “that was where he came from.” Chris Coder re- after the reservation era: layed the story of Billy Smith, who came back from San Carlos and spent the winter in Payson and Even in 1944 and 1945, people would move then came back to the Camp Verde area in the around and camp. White River people traveled spring of 1901, where he was jumped by a group of toward Heber and Clay Spring. They also trav- Yavapai who killed one of the Apaches in his eled to Holbrook. They would travel up Salt Creek to pick up commodities there. My grand- party. Jerome Kessay, Sr., also said that many peo- mother said that, at first, Apaches did not know ple ran away from San Carlos and went to Camp how to use or prepare the commodities. She said Verde; some of these groups also went back to Mexicans finally taught them how to make tortil- Camp Verde by way of Indian Garden. las and grind coffee beans. Apaches moving back to the Payson area established major camps at Payson on the East Verde As discussed above, Eva Watt often traveled River, at Gisela, on the East Verde River near the with her family in the early 1920s through the mouth of Sycamore Creek, and near Weber Creek study area (see also Watt and Basso 2004:3-145). (Esber 1977; Houser 1972). One of these camps was She also relays a story of how she and her family established on Birch Mesa near the site of the pre- were passed over during a census in 1927 due to sent-day Payson airport (Newton 1998:51). Several their constant traveling, this time as wage laborers Apache scouts were allowed to settle in this area instead of hunter-gathers. She was about 10 years and included Constant Bread, Henry Chitton old when her family was traveling and working on (a.k.a., Henry Burdette), Henry Irving (a.k.a., dí the Apache Trail near Canyon Lake, known at the yetlé, Henry Campbell or Henry Evans), Charley time as Mormon Flat: Nockey (a.k.a., nzà dsìl í, Charley Nott), Obed Rab- bit, and Captain Smiley (Newton 1998:51). Accord- My family worked on this road, having to carry ing to Apache elders interviewed in other studies, everything. We had to walk a lot, no one had there was constant movement among the camps at horses or wagons. My brother was born along the Payson, Gisela, and the Upper East Verde River trail at Mormon Flat in 1923. They ran out of food along this trail, and there was none to be found (Newton 1998; Newton and Terziz 1997b). anywhere. Finally a White man from Roosevelt Of particular interest to this study is the return got wise and brought a food truck out to sell gro- of a group of dil zhé’é to the Payson area, “reoccu- ceries to the workers. The trail started at the Roo- pying their old homesites and garden plots where sevelt Dam and ran south along the side of the they had not been taken over by Anglo settlers and dam to Apache Junction. My father died working resumed their traditional way of life to the extent on the Apache Trail in 1924 near Apache Lake. that it was possible” (Houser 1972:68-69). One of the first Apaches to officially acquire private land Eva Watt’s sick father was transported by truck was Delia Chapman, who applied for an Indian into Globe, where he passed away at his sister’s Homestead Trust Allotment of 97.5 acres in 1919. house (Watt 2004). Charley Nockey had previously occupied the area (Newton 1998). Chapman, her family, and several other dil zhé’é lived there until the land was sold to Returning Home a non-Indian in 1943 (Houser 1972). In 1930, dí yetlé, or Henry Irving, purchased a trust deed for During this study, research consultants men- two lots on what would later be called Indian Hill, tioned several Apache families and individuals just northwest of Main Street in Payson (Newton

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 35

1998:52). Related families lived there and grew which brought the territorial lands north of the small gardens over the next 20 years. When dí yetlé Gila River under the jurisdiction of the United became ill and moved to Camp Verde, he did not States, and with the Gadsden Purchase in 1854, pay the property taxes. In the 1950s, the land was making all present-day Arizona a part of the lost, and Apache families were evicted (Newton United States (Ogle 1949). The territory was 1998:52). The families fled to the nearby TNF opened to settlers and miners, exacerbating the where they squatted for several years. ongoing Apache raids and conflicts between Apa- Twenty years later, anthropologists and attor- ches and the “newcomers,” ever increasing since neys helped prove the dil zhé’é are a distinct peo- the early Spanish settlements of the seventeenth ple, warranting their own reservation (Houser centuries (Basso 1993; Corbusier 1969; Thrapp 1972; Sparks 1972). With the support of non-Indian 1967; Worcester 1979). Increasing conflict and vio- Payson community members, the cause was taken lence resulted in a campaign led by General Crook to Washington D.C. In 1972, this small group of dil in 1872 to round up all the Apaches and force them zhé’é were granted their own land when President onto reservations (Bourke 1971). Tonto Apaches Richard M. Nixon signed Public Law 92740. The were a particular focus of this campaign, resulting U.S. Congress granted the Tonto Apache federal in the deaths of many of their people (Newton recognition and established an 85-acre reservation 1998). Vincent Randall explained how the Apache just east of the original squatter’s camp (Esber 1977). scouts, working for the U.S. Cavalry to subdue other Apaches, helped secure land for their own people, while many dil zhé’é who continued to fight The Loss of Homeland got very little (Figure 16). Ramon Riley explains the painful decision for Apaches to help the U.S. Historical memory of the study area is incredi- government hunt and kill fellow Apaches. Apache bly rich within the three Western Apache tribes men watching their families starve due to the in- consulted for this study. Research advisors illus- ability to live in the old way often had few choices. trated a spectrum of Apachean relationships to this The story of Apache scouts at the Battle of Big Dry particular part of the shí kéyaa, a homeland unique Wash discussed above illustrates the extreme emo- in its position within Apacheria. These include tion surrounding this choice; the hesitancy to fol- tales told by grandparents—first-person and tradi- low other Apaches into an almost certain ambush tional accounts—and family stories that have been and the inability to murder family members (see passed down through the generations. What has Mason 1971). also been passed down is a collective sense of loss; Randall also says that the U.S. Cavalry and loss of the shí kéyaa and often, by extension, a loss Apache scouts burned many farms under the of cultural identity. The memories and local watch of General Crook. Many people simply sur- knowledge regarding the removal of Apaches by rendered. One Tonto leader surrendered to Gen- the U.S. government to reservations are among the eral Crook, as Goodwin (1942:42) wrote: “The Ma- most clear, and most temporally near. This section zatzal chief came to Camp Verde and made peace explores the changes in land ownership, cultural for many of his people.” The General Crook Trail, landscape, and cultural identity. Victor Smith now a recreational corridor, parallels the Mogollon powerfully expresses the demoralization resulting Rim in the northern part of the study area. in a stolen lifeway: By 1874, the remaining dil zhé’é were gathered at a reservation near Camp Verde, now the loca- Since the White men came, they knocked them tion of the Yavapai-Apache Nation. Most of the [Apaches] off of their whole life. They took over Cibecue Apaches were sent to Fort Apache, now the whole [Verde] valley. You can’t make it in the the seat of the White Mountain Apache Reserva- White man’s world. They used to get rations. But tion. Members of both groups formerly inhabiting no more, now you have to work. Some old peo- the study area were sent to the San Carlos Reserva- ple are lucky to get a pension. That is what I was telling the Superintendent. They blocked their tion, “where we all got mixed up,” as Watt said. hunting, so how could they make a living? This “Some people, like my great-great-grandparents blocked them off of everything—their survival did not get taken,” Randall recalls. “They hid be- mostly. cause they were too old. They hid out under the [Mogollon] Rim, but finally got lonely for their The “blocking off of everything” began as early people and went on horseback to San Carlos be- as 1848, with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, cause they had no one to care for them.”

36 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

wanted to eat when working on the Apache Trail. They would start in the morning and then keep walking and working throughout the day.

Levi DeHose explains that reservation life also held other traumatic changes to the Apache lifeway: disease, whiskey, and Western religion. He notes that when Apa- ches got whiskey they began to fight and kill each other. DeHose remembers a White Figure 16. Apache scouts at Camp Verde in the late 1800s. (Photograph courtesy man had a still near Young of Sharlot Hall Museum, Prescott, Arizona. around 1918 or 1920. He says the missionaries, Catholics, After U.S. calvary scouts had pacified Apache- believed that the Apaches had too many gods. ria by 1873, some Apaches who formerly inhabited Now, he says, there are too many churches. Ramon the study area were allowed to farm land on the Riley describes the change in this way: “Apaches Rio Verde Reserve. They entered into a surpris- did not have sicknesses until the Whites inflicted ingly equitable relationship with Fort Verde, in the first cases of bioterrorism on the Apaches. They which the Apaches would supply goods and ser- were given food that was rotten; they were forced vices to the post and receive commodities and to go to military boarding schools; their ceremo- some cash in return. A supposed business cartel nies were taken away and their religion was all but known as the “Tucson Ring” did not like the com- dissolved.” petition posed by the Apaches to their freight lines Watt recalls when her mother was infected with from the south and proceeded to lobby Congress to trachoma, a viral infection in the eyes. Because her remove them to the San Carlos Reservation. They sight was so limited, Eva had to help her at home. succeeded and Apaches were soon marched out of She remembers trachoma being rampant on the the Verde Valley, many dying along the way. Later reservation in the 1920s and 1930s. Nurses inadver- on, many of the forced migrants were those who tently spread this eye disease by using the same slipped back into the sub-Mogollon region and the cotton balls over and over to rub children’s eyes Verde Valley by way of the study area. Today, this with, having no understanding of the contagion. tragedy is commemorated by Apaches during the Gregg Henry’s grandmother ran away after her annual Exodus Days in Camp Verde. treatment. Many Apaches went blind. In Eva Watt’s mind, the greatest change impact- While some resigned themselves to life on the ing Apaches during this era was the establishment reservation, others found a way out. Randall tells of reservations, evocatively referred to as “concen- of Apaches “breaking out” of the San Carlos Res- tration camps” or “prisons” among some Apaches. ervation and the desperation of “Tontos making Eva Watt lived through this era of great transition for their homeland” prior to the Battle of Big Dry and described it in this way: Wash. As noted above, numerous Apaches, especially the dil zhé’é, returned to the Payson area, the When they [the U.S. Government] made the headwaters of East Verde River, Gisela, and other Apache gather in one place, some stopped at the San Carlos Apache Reservation, others went on parts of the study area after reservations were es- to the White Mountain Apache Reservation. My tablished. This was due, in part, to a relaxing of the family had problems finding enough to eat on the rules on the San Carlos Reservation in the late reservation, so they went to work at Roosevelt 1890s. Randall spoke of the quiet movement of Dam when they began construction there … we several dil zhé’é families back into the study area. helped pick the stones to build the dam, and then Documentation shows that a tag band chief, Char- they laid off the Apache workers before the dam ley Nockey, returned to the Payson area around was completed. My family also helped build 1896 (Newton 1998:50). In 1898, the San Carlos Apache Trail. We had to carry whatever we agent began issuing permits, formally allowing

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 37

Apache people to return to the shí kéyaa in the entirely new nomenclature. Indeed, Ramon Riley study area and in the Verde Valley. says that Apaches lived through the changing of With the relief of escaping the oppression of Apache place names to Spanish names and then reservation life came the sadness and frustration of ultimately, to Euro-American names. Few Apache returning to a landscape greatly changed through place names remain on modern topographic maps the new wave of private and federal land owner- except for the occasional few, such as Chedeski ship. In the early 1920s, Eva Watt’s family left the Peak in the eastern section of the study area. reservation to find wage work, but also supple- During the Indian Claims Commission (ICC), mented their livelihood by collecting food along aboriginal title to lands was extinguished and fed- the old seasonal rounds. Watt expressed sadness erally recognized tribes were compensated by the when relaying a story of how their movement was government—albeit poorly—for the loss of tradi- severely restricted just shortly after attending the tional lands. Vincent Randall described how the sunrise ceremony at the Apache ceremonial Yavapai and Apache claimed an overlapping terri- grounds identified during this study. After the tory, resulting in that section being automatically ceremony, the family traveled to collect acorns thrown out of consideration. Randall recalls that near Douglas, Arizona, southeast of Tucson. When the tol ko payas of the Yavapai claimed the area east they arrived at a collection area used by genera- to Payson, north, and up to the Flagstaff area. Wil- tions of Apaches before them, they found that the liam Rosenbrodt, a claims lawyer for both tribes, area had been fenced “and the acorn trees cut talked the tribes into claiming separate parcels, down.” Apaches experienced a similar dramatic pushing the Yavapai line farther south and east to shift in terms of a disruption in traditional hunting Morristown. The Yavapai claimed a total of 10 mil- patterns due to the establishment of National For- lion acres and got $0.50 per acre. The Apaches ests and hunting licensing for big game. claimed the Salt River, north to the northern Tonto The changes in land ownership also impeded boundary, and got $1.25 an acre. The ICC accepted access to traditional farming plots. Many farms Goodwin’s (1942:4) boundary line for the northern were clan origin places, anchors on the landscape Apache. Randall’s father participated in the ICC for a people constantly on the move. American town meetings held by anthropologist Albert settlers moved into these fertile valleys after the Schroeder in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Many Apaches had been removed to the reservations. believed that the researcher was hard of hearing Randall notes that when Apache people were relo- and often “got people very confused.” Schroeder cated onto reservations, they had to settle for drier documented Vincent’s full-blooded Apache father, farm plots and were taught to level the land and Mark Randall, as a Yavapai named Mac Randall. make bigger fields. Farming on this scale in a dry It is perhaps impossible to document all the climate had limited success without irrigation. changes that have impacted Western Apaches Government rations were also scarce, and as a re- since the 1800s, the causes and consequences of sult, Apaches starved. Apache families and indi- losing so much of the Apache homeland (Colwell- viduals were forced to travel to make money for Chanthaphonh 2007; Welch and Riley 2001). Victor their families. Eva Watt’s brother convinced the Smith sees this change as one that “cut short a whole family to move down near San Carlos to huge part of history.” He also notes that Apaches work on the railroad. Watt’s brothers and father— still need a large land base to maintain their cul- four people supporting the entire family—worked tural identity. According to Smith, what is also on the railroad, making $10-$30 a day total. The important is telling the story of the loss of home- loss of farming plots severed the strongest links to land and aboriginal title. That too, he says, “is an the shí kéyaa. Loss of the traditional subsistence important part of Apache history.” economy and homeland often resulted in starva- tion, the fracturing of family groups, loss of cultural identity, and for many, the loss of local APACHE ARCHAEOLOGY knowledge of traditional geographies. With the change in land ownership and land Ethnographers and Western Apache tribal management also came a change in how the land- members have provided the greatest body of scape was understood in terms of place names. knowledge regarding Western Apache culture and While the Western Apache memory of Apache society. Goodwin (1935, 1942) is responsible for the culture history and place names is still passed on, largest amount of scholarly documentation that most of the study area is now dominated with an most accurately portrays Western Apache culture

38 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

as it existed after the 1850s. The chronicles of the petitors resulted in a bare bones archaeological Spanish conquistadors, Mexican authorities, and record. As a result, there is very little information the U.S. Cavalry also provide clues and illustra- from which to build a comprehensive library of tions of Apache lifeways as they were in the Apache site types and site distributions. Riley seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Schroeder gives his perspective on the ephemeral nature of 1974). Other researchers such as Basso (1966, 1970, Apache archaeology: 1983, 1993, 1996a) and Buskirk (1986) have provided a richer understanding of the cultural and Apaches are the original “leave no trace” people economic aspects of Western Apache society. This because they were hunted by the Spanish, Mexi- body of information places post-Columbian, and cans, Pimas, and Papagos. Only just recently, probably contact period Western Apache groups they started leaving their traces…the only place I squarely within and adjacent to the SR 260 project saw occupied by Apaches had stones circles, area. which hold onto the sticks to make wickiups. Following Goodwin (1942:4), the project area And all it had was a door to the east. That was in lies within the territories of the Northern Tonto, the Chiricahuas and we were told it was where Southern Tonto, and Cibecue Apache groups. Cul- the Apaches lived…our pottery wasn’t as fancy as the Hopi or Zuni, and it was pointy at the end. tural advisors Vincent Randall and Eva Watt state But we were renegades and we were always run- that many different Apache clans and groups util- ning, so we didn’t have time for those things. ized this area, although the most intensive use was by the Tonto clans in the western section and the Cibecue clans in the eastern section. Just west of Riley touches upon a whole strategy whereby a the project area, along the Mazatzal Mountains, group could remain untraceable, traveling light lies a cultural edgewater where two distinct cul- and carrying only the bare necessities. “After peo- tural groups met and subsisted in similar ways. ple had camped in an area, they brushed all the Researchers have documented the Yavapai as util- tracks away, they would bury fires and sleeping izing lands within and adjacent to those areas also areas,” Eva Watt similarly said about Apache known as Western Apache country. Gifford (1932, campsites. “Sometimes they would even take the 1936) documented the Northeastern Yavapai as broken pieces of pottery with them, or they would bordering the Northern Tonto Apache group from bury them. They did not want people to know that Flagstaff to the East Verde and the Southeastern they were there.” Yavapai as sharing a border with the Southern Along with strategic reasons for obliterating Tonto from just north of Payson to the Salt River. any material evidence of their existence from the Khera and Mariella (1983:38) recognize these two landscape, elders speak of other motivations groups as three sub-tribes: Yavepe and Wikpuk- driven by a desire for a reciprocal relationship with paya (Northeastern Yavapai) and the Kewevka- the earth. Elizabeth Rocha describes how her an- paya (Southeastern Yavapai). As noted, Western cestors lived in “the old way” in Fossil Canyon, in Apache and Yavapai people understand these the northwestern corner of the study area. She said boundaries somewhat differently from scholars— that her people would demolish structures and perceiving them as fluid and dictated predomi- even break pots when they left a camp, in effect, nately by pressures from outside groups, such as “giving those materials back to nature.” Her father the Spanish, and alliances and intermarriage be- told her that the dil zhé’é respected the earth by tween the Tonto Apaches and the Yavapai. asking permission to use these materials and Ferg (1992) notes that archaeologists have long would say “thank you” by dismantling them from used these territorial boundaries to ascribe cultural their modified forms back to their original state affiliation to possible Apache and Yavapai sites in after they were done with them. the region when material signatures are lacking Rocha also recalls how, as hunters and gather- (see also Whittlesey and Benaron 1998). Apache ers, her people carried very little with them from and Yavapai archaeologies are among the most place to place. Apache groups did not carry heavy ephemeral in the Greater Southwest. Due to a lack pottery as they traveled and would instead carry of temporal diagnostics, Ferg (2002) notes that skin water bags and wood or gourd water dippers. “Apaches allude archaeologists just as they did the Watt recalls that, in the summer, Apache people Cavalry.” A hunter-gatherer lifestyle consisting of would often sleep under the stars, foregoing the seasonal migrations over a territory under pressure building of any shelter at all. Traditional Apache from an increasing amount of enemies and com- material culture is limited and includes largely

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 39

perishable materials that do not usually remain a The following narrative summarizes Western part of the archaeological record. Apache interpretations of these archaeological sites The Apache subsistence and survival strategies, through their recollection of oral traditions and coupled with a desire for a reciprocal relationship family histories. Some Western Apache consultants to the earth, are important elements contributing to visited the actual sites, while others looked at ar- a paucity of Apache archaeology on the landscape. chaeological plan view maps and samples of arti- Archaeologist Chris Coder describes his experience facts from the sites. These interpretations blend to in trying to identify Apache archaeological sites: inform our understanding of the nature of Apache archaeology. Even on these prehistoric sites that are known to be used historically by Apache people, unless you are tuned into the stuff, or somebody has told you, or you were really scrutinizing the sur- Ancient Índé Camp (The Plymouth Landing face, you could if you were lucky and astute find Site) evidence of Apache occupation on the surface. I know this from experience. When we head out to The remains of the Plymouth Landing site date known Apache sites utilized for generations there to the latter half of the seventeenth century, just will be nothing in materials on the surface. There over 100 years after the beginning of the Spanish may be impacted ground, disturbance species, a entrada. The site is situated on a rocky south- slotted spoon, a nail. Without the ethnographic facing slope at an elevation of 1,676 m (5,500 ft), connection, you would never have known about an Apache being in that section, let alone that just east of a large spring-fed meadow called Little spot. Green Valley. All Western Apache consultants who visited this site or interpreted it by way of site A modest amount of archaeological evidence of maps and artifacts identify it as an Apache habita- Apache habitation can nonetheless be found in the tion site. study area (Ferg 1992; Ferg and Tessman 1998; According to Project Director Sarah Herr, tenta- Herr 1999; Newton 1998). During this research, a tive analysis of the excavations describe five to 1937 Arizona road map was discovered in the seven structural platforms associated with hearths Goodwin Papers (MS17, Folder 59) at ASM, on and two small roasting pits (Figure 18). All plat- which Goodwin marked 24 Apache Protohistoric form areas were burned. These platforms were period sites. Scott Wood and Michael Sullivan in- cleared of rocks and were presumably the locales terpreted a copy of the map and found that several of brush structures, or wickiups (see Keller and correspond with known and possible Apache ar- Stein 1985; Shaeffer 1958). No daub or burned chaeological sites and use areas. Though somewhat adobe was recovered at the site, indicating the vague, the effort serves to further connect Good- structures were made primarily of brush. Rocks win’s ethnographic research and archaeological supported the wall posts of Features 5 and 10. Fea- sites on the ground (Figure 17; Table 5). ture 3 is a large platform at the northern end of the During the current project, archaeologists with site, with a substantial rock berm around its west- the TNF and Desert Archaeology were astute (and ern and uphill flank. Due to the lack of postholes— perhaps lucky) enough to identify what seemed only one in both Features 6 and 7—exact floor ar- like a very small manifestation of Apache archae- eas and orientations were hard to discern, but were ology at the Plymouth Landing site. What was ini- estimated to be approximately 3 m (10 ft) in diame- tially described as a few Apache ceramics, along ter. Evidence of structural remodeling at Feature 7 with a light scatter of prehistoric ceramics, were suggests multiseasonal use. later revealed to be an occupation site with at least Every structure had a hearth, and two struc- five brush structures, several hearth and roasting tures had small floor pits. The hearth in Feature 5 pit features, and an entire spectrum of artifacts. was a small oxidized area in the middle of the The site has revealed itself as one of the best dated floor. The hearths in Features 7 and 10 were small and most intact buried Apache or Yavapai sites in oxidized pits, and the other four hearths were the area. Two other excavated sites in the SR 260 small collared earthen pits. All hearths were placed right-of-way exhibit possible evidence of Apache about 50-75 cm (20-30 inches) from the structure occupation: a ramada structure at the McGoonie walls. The few artifacts that remained on the struc- site and a roasting pit at the Ponderosa Camp- ture floors included Apache or Yavapai sherds, ground site. pre-Columbian ceramics, a Hohokam Classic side-

40 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

Figure 17. Protohistoric period sites identified by Grenville Goodwin around 1937 (see Table 5).

Table 5. Protohistoric period sites identified by Grenville Goodwin around 1937 (see Figure 17).

Numbera Topographical Location Description 1 Blue Farms (northern end of Mazatzal Mountains) A cluster of four Apache sites (roasting pits) 2 Polles Mesa area Apache camps 3 Fossil Springs, Irving, Steher Lake areas Old traditional and post-reservation sites 4 Head of Hard Scrabble Canyon – 5 Towel Creek and Hackberry Mountains Old traditional sites 6 Strawberry Apache camps 7 East of Pine Apache camps 8 Tonto Bridge Apache camps 9 Weber Creek area Apache camps 10 Gowen Mesa area Apache ranchería 11 Butterfly Spring, approximately 72 km (45 miles) Apaches lived here until 1873, then pushed out; northwest of the project area near Mingus Mountain returned later and lived scattered about this area 12 Flowing Springs area – 13 Star Valley Known Apache farms 14 Round Valley Known Apache farms 15 Little Green Valley Known Apache farms 16 Diamond Rim Significant Apache camps 17 Indian Garden Known Apache camps 18 Horse Mountain Three Apache camps 19 Vosberg Valley area – 20 Young Area Known Apache farms aSee Figure 17.

notched point, a netherstone (a stone used for in pockets within the burned structural material grinding food, pigment, or other items), and a may represent harvested wild foodstuffs stored in handstone. A plethora of animal bones were recov- baskets within the structures. ered in the fill above the floor of Feature 10, and- Areas of increased artifact density were located charred black walnuts and juniper berries were in the center of the habitation cluster, and activity found in all the structures. These were often found areas and areas of trash concentrations were be-

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 41

, AZ O:12:89/AR-03-12-04-1411 (ASM/TNF). (ASM/TNF). , AZ O:12:89/AR-03-12-04-1411 Plan view of the Plymouth Landing site Landing Plan view of Plymouth the

Figure 18.

42 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim tween features. Artifacts from the site include ce- sible; if Apaches were about to be attacked, they ramics, flaked stone, ground stone, quartz crystals, would not have wanted to leave anything behind. and macrobotanical and faunal remains. The ce- Levi DeHose states that the Plymouth Landing site ramic assemblage was comprised of 35.8 percent is indeed an Apache camp, one of many seasonal pre-Columbian period vessels and 64.2 percent camps along the base of the Mogollon Rim. Protohistoric period vessels (Heidke et al. 2006). After examining the ubiquity of rocks on the Apache types include a fingernail indented Wiped western side of Feature 3, Randall noted that they Apache (or Yavapai) Plain Ware. A large number could have served a variety of functions. If they of double ended quartz crystals (n = 51), probably were just scattered, it meant the site was being from Diamond Point, were discovered, as were cleared. If there was any kind of pile to it, it may three Apache or Yavapai points, one Hohokam- have been a prayer place or a windbreak. If it was style Classic side-notched point, and several bi- burned, it could have been part of a roasting pit. faces in various stages of prodution. Randall described how Apache campsites were Vincent Randall visited this site on 11 Decem- often established some distance from farm sites. ber 2002, and discussed the site during several in- Indeed, Goodwin identified a Protohistoric period terviews. In Apache, a camp was called a koghayú Apache farm site in Little Green Valley, less than or indé bi tah. Instead of the “Plymouth Landing 1.6 km (1.0 mile) to the south (see Table 5). Watt site,” Mr. Randall likes to refer to it as do aníí dá’ also remembers camps in the Little Green Valley indé bii go táh, “Ancient Índé Camp.” Randall inter- area. It is interesting to note that there was no evi- preted the site as a fall or winter camp used by one dence of corn at the Plymouth Landing site, sug- extended Apache family of mother’s grandparents, gesting the site pre-dated Apache farming, or rep- mother and father, children and married daugh- resented a group that did not farm for some ters, and brothers-in-law and their children. The reason. size of the camp depended on how many daugh- Watt interprets the site as a winter camp that ters one had. If a family only had sons, they would held six or seven families, or possibly more, and be lost to other families they married into. Basso adds that the oldest person in the group, the per- (1970:5) documented the gota (family cluster) as the son with the most knowledge and experience, basic unit of Western Apache social organization would have been in charge. She believes that the as usually, but not necessarily, corresponding to a burned structures could also have been the result matrilocal extended family. A “local group” made of a forest fire, noting that when a person died, the up of two to six gota, governed all economic activi- family would burn the wickiup of the deceased ties, with exclusive rights to farm sites and hunting and not the whole camp. Watt interprets the rock areas. Each was guided by a headman who led by berm on the western side of Feature 3 as a wind- virtue of his knowledge and experience. The gowa break to curb the westerly winds in the winter, refers to the occupants and location of a single nu- similar to a feature at the McGoonie site, discussed clear household. A gota is made up of three to eight below. gowa. Western Apache research consultants agree While examining the plan of the Plymouth that the Plymouth Landing site is easily interpreted Landing Site, Elizabeth Rocha recognized the gen- as a site where a gota made up of five to seven gowa eral layout to be that of an Apache camp of no established a camp. more than 20 persons made up of a mother, chil- Victor Smith believes the Plymouth Landing dren, parents, brothers-in-law, brothers, and sis- site was probably a fall or a winter Apache camp. ters. She notes that in a typical Apache camp there Randall states that the burned structures could would often be a large communal area or gathering represent a final death event in the camp that ne- space with a windbreak called a cle nil. She thinks cessitated its burning and disuse. Sometimes, only that Feature 3 may be such a communal area. Mrs. the wickiup and belongings of the deceased were Rocha recalls that for larger windbreaks, they burned. Perry (1991) also noted that after a death, might use rocks as a base and then add a wooden other dwellings in a village were destroyed or left, fence above that. She recalls that the cle nil would and the deceased was never mentioned again. not necessarily be in the center of the camp. She Smith remembers a man telling him once that if a compares this space to that of a ceremonial ground sickness came to a camp, the people would burn it that was divided into different sections for differ- and leave. He said it is also possible that Whites ent uses. However, she also believes the large fea- came and burned it, or the people burned it and ture with the rock pile, Feature 3, could have been fled from White people. Randall agrees this is pos- the headman’s, or nan tán house. That was some-

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 43

times bigger and would stand out from the rest. Eva Watt used to make pottery herself, using Rocha says there was always a leader, a spokesper- globemallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua) in the clay mix- son. She recalls these persons as being primarily ture to increase the strength of the vessel (Figure men, while women held important positions as 20). Watt also taught ceramics at the Riverside In- healers, herbalists, and midwives. dian School in California. From her experience, she Rocha remembers that individual wickiups was able to recognize both Protohistoric period would also have their own windbreaks, te di’ nit, pottery examples as being Apache made (FN 421, a attached to them in the form of small arcs on the large wiped plain ware sherd, and FN 528, a fin- northern side. This would be built as a wooden gernail-indented sherd)1. She said that FN 421 was fence with the posts placed vertically in the probably a cooking bowl, noting the evidence of ground, with brush and smaller sticks stacked burning. She adds that Apache potters used more against them. The te di’ nit served to cordon off sand temper, because it held more heat and made individual family spaces to prevent people from the vessel stronger. Elizabeth Rocha recognized the just “running through your yard.” She suggests brown ware sherd (FN 421) as Apache, noting the this camp could either be a winter or a summer dark burnished gray color, just as her mother had camp due to the evidence of sturdier structures described it. She remembers her mother saying that would last longer. While traveling between that Apaches did have pottery, but only cooking the more permanent camps such as this one, peo- pots, and only one per family. They would use ple would simply build ramadas, such as the pos- whatever mud or gravel was around. She remem- sible ramada at the McGoonie site, or build noth- bers her mother referring to pottery as “mud.” ing at all and simply sleep outside. After examining a fingernail-indented sherd Victor Smith lived in wickiups as a boy in the (FN 528) from the site, Randall identified it as 1930s near Middle Verde and remembers Apaches Apache pottery because it looked like sandstone digging postholes for the wickiup poles. They sub- and had granite temper. Levi DeHose studied the sequently secured the wooden posts in the ground same sherd and noted that Apaches made the in- and tied their tips together. In the mountains, the dentations with a stick tool; Jerome Kessay, Sr., posts were constructed from oak or cedar, some says that Apaches made thin pottery, just like the wood that would easily bend. In the Verde Valley, fingernail-indented sherd (FN 528). Apaches used cottonwood. Finally, they rounded The ubiquitous quartz crystals at the Plymouth off the roof with leaves and sometimes tied buck- Landing site—51 double-ended specimens—are per- skin down to the roof. He remembers that many haps the most captivating of all the artifacts recov- times, they simply used straw. Smith, like Rocha, ered at the site. Western Apache consultants had remembers a small shade area attached to the much to say regarding the different functions a wickiup. One can also identify an Apache wickiup, tsoos (crystal) might have. Vincent Randall states he says, “if the door is facing east.” Randall adds that they were usually the tool of the medicine that after Apaches dug the postholes and placed man. Medicine people were regarded as those who the posts, they would shore them up with a circle could “see things,” and crystals were tools used by of rocks so the posts could not be kicked out. people who had this gift (see Bourke 1892). A per- Levi DeHose states that the sizes of brush struc- son who wanted to see something would visit a tures varied depending on the size of the family medicine man carrying a feather or a blue stone, and that there was no real standard. In antiquity, always turquoise, with them. The person was in- deer hides covered the door, and later, blankets structed to put the crystal on her or his right toe. If covered it. Randall adds that clans constructed the medicine man picked it up, it meant he had wickiups differently from place to place, depend- agreed to do a healing ceremony or a prayer. He ing on the environment. Wickiups in the Verde would use the crystal to “see,” and would then Valley, for instance, were more round. At White keep the feather and the stone for the ceremony River, wickiups were more pointed to shed the and would occasionally make a necklace out of the snow (Figure 19). There is in fact, he said, even a turquoise. Randall remembers the medicine man clan called k’i yaa ąní (pointed roof clan). Randall Henry Irvin having a multitude of these types of remembers clans from Canyon Creek and Cibecue using bear grass to build the wickiup, taking the 1The field number (FN) identifies a single artifact or a plant apart and weaving it into rows so the rain bag of artifacts and has a unique provenience within the came right off. site.

44 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

nu jinni, the same word used for glass. He says they were used in a prayerful way and also notes the importance of acquiring crystals of different colors. Eva Watt says that crystals were primarily used in prayer. She also remembers medicine people using the stones to test the virginity of a young man or woman. They would gather four boys and four girls for a test. She herself was tested in this way and was frightened, hoping Figure 19. Apache camp in the 1920s, an example of wickiups with pointed her grandmother could go roofs. (Photograph courtesy of Sharlot Hall Museum, Prescott, Arizona. with her, although she could not. If a girl was innocent, the talismans inside his vest. Other research has crystal would make a rainbow. The medicine man documented crystals as having been used as stones would then say to the girl, “you have the rainbow to foretell the future, to find lost objects, and for crown.” If she was not a virgin, the crystal would protection in the form of medicine charms (Ferg 1988: shine with a light straight up and no rainbow. It 126-128). Goodwin (1942:440-441) documented the would be the same with the boys. She passed, of quartz crystals, in conjunction with corn, were course, remembering hers as just a little crystal. used in the tłé’ índé’ (night ceremony) as part of the She states that Apache people often found them gáán right for curing certain sicknesses. between Superior and Ray, Arizona, along the rail- Randall advised researchers not to use the large road tracks in a series of caves. She often collected crystals for discussion with Apache cultural advi- crystals with her grandmother, along with obsid- sors due to their sacred nature, but said the smaller ian. She remembers them in pink, light blue, and crystals could be taken around to various cultural darker colors, but she only knows about the use of advisors for interpretation. the white ones. Apache people would also hang Although many of the crystals appear to have them in their wickiups, “to make rainbows all been deposited in the area archaeologists identify over.” as a “trash concentration,” Vincent Randall be- After examining the crystals, Elizabeth Rocha lieves the tsoos were not thrown away, but were said she thought the quartz could have also been perhaps deposited there, belongings of the person used to knap arrowheads. Looking at the stones who died at the camp. The fact that they were in reminded her of how her relatives used to collect great number in the western portion of the site is fossils for jewelry around Star Valley. significant in that they may have been deposited Victor Smith states that the projectile points by relatives in the west, a direction associated with (FN 183 and FN 464) are Apache because they death. Therefore, the burned camp and the place- were found in the Payson/Heber area. If they were ment of the crystals in the west both suggest a sig- found further west, he would have said they might nificant death at the site, perhaps the death of a be Yavapai. He says the styles would vary, some- medicine person. times being very small, sometimes big. He pro- Jerome Kessay, Sr., says his mother sought ceeded to draw a projectile point similar to the two crystals around Pine, Arizona, some 19 km (12 artifacts—with a concave base, squared-off ears, miles) northwest of the western edge of the project but longer and narrower than the two specimens. area. He was told that Apache people looked for Smith said obsidian was often the tool material of crystals of different colors, especially blue, black, choice. “They could use anything but they used and yellow. He also thinks the people who occu- obsidian more,” he said. Smith recalls that Apaches pied the Plymouth Landing site could have been traveled to the Kingman and Grand Canyon areas trading crystals to Mexicans farther south. Levi to acquire large pieces of the stone. Apaches “crack- DeHose notes that one Apache name for crystals is ed” the obsidian to make arrowheads. Smith’s

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 45

2002), its occurrence at the Plymouth Landing site sparks some interesting interpretations. First, a Yavapai group exhibiting similar material culture to that of Apache groups could have occupied the village site. However, the site is farther west than the acknowledged Yavapai/Apache territorial boundary of the Mazatzal Range. Perhaps a Tonto group with an admixture of Tonto and Yavapai groups inhabited the site. Indeed Goodwin (1942:44-47) suggested that the Northern Figure 20. Eva Watt and Beverly Malone identify globemallow (Sphaeralcea am- Tonto, except the Mormon bigua) used to strengthen the clay mixture for making pottery and hearths. Lake band, were all of mixed Apache and Yavapai heri- grandfather, Billy Smith, taught him how to make tage. The point could be the product of a simple arrowheads by pressing down on the arrowhead exchange with a neighboring group. Finally, the straight into the hand using the tip of an old deer existence of the Yavapai points could mark an horn, he said, while demonstrating a pres-sure- early intermarriage between Yavapai and Apache flaking motion. He said his grandfather lived in the groups in the form of a marriage between an days when Apaches were still making arrowheads. Apache woman and a Yavapai man, assuming men Upon examining the projectile point specimens are generally responsible for projectile point manu- found at the Plymouth Landing site, Jerome Kes- facture. This individual could have brought the say, Sr., noted that Apache points would have been point styles of his people farther to the west with generally bigger and heavier than these two arti- him. Goodwin (1942:47) documented that children facts. He proceeded to draw a medium-sized side- of a Yavapai mother and an Apache father were notched projectile point. He added, however, that considered Yavapai. Similarly, Randall states that a there were many styles of Apache projectile points. child of an Apache mother and a Yavapai father During this same discussion, Levi DeHose stated would be considered Apache. In both cases, cul- that Apaches coveted white flint or chert as it tures would merge, but distinct tribal and clan represents the female. He went on to say that pro- identities were maintained. While it may be impos- jectile points were used in prayer, to cut dancers sible to know for sure, the presence of the “little with the points, and to drain wounds of the va- man” projectile point styles suggests an interface of gina. Eva Watt recognized these same specimens these distinct groups in the study area. as Apache “bird points.” Pointing to the notches, The Plymouth Landing site yielded an abun- she said that was where the sinew was wrapped dance of botanical remains. Among the most with the shaft in between. She remembers Apaches abundant were piles of juniper berries that may collecting cobbles along washes that they would have originally been stored in baskets. Eva Watt “crack open” to make points from them. To do this, states that, in the fall, her people dried juniper ber- “people would wrap leather around the thumb ries, alligator juniper berries (Juniper deppeana) in and fingers real tight and would use the same kind particular, and pounded out the seeds. These were of rock” to crack the cobble. collected in the fall in large amounts and stored in Some archaeologists suggest these artifacts may baskets. Apache cultural advisors note that the be a Yavapai projectile point style: a deeply ser- presence of juniper berries, black walnuts (Juglans rated triangular type with a concave base used for major), and acorns (Quercus emoryi or Quercus gam- hunting and in war (Gifford 1936; Pilles 1981). If belli) at the site indicate a fall occupation during a this is a Yavapai style, sometimes called a “little time of accelerated gathering and storing activities man” point (Chris Coder, personal communication in anticipation of winter.

46 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

When asked about Apache hearth morphology, Eva Watt described a method of constructing durable hearths (Ferguson and Anyon 2000). The women would boil globemallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua), remove the leaves, and add dirt to make a paste. This mixture was used to plug drafty places in the wickiup structure, in making pottery, and in constructing hearths. She said it sets just like cement. The four hearths with collared earthen pits at the Plymouth Landing site may have been constructed in this manner. Victor Smith stated that hearths were occasionally ringed with rocks to keep the ash in and to Figure 21. Possible Apache ramada, Feature 32, at the prevent people from accidentally falling in. Apa- McGoonie site, AZ O:12:25/AR-03-12-04-743 (ASM/TNF). ches do this today to set a frying pan on the fire. Back in the “old days,” they would use a flat rock windbreak to ward off northwesterly winds espe- atop the fire like a frying pan. He stated that one cially prevalent in the fall and winter. She recalls way to tell if the village is a winter or a summer that ramadas were also used as shades for ceremo- camp is the placement of the hearths. In a winter nials. Fires were built inside the structure in the camp, the hearths would be inside the wickiups winter and outside in the summer. Watt believes and in the summer camp they would be outside. the metate proximate the southernmost posthole The Plymouth Landing site exhibits evidence of was probably leaned against the pole to support hearths inside Features 3, 5, 7, 8, and 10. Smith re- and “protect” the structure. Levi DeHose recalled members a hole in the top of the wickiup to let the how ramada structures were built for curing cere- smoke out and that fires were kept low inside in monies; these were considered sacred areas or the winter. In the summer, the hearth would be places of worship. established in a ramada. Alternatively, Watt thinks the postholes may represent a larger wickiup ring. The primary steps of erecting a wickiup included first tying three or The McGoonie Site four poles together for the main frame that was supported by a few more. The builder would The McGoonie site is comprised primarily of sometimes put a stronger post across the top, al- features that date to the tenth and eleventh centu- lowing for a bigger wickiup. There were usually ries A.D. (Herr 2004). However, within the center three posts on each side, for a total of six. She notes of the site is evidence of a possible ramada or that, if the structure was indeed representative of a brush structure known to Apaches as a tłoh daa gos portion of a wickiup, it would have been extremely kán (Figure 21). The feature, Feature 32, includes large, with possibly six poles on each side. Watt six postholes that arc around a hearth and a small recalls that these structures were generally 3.7-4.6 pit. A metate was located adjacent to one of the m (12.1-15.1 ft) across and that Tontos and White posts. Features 39 and 40, two additional hearths, Mountain peoples constructed their wickiups in a were identified on the same surface An unknown similar fashion. She says that Apaches also occa- annual seed from Feature 39 yielded an AMS ra- sionally built round food cellars dug out of the diocarbon date that helps limit the occupation of ground or the side of a hill. This structure was also the site to the period between A.D. 1520-1820 used as an alternative type of winter home. In the (AMS). summer, Apaches would often sleep under the During an interview with Eva Watt, the Apache stars, foregoing the building of any shelter at all. elder interpreted the site as a possible winter camp Watt says that Apache people would have had due to its location within the “deep timber.” Watt summer and winter homes in the study area. Other said Apaches often camped in this zone in the win- Apache groups left for the Camp Verde area in the ter because of the abundant firewood. She thinks summer to be near the Verde River. She adds that the postholes could represent an entire ramada, a Apache people do not build winter wickiups to- shade or windbreak used by Apaches in the winter day, only bear grass wickiups for summer use. and the summer. She notes that the orientation of After examining the plan of the feature, Eliza- the postholes suggests the structure was used as a beth Rocha identified it as a ramada, saying the

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 47

structures were often constructed by Apaches traveling between gathering areas (Figure 22). Ramadas were often constructed with four posts in a V- shape, with willow branches placed on top for shade. Two sides would have been enclosed for a windbreak. In the summer, an open cooking area was established outside the structure. The small pit may have been used as an outdoor barbeque pit to cook meat or corn that was shared with everyone in the camp. Ac- cording to Rocha, Apaches tore ramadas down when they left the camp. Figure 22. A modern example of an Apache tłoh daa gos kán, or ramada (on The collared hearths at the right), at the interpretive site at the White Mountain Apache Cultural Center McGoonie site are similar to the and Museum. Plymouth Landing features interpreted by Eva Watt. Apache women boiled cultivated there. Randall notes that Apaches often globemallow and added it to dirt to make a cement camped in smaller groups or as a single family paste for a durable hearth. More study is needed to some distance from the fields during the summer determine if this plant material is associated with growing season. Archaeologists did identify corn the collared hearths at the McGoonie and Ply- pollen from a sample from the floor of the ramada mouth Landing sites. structure. Randall recalls that summer was when Victor Smith recalls that Apache ramadas were extended families disaggregated from other family often summer structures associated with a nearby groups. In winter, the different clans often congre- hearth. He said they were often square with poles gated in a large camp. This was a social time, when on the western side to shade the afternoon and people would dance, gamble, race horses, and play evening sun. Smith believes the ramada was built a stick game consisting of rolling hoops. A gather- for one family. Vincent Randall suggests the Mc- ing of this type was known to occur near the Verde Goonie site could also represent a ramada used as Hot Springs in the Verde Valley. part of a fall camp. He remembers that Apaches In summary, ttoh daa gos kán were constructed often built up the sides with cedar at least 1.2 m for a variety of uses and at different times of the (4.0 ft) high, leaning them against the vertical year. A ramada or a brush structure may have poles. Similar to his aunt Eva Watt, Randall sug- been used as a shelter from the northwesterly gests the structure may have been built in a harvest winds in a fall camp while people were gathering camp as protection against the fall westerly winds. wild foods or harvesting corn from Little Green Randall remembers using these when he was a Valley; it may also have served as a fieldhouse for child in the fall when his family harvested pinyon a single family tending a corn plot during the sum- nuts in the Red Mountain area south of the Grand mer. Eva Watt suggests the site may also represent Canyon. Ideally, ramadas are built with cotton- a portion of a large wickiup built as a more per- wood poles and branches with lots of leaves. Peo- manent winter home. Finally, such a structure ple still construct this type of ramada in San Carlos could have been used as a shade for ceremonies, and Cibecue. He also recalls how people sprinkled especially curing ceremonies. Vincent Randall pos- the ramada with water in the morning, keeping it its that the Plymouth Landing and McGoonie sites cool all day. may have been constructed by the same Apache Vincent Randall pointed out the site’s prox- group who utilized the area during different parts imity to the Little Green Valley, less than 1.6 km of the year on an annual basis. Therefore, the two (1.0 mile) to the south, suggesting a possible asso- sites could conceivably represent roughly contem- ciation with the Apache farms known to have been porary styles of seasonal Apache shelters.

48 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

The Ponderosa Campground Site

The Ponderosa Camp- ground site is an extensive site that encloses the remains of thousands of years of occupation on the rocky slope and alluvial flats below Diamond Rim. A period of Apache occupation is represented by a large roasting pit, Feature 4, at the base of the slope. When interpret- ing this site, Apache research consultants recognized it as an agave roasting pit, or leesh nii bezhe in Apache (see Ferg 2003). Figure 23. An agave plant near Christopher Creek. Watt recalls that Apaches liked to camp “close to the brush” near agave col- area, including several along the Naegelin Rim lecting and roasting areas (Figure 23). Roasting (Wood et al. 2003). agave involved the whole camp, with men gather- Apaches constructed a roasting pit by digging a ing wood and the women cutting the agave to put hole in the ground approximately 1.0 m (3.3 ft) into the pit. Watt said usually four to six families deep and 1.2-1.5 m (4.0-5.0 ft) in diameter. Some- would be involved in the collective effort of gather- times they could be as large as 6 m (20 ft) in diame- ing and roasting the agave. Apache women used ter. The Ponderosa Campground site roaster is sharpened ironwood or mesquite sticks to push approximately 80 cm (31 inches) deep and 1.6 m down into the roots of the plant. They then (5.2 ft) in diameter (Figure 24). Apaches placed dry pounded the other end of the stick with a rock to bear grass on the bottom and then added a layer of pry out the plant until it was turned upside down; twigs, a layer of hard wood (preferably oak), and a it was not dug out. The “big ones” were cut down, layer of rocks, usually about 30 cm (12 inches) in resulting in a “cabbage” look. Finally, the women diameter, until the wood could no longer be seen. cut the bottom parts of the agave leaves into pieces Notably, the rocks used in the Ponderosa Camp- ready to go into the roasting pit. ground site roaster averaged 18 cm (7 inches) in Agave was harvested in August through Sep- diameter. tember, although it was sometimes also collected When all the layers were complete, the women in May. Apaches utilized several different species lit the pit with a torch at around 3:00 p.m. in the of agave; one with long leaves (na das nani), a tiny afternoon. They always lit the fire on the eastern yellow one thought of as the best (na das che), and a side first, which reportedly served to burn the fuel small one that left an itchy feeling in the mouth (na more evenly. The women would then run to light das gese). The little yellow one was often found on the other side. The pit burned all night until the hills. Many different agave species occur in the wood was gone and the rocks turned white. Fami- study area, and all were probably used by lies and individuals prepared their harvest by Apaches. These include Agave chrysantha, Agave marking their agaves before placing them in the parryi, and Agave couesii (Castetter et al. 1938). pit. By tying leaves together, turning the leaves Apache consultants note that agave was collected down or tying them with strings, each person en- throughout the study area. Goodwin (1942:608) sured they could easily identify their agaves when documented Apache farms near the head of Spring they were removed. When ready, the agave were Creek Valley that were named for the place where placed on the white hot rocks and covered with people of the Cibecue group habitually crossed on dry bear grass, green tree limbs, leaves, and dirt their way to Gisela to gather agave. Archaeologists until no steam escaped. The biggest agaves were have identified several roasting pits in the study placed on the bottom. Women monitored the pit to

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 49

grass over a bowl. It is then divided into cups and drunk as a broth. Dried agave was easily carried from place to place as it was light and remains edi- ble over a long period of time. Apaches often carried agave around in leather bags. Watt believes the roasting pit feature at the Ponderosa Camp- ground site was probably associated with an Apache camp nearby, but concedes that sometimes roasting pits were also isolated features on the landscape. “Wherever they found more mescals,” she said, “they might put a pit right in there.” Vic- tor Smith recalls Apaches cooking agave with a Figure 24. Agave roasting pit, Feature 4, at the Ponderosa pile of rocks or a leesh nii bezhe. Animal meat would Campground site, AZ O:12:19/AR-03-12-04-1159 (ASM/ be cooked in a similar feature, Smith also observed. TNF); metates are located in the pit fill.

seal in any escaping steam. The agave were roasted Differentiating Apache and Yavapai Sites for two nights. Someone used a big piece of wood to check if all the wood had burned, and on the second For archaeologists, the art and science of identi- morning, after which the pit was uncovered by fying Apache archaeological sites is a monumental taking the bear grass off, and then using burden task. Even more problematic is distinguishing be- baskets, the dirt was removed. Today, Apaches use tween Apache and Yavapai sites that can often shovels for this task. exhibit nearly identical attributes and materials After all the bear grass and dirt was removed, (Ferg 1992). During this study, researchers asked the agave were spread on rocks or a canvas to cool. Western Apache cultural advisors how one might Watt recalls the warning not to eat the hot agave distinguish the two cultural groups in the archaeo- right out of the pit—“or it would blow your stom- logical record. ach!” After the agave cooled, the hard skin was Elizabeth Rocha explains that she cannot read- peeled off and the inside eaten. Watt recalls that it ily distinguish a Yavapai camp and an Apache tastes like brown sugar, molasses, or sugarcane. camp and suggests “you would have to go over When folks were done with the task of roasting the Mingus Mountain to look at their dwellings.” She agave, they returned to camp and shared the food recalls from her family history that the Yavapai with friends and relatives. The women pounded were not settled as groups in the Payson area, and the agave meat on metates into 5-cm- (2-inch-) lived primarily south of Mingus Mountain. She thick patties that were spread out on straw or bear thinks the only times Yavapai may have been in grass to dry in the sun for four days. If the “meat” the study area were when they acted as scouts did not dry well, it would mold during storage. against the Apache, or when they were marched The agave often dried so hard, it had to be by the U.S. Cavalry on forced migrations to San chopped with an axe. Sometimes, Apache women Carlos and other reservations. Yavapai also came soaked the agave in water to leach out the impuri- to the Verde Valley from the Prescott area as a re- ties and to remove the “strings” or fibers. Watt sult of conflicts with Hualapais. While there seems iterated how coveted roasted agave was—and re- to be understood geographical separations be- mains—recalling her mother bargained with a tween the two groups from an Apache perspective, Mexican man for a whole tray of agave. First, he Rocha also speaks of a propensity for Apaches to offered blankets, and when her mother refused, he intermarry with Yavapai: offered her a burro, which she finally accepted as a trade. Our clothing and our weaving were the same because there were so many mixed marriages. Agave is prepared in a variety of ways. Some- Yavapai came here from warmer climes, they times the cook mixes ground corn with agave juice were “sandal people.” They were also known as and serves it as cornmeal. Another preparation “lizard eaters” and had to adapt to the colder involves pounding black walnuts into a flattened area here. They would claim our land. They also piece of agave. This mixture is then soaked in wa- claimed everything in caves, and we stayed away ter for leaching and is later strained through bear from caves—especially with ruins—although up

50 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim

higher in Fossil, Apaches used small caves for From a functional standpoint, Vincent Randall storage. Apaches would leave markings to find states that Apaches sometimes used the same sites these storage areas again. archaeologists define as Sinagua and Hohokam. Levi DeHose illustrated the Apache connection to The almost exclusive use of caves by the Yavapai “old sites” in this way: “Apaches got stones from has also been documented in the literature (Ferg old sites. They especially looked for blue, red, and 1992). Rocha’s father said that the Yavapai were black stones that they used in ceremonies. People originally river people who came from the west. would come after a rain to look for stones. Some- He said the Apaches filtered west and overlapped times they would also camp on the old sites. Some- with the Yavapai in the Verde Valley. If a Yavapai times they would camp right on a ruin.” man married an Apache woman, she would share While Apaches might have collected useful Apache technology with him, and vice versa if an tools from ancient sites, Victor Smith is quick to Apache man married into a Yavapai clan. Rocha’s point out that they did not collect artifacts for the father was part Yavapai, and he spoke both lan- sake of collecting, “like White people do now.” guages. Similarly, Vincent Randall discussed how Archaeologist Scott Wood suggests these sites of- Apaches and Yavapai intermarried and how sepa- ten served as a neighborhood “Circle K”: a re- rate cultural identities were maintained depending source for Apaches seeking to replenish their tool on one’s parentage: “If they had an Apache kits. Indeed, Elizabeth Rocha iterates the fact that mother, we say, ‘you are Apache’ and they are Apaches carried very little with them on their sea- born for the Yavapai, indé tłíí dá’ guhn yanil tíí. Born sonal rounds. Family groups therefore had a con- Apaches, but born for Yavapai. If you have a stant need for new implements such as ground Yavapai mother, you are considered Yavapai, born stone. In other studies, Western Apache elders said for Apache father.” their ancestors reused items such as metates, Rocha recalls that the Kinsey family from Cibe- manos, flaked tools, beads, and ceramic vessels cue traveled back and forth across the study area. from pre-Columbian sites (Ferguson et al. 2004:11; Their grandfather, Jack Kenzie, was fluent in Hildburgh 1919; Newton 1998:31). Scott Wood pos- Yavapai, because he had married a Yavapai its that Apaches were also drawn to the ancient woman, and so some people thought he was Yava- farm sites that were probably replenished with soil pai. Jerome Kessay, Sr., explains that Yavapai were nutrients by the time the Apaches came through. related to Apaches who lived near Payson. Thus, He also believes Apaches may have used pre- the archaeological record within the study area Columbian roasters and favored the same camp- probably represents a great deal of admixture of sites again and again. Apache and Yavapai material culture, especially in Along with sometimes being perceived as tool the western section of the study area. procurement sites and places to collect ceremonial items, ancient sites were and are still revered as sacred places. According to Jerome Kessay, Sr., old Relationships to Ancient Sites archaeological sites are very important to Apaches. Apaches typically even go so far as to cover human During this study, Apache consultants dis- bones and any associated items if they are acciden- cussed an array of relationships and associations tally exposed (Welch and Ferguson 2005). Archae- regarding “ancient sites” or “old sites,” also known ologist Chris Coder suggests this importance is a as pre-Columbian sites to archaeologists. Archaeo- result of a particular phenomenon, whereby some logical surveys of the project area have revealed a native groups who come into a new place “inherit high density of small pre-Columbian sites. Re- it”—the sky, the earth, and the ruins and the petro- search with Apache consultants reveals that these glyphs. Thus, they incorporate these elements as sites served many purposes that range from the their own and into their particular worldview. Don functional to the spiritual. Ramon Riley explained Decker agrees, stating Apaches had much respect that some Apache groups were contemporaneous for ancient sites such as those of the Sinagua civili- with puebloan peoples who had not left the zation. He explains that many Western Apaches Mogollon Rim area yet, and that Apaches had con- perceive them in this way: nections, especially trading relations, with groups such as the ancestors of the Hopi. He implies that it Traditional Apaches believe that the prehistoric should not always be assumed that Apaches came sites held a lot of power. So when you look at after the the early villagers of the Mogollon Rim these sites, they are considered to be holy sites for had left. Apache people. Even though they are known as

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 51

prehistoric sites and are dated with radiocarbon Apache Archaeologists way back, well, the Apaches believe that the power that comes from these places also goes Lorin Henry and Gregg Henry were hired as back into time immemorial for Apaches too. If archaeologists for Desert Archaeology’s SR 260 you are excavating a Sinagua site, Apaches revere Payson-to-Heber project. The pair was interviewed these sites just as their predecessors did as part of this study to understand more about too…Normally Apaches are very superstitious about ghosts, the dead, burials. But it is interest- Apache perceptions of archaeology and its impacts ing that Apaches lived near these sites. So I think on contemporary Apache society. In addition to there was some kind of mysticism going on, Lorin Henry and Gregg Henry, more than a dozen some spirituality…power being generated from Apache from the White Mountain Apache tribe these sites. have worked on the project, including Darryl De- hose, Jefferson Gatewood, Byron Gooday, Teafilo Reverence also sometimes took the form of Gooday, Garrison Gregg, Bert Henry, Shawn avoidance. Elizabeth Rocha recalls that Apaches Henry, Japeth Miles Henry, Bennett Lacapa, Don- stayed away from caves, particularly those with ald Lane, DeAlva Larzelere, Ronald Larzelere, visible ruins (cf. Gifford 1980). When she was Mowell Lupe, Jr., Emiliano Perez, Filbert Tessay, small, her father remembered how his grandpar- and Anthony Thompson (Figure 25). ents and great-grandparents respected all the Archaeology first came to Lorin Henry through dwellings of the “ancient ones.” Rocha’s father his father, who was working for the White Moun- said that Apaches would never enter the caves to tain Apache Tribe’s range program around Grass- bother the ancient ones. Gregg Henry explains that hopper, AZ P:14:1 (ASM). He saw people working Apaches have always had a reverence for these old on the ruins there and took an interest in it. He sites, and as such, make good stewards for protect- began work with Desert Archaeology in 1999, ing archaeological sites today. His grandfather in- when he helped excavate several sites, including structed him not to take things from an old site. the McGoonie site. The site bears Lorin’s nick- However, Apaches did keep some artifacts that name, “McGoonie.” Before the SR 260 project be- would be passed down through the generations. gan, Gregg Henry learned about the project and Lorin Henry agrees, stating that Apaches have al- study areas from his great-uncle Levi DeHose, who ways been taught respect for these places and are knows stories about the country and songs about warned to stay away from graves and archaeologi- certain places. DeHose was a valuable consultant cal sites (see Perry 1972). He has also been in- during this study. Before beginning work with structed not to take things from the ruins or the Desert Archaeology, Gregg Henry and Lorin spirits will come bother him. If items are taken, it is Henry met with Apache elders to discuss if it was better to return these things. He explains that, at appropriate to do the work. Due to long-held be- one time, it was only elders and medicine people liefs about the sacredness of the old sites, they who did their own digging in ancient sites. Certain were hesitant to embark on this potentially intru- people were also chosen to rebury special items sive work. With the guidance of the elders, the two there, and sometimes, umbilical cords would be began to discuss ways to explain to tribal people buried in these places. why they were doing it; that is, the good of the According to Apache cultural advisors, ancient work. Levi DeHose instructed that it is appropriate sites figure prominently on the cultural landscape if it helps the people. of the Western Apache. One site may have been As noted above, at one time, only elders and opportunistically used for tools and ceremonial medicine people did their own limited collecting in items by some Apache groups and individuals ancient sites for ritual purposes. Only certain peo- while being avoided entirely by others. These sites ple were chosen to rebury some items in these also probably represented the small percentage of places. DeHose stressed that, through prayers and favorable sites within a study area with a finite knowledge of the right thing and doing exactly amount of water sources, viable campsites, and what one needed to do, the work would be appro- farming areas. Therefore, “old sites” seem to have priate. Gregg Henry’s grandfather also instructed been folded into the Apache lifeway on many dif- “not to add anything new” and explained that the ferent levels, as campsites, procurement areas, and good thing is that knowledge about Apache his- sacred places. tory will increase. So, for these Western Apache

52 Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim archaeologists, it is important to come to the work with a spiritual centeredness and the inten- tion that it is valuable in terms of its contribution to Apache history and society. Lorin Henry also believes that Apache archaeologists, and Native American archaeologists in general, can offer skills to the archaeological field in terms of evaluation and interpretation (Grant 2000; Welch 2000). Gregg Henry and Lorin Henry told the story of a visit from some Hopi cultural advisors while they were working on a site on the SR 260 project. They were working Figure 25. The Plymouth Landing crew: left to right: Darryl DeHose, Teofilo on a pithouse when they noticed Gooday, Josh Watts, and Jefferson Gatewood. some small rocks that they “just had a feeling” were used for something. When the two asked the Hopi advisors NOT A DOG IN SIGHT: CONCLUSIONS about them, the Hopis agreed they were artifacts AND FUTURE CHALLENGES and told them they were balls used in play. The Henrys both believe that American Indian people For many groups, from the ancient inhabitants have a particular ability to “feel” and to “sense” to American settlers, the Mogollon Rim has been a these things. Interpretation of objects can often frontier, a dividing line or a region just beyond and happen through prayer. between the known. However, for Western Lorin Henry relayed another story about a time Apaches, the long escarpment is a sign of the when he was a part of an Apache fire crew work- homeland, the place where their ancestors were ing on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The born, lived, and passed on. It remains a place of Apaches were having a hard time sleeping at this incredible import and value. The paradox for mod- camp and having a lot of bad dreams. The Apaches ern scholars is that, while Apache groups have got together and prayed about the difficulty. They occupied this region continuously for centuries, came to realize they were camping on a big ar- few Apache material remains have been discov- chaeological site, but their crew boss had been ered and catalogued. Few remains will probably afraid to tell them so due to Apache superstitions. ever be found because the very nature of Apache Lorin stresses that the lesson learned is that it is survival entailed moving across the land as lightly always better to be told, as Apaches, about things as possible. like that. With such knowledge, they can pray and Perhaps it is not coincident, then, that many do something about it. Apaches do not trace their history through artifacts From an economic standpoint, Gregg Henry and ruins, like the Hopi or Zuni (Dongoske et al. hopes that more Apaches will be trained as ar- 1997). Rather, Apache traditions, the experiences chaeologists on the reser-vation. These individuals and lessons of days past, are often embedded in could be hired in-house to deal with the constant “natural” geographies—a mountain peak, a bend stream of cultural resource clearances on the reser- in a river, a pile of fallen rocks (Basso 1996a). As vation. Moreover, Gregg Henry suggests that, be- significantly, among Apaches, the stories of their cause Apaches have always had a reverence for personal pasts and collective history are tradition- these old places, they make naturally good stew- ally told through stories. As Eva Watt suggested in ards of archaeological sites today. her recent book (Watt and Basso 2004:xxiv), West-

Shí Kéyaa: The Western Apache Homeland and Archaeology of the Mogollon Rim 53

ern Apache history is largely conveyed through The insights of Watt and the advisors partici- family stories, heard in bits and pieces over a life- pating in this study present future scholars with time. Although storytelling and place-making are several key challenges. Research on Apache history perhaps fading traditions among contemporary must include Apache perspectives and interpreta- Western Apaches (Watt and Basso 2004:304), they tions, if for no other reason than the modest detri- nevertheless constitute vital cultural practices that tus available for study. Training more Apache ar- preserve the past while bringing it into the present, chaeologists and ethnographers is one step for- giving people a sense of selfhood and belonging. ward, but there also remains the methodological From Watt’s perspective, academic and popular and epistemological questions about how to fully accounts have long distorted the history of Apache integrate Apache viewpoints with research-oriented peoples. As Basso writes, “Most troubling to her inquiry. about works she has read is their wholesale dis- Another challenge is the need to broaden the missal of Apache human agency: the near or total scope of Apache archaeology to include “natural” absence of actual persons, in actual situations, re- places and not just the artifacts and ruins archae- sponding to their circumstances with concrete acts ologists typically study. Goodwin and Basso pro- and plans” (Watt and Basso 2004:xvi; see also vide a foundation for this kind of research, as well Basso 1983:462). “Those books make you think that as other recent scholarship (Bradley 2000), but we after the fighting was done, everybody was just have yet to see these aspects of the tangible and lying around doing nothing, just waiting around ephemeral unified in Apache archaeology. Finally, for rations,” Watt said about books covering the a challenge will be to ensure that the Apache peo- early post-military era. “That’s not true. Lots was ple, today and in the past, are not reduced to ab- going on. See, people were busy every day—going stractions, or that they become mere objects of an- here, going there, doing this, doing that. They had thropological analysis. Incorporating human agency, to ’cause those rations don’t last very long…Lots is actual lived experiences, is difficult but fundamen- missing in those books ’cause there’s hardly no tally necessary. Researchers working on Apache Indians in there. You can’t see hardly nothing in archaeology, indeed perhaps all archaeologists, there about how we used to live” (Watt and Basso should recall Watt’s point that the scenes of earlier 2004:xvi). These books do not even have a dog in days are incomplete without some dogs in the sight, Watt joked. background.

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