New Mexico Historical Review Volume 78 Number 1 Article 3 1-1-2003 Abalone Shell Buffalo People: Navajo Narrated Routes and Pre- Columbian Archaeological Sites Klara Kelley Harris Francis Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmhr Recommended Citation Kelley, Klara and Harris Francis. "Abalone Shell Buffalo People: Navajo Narrated Routes and Pre- Columbian Archaeological Sites." New Mexico Historical Review 78, 1 (2003). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmhr/vol78/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in New Mexico Historical Review by an authorized editor of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Abalone Shell Buffalo People NAVAJO NARRATED ROUTES AND PRE-COLUMBIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES Klara Kelley and Harris Francis n pre-Columbian times, the Colorado River and its tributaries drained a I major frontier zone between southwestern farmers and hunter-gatherers ofthe Great Basin, Rockies, and western Great Plains. Within this vast'zone the Chinle Wash (Navajo Nation, Arizona) heads in Canyon de Chelly and the high grasslands southwest of the canyon (Map 1). The wash drains north into the San Juan River, a major tributary ofthe Colorado River. South over the Chinle watershed divide, the Pueblo Colorado Wash drains toward the Little Colorado River, another Colorado tributary. Across the watersheds ofthe Chinle and Pueblo Colorado Washes, according to Navajo ceremo nial narratives, ancestral Navajo hunters traded deer and antelope skins with Anasazi farmers at such major ceremonial centers as Chaco, Aztec, and An telope Mesa.