Yavapai and Apache

120 Vanishing River Landscapes and Lives of the Lower Verde Valley THE LOWER VERDE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT Overview, Synthesis, and Conclusions edited by Stephanie M. Whittlesey, Richard Ciolek-Torrello, and jeffrey H. Altschul 'Water Rights Adjudica!lon feai,, Civil Division Mumoy Generars Oliica: SRl Press + Tucson, Arizona + 1997 CHAPTER 8 Euroamerican History, 1540 to the Present Stephanie M. Whittlesey, Teresita Majewski, John R Welch, Matthew C. Bischoff, and Richard Ciolek-Torrello 1is chapter discusses processes and events that have the temporary camps that supported dam construction- shaped the history and use of central Arizona since A.D. 1540, 700 people at Bartlett Dam alone-than during any other the year in which Coronado's expedition brought southwest time in history. ern prehistory to a close. We take a chronological and the The lower Verde region was often peripheral to the major matic approach, in which specific dates and incidents are economic, social, and political developments that charac considered as milestones of broader, regional-scale processes. terized Arizona history, and affected more by events unfolding The focus is on land-use patterns and what these patterns can in the administrative centers of Mexico, Washington, D.C., tell us about environmental and social variability: trends in and Phoenix than any local policies and processes. Yet, the economic activities and the political, cultural, and environ lower Verde region was not completely isolated, but was mental factors that appear to have stimulated or discouraged linked by various economic and political ties to the major certain uses of the land. Because Chapters 5, 6, and 7 focus centers of the state. The history of the lower Verde region, on Yavapai and Apache culture histories and adaptations of even more so than its prehistory, must be understood in the indigenous populations to central Arizona, this chapter pri context of larger, regional processes. We view the specific marily concerns Euroamerican history. Because the interac events and processes of lower Verde history as examples of tion of Euroamericans with Native Americans is an important more encompassing trends. part of Arizona history, the chapter includes profiles of Yava pai and Apache reservations by Teresita Majewski, along with discussions of patterns in Euroamerican and Native American relationships and their impacts. The seventeenth-century expansion of New Spain's Periods and Themes northwestern frontier had minimal impact on central Arizona north of the Gila River. As a result, there are few documen in Lower Verde tary references dating before about 1860, a period repre Regional History senting virtually the entire span of Spanish and Mexican possession of the area. For compelling reasons that will emerge in this chapter, Euroamerican settlement of cen This review is structured by temporal periods and historical tral Arizona was sparse, and was particularly so in the lower themes. We recognize four broad periods defined by shifts in Verde valley. Stone and Ayres (1984:36) observe that "the political and administrative control (Table 8.1). Eight gen area was essentially devoid of significant non-Indian cultural eral land-use themes further subdivide each period (see Ta activity before 1900," a statement echoed by Douglas et al. ble 8.1). By comparison, Macnider and Effiand (1989:10-15) ( 1994: 181) who write, "The Verde Valley in the vicinity divide history into four periods: ( 1) proto historic ( 1400- of Horseshoe Dam can be described as an area of mar 1800), (2) early historical (1700-1860), (3) late historical ginal historical development.'' Perhaps its most populous pe (1860-1940), and (4) recent (after 1940). They also develop riod was during the construction of Horseshoe and Bartlett a number of thematic categories for Tonto National Forest as Dams. More people, Indian and non-Indian alike, lived in a whole. Because this review is temporal and thematic, we 281 282 Vanishing River: landscapes and lives of the lower Verde Valley Whittlesey, Majewski, Welch, Bischoff, & Ciolek~Torrello • Euroamerican History, 1540 to the Present 283 Table 8.1. Periods in the Euroamerican History of the concerns the efforts by land developers, agricultural inter (1947), Wood (1989:24) also maintains that the most prob "peaceful rustic people." The Indians were working mines Lower Verde Region ests, and government agencies to augment and safeguard the able location of Chichilticale is in Tonto Basin. He identifies near present-day Jerome. Schroeder (1959:51) vvrites, domestic and agricultural water supply for the ever-thirsty the people encountered by the Spanish as Sobaipuri, not Approximate Dominant Prevailing Yavapai. Wood suggests that many Classic period sites may Obregon called these people Querechos .... He stated Dates (A.D.) Administration land-Use Themes Phoenix Basin. The recent history of central Arizona in general, and the eventually prove to date to the protohistoric or early histori they wore crosses .... They went about naked and used 1540-1848 Spanish, Mexican exploration lower Verde region in particular, differs fundamentally from cal period. Other reconstructions of the Coronado route copper and blue stones from the mines to paint blankets, place Chichilticale much farther south. in Eagle Pass be houses, pottery and themselves. 1849-1874 federal (U.S) exploration the previous periods. Concern has shifted from its environ territorial (Arizona) native subjugation mental potential to management of what has become pre tween the Piiialeno and Santa Teresa Mountains (e.g., Bolton Luxan, who accompanied Espejo, said these people mining dominantly a recreation area and primarily a land under 1949:105-106). lfthe Bolton route to Cfbola is followed, lived in houses of Branches, that they wore crovvns of government National Forest management. The two themes dominating the Coronado expedition traveled across the present-day Fort painted sticks on their head and had baskets of mescal and the final period reveal the use of the region as Apache Indian Reservation. The Spanish chronicles referred pinyon nuts as well as a bread made from them. They also 1875-1945 federal homesteading contempor~ry to the region north of Chichilticale as tierra despoblada, an planted maize. Espejo referred to these people as agriculture a recreation area for city dwellers, while underscoring the hydraulic engineering constraints on small-scale farming and ranching efforts. unpopulated land, and no indigenous populations were en Tiburans or Seranos. government countered. This certainly accords with archaeological evi dence for abandonment of the central mountains in the late In 1598, Marcos Farfan de los Gados apparently followed 1946-present federal recreation A.D. 1300s (Reid 1989). Whittlesey and Reid (1989) review Espejo's route to Jerome (Byrkit 1988:13; see Figure 8.1) government the Coronado expedition route; they find little supporting and encountered similar native populations. According to The Period of Exploration, evidence for the Bolton route, although it has generally been Schroeder ( 19 59:5 2-5 3), near the headwaters of Dry Beaver 1540-1848 the accepted alternative (see Di Peso 1974; U.S. Department Creek, have chosen to review central Arizona north of the Phoenix of the Interior 1991). Basin as a single entity, although Chapter 4 treats its history The route taken by Antonio de Espejo in his search fOr Farfan reached another group of Indians and he referred of research and archaeology by geographical area. The earliest documentary records pertaining to central Ari mineral prospects south and west of the Hopi country has to the place as Rancherfa de los Cruzados .... From here The exploration theme characterizes the initial three cen zona were produced by Spanish expeditions. In a series of prompted less controversy. In May 1583, after descending their chief led them ... [to] another rancheda where the turies of non-Indian use of the region north of the Gila adventures that can be characterized as quests fOr glory; Beaver Creek from the east, the Espejo expedition probably Indians had ore, mescal and venison. On November 24, River as well as the first period. That this theme dominated gold, and God, parties led by Coronadol Espejo, Farfan, and was the first party of non-Indians to ascend the Verde River. seven leagues (league = 2.65 miles) further, they reached the documentary record so long reflects the tenuousness of Oiiate traversed areas north of the Gila River. In general, Colton (1939b) much later borrowed the Spanish name for the mine in which vicinity there were Indians from several Spanish, Mexican, and early American control over the study these explorations left little trace on either the central Ari the river, El Rio de los Reyes (River of the Kings), to label the rancherfas. Farfan stated these people, who wore area, as well as the marginal nature of the region with regard zona landscape or its people. The expeditions reconnoitered Sinagua culture of the Verde valley. In her discussion of the crosses, extracted ores from the mine and used them fOr to most of the primary forces driving frontier history. northern Arizona fOr the most part, and although Coronado route taken by Espejo, Bartlett (1942) suggests that the party personal adornment and fOr coloring their blankets . The initial non-Indian use and settlement of central Ari crossed central Arizona en route to Cibola, his trail remains followed a route from the Hopi villages through Winslow brown, black, blue and green. [S]ome wore shells, zona during the second period was constrained significantly obscure. The region was largely a passage to elsewhere, and if to Jerome (Figure 8.1). Byrkit (1988) labels this route the obtained from the sea thirty days travel away. by resistance from indigenous populations. The clash be any of these expeditions traveled through the lower Verde Palatkwapi trail, after the Hopi clan migration story (Cour tween Euroamerican and Native American cultures was inevi area,· it was not reported. No unambiguous documentary lander 1971; Waters 1963).

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