User:Smallchief/sandbox

Regarding references, I picked a random book off my shelves, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went away by Ramon A. Gutierrez, 1991, Stanford University Press. Thumbing through the book, I didn't find any footnotes within paragraphs. Each footnoted paragraph had one footnote which often cited two or three sources. Well, if it's good enough for Stanford.....

User:Smallchief/How to create a diff

User:Smallchief/Sandbox II User:Smallchief/Sandbox III Agriculture in the prehistoric Southwest Fetterman Fight User:Smallchief/Most famous people of the Old West Agave Murpheyi User:Smallchief/Sandbox IV Charlotte Hazen Atlee Charlotte Rowe

Protohistoric peoples of the Southwest identifies and describes American Indian peoples and tribes living in the Greater American Southwest at the beginning of historic times when the Indian societies first came into contact with European (mostly Spanish) explorers, missionaries, and colonists. The American Southwest is defined as the Mexican states of Sonora and northern Chihuahua and the U.S. states of Arizona and New Mexico plus portions of neighboring states. Accounts by the earliest explorers as well as archaeological findings are used to describe the protohistoric peoples.

Scarcity of water is the defining characteristic of the Southwestern region. Its terrain features rugged mountain ranges and sky islands inter-spaced with deserts and criss-crossed by river valleys. The economies of the Indian peoples of this region fell into two broad categories: (1) agricultural and (2) hunting and gathering.

Most of the Indian peoples of the Southwest became known to the Spanish in the 16th century, thus ending the protohistoric period, but for some Indians on the periphery of the Southwest the protohistoric period did not end until the 18th century.

Background

Further information: Prehistoric Southwestern Cultural Divisions and Oasisamerica

The first known contact between Europeans and Indians in the Southwest was in 1535 when Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his companions traversed the region from east to west. The Indians, however, had undoubtedly become aware a dozen years before Cabeza de Vaca of the Spanish presence along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico and in the Aztec empire in central Mexico. Some authorities believe that the Indian cultures of the Southwest had already been seriously impacted by epidemics of European diseases, especially smallpox, which spread northward from the Aztec empire in 1520-1521. Recurrent epidemics would continue to be a factor in the region, especially harmful to agricultural societies in which the spread of disease was facilitated by high population density. The precipitous decline in Indian numbers, as high as 90 percent, gave early explorers (and later scholars) the impression that Indian societies were less advanced and the people less numerous than had been the case only a few years earlier. Slavery also possibly impacted Indian societies of the region before Cabeza de Vaca's first accounts. Cabeza de Vaca met Indians terrified of Spanish slavers in southernmost Sonora and, in the years to come, the Spanish would range far and wide on expeditions in search of Indians to capture and enslave.

Cabeza de Vaca was followed by other Spanish explorers, including Fray Marcos de Niza and Estevanico (1539), Francisco Vásquez de Coronado]] (1540-1542), Francisco de Ibarra (1565), Chamuscado and Rodriguez (1581-1582), Antonio de Espejo (1852-1583), and, finally, the establishment of the first permanent Spanish settlements in New Mexico by Juan de Oñate in 1598. By 1600, most of the Indian peoples of the region had come into contact with the Spanish and their culture impacted. During the 17th century the agricultural Indians would mostly come under the political control of the Spanish and a process of assimilation begin. Many Indian groups of the region, however, have maintained their tribal identities and elements of their traditional culture until the present day.

Farmers

Hopi

Coronado found seven pueblos inhabited by the Hopi in 1540. Oraibi, founded about 1100 A.D., is possibly the oldest continuously inhabited place in the United States. Numbering in the low thousands and living on and in the shadow of the dry, austere mesas in north central Arizona, the Hopi were probably less impacted by the Spanish than any other people in the Southwest.

The Hopi speak, along with many of their neighbors, a Uto-Aztecan language, but their language is not closely related to any other which bespeaks antiquity. The Hopi seem to be descendants of the Anasazi culture. From 1250 to 1400, some of the Hopi lived in eight towns near Winslow, Arizona on the Little Colorado River. By the time of their first contact with the Spanish, the Hopi were clustered on the mesas where they still live. Despite the altitude (about 6,000 feet or 1800 mts.), short growing season, and deficient rainfall, the Hope were successful farmers of the "trinity" (maize, beans, and squash) plus cotton. They lived a rich religious, ceremonial, and largely peaceful, life. They have successfully maintained much of their culture.

La Junta

La Junta is the collective name for the Indian groups living near the junction (La Junta) of the Rio Grande and Conchos rivers near the Big Bend of Texas. They are often called the Jumano, a generic name of the Spaniards for the Indians of the region. Jumano is applied with more certainty to the nomadic Indians living nearby. The La Junta lived up and down the Rio Grande valley for more than 50 miles (80 km) and in the lower 30 miles (50 km) of the Conchos valley, Estimates of their numbers range from 3,000 to 10,000 The linguistic identification of the La Junta people in uncertain. The most common guess is that they spoke Uto-Aztecan although Kiowa–Tanoan and Athapaskan have also been suggested. As the La Junta people lived at a crossroads and it is possible that they were of mixed ethnic groups and spoke more than one language.

The La Junta grew maize, beans, and squash on the river floodplain. They apparently did not practice diversion agriculture, but planted in the river bottoms and along the course of ephemeral streams to utilize the overflow from floods and occasional rains. A finding from research on bones and teeth indicates that the La Junta people were heavily dependent on hunting and gathering, relying upon maize for less than 25 percent of their subsistence. The La Junta came under attack by Spanish slavers from the south and Apache raiders from the north. By the end of the 18th century they had ceased to exist as a people, having dispersed to work in the silver mines of Parral, Chihuahua, intermarried with Spanish soldiers, or joined the Apache.

Mayo

The Mayo, Uto-Aztecan speakers, lived along the lower course of the Mayo River in Southern Sonora. They numbered about 30,000 and farmed in the valley of the river, utilizing flood waters to water their crops rather than diversion canals. It appears they lived in "rancherias," small dispersed settlements rather than towns. They first came into contact with Spanish explorers and slavers in 1533. Due to their proximity to Spanish settlements in Culiacan they were under more pressure and influence of the Spanish than more distant peoples. The Mayo chose accommodation with the Spanish as their survival strategy, receiving Jesuit Missionaries to live among them in 1609, and converting to Christianity in large numbers. Throughout the 17th century, relations between the Mayo and the Spanish remained peaceful, although several epidemics of disease reduced their population.

The Mayo's strategy of accommodation worked. They numbered about 40,000 in 1995

Opata

The Opata were an agricultural people, growing corn, beans, squash, and cotton in the river valleys of northeastern Sonora. They were divided into at least three groups: the Eudeve, the Teguima, and Jova. They spoke a Uto-Aztecan language. They may have been the most numerous people in the protohistoric Southwest with their population at the time of first contact with the Spanish in the mid 16th century estimated at between 20,000 and 100,000, the higher figure including the Pima Bajo and other small groups.

The Opata also may have been the most culturally complex protohistoric people living in the Southwest. Between 1350 and 1550 or somewhat later, they lived in several “statelets” with a population of several thousand people each. The statelets consisted of towns surrounded by dispersed dwellings and irrigated cropland. In a 60 year lacunae between the Opata's early contacts with the Spanish and the arrival of Spanish missionaries in 1628, their population declined precipitously, probably due to European diseases. The statelets disappeared and the Opata adopted a simpler culture with a population dispersed among "rancherias." The Opata were relatively receptive to Spanish missionaries and culture and were assimilated into the majority population, disappearing as a distinct people by the early 20th century.

Pima

The Pima are the likely descendants of the Hohokam, an agricultural culture noted for its complex and extensive irrigation systems. The Hohokam persisted for more than 1,000 years in the Gila and Salt river valleys of Arizona. The Hohokam culture disappeared about 1450 A.D., probably due to overpopulation and resource depletion. Their descendants, the Pima, lived in smaller settlements with less impressive public works. In 1539, Coronado passed through the old Hohokam country and found farming settlements of Pima along the Gila River and its tributaries. They were described as practicing irrigation and wearing cotton clothes and turquoise, of having fine pottery, and living off hunting and gathering as well as maize cultivation.

The Pima were a widespread people. The Lower Pima or Pima Baja lived along the Moctezuma and Sonora Rivers in Sonora and had a culture similar to that of the Opata with whom they may have inter-mingled. The Upper Pima or Pima Alta lived in Arizona and consisted of the Akimel O’dham living in the Hokokam lands on the Gila and Salt Rivers, the Sobaipuri in the valleys of the San Pedro and |Santa Cruz rivers, and the Tohono O’odham or Papago living in the deserts southwest of Tucson. The Tohono O’odham depended more on hunting and gathering than agriculture for a livelihood. The Upper Pima had only limited contact with the Spanish until the 1690s.

The Pima speak a Uto-Aztecan language. The Upper Pima and Lower Pima may have numbered 30,000 each in the 16th century.

Yaqui

They lived along the lower Yaqui River in Sonora and numbered about 30,000. They were similar to the Mayo in language and culture, but they early demonstrated a prickly independence. Further from the Spanish settlements and occupying land which, at that time, was of little interest to the Spanish, they had more freedom of action than the Mayo. In 1533, a Yaqui army confronted a Spanish slave raider, Diego de Guzman, and forced him to to retreat from their land and in 1609 fought a large-scale, bloody, and largely successful, war against Spanish invaders. After the war, the Yaqui received Jesuit missionaries and became in many respects model Christians -- but they retained much of their independence and culture. The Yaqui assert they were never conquered. Their resistance to Spanish and Mexican domination continued into the 20th century. About 10,000 of them still live in their traditional homeland. About 600 Yaqui, refugees from Yaqui wars with the Mexicans in the 19th century live in the United States."Yaqui" http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=yaq, accessed 21 May 2012</ref>

Hunter-Gatherers

Apache

The Spanish first encountered the Apache in 1541. Coronado, traversing the panhandle of Texas, visited a large encampment of Querechos, one of many names the Spanish gave to the Apache. The Querechos were nomadic buffalo hunters and they greeted the Spanish peacefully. Most authorities believe the Apache were relative newcomers to the region, their arrival having occurred possibly only a few years or at most a couple of centuries before Coronado. The Apache and Navajo spoke and speak several dialects of an Athabaskan language. Most Athabaskan-speakers live in northwestern Canada, the likely place of origin in the distant past for the Athabaskan-speakers in the Southwest.

The Apache expanded southward in the 16th and 17th century, threatening the Jumano and La Junta and absorbing the remnants of tribes reduced by disease. After Spanish settlements were established in New Mexico in 1598 and suffering from slave raids, the Apache became antagonistic, thus initiating a conflict that would endure almost 300 years. Many Pueblo Indians fled Spanish rule in New Mexico to take refuge among the Apache. In the early 18th century the Comanche pushed most of the Apache off the Great Plains and into New Mexico, Arizona, and northern Mexico.

Jumano

The Jumano were a wide ranging nomadic people who lived in the Pecos and Concho river valleys of western Texas. Jumano was a generic name often applied by the Spanish to many of the Indian groups living in western Texas. The Jumano were buffalo hunters, first visited by Cabeza de Vaca and called "The People of the Cows."They seem to have been the center of a trading network extending across Texas to the Pueblos of New Mexico, especially the Tompiro. They often visited and lived among the La Junta Indians on the Rio Grande. The language the Jumano spoke is unknown. The most common view of scholars is that they spoke a Uto-Aztecan language, but Athabaskan and Kiowa-Tanoan are also suggested.

In the 17th century, the Jumano were under attack by Apache moving southward. In the 1680s, under their leader Juan Sabeata, the Jumano briefly became prominent as they attempted to engage Spanish and French assistance to help them fend off the Apache. Sabeata's efforts failed and the Jumano apparently united with the Apache, their former enemies, and disappeared as a distinct people by the mid 18th century.

Ute

|}