Environment and Animal Procurement by the Mogollon of the Southwest

1995 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian S. Shaffer ◽  
Christopher P. Schick
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Small Animal ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Food Regime ◽  
Resource Depression ◽  
Permanent Settlement ◽  
Site Catchment ◽  
Human Predation

Prehistoric horticulturalists of the American Southwest relied on crop complexes for much of their vegetal diet, but also relied heavily on hunting and trapping. Permanent settlement by the Mogollon resulted in resource depression of larger animal taxa (primarily artiodactyls) in some areas that could not withstand sustained human predation. This resulted in the predation of smaller animals (primarily jackrabbits, cottontail rabbits, and rodents) that could withstand intensive predation. The extent to which small animal taxa were incorporated into the prehistoric food regime is closely tied to the inability of the site catchment environments to support viable populations of larger taxa capable of withstanding human predation. This scenario is exemplified by five Mogollon sites from western and southwestern New Mexico.

scholarly journals Quantification of Elemental Contaminants in Unregulated Water across Western Navajo Nation

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (15) ◽  
pp. 2727 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Credo ◽  
Jaclyn Torkelson ◽  
Tommy Rock ◽  
Jani C. Ingram
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
New Mexico ◽  
Hard Rock ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Navajo Nation ◽  
Hard Rock Mining ◽  
Rock Mining ◽  
American Nation

The geologic profile of the western United States lends itself to naturally elevated levels of arsenic and uranium in groundwater and can be exacerbated by mining enterprises. The Navajo Nation, located in the American Southwest, is the largest contiguous Native American Nation and has over a 100-year legacy of hard rock mining. This study has two objectives, quantify the arsenic and uranium concentrations in water systems in the Arizona and Utah side of the Navajo Nation compared to the New Mexico side and to determine if there are other elements of concern. Between 2014 and 2017, 294 water samples were collected across the Arizona and Utah side of the Navajo Nation and analyzed for 21 elements. Of these, 14 elements had at least one instance of a concentration greater than a national regulatory limit, and six of these (V, Ca, As, Mn, Li, and U) had the highest incidence of exceedances and were of concern to various communities on the Navajo Nation. Our findings are similar to other studies conducted in Arizona and on the Navajo Nation and demonstrate that other elements may be a concern for public health beyond arsenic and uranium.

A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF PROTO-TEWA SUBSISTENCE AGRICULTURE: MAKING THE CASE FOR FLOODPLAIN FARMING IN THE OHKAY OWINGEH HOMELAND, NEW MEXICO

2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 397-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Sunday Eiselt ◽  
J. Andrew Darling ◽  
Samuel Duwe ◽  
Mark Willis ◽  
Chester Walker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Survey Methods ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Subsistence Agriculture ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
Ancestral Pueblo ◽  
Rio Chama ◽  
Land Farming ◽  
Scholarly Discourse

Previous research on agriculture in the American Southwest focuses overwhelmingly on archaeological survey methods to discern surface agricultural features, which, in combination with climatological, geological, and geographical variables, are used to create models about agricultural productivity in the past. However, with few exceptions, the role of floodplain irrigation and floodwater farming in ancestral Pueblo agriculture is generally downplayed in scholarly discourse. Using a variety of methods, including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), satellite imagery, pedestrian survey, and supervised classification of remotely sensed imagery, we examine this issue through a consideration of how ancestral Ohkay Owingeh (Tewa) people solved the challenges of arid land farming in the lower Rio Chama watershed of New Mexico during the Classic period (A.D. 1350–1598). Based on acreage estimates, our results indicate that runoff and rainwater fields in terrace environments would have been insufficient to supply the nutritional needs of an ancestral Tewa population exceeding 10,000 individuals. Based on these observations, we present a case for the substantial role of subsistence agriculture in the floodplain of the Rio Chama and its associated tributaries.

The Persistence of Unfree Labor in the American Southwest

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-280
Author(s):  
William S Kiser
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
New Mexico ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Forced Labor ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Northern Half ◽  
Unfree Labor ◽  
Debt Peonage

Abstract This article explores the continuities of forced labor in the Southwest, where peonage and the partido system lasted for more than a century after the Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery, and places it within the broader context of modern global slavery. Debt peonage and peasant sharecropping—known locally as the partido—are usually classified as two different forms of unfree labor, but in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Southwest they had much in common and were oftentimes mutually reinforcing. Through the legal and cultural intricacies of the partido system, thousands of landless Hispanos in the northern half of New Mexico and southern reaches of Colorado worked full-time in exchange for a small share of the annual wool harvest. Many of those same men became debt-bound to the tiny percentage of wealthy families who owned the sheep herds and grazing ranges. Through these means, partidarios (sheep renters) lost much if not all of their autonomy and became, to varying degrees depending on the disposition of their creditor and benefactor, debt peons.

Territorial and Early Statehood Periods

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresita Majewski ◽  
Lauren E. Jelinek
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Mexico ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Subsequent Work ◽  
Cultural Heterogeneity ◽  
Terra Incognita ◽  
Formative Time ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Historical Trajectory

The archaeology of the territorial and early statehood periods (1850–1917) in the American Southwest was virtually terra incognita until the advent of government-mandated archaeology in the 1960s. Subsequent work has shown that historical archaeology has much to contribute to a fuller understanding of this dynamic and formative time in U.S. history. Historical-archaeological investigations have demonstrated that although the United States formally exerted control over Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico by the last half of the nineteenth century, the interactions among its Indigenous, Spanish, and Mexican inhabitants strongly influenced the territory’s historical trajectory into the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This chapter provides a historic context and a selective overview of archaeological studies that relate to the key themes of shifting economies and cultural heterogeneity.

Crab Supernova Rock Art

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. C. Krupp
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Crab Nebula ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Supernova Explosion ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Detailed Evaluation ◽  
The Crab Nebula

“Star” and crescent combinations in rock art in the American Southwest were first interpreted in 1955 as eyewitness depictions of the 1054 AD supernova explosion that produced the Crab nebula. While the Crab nebula is visible only telescopically, the event that generated it was brilliant, and for a time, only the sun and moon were brighter. Additional Crab supernova candidates in California and Southwest rock art were suggested 20 years later, and they included Chaco Canyon’s Penasco Blanco pictograph panel, which became the poster child for Crab supernova rock art and is now called “Supernova” on signage at the site. By 1979, a list of 21 Crab supernova rock art sites was assembled, and the inventory has continued to expand more slowly since then. This critical review of the supernova interpretation of star/crescent rock art, the product of 35 years of fieldwork, required an independent re-examination of all of the primary sites in person. That enterprise has already demonstrated that the Tenabo, New Mexico panel does not illustrate the Crab supernova and that the two Arizona sites on which the entire supernova rock art premise is based (White Mesa and “Navaho Canyon”) are unlikely records of the event. This detailed evaluation of the primary proposed star/crescent images indicates none is a satisfactory portrayal of the striking 1054 AD supernova.

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