NEW MEXICO ARCHEOLOGICAL COUNCIL 2010 FALL CONFERENCE
Indigenous Mobile Groups (and Other Light Signatures) of the
Protohistoric and Historic Periods
Highly mobile indigenous groups were present in and raided and traded into New
Mexico during the terminal prehistoric and early Spanish periods. These include
various Apache (Jicarilla, Mescalero, Chiricahua), Ute, Jano, Jocome, Manso, and
Suma groups, as well as others. Settlements and material culture associated with these
groups left slight traces on the landscape that have often been overlooked or incorrectly
categorized. Shrines will also be discussed, as will new evidence relating to the UteNavajo debate. Efforts over the past decade have honed in on these lighter signatures.
Sites of this period, of mobile groups, and of specialized activities (such as ritual and
game traps) can now be routinely recognized. Learn their archaeological signatures.
Hibben Center, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Co-sponsored by the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, UNM
►►►Subject to change before or during the conference.◄◄◄
Saturday, November 13: All Day
9:00–4:00
Standing exhibits and posters (Hibben Atrium)
Saturday, November 13: Morning Session (Southern & Eastern Groups)
8:00–8:45
On-site registration; continental breakfast (Hibben Atrium)
8:00–8:45
NMAC Business Meeting (Hibben 105)
Papers are 15 minutes
Saturday, November 13: Morning Session (Southern & Eastern Groups)
8:00-8:45 On-site registration; continental breakfast (Hibben Atrium)
8:00-8:45 NMAC Business Meeting (Hibben 105)
8:45-9:00 INTRODUCTION Rethinking Mobility: Method and Theory for the 21st Century
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(Deni J. Seymour)
9:00-9:15 Excavations in the Carrizalillo Hills Region of Southwestern New Mexico Reveal
Protohistoric Mobile Group Camps (Alex Kurota and Leslie Cohen, Office of
Contract Archeology, University of New Mexico)
9:15-9:30 Large Rocks, Small Rocks, Rocks in a Ring: Three Types of Protohistoric Thermal
Features in Southwestern New Mexico (Joanne Gilby, Office of Contract Archeology, University
of New Mexico)
9:30-9:45 Protohistoric Sites in the Cedar Mountains, New Mexico (Meade F. Kemrer)
9:45-10:00 A Fateful Day in 1698..."A Glorous Victory": Defining the Jano, Jocome, Manso,
Suma, and Apache in the Battle remains at Santa Cruz de Gaybaniptea (Deni Seymour)
10:00-10:15 Discussion
10:15-10:30 Break; continuation of continental breakfast.
10:30-10:45 Session Statement
10:45-11:00 Plains Apache Diaspora: Implications for Archaeo-ethnicity (Jeffery R. Hanson,
Statistical Research)
11:00-11:15 Identification of Apache Iconography at Southern New Mexico and West Texas
Rock Art Sites (LeRoy Unglaub)
11:15-11:30 The Hormiguero Site: A Large Peloncillo Mountain Site as a Guide for Identifying
Apachean Material Culture (Deni J. Seymour)
11:30-11:45 Athapaskan Migration and Jicarilla Ethnogenesis in Eastern Colorado during the
15th and 16th Centuries
(Kevin Gilmore and Sean Larmore, ERO Resources Corporation)
11:45-12:00 Discussion
12:00-1:30 Break for lunch. A Pueblo oven bread demonstration and sale of Indian tacos, posole,
fry bread, oven bread, etc. will take place in the Maxwell Museum courtyard to coincide with the
conference.
Saturday, November 13: Afternoon Session (Northern Groups and the Ute-Navajo Controversy)
Saturday, November 13: Afternoon Session (Northern Groups and the Ute-Navajo Controversy)
1:30-1:35 Session Statement
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1:35-1:50 Shrines and the Sacred Landscape (Dave Lugare, BLM)
1:50-2:05 Needzii': Diné Game Traps on the Colorado Plateau (Jim Copeland, Bureau of
Land Management)
2:05-2:20 Emerging from the Shadows: In Quest of the Yavapai of the Verde Valley (Peter J.
Pilles, Jr., Forest Archaeologist, Coconino National Forest)
2:20-2:35 Squeezing Blood from Stone Flaking Debris: Using Debitage as a Cultural and
Chronological Marker (Matthew Bandy, SWCA Environmental Consultants)
2:35-2:40 Questions and Introductory Comment-The Ute and Navajo Controversy
(Dave Brugge)
2:40-3:00 The Old Wood Calibration Project and Colorado's Missing Record of Ute
Prehistory (Steven G. Baker, Centuries Research; Jeffrey S. Dean and Ronald H.
Towner, Laboratory of Tree Ring Research)
3:00-3:15 The Colorado Wickiup Project (Curtis Martin, Dominquez Archaeological
Research Group)
3:15-3:30 Site 42UN5406: A Numic and Ancestral Pueblo Ceramic Assemblage in the
Uintah Basin, Uintah County, Utah (James A. Truesdale, David V. Hill, and
Christopher James ("CJ") Truesdale)
3:30-3:40 Break; with snack
3:40-3:55 The Archaeological Difference between Ute and Navajo (David Brugge)
3:55-4:30 Discussion, Additional questions and comments
NOTE: certificates of attendance for the Saturday symposium will be handed out at the end of
the day, not before. Partial attendance does not count.
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Posters:
Ute-Comanche Rock Art in the Northern Rio Grande (Pilar, NM)
Annie Danis and Severin Fowles of Barnard College, Columbia University
This poster presents a large, recently documented site of Plains tradition rock art in the Orilla
Verde recreational area (BLM) near Pilar, NM. The rock art depicts dynamic scenes of battle and
raiding as well as iconic plains imagery such as tipis and parfleches, unprecedented in the
research of the area. The site is a dramatic addition to the narrative of Plains presence in the
Northern Rio Grand in the early historic period, and offers a visually striking account of
Comanche-Ute (and possibly Apache) movement through the Taos area.
The Border Fence Project: Summary of Archeological Research
in Southwestern New Mexico
Leslie Cohen and Alexander Kurota Office of Contract Archeology, University of New Mexico
Between February 2008 and January 2009, the Office of Contract Archeology conducted
extensive surveys and limited excavations along the New Mexico-Mexico border as a series of
contracts to enable the construction of the international border fence. The project became to be
known as the Border Fence Project. The work was divided into four major research areas: (1)
Eastern Boot Heel, (2) Three Sites, (3) Nineteen Canyon, and (4) the Santa Teresa Area. The
research has brought to light new information about the subsistence practices of Archaic huntergatherers, late Formative period farmers, and protohistoric nomadic people. Survey, excavation,
archival research, and interviews with local residents highlighted the complex nature of life
along the New Mexico-Mexico border during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Native American Lithic Procurement Patterns and Sites
in the Boot Heel of Southwestern New Mexico
Kate Zeigler (1), Chris Hughes (2), Alex Kurota (2), and Patrick Hogan (2)
1 Zeigler Geologic Consulting, Albuquerque
2 Office of Contract Archeology, University Of New Mexico
Multidisciplinary field projects can be very useful to a more fundamental understanding of the
world around us. The combination of archeology and geology enhances our understanding of
human behavior and human use of the landscape with an intimate knowledge of geologic
processes and available lithic materials. OCA's excavations and surveys along the international
border fence reveal patters of use of geologic materials during the Archaic, Formative, and
Protohistoric Native American groups. Thousands of lithic artifacts and groundstone were
documented from the southern Peloncillo mountains to the Carrizalillo Hills west of Columbus.
The majority of rock types utilized by native people are local siliceous volcanic materials.
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However, artifacts made from obsidian were transported into the region from northern Mexico
and eastern Arizona indicating long-distance travel and/or trade routes.
ABSTRACTS
In alphabetical order, by presenter or senior presenter
Steven G. Baker (Centuries Research); Jeffrey S. Dean and Ronald H. Towner (Laboratory of
Tree Ring Research, University of Arizona)
The Old Wood Calibration Project and Colorado’s Missing Record of Ute Prehistory
“The Old Wood Calibration Project” (OWCP) has been a collaborative effort between Centuries
Research, Inc. and the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona. The
project was initiated in 2004 and has been investigating a suspected “old wood effect” in the
radiocarbon and tree ring dating of hearth fuel woods from archaeological sites in western
Colorado. The OWCP has demonstrated that 1000+ year-old pieces of dead wood suitable for
burning are present on the current landscape and that elements more than 600 years old are
relatively abundant. It has also empirically demonstrated that the probability is high (virtually
100 percent) that radiocarbon or tree ring dates from pinion or juniper charcoal from hearths or
other thermal features will be significantly older than the human acts of building and maintaining
a fire with such pieces of dead wood. These ages will commonly be significantly earlier than the
ranges indicated by even the two sigma confidence levels in radiocarbon dating. Such confidence
levels alone should thus no longer be relied upon for approximating the dates of occupations. In
the project’s three study areas of Colorado’s western slope three different minimal mean-age
correction factors were determined. These range from 482 years on the Douglas Creek Arch to
219 years further south in the Montrose area.
Regional radiocarbon dates based on hearth fuel woods can accordingly no longer be accepted at
standard confidence levels but must be adjusted by adding correction factors. The OWCP
suggests that the dating chronologies currently in use relative to the occupations by Colorado’s
Ute Peoples significantly overstate their age. Even when minimal correction factors are applied
to the radiocarbon dates for bona fide Ute sites, the archaeological record for the Ute presence in
western Colorado moves forward in time to the very late prehistoric or early historic contexts at
least. Ute sites from this time frame are both obvious and not uncommon in western Colorado.
This interpretation relating to the late time frame for the Ute occupation is supported by both
linguistic and rock art data as well as negative data stemming from a currently perceived near
total absence of Ute sites at demonstrable prehistoric time depth. These findings appear to
explain why, despite our gains in learning to identify the Ute archaeological culture, evidence of
such an older Ute occupation has to date proven to be so elusive. Beyond Colorado the OWCP
has major implications for the prehistoric chronometric record of the Desert West. Work is now
underway to further test these findings and to carry the research into additional areas.
Matthew Bandy (SWCA Environmental Consultants)
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Squeezing Blood from Stone Flaking Debris: Using Debitage as a Cultural and Chronological
Marker
The flake scatter is one of the most common types of archaeological site routinely encountered in
archaeological inventories. However, the information potential of these sites is severely limited
by our inability to place them within a chronological context. Without an idea of when they
might date to, it is difficult to assess changes in human behavior on a landscape scale. The
problem is particularly acute for mobile populations that typically deposit few chronologically
diagnostic artifacts. This paper presents an approach for using lithic debitage as a chronological
indicator. The approach is illustrated with an example from northwestern Colorado.
Jim Copeland (Bureau of Land Management)
Needzii': Diné Game Traps on the Colorado Plateau
Game traps recorded by Navajo Lands Claim archaeologists across the Colorado Plateau and
more recently by the BLM in the San Juan Basin offers some insight to the level of cooperation
and effort required to conduct drive hunts. Understanding the location and placement of these
features may help in the interpretation of other sites on the landscape. The results of some field
surveys associated with game traps are also presented.
Joanne Gilby (Office of Contract Archeology, University of New Mexico)
Large Rocks, Small Rocks, Rocks in a Ring: Three Types of Protohistoric Thermal Features in
Southwestern New Mexico
During OCA’s Border Fence Project excavations, groups of thermal features in the Carrizalillo
Hills region provided twelve surprising radio-carbon assays, all dating to the Protohistoric/Early
Historic era. These sites are therefore interpreted as being of Apache or other protohistoric group
affinity. Analysis of the morphology and the macrobotanical/faunal remains from numerous
thermal features aided in deciphering their discrete physical attributes, assessing their function,
and ultimately placing them into emerging typological categories. Three distinctive thermal
feature types are presented here to offer a beginning typology of protohistoric thermal features
for southwestern New Mexico. This typology leads to the conclusion that each type is a
specialized construction, differently using rocks and other attributes for temperature and
heat duration control.
Kevin Gilmore and Sean Larmore, ERO Resources Corporation
Athapaskan Migration and Jicarilla Ethnogenesis in Eastern Colorado during the 15th and 16th
Centuries
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Like all migrations, the movement of Athapaskans from their northern homeland into the area
they occupied at the time of contact was the end result of a combination of social and
environmental factors. Human migrations are rarely the product of unilinear movement of
population; they are instead the product of a complex sequence of stages usually involving back
and forth movement of both people and information. Sites attributed to the Proto-Apache in
Colorado dated to the 15th and 16th centuries provide evidence for both chain and reverse
migration strategies used by Athapaskans to move through both plains and mountain landscapes.
Although the evidence is thus far sparse, material culture from these sites, including the remains
of a habitation structure from the Eureka Ridge site in the mountains of central Colorado, suggest
that by the 15th and 16th centuries (if not earlier) the Athapaskans living in Colorado were
already in possession of the adaptations and material culture similar to that identified with both
the Dismal River culture and the Jicarilla of the historic period. This material culture includes
micaceous ceramic wares, tri-notched projectile points, snub-nosed endscrapers, double-bitted
drills with lateral lugs, and use of lithic raw material from the Jemez Mountains.
Jeffery R. Hanson (Statistical Research, Inc.)
Plains Apache Diaspora: Implications for Archaeo-ethnicity
Four of the more significant challenges of assigning tribal identification to archaeological sites
and complexes are migration, mobility, ethnogenesis, and cultural change. Each of these factors
has implications for the nature and content of archaeological assemblages. These challenges are
illustrated by the Plains Apache diaspora, in which several groups of Apaches from a common
ancestral area experienced significant territorial shifts and cultural changes which in some cases
severed their connection to their archaeological past.
Meade F. Kemrer
Protohistoric Sites in the Cedar Mountains, New Mexico
Surveys in the Cedar Mountains identified protohistoric and historic Native American sites. This
paper describes the radiocarbon dates, settlement characteristics, and artifacts. These sites
conform to with the nomadic occupations Seymour described and found in the southern
American Southwest.
Alex Kurota and Leslie Cohen (Office of Contract Archeology, University of New Mexico)
Excavations in the Carrizalillo Hills Region of Southwestern New Mexico Reveal
Protohistoric Mobile Group Camps
The Office of Contract Archeology recently excavated four Protohistoric period sites in the
Carrizalillo Hills region of southwestern New Mexico. The research conducted under the Border
Fence Project revealed new information on these mobile group camps from the southern
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Southwest. Twelve radiocarbon and two thermoluminescence dates place the four sites and all
excavated features consistently into the mid-15th to the late 19th century. This research uncovers
new evidence for these mobile groups’ subsistence practices, lithic procurement, lithic tool
manufacture and recycling, seasonality of use, and their movement throughout the landscape.
Curtis Martin (Dominquez Archaeological Research Group)
The Colorado Wickiup Project
The ongoing Colorado Wickiup Project has documented 366 aboriginal wooden features
(wickiups, tree platforms, etc.) on 58 sites in western Colorado. The findings have provided new
understanding regarding the Protohistoric and Early Historic Northern Ute and their continued
occupation of traditional, off-reservation, homelands after their removal to reservations.
Dendrochronological dates from metal ax-cut feature elements range from A.D. 1815 to
1915/1916, with over half of the dates indicating occupation during post-“removal” times (after
1881). Two of the sites were occupied after 1900. Two resources have revealed relatively unique
site types in the archaeological record of western Colorado. At one, the Ute Hunters’ Camp
(5RB563), canvas wall tents provided shelter for the occupants occupied with meat and hide
processing, bullet reloading, and, possibly, leather working. Another, the Black Canyon Ramada
(5DT222), includes the partially collapsed remains of a Protohistoric flat-roofed sunshade. Based
on our findings, this author proposes that Phase V of Baker’s Model of Ute Culture History be
divided into two sub-phases. The proposed Phase V-A, or “Ungacochoop Phase,” would embody
post-1900 Early Historic Era sites.
Peter J. Pilles, Jr. (Coconino National Forest)
Emerging from the Shadows: In Quest of the Yavapai of the Verde Valley
The Pai people have occupied central Arizona for centuries, yet their archaeological presence has
seldom been recognized. As mobile hunter/gatherers, their material culture was mostly of lightweight, perishable materials, leaving little but remnants of flaked and ground stone tools to
indicate their camps. Consequently, Yavapai sites have commonly been overlooked, masked by
later occupants or thought to be Archaic period sites. This paper summarizes artifactual,
architectural, technological, and pictorial data that is thought to indicate Yavapai use and
occupation of the Verde Valley. Different theories about the origins of the Yavapai are
discussed in light of oral traditions and archaeological evidence that date the appearance and
continuity of the Pai people in the archaeological record. Finally, it is suggested that relations
between the Yavapai and earlier occupants of the Verde Valley may not have been as bellicose
as some have theorized. History and ethnology provide other examples of hunter/gatherer and
agriculturalist interactions that should be examined as alternatives to existing concepts.
Deni J. Seymour (The Southwest Center)
INTRODUCTION Rethinking Mobility: Method and Theory for the 21st Century
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Existing conceptions that distinguish limited-activity sites and residential sites are detrimental
for understanding material and spatial evidence related to mobile groups. Similarly, the Binforddevised models of site structure which are based on ethnoarchaeologically derived information
are inappropriate for Southwestern open sites occupied for the short term. Despite the
prevalence of these models, archeological evidence indicates that sites are much more dispersed,
without a
residential-core focus and that activities are not focused on hearths. Worldwide evidence of this
pattern provides a cross-cultural basis for assessing its significance for site interpretation and
boundary definition.
Deni J. Seymour
The Hormiguero Site: A Large Peloncillo Mountain Site as a Guide for Identifying Apachean
Material Culture.
A sizable ancestral Apache site in the Peloncillo Mountains has distinctive structure outlines,
storage platforms, rock art, pottery, and other features and artifacts. The nature of this site
provides information on how to identify Apache sites, how to distinguish between Apache and
non-Apache mobile groups, and how to distinguish between various Apachean groups. It also
provides a way to connect ethnographic sources to the archaeological record to understand
landscape use, terrain selection, and the Apachean perception of their neighbors.
James A. Truesdale, David V. Hill, and Christopher James (“CJ”) Truesdale
Site 42UN5406: A Numic and Ancestral Pueblo Ceramic Assemblage in the Uintah Basin,
Uintah County, Utah
The dating of the arrival of Numic-speaking peoples into the Southwest is currently
controversial. Clear associations of material culture that can be associated with Numic
occupations dating prior to the eighteenth century are rare. The ceramic and lithic assemblage
from 43UN5406 indicates the presence of Numic-speakers in northeastern Utah and the Greater
Southwest by the early fourteenth century. Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating for
a finger-nail impressed sherd supports the fourteenth century occupation of the site.
LeRoy Unglaub
Identification of Apache Iconography at Southern New Mexico and West Texas Rock Art Sites
Southern New Mexico and West Texas has a number of rock art styles to include multiple
archaic styles, the Jornada-Mogollon style which is the principal rock art style in this region,
Apache style, and possibly others. Some Apache iconography is relatively easy to identify but
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becomes more difficult especially at sites with multiple rock art styles. This paper will discuss
and illustrate the methods and criteria used to identify Apache iconography at a number of rock
art sites in Southern New Mexico and West Texas.