Chapter VII · THE PATAYAN CULTURE

CHAPTER VII THE PATAYAN CULTURE

The prehistoric people who lived in the valley of the Colorado River below the Grand Canyon are the least well known in the Southwest, for most information about them has been derived only from surface surveys. Originally, the term Yuman was applied to these people, for Indians speaking a Yuman language were found there by the first white men to visit the area.[35] Some archaeologists still use this term, and it is commonly applied to the culture found in the lower Colorado River basin and adjacent areas in California.[116] Others feel that it is unwise to apply a linguistic term to a prehistoric culture and use the term Patayan, a Walapai word meaning “the old people.”[16] It is postulated that the Patayan or Yuman is a basic culture or root to which should be given the same status as the Anasazi and Hohokam.

A large population was found in this area when it was visited by Father Kino in 1700, and it is thought that there must have been a great concentration of population in this fertile valley and delta for a long time. In the lower basin of the Colorado River and in the desert area which adjoins it, has been found evidence of ancient people who worked in stone but did not make pottery.[115] A period followed in which more territory was occupied and in which pottery was made. The finding of datable pieces of trade wares in the valley indicates a period of occupation of some 1500 years by people familiar with ceramics.[116]

Archaeologists studying the Patayan or Yuman culture encounter many difficulties. The culture seems to be characterized by a great poverty of material remains, possibly because of a greater use of perishable materials which have not been preserved. Also, until Boulder Dam was built, the river overflowed its banks every year and covered the land with a layer of silt, thus burying much evidence of occupation.[17]

In western and northwestern Arizona, the portion of this area which lies within the scope of this book, the one group of people which has been more or less definitely assigned to the Patayan culture is known only from the finding of distinctive, brown utility-wares. The main center of this tribe seems to have been in the Colorado River valley below Black Canyon.

There are also two other groups of northwestern Arizona which may, or may not, prove to be manifestations of the Patayan pattern. 168 The area below the Grand Canyon and north of the San Francisco Mountains, bounded on the east by the Little Colorado River and on the west by the Grand Wash Cliffs, was occupied between about 700 and 1100 A.D. by a group of people to which the name Cohonina has been applied.[16] These people lived both in deep and in very shallow pit houses with walls made of timber. It has been suggested that the deep pit houses may represent a Sinagua trait and that the near-surface houses were the true Cohonina form. Masonry was used in the construction of some of the deep pit houses and granaries and forts. The latter are large rectangular buildings with thick walls and parapets which were probably loop-holed. The building of such structures would suggest unsettled conditions. Some time after 1100 A.D., masonry pueblos were built.

Cohonina pottery was a gray ware made by the paddle-and-anvil process, sometimes scraped for final finishing, and fired in a reducing atmosphere. Red paint was often applied over the surface of the vessel after firing. It is impermanent and is commonly called “fugitive red”. Occasionally crude designs were applied with a thin black paint. Jars were the most common form, but some bowls were also made. Arrowheads were of a distinctive type. Cohonina points are slender and roughly triangular, although sometimes the maximum breadth is above the base. They are serrated and unnotched. Little is known of methods of disposing of the dead. It is suspected that cremation was practiced, but that the bones were not gathered after burning.

To the south in the vicinity of Prescott, Arizona, between about 900 and 1000 A.D., lived another group of people.[16] They too built some masonry forts and made gray, paddle-and-anvil pottery with a coarse temper containing much mica. Decorations were in black paint. The firing atmosphere was poorly controlled, and there is a variation in color from gray to orange or red, although the paste is the same.

If all this seems needlessly confusing, it must be remembered that even the archaeologists most intimately concerned with the problem are confused too. Only the most fragmentary evidence has been found, but they know that an important chapter in the prehistory of the Southwest lies in the valley of the Colorado River and adjacent areas. They know that eventually they will be able to read it, and, as a result, they will have a greatly improved perspective in their attempts to analyze the whole of prehistoric life in the Southwest. Before the final pages are deciphered, however, so much remains to be done that very likely there will be even more confusion before there is clarification.

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CONCLUSION

In the preceding chapters an attempt has been made to summarize our present knowledge of the prehistory of the great area called the Southwest. Although the Southwest is possibly the best known area in America, we have barely scratched the surface and great discoveries lie ahead. For the present there are many gaps in our knowledge. Doubtless in many cases, data have been incorrectly interpreted. Archaeological opinions are by no means unanimous on all points. In the years to come, other archaeologists with greater knowledge and more refined techniques will reveal new pages of prehistory and re-interpret many of those which their predecessors have tried to decipher. The findings of all science must be regarded, “not as rigid dogma, but as reasonable approximation to truth, certain to be largely extended and modified in the future.”[2] Although there is yet much to be learned and much to be reevaluated, a great deal has already been accomplished in the realm of Southwestern archaeology. Through scattered clues, carefully assembled and painstakingly studied and correlated it is at least possible to see something of the growth and development of unfamiliar cultures.

Inevitably certain questions are asked of those who devote themselves to such work. “What good is archaeology?” “Why is it important to know these things?” The best answer seems to be still another question. “Are we sufficiently sure of the worth of our own achievements to deny the value of trying to reconstruct another chapter of human history, even if we have nothing more than pottery and stone to guide us?”[3] According to our standards the prehistoric inhabitants of the Southwest did not achieve civilization. Still, there might be something to be learned from people so uncivilized that they believed that the cultivation of the land, the creation of beautiful as well as useful objects, and keeping in harmony with the great natural forces of the universe, were more important than the subjugation or destruction of their fellow men.

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