Sinagua

The name Sinagua was coined in 1939 by archaeologist Harold S. Colton,Gibbon 770{{cite web |last1=Linoff |first1=Lindsay |title=The Sinagua People of Montezuma Castle |url=http://www.mesacc.edu/~thoqh49081/StudentPapers/sinagua.html |publisher=Mesa Community College |accessdate=12 April 2020 |date=1998 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200412234041/http://www.mesacc.edu/~thoqh49081/StudentPapers/sinagua.html |archive-date=12 April 2020 |url-status=dead}} founder of the Museum of Northern Arizona, from the Spanish words sin meaning "without" and agua meaning "water", referring to the name originally given by Spanish explorers to the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, the "Sierra Sin Agua". The name reflects the surprise the Spanish felt that such large mountains did not have perennial rivers flowing from them, as is common in Spain.

File:Box Canyon wall.jpg]]

Colton also distinguished between two different Sinagua cultures. The Northern Sinagua were loosely centered in the highlands around Flagstaff, with Walnut Canyon National Monument, Wupatki National Monument, and Elden Pueblo the best-known publicly accessible sites. The Southern Sinagua inhabited lower elevations across the Verde Valley of central Arizona; Montezuma Castle National Monument, Montezuma Well, Tuzigoot National Monument, Palatki and Honanki Archaeological Sites, and the V Bar V Heritage Site are notable localities open to the public.

The Sinagua economy was based on a combination of hunter-gatherer foraging and subsistence agriculture. They hunted a variety of game from antelope, bear, rabbit, to turtles and ducks.

They used amaranth, ricegrass, cactus fruit, beeweed flowers, and cattails for flour. Sunflowers, hackberry fruit, yucca, wild grapes, walnuts, pine nuts, and acorns were also important sources of food.

Sinagua farmers cultivated maize beginning in the eighth century. They learned irrigation techniques from their southern Hohokam neighbors and added beans and squash to their crops. The 1064 and 1066 eruptions of Sunset Crater covered the area in ash, which greatly enriched the soil for farming.Gibbon 771

Around 700 CE, they became active in the region's long-distance trade which reached the Gulf of California and Mesoamerica. They traded their baskets and woven cotton cloth for copper, macaws, marine shells, salt, and rare pigments.

Early Sinagua sites consist mostly of large pit houses, similar to the ones built by the Hohokam people of southern Arizona, and wooden buildings. Later structures more closely resemble the Pueblo architecture practiced by other contemporaneous cultural groups occupying the southwestern United States.

Besides ceremonial kivas, their pueblos had large "community rooms" and some featured ballcourts and walled courtyards, similar to those of the Hohokam culture.

The last known evidence of Sinagua occupation for any site comes from Montezuma Castle, a limestone cliff dwelling by Beaver Creek in Verde Valley. This 65-room structure was believed to be built by Sinagua women between 1100 and 1350 CE.

File:Sinew wrapped split feathers on Sinagua arrow.jpg|400px ]]

Known as Alameda Brown Ware, their plain pottery was built using the paddle-and-anvil method. Their clay was grey or brown, tempered with crushed potsherds, and painted with buff, brown, and red slips.

They carved with imported red argillate.

Sinagua peoples left the Verde Valley by the early 15th century. Like other pre-Columbian cultures in the southwest, the Sinagua apparently abandoned their permanent settlements around this time, though the precise reasons for such a large-scale abandonment are not yet known; resource depletion, drought, and clashes with the newly arrived Yavapai people have been suggested.

Several contemporary Hopi clans trace their ancestry to immigrants from the Sinagua culture, who they believe left the Verde Valley for religious reasons. Pima, Tohono O'odham, Yavapai, and Zuni also potentially have cultural, linguistic, and historical connections to the Sinagua people.{{cite journal|last1=O'Brien|first1=Melanie|journal=Federal Register|date=1 April 2015|volume=80|issue=62|title=Notice of Inventory Completion: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Montezuma Castle National Monument, Camp Verde, AZ|pages=17,477–17,479|url=http://www.nps.gov/nagpra/FED_NOTICES/NAGPRADIR/nic1947.html|accessdate=17 November 2015|publisher=National NAGPRA}}

Melanie O'Brien, acting manager of the National NAGPRA Program, writes of Montezuma Castle:

Evidence demonstrating continuity between the people of the Verde Valley during A.D. 1125–1425 and the Hopi Tribe includes archaeological, anthropological, linguistic, folkloric, and oral traditions. Ceramic vessels made only on the Hopi mesas are found at the sites and are similar to items made by historic and modern Hopi people. Additionally, plain woven and painted textiles, coiled basketry, and woven matting are similar to items made and used by modern Hopi people. Living Hopi clan members also have ancestral names and traditional stories about specific events and people at each site.

{{Gallery

|title=Cliff dwellings of the Sinaguas

|width=180px

|height=200px

|align=center

|File:Camp Verde- Montezuma Well-1.JPG|Montezuma Well is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, reference #66000082.

|File:Camp Verde- Montezuma Well-3.JPG|Cliff dwellings of the Sinagua people.

|File:Camp Verde- Montezuma Well-2.JPG|Close up view of the cliff dwellings of the Sinagua people.

|File:Camp Verde- Montezuma Castle-Display.JPG|Diorama showing how the pre-Columbian Sinagua people may have lived in Montezuma Castle,

|File:Camp Verde- Montezuma Well-Sinagua pit house ruins-1.jpg|Sinagua pithouse, from 1050 CE. Two largest holes in the dirt floor held the timber roof supports. The holes around the edge reveal the outline of the structure.

|File:Camp Verde- Montezuma Well-Ruins of a Sinagua home-1.JPG|Ruins of a Sinagua house.

|File:Sinagua historic.jpg|Historic view of the Sinagua cliff dwelling at Montezuma Castle National Monument, 1887

}}

{{reflist|2}}

• {{cite book|editor1-last=Gibbon|editor1-first=Guy|title=Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: An Encyclopedia|date=1998|publisher=Taylor & Francis|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/archaeologyofpre0000unse/page/770 770]|isbn=978-0815307259|url=https://archive.org/details/archaeologyofpre0000unse/page/770}}

• Desert farming, present-day applications of non-irrigated farming by Native Americans of the southwestern United States
• Ancient Pueblo peoples
• Hohokam
• Mogollon
• Oasisamerica

{{Commons category|Sinagua}}

{{Americana Poster|Cliff-Dwellers}}

• [http://www.beloit.edu/~museum/logan/southwest/sinagua/introduction.htm Logan Museum – Ancient Cultures of the Southwest]
• [http://www.nps.gov/moca/ Montezuma Castle National Monument]
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20051118201730/http://www.redrockcountry.org/recreation/cultural/palatki-ruins.shtml Palatki Archaeological Site]}}
• [http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/swpottery/PubArch/SSBib.htm Selected, Annotated Bibliography of Southern Sinagua Archaeology]
• [http://www.americansouthwest.net/arizona/tuzigoot/national_monument.html Tuzigoot National Monument]
• [http://www.nps.gov/wupa, Wupatki National Monument]

{{Indigenous People of AZ}}

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Category:Native American history of Arizona

Category:Native American tribes in Arizona

Category:Oasisamerica cultures

Category:Archaeology of the United States

Category:Puebloan peoples

Category:Pre-Columbian cultures