Montezuma Castle National Monument, Arizona (1977) — Themes and Context

ed. Then the water was turned onto the fields to complete their labor.

During the course of their pioneering work, this small group of Indians probably lived on the edge of the bluff above the fields and in three small caves along the bluff bordering their ditch. Food was not lacking, as the plants in the area provided them with many essentials. Mesquite beans, a common staple among the Indians, were plentiful in the late summer and autumn, as were walnuts, berries, wild gourds, and sunflower seeds.

Other plants, particularly yucca, supplied necessary fibers for making sandals, matting, cordage, baskets, and other articles. Reeds and hardwoods were available to make bows and arrows and other wooden implements for hunting rabbits and ducks around the Well. Hunting parties no doubt went to the foothills for larger game such as deer.

At about the same time that the Hohokam were in the valley, another group of Indians whom we call the “Sinagua,” lived in the forested foothills to the north and east, and on the plateau above. Their small villages were located in open areas that could be dry farmed, as they depended on rain water for their crops. Their houses, like those of the Hohokam, were made of poles, brush, and mud; however, they were dug into the ground, with just a small portion of the walls and the roof projecting above the ground level.

Their utensils and habits were similar to those of the Hohokam, though different in some respects. For example, in contrast to the Hohokam practice, the Sinagua polished their plain brown pottery. Also, it is known that after 1070, they buried their dead in an extended position instead of cremating them as the Hohokam did. Although the Sinagua were basically farmers like the Hohokam, at this time they depended to a greater extent on foods they gathered and meat they hunted than they did later.

About 1070, some of the Hohokam left the valley. Evidently many of these emigrants went north to the plateau region east of present-day Flagstaff, to plant in the moisture-conserving ash-fall area created by the eruption of Sunset Crater in 1064. Shortly after these Hohokam departed, many of the Sinagua moved down from the hills into the middle of the Verde Valley. This occurred about 1125. They lived much as they had before, but with two important changes: they adopted the Hohokam idea of irrigation, and they began building surface houses of rock and mud—an idea acquired from still another group, the Pueblo Indians, farther north. These Sinagua were the people who built the stone pueblos we find in the valley today.

At first they erected small settlements on well-drained ridges overlooking their farmlands. Occasionally, also, caves were utilized for dwellings; the first 3 or 4 rooms of Montezuma Castle were evidently built in the 1100’s.

From 1125 to 1200, the settlement at Montezuma Well was increased by groups of these Sinagua Indians who had left their homes in the foothills to the north and east. It appears that they joined some of the remaining Hohokam, as several customs of the latter survived up to 1400. In this period the Sinagua also utilized caves near their fields, and built a small pueblo on the west rim of Montezuma Well. Limestone rock for their masonry was available on the rim of the Well, and river boulders for foundations were taken from the creek. Mud and clay, which they mixed for their mortar, were easily obtained along the creek.

As the years passed, more land was put under cultivation and more ditches were constructed. To insure adequate care of their farmland, 1- and 2-room “farm” structures were built on the slopes above and along the course of the main ditch. From these, the occupants were able to view the fields while irrigating and also could divert the water from the ditch below them whenever necessary. At their peak, the people at Montezuma Well were farming about 60 acres, or possibly more, and their main ditch was about 1 mile long.

The Sinagua of the Verde generally lived in small pueblos until about 1250, at which time the center of the valley appears to have undergone a “real estate boom.” The buildings increased in size, and many of them were converted into forts with defensive walls, parapets, peepholes, and sealed doorways. Since the pueblos on the north and east fringes of the valley were abandoned in the 1200’s, it is believed that the Sinagua of that area probably were the ones who moved in to increase the population and size of the central villages.

This move to the center of the valley was probably caused by nearly a century of almost continuous drought which began about 1200 and culminated in an especially severe drought from 1276 to 1299.