Dilzhe’ ‘e bii tian: Archaeological Investigations of Apache Sites near Little Green Valley, Arizona, State Route 260 - Payson to Heber Archaeological Project, Gila County, Arizona
Creators: name: Fernandez, Rachel
Publisher: name: Desert Archaeology, Inc.
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Little Green Valley
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/geographic-keyword/83262/little-green-valley
subject: Tonto National Forest
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/geographic-keyword/223/tonto-national-forest
subject: Arizona (State / Territory)
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/geographic-keyword/335/arizona-state-territory
subject: Mogollan Rim, AZ
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/geographic-keyword/76626/mogollan-rim-az
subject: Gila (County)
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/geographic-keyword/3907/gila-county
subject: State Route 260
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/geographic-keyword/82805/state-route-260
subject: Interstitial Zone F
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/geographic-keyword/84325/interstitial-zone-f
subject: Classic Hohokam period
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/temporal-keyword/5856/classic-hohokam-period
subject: Prehistoric
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/temporal-keyword/53/prehistoric
subject: Historic Native American
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/culture-keyword/30/historic-native-american
subject: Hohokam
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/culture-keyword/21/hohokam
subject: Huhugam
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/culture-keyword/8166/huhugam
subject: Apache
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/culture-keyword/72/apache
subject: Historic
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/culture-keyword/25/historic
subject: AZ O:12:19/AR-03-12-04-1159 (ASM/TNF)
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-name/104868/az-o1219ar-03-12-04-1159-asmtnf
subject: AZ O:12:89/ AR-03-12-04-1411 (ASM/TNF)
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-name/104867/az-o1289-ar-03-12-04-1411-asmtnf
subject: AZ O:12:88/AR-03-12- 04-1438 (ASM/TNF)
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-name/104870/az-o1288ar-03-12-04-1438-asmtnf
subject: AZ O:12:25/AR-03-12-04-743 (ASM/TNF)
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-name/104869/az-o1225ar-03-12-04-743-asmtnf
subject: Trash Midden
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-type/351/trash-midden
subject: Domestic Structures
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-type/256/domestic-structures
subject: Archaeological Feature
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-type/339/archaeological-feature
subject: Pit
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-type/355/pit
subject: Artifact Scatter
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-type/340/artifact-scatter
subject: Roasting Pit / Oven / Horno
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-type/357/roasting-pit-oven-horno
subject: Pit House / Earth Lodge
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-type/263/pit-house-earth-lodge
subject: Hearth
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-type/343/hearth
subject: Post Hole / Post Mold
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-type/359/post-hole-post-mold
subject: Domestic Structure or Architectural Complex
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-type/251/domestic-structure-or-architectural-complex
subject: Midden
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-type/347/midden
subject: Pollen
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/13/pollen
subject: Shell
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/14/shell
subject: Ceramic
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/1/ceramic
subject: Chipped Stone
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/2/chipped-stone
subject: Fauna
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/4/fauna
subject: Fire Cracked Rock
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/5/fire-cracked-rock
subject: Ground Stone
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/7/ground-stone
subject: Macrobotanical
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/10/macrobotanical
subject: Mineral
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/12/mineral
subject: Historic Background Research
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/investigation-type/18/historic-background-research
subject: Data Recovery / Excavation
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/investigation-type/5/data-recovery-excavation
subject: Records Search / Inventory Checking
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/investigation-type/8/records-search-inventory-checking
subject: Research Design / Data Recovery Plan
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/investigation-type/9/research-design-data-recovery-plan
subject: Site Evaluation / Testing
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/investigation-type/10/site-evaluation-testing
subject: Systematic Survey
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/investigation-type/12/systematic-survey

description: The mountainous zone below the Mogollon Rim in central Arizona was home to Apache in the pre-Reservation period (pre-A.D. 1875). Four Western Apache site components, dating between the late seventeenth and late nineteenth centuries A.D., were identified during excavations conducted in advance of the realignment of the Preacher Canyon and Little Green Valley segments of State Route 260 between Payson and Heber: Plymouth Landing, AZ O:12:89/AR-03-12-04-1411 (ASM/TNF), McGoonie, AZ O:12:25/AR-03-12-04-743 (ASm /t NF), Ponderosa Campground, AZ O:12:19/AR-03-12-04-1159 (ASM/TNF), and Bonobos Vista, AZ O:12:88/AR-03-12-04- 1438 (ASM/TNF). All four sites were situated on the margins of the permanently watered Little Green Valley, and were used as temporary encampments for harvesting juniper berries, black walnuts, and other forest resources. The Apache settlement of this pre-Reservation homeland is introduced here, and is discussed in the context of a larger Apache research program for the project and the region. Due to the nature of Apache material remains, which often go unrecognized, particularly when overlying prehistoric material, little archaeological research has been conducted. The pre-A.D. 1700 Plymouth Landing site is significant as one of the earliest well-documented Apache occupations in the southwestern United States. Additionally, the extraordinary preservation of this site, in conjunction with the results of fieldwork, artifact analyses, and discussions with Apache advisers, provides a basis for not only reconstructing the Apache occupation, but also for assessing the archaeological methods and middle-range theory that can be used in interpretation. Asking why Apache archaeology is of such limited visibility to the archaeologist provides important insights into Apache settlement strategies. Analyses of ceramics, flaked stone, ground stone, macrobotanical, pollen, faunal, and shell artifacts, combined with ethnographic research, show that the Apache components of sites in this region are the remnants of a mobile population, living in an economy dominated by hunting and the collection of arboreal resources, with only limited reliance on cultivated plants. The seventeenth to mid-nineteenth century A.D. Apache families made preferential use of the settlements of their predecessors, and supplemented their own tool assemblages with the extant products of local prehistoric peoples. This, combined with the results of previous research, strongly suggests Apache occupations should no longer be inadvertent discoveries, but rather, expected in this region that was their home for more than 200 years.