Historic Navajo Studies in Northeastern Arizona
Creators: name: James, Charles D.
Publisher: name: Museum of Northern Arizona
Year: 1976
Subjects: Canyon DE Chelly National Monument
Greasewood
Northeastern Arizona
Navajo Indian Reservation
Chinle Valley
Route N64
Tsaile Lake Road
Arizona (State / Territory)
Canyon del Muerto
18th Century
19th Century
Historic
Basketmaker II Period
Prehistoric
14th Century
Navajo
Anasazi
Hopi
NA11,366B
NA9718
NA9711
NA9710
NA9712
NA9722
NA9713
NA9723
NA9715
NA9714
NA11,366A
NA11,372
NA11,371
NA11,361
NA11,362
NA11,374
NA11,370
NA11,373
NA11,368
NA11,369
NA11,367
NA11,375
NA11,377
NA11,675
Resource Extraction / Production / Transportation Structure or Features
Agricultural or Herding
Sweat House / Sweat Lodge
Archaeological Feature
Cist
Corral
Artifact Scatter
Hearth
Domestic Structure or Architectural Complex
Check Dam
Hogan
Domestic Structures
Milling Feature
Rock Scatter
Pit
Ash Deposit
Roasting Pit / Oven / Horno
Road, Trail, and Related Structures or Features
Storage Pit
Post Hole / Post Mold
Firepit
Shade Structure / Ramada
Trail
Wood
Ceramic
Basketry
Chipped Stone
Fauna
Ground Stone
Human Remains
Mineral
Development Pattern
Historic Navajo Sites
Tree Ring Dating
Data Recovery / Excavation
Research Design / Data Recovery Plan
Site Evaluation / Testing

description: Archaeological excavations along the north rim of Canyon del Muerto, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona, were conducted during 1972 by the Museum of Northern Arizona. The preliminary objective was to salvage 28 archaeological sites located within the rights-of-way of Route N64, the Chinle to Tsaile Lake road, and four associated spur roads. Research designs for the excavations are broken into historic Navajo and prehistoric Anasazi sites; this report is concerned with the former. This sample consists of 19 sites. Studies were directed toward placing the Navajo occupation in time, finding canyon-rim relationships and determining what acculturative factors have appeared. The first section focuses on the terminology used in this report, project procedures and the historical background of the Navajo occupation in the De Chelly area. The next part encompasses the excavated sites and ancillary studies conducted in conjunction with the project. Following this, a synthesis of the data is presented with a more refined temporal framework of Navajo occupation based on an earlier developmental sequence for this area. Also explored in the last section are settlement patterns and possible indices of acculturation. Navajo occupation began in the De Chelly area prior to A.D. 1800 and continued almost uninterrupted for over 200 years. The early form of clustered settlement gave way to a more dispersed occupation, which at the present is becoming clustered again. Preferred areas along the rim are favored in settlement; both technological and environmental considerations appear to be responsible for this preference. Plant material associations, found at the sites and historical documents indicate rim-canyon travel occurred from the earliest Navajo occupation. This relationship is still continuing, but at the present appears to be breaking down, possibly due to acculturative factors. Substantive contributions of this report include a more refined development of the Navajo chronology for this area, the indication of rim-canyon relationships, and the use of late historic sites on which to base inferences concerning the earlier Navajo sites.