Native American Dancers
Like no other part of the country, Native American culture and history play an immediately present and dynamic role in the life of northern and central Arizona. The landscape itself is imprinted with evidence of thousands of years of human life. You can't contemplate the San Francisco Peaks, the austere desert hills of the Verde Valley, the box canyons of Red Rock Country—without hearing whispers of what life was like centuries or millennia in the past. And if that's not direct enough, you only need look to the vibrant capital of the modern Navajo Nation at Window Rock, AZ, or to the vivid pictographs found on rock walls throughout the Northland, transmitting the hopes and struggles of people who lived here at least 10,000 years ago, to get a feel for the deep connection between the Colorado Plateau and its native people.
Pre-history: The Anasazi and Sinagua
There is a wealth of remarkably-preserved evidence of human activity from as far back as 10,000 years throughout northern and central Arizona. The earliest people in the area were nomadic hunters, who over time began to settle in rudimentary pit houses, turning more and more to agriculture as their technology developed. The people generally known as the Anasazi occupied what is now the Four Corners region, reaching into a good-sized chunk of northeastern Arizona. (Anasazi, the most widely-used archaeological term for this broad grouping of people, is a Navajo word meaning "enemy ancestors." The Hopi refer to these ancient people as "Hisatsinom. Others use the term "Ancestral Puebloans.") Roughly 1,000 years ago, they began creating pueblo-style communities, building complex multi-family dwellings into cliff and canyon walls throughout the area. Then, for reasons not fully understood, the Anasazi gradually deserted their Arizona homes in the 12th and 13th centuries. One theory is that a centuries-long drought made agriculture unviable, and the Anasazi migrated North and East to follow better growing conditions and eventually merge with the ancestors of current Pueblo peoples in New Mexico and Colorado.
Ancestral Puebloans (Anasazi) Petroglyphs
Around 600 AD, the Verde Valley and Mogollon Rim area saw the development of a somewhat distinct cultural group that archaeologists call the Sinagua (from the Spanish words sin-without and agua-water.) While it's unclear just how direct the genetic or cultural link is between the Sinagua and the Anasazi, they followed similar patterns in the way their communities developed, moving from pit houses clustered around rudimentary agriculture to elaborate cliff-dwellings and sophisticated agricultural techniques. And, like their more Northern neighbors, the Sinagua also completely abandoned their communities by the end of the 14th century.
What's important to remember when trying to get a grasp on the stories of Arizona's ancient people is that the division and naming of particular groups is an inexact, and often not particularly satisfying process. Because of the highly variable terrain that the ancient people called home, spanning hundreds of miles over arid desert floors and high-country forests, with obstacles like the Grand Canyon cutting off some groups from others, genetics, technology, language and cultures varied accordingly. What remains consistent, however, is the incredible resilience and resourcefulness required to live and thrive in the Southwest high country.
