reached the area in 1583. They described wild, but peaceful and friendly Indians in the region, living in huts instead of pueblos, planting corn, and hunting game. Similar references are made by later explorers. Although the names given them in the old Spanish documents are quite different, these people presumably were the Yavapai.

Still later, the Western Apache came into the story of the Verde Valley. Just when they entered central Arizona is unknown; but since the 1860’s, certain Western Apache bands ranged as far west as the Verde. Two small caves at Montezuma Well show indications of Apache occupation, probably after 1800.

Sinagua Pueblo Life

The pre-Columbian Indians of the Southwest (northern Mexico to southern Utah and Colorado; eastern New Mexico to western Arizona) were, in general, settled and apparently peaceful farming peoples living in villages. The agricultural staples—corn, squash, and beans—were supplemented by gathering wild plants and hunting game. The main hunting weapon was the bow and arrow. Weapons and tools were made of various kinds of stone, animal bones, and wood. Pottery and basketry were used for utensils or containers.

Montezuma Well showing collapsed ruin on opposite rim.

Clothing included garments woven from cultivated cotton and a variety of bands, sandals, and other apparel made from yucca and other wild plants; animal skins also were utilized. Ornaments and ceremonial paraphernalia were made from such materials as turquoise, animal bones, imported sea shells, and brightly colored bird feathers.

Implements and utensils found in the houses of these people include such objects as stone metates and manos for grinding corn, hammers, knives, drills, bone awls and needles, baskets, and many ornaments of shell and turquoise, often carved in bird and animal forms.

Items missing from the pre-Spanish Indian culture include metals, livestock, wheeled vehicles, and writing.

Life in the Sinagua pueblos of the Verde, though lacking the variety found in a modern city, had more of natural beauty and simplicity. Like any other people, the Sinagua would not have selected this spot for their homes if the necessities of their everyday life had not been present. In this region, their needs were filled by a good water supply, bottomlands for farming, wild berries and edible shrubs, game for meat, and materials for buildings, pottery, and tools.

In addition, they had one thing which most Indians in Arizona had to travel great distances to obtain—a large deposit of salt. This they mined a few miles southwest of present-day Camp Verde where their collapsed tunnels can be traced even today. Occasionally the handle of a stone pick may still be seen projecting from a collapsed tunnel. Many bits of matting and unburned torches that the Indians apparently used for lighting their tunnels have been recovered. In 1928 several well-preserved Indian bodies were removed from one of these mines where they had been trapped when one of the tunnels caved in.

The Sinagua also were fortunate in having a deposit of a red rock called argillite not too far away. From this material they fashioned stone pendants, beads, earrings, and other ornaments with which they adorned themselves.

To satisfy their vanity further, the Indians imported luxuries not available in this area. Bracelets, pendants, beads, rings, and inlay made from shell were acquired by trade with tribes to the south who obtained the shell from the Gulf of California. The Sinagua also bartered for turquoise pendants, earrings, beads, and inlay pieces from other groups. Probably their greatest trade was in pottery. These Sinagua Indians rarely decorated their pottery, and judging by the quantity of painted pieces recovered from their sites, they engaged in lively trade for the wares of their northeastern neighbors. One might say that they imported their “china” in quantity.

Through a study of this pottery we find that from about 1150 to 1250, decorated pieces were obtained from the Indians in the north, near modern Flagstaff. Some of this pottery the Sinagua retraded to the Hohokam around present-day Phoenix. (How many of us today would be successful in taking dishes over a distance of 200 miles on foot without breaking a goodly portion?) After 1250, due to depopulation east of the Flagstaff area, the people of the Verde Valley obtained decorated pottery from the region farther east, around modern Winslow; and also, farther north, from the present Hopi Indian reservation area.

The trade possibilities of the Sinagua were almost unlimited. They were located between the large Hohokam settlements of southern Arizona and the widespread pueblos of northern Arizona. Natural routes of travel along streams led them into both areas, and they had salt, argillite, and cotton to offer in exchange.

Despite the importance of trade, which was primarily for luxury items, the Sinagua Indians were basically farmers and depended mainly on food they raised themselves. In Montezuma Castle, American pioneers found corncobs in abundance and sometimes the remains of beans and squash. There were also numerous corn-grinding stones or metates, made from basaltic boulders carried into the area by flood waters in Beaver Creek. Roughly rectangular, the stones measure about 14 by 18 inches, and are 6 to 8 inches thick. Corn was ground by rubbing a smaller stone (mano) back and forth on the metate. This process gradually wore a trough down into the metate.

Montezuma Castle artifacts including piece of gourd with carved handle, squash, cotton bolls, spindle, and corn.

Jars, metates and manos, and fireplace as found in excavated ruin at cliff base west of Montezuma Castle.

The people also were gatherers and hunters to some extent. Remains of hackberries, mesquite beans, black walnuts, and sego-lily bulbs have been found in the cliff dwellings. Mescal or agave (sometimes called century plant) was used. Small wads or “quids” of fiber from this plant have been found; they were chewed by the Indians to extract the sweet juices.

Although identifiable animal bones from Montezuma Castle and nearby dwellings are rare, they have been found in other pueblos in the valley. From a site about 10 miles away, bones of elk, mule deer, antelope, bear, rabbit, turtle, and fish have been recovered.

Some food for winter use must have been held in storage. Probably the Castle dwellers, like the modern Hopis, stacked mature corn on the cob across the end of a room like cordwood. Strings of squash, cut into rings and dried in the sun, were probably strung from the roof in an out-of-the-way corner. Meat was undoubtedly preserved in a similar fashion—by drying rather than smoking or salting it. Perhaps the stores of food and the seed held for the next spring’s planting were sought by neighboring pueblos where crops may have failed. As pointed out earlier, food shortages could have provided one of the principal reasons for intervillage warfare, especially after 1300 when the area became overcrowded.

Cooking fires were kindled by the friction of a wooden spindle rotated in a hearth stick until enough heat was generated to ignite tinder. Perhaps some family in Montezuma Castle was responsible