9510

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9510
• Author: Jones, A. T.
• Title: A Cross Section of Grand Canyon Archeology
• USFW Year: 1986.
• USFW - Doc Type: Excavations at Five Sites Along the Colorado River.
• Copyright Material: NO

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Several sites on the eastern South Rim (Rice, Effland and
P-l ank-Roper 1980) and at least one in the canyon (di scussed in thi s
volume) date ceramically to as late as A.D. 1225. HO\'/ever, population
must have declined in the entire area because by A.D. 1150, all but
those few sites were abandoned. The explanation most frequently
propounded for the abandonment focuses on climatic variability and on
the hreak.down of the local trade networks (Euler and others 1979;
Effland, Jones and Euler 1981).
The canyon was reoccupi ed about A. D. 1300. The Southern Paiute
arrived fror.t the northwest (Madsen 1975) and occasionallY hunted and
car.tped helow the North Rim according to Euler and ChandJer (1978) and
the findings of this report. The Cerbat, ancestors of the northeastern
Pa i lndi ans, moved northeast from the Lower Colorado Ri ver area and
occupi ed roughly the same terri tory as had the Cohonina and the present
Pai.

~t the same time, the Hopi descendants of the Anasazi occasi onally
returned to the canyon to coll ect ceremoni al salt and to vi sit the
Sipapu, a mineral spring believed to be the place fror.t which men and
animals emerged from the underworld and to which the dead return. Both
are located near the confluence of the Little Colorado and Colorado
rivers on a route that passes the Beamer's Cabin site discussed in this
report. The last documented'ritual trip was in 1912 (Titiev 1937;
Sir.llnons 1942).
The Southern Paiute still live north of the Grand Canyon, and the
Pa i (Havasupai and Hual apa i) i nhabi t Havasu Canyon and areas south and
west of the present national park. European contact occurred in A.D.
1540 when the Spani ard Coronado sent Garcia Lopez de Cardenas to fi nd
the great \'Jestern river (the Colorado) of which the Hopi Indians spoke.
Francisco Tomas Garces, a missionary assigned to San Xavier del "Bac near
Tucson, ~,rizona, explored Hualapai country in 1776 and was the first
European to visit the Havasupai in their canyon (Hughes 1978:21). In
the same year, Franci scan Father Sil yes tre Vel ez de Escal ante contacted
Southern Paiute Indians on the North Rim while searching for a route
from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the California missions. These visits had
little effect on the natives and none on the canyon. What did cause

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