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Show Anasazi. At a relatively early time, perhaps by 700 A. D., they already were being assimilated by their more aggressive neighbors, the result being that after this time we lose sight of them as such. It is interesting to speculate on the effect environment had on the Mogollon people. Their domain, for the most part, was rugged and forested territory below the Mogollon Rim stretching off in a southeasterly direction. This is a mountainous country running diagonally to the southeast, most of it forested, well- watered, and originally well- stocked with game, but deficient in the amount of land suitable for cultivation. Prominent features include the White Mountains at the southeastern end of the Mogollon Plateau and the Mogollon Mountains in western New Mexico in which the headwaters of the Gila River rise. There is no doubt that the Mogollon people farmed in favored localities, but these were limited, and so, while the Mogollon people knew the benefits of agriculture, they nevertheless followed the older form of food gathering too. And this latter pursuit gave them cause to move about, and to widen their territory and extend their range of contacts with other tribes. The area inhabited by the Mogollon Culture was as large as that claimed by their contemporaries, the Hohokam and Anasazi, and geographically they share equally with the others in any consideration of southwestern prehistory. The foregoing remarks on the Mogollon Culture have by no means fully covered the archeology of the southeastern portion of the Colorado River Drainage Basin- other tribal groups also were involved, particularly after 700 to 800 A. D. They will be considered following the discussion of the Gila Basin and the White Mountains area. Hohokam Culture.- The Gila River and its important tributaries, like the Salt, San Francisco, and Blue, rise in the great mountain mass of east- central Arizona and west- central New Mexico. From the high altitudes they descend through valleys and tortuous canyons, and eventually break forth on the lowland deserts of central and southwestern Arizona. Here the rivers become wide and sluggish, running between low channel banks carved out of the incredibly rich bottom land. These rivers, the Gila, Salt, and several minor branches, truly determined the development of a tribe known as the Hohokam ( a Pima word meaning " the people who have gone"), farmers extraordinary and one of America's colorful pre- Columbian peoples. It was a case of Nature setting the stage and man's awareness of what could be done in spite of strong odds against him. Just where the Hohokam came from and what their exact origin is remain moot questions. There are some indications that Hohokam, like the Mogollon people, were the descendants of an earlier local population. At any rate, we first begin to recognize them at about the beginning of the Christian Era and have traced their development for the ensuing 1,400 years. They centered in the present region of Phoenix on the Salt River, and west of Florence on the Gila where the development reached its peak. The Hohokam frontiers lay far beyond this nuclear territory- west to Gila Bend, north towards Prescott ( one contingent broke away from the core and went as far as Flagstaff), east into Tonto Basin and up the Gila to Safford, and southeasterly to about the Mexican border, notably in the valley of the Santa Cruz. To the south, close relatives of the Hohokam were at home. They will be discussed a little later on. Rather than evidencing imperialistic tendencies on the part of the Hohokam, this large area of habitation indicates a natural expansion to those parts wThere they could follow the particular type of agriculture for which they are famous- irrigated agriculture. Who it was among the Hohokam to first try ditch irrigation must forever remain an unsung hero. In fact, a single person may not have been responsible for this achievement. Like other basic steps of man to reach a higher state, it may have been the result of common striving where each contribution was infinitesimally small and perhaps unrecognized. In any event, perhaps by 500 A. D., or soon after, the Hohokam had learned enough to divert some of the water from the rivers along which they lived, and conduct it through artificially dug canals to the baked desert ground nearby. It took no great genius to see that more canals spelled more land under cultivation, which in turn would mean more food and greater economic security. But it did take leadership of a high order to muster and direct the labor to construct and maintain scores 84 |