Kinishba Ruins is a 600-room Mogollon great house

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

site in eastern Arizona and is administered by the

White Mountain Apache Tribe The Fort Apache Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation on the border of New Mexico and Arizona, United States, encompassing parts of Navajo, Gila, and Apache counties. It is home to the federally recognized White Mountain Apache Tribe of ...

. It is located on the present-day Fort Apache Indian Reservation, in the Apache community of Canyon Day. As it demonstrates a combination of both Mogollon and Ancestral Puebloan cultural traits, archaeologists consider it part of the historical lineage of both the

Hopi The Hopi are a Native American ethnic group who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 census, there are 19,338 Hopi in the country. The Hopi Tribe is a sovereign nation within the Unite ...

and Zuni cultures.Welch, John R. " 'A Monument to Native Civilization': Byron Cummings' Still-Unfolding Vision for Kinishba Ruins"
'' Journal of the Southwest'' 49 (1): 1–94, 22 March 2007, at Highbeam, accessed 31 July 2011 It is designated as a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

. Kinishba's elevation is about . It lies above a pine-fringed

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

valley, west of Fort Apache, in the White Mountain Apache Tribal community of Canyon Day. Long known to the Apache people of the region and alleged to have been visited by Conquistadors, the site was first written about in English in 1892, when pioneering

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

Adolph Bandelier Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier (August 6, 1840March 18, 1914) was a Swiss-born American archaeologist who particularly explored the indigenous cultures of the American Southwest, Mexico, and South America. He immigrated to the United States wit ...

described the ruins. In 1964, the NPS designated the site as a National Historic Landmark. It had long been abandoned and fallen into disrepair. The ruins received limited cleanup and restoration in 2005–2007. Scholars believe that Kinishba may have been the pueblo ''Chiciticale'' referred to in narratives of the 1540–41 Spanish expedition led by

Francisco Vásquez de Coronado Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...

Etymology

From 1931 to 1940, the archaeologist Dr. Byron Cummings, Director of the Arizona State Museum (and head of the Department of Archeology at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

), led a team of archaeology students and local Apache field assistants over several seasons to excavate and restore Kinishba. He named the site, ''ki datbaa,'' derived from the Apache words meaning "brown house".

Description

Kinishba

Kinishba is about above sea level, south of the

Mogollon Rim The Mogollon Rim ( or or ) is a topographical and geological feature cutting across the northern half of the U.S. state of Arizona. It extends approximately , starting in northern Yavapai County and running eastward, ending near the border ...

and north of the Salt River. It is at the eastern foot of ''Tsé Sizin'' ("Rock Standing Up" or Sawtooth Mountain), on White Mountain Apache trust lands associated with the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. The ruins are located in a valley that slopes to the right bank of the White River. The site is easily accessible in comparison to the other 20 or so large (150 or more rooms)

Ancestral Pueblo The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, a ...

village ruins in the Fort Apache area. Estimates suggest the ruins were built and occupied from the 12th to 14th centuries as part of the ancient population boom within the Mogollon Rim region and beyond. Centralized in the lush mountains of the Mt. Baldy watershed, the area has been linked to both Mogollon and Anasazi cultures. They were considered part of the western Pueblo complex. The Kinishba pueblo is composed of nine major building

mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher el ...

s, the remains of

masonry Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...

room blocks, some of which were originally three stories tall. There were two large apartment blocks, and several smaller buildings, with two communal courtyards. At its peak, Kinishba may have housed up to 1,000 to 1,500 people. The masonry walls are unique for their double-walled construction: one side is faced and the other made of rubble. The rooms averaged , with a firepit in the center. Scholars believe that most families occupied two rooms, one for living quarters and one for storage. In the smaller courtyard was a '' kiva'', a room built underground for religious ceremonies. The larger courtyard revealed evidence of three ceremonial stages. It is . In the first stage, of the late 12th century or early 13th century, five underground rooms, each the size of the kiva, were built; they had earthen rather than masonry walls. About the middle of the 13th century, these rooms were filled in. Juniper posts were set into the ground to support beams and a roof, making a large, above-ground room of the courtyard. Later the roof burned, and researchers found no evidence that it was replaced. Ceremonies were moved to other rooms of the pueblo.

Construction and habitation in the Fort Apache region

Hohokam, Ancestral Pueblo, and Mogollon cultures circa 1350 CE

The largest 13th- and 14th-century ruins along the Mogollon Rim all share architectural elements, ceramic assemblages, and similar locational characteristics. They are proximate to expanses of land suitable for dry

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

farming, and they have ready access to

domestic water Tap water (also known as faucet water, running water, or municipal water) is water supplied through a tap, a water dispenser valve. In many countries, tap water usually has the quality of drinking water. Tap water is commonly used for drinking, ...

, tabular sandstone or limestone, and ponderosa pine. All of these large villages were built up from

apartment An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...

-style room blocks, laid out to define communal

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary ...

s or plazas. The resident people cultivated corn, beans and gourds nearby, which were raised together to conserve moisture. They may have raised cotton as well, and gathered fruits, berries, nuts and other foods locally. The White Mountains region served as plentiful resource that allowed for hunting and gathering of food. The women processed the meat for food, and the skin, sinew and bones for clothing, tools, and other needs. Kinishba and her sister villages were abandoned by the Mogollon people in the late 14th or early 15th century for unknown reasons. It may have been related to a water source drying up. The area saw little human interaction until the arrival of the nomadic culture of the Apache from the western

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

. The ruins were not used by the Apache.

Archeological excavation

Over the years, the site was pulled apart by pot hunters and soldiers from Fort Apache seeking souvenirs. In 1892

, a pioneering

, was the first European to write about the site, and other archeologists visited it. From 1931 into the 1940s, Byron Cummings of the University of Arizona led a team of students and a varying workforce of 10 to 27 White Mountain Apache to excavate and restore the site. Cummings named the site, derived from the

Apache The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...

words , meaning "brown house". He created a university field school at the camp of the site, which had seasons from 1931 to 1939. He used a variety of funding means, including his broad network of supporters and the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

and

Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...

(which administered the Fort Apache Agency), to pay for workers and materials. Chester Holden, David Kane, and Turner Thompson were Apache men who spent at least five seasons at the site and became strongly attached to the preservation project. In addition, the teams built a small museum and tourist site in 1939 to hold artifacts and interpret the site. Built during the Great Depression, the museum was intended also as a place for the Apache to sell their contemporary arts and crafts, and to provide continuing employment for tribal members. Cummings was a scholar-entrepreneur, who "combined archaeological research and training; intertribal and interagency collaboration; historic preservation; and museum, community, and tourism enterprise development" in the first project of its kind in Arizona." With his teams, Cummings "excavated at least 220 rooms", and "rebuilt about 140". He enhanced what today is called a heritage tourism destination. Cummings believed that the site was so important that it should be designated by the

Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...

as a

National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a spec ...

and added to properties managed by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

. The agency gave preference to more accessible sites, given the needs of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

quickly followed by

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Cummings did not succeed in having the NPS take over the site. In 1956 the Department of the Interior published a pamphlet on the site, referring to the "Kinishba Ruins and Museum".James B. Shaeffer, "Kinishba, A Classic Site of the Western Pueblos"
Washington, DC: US

, 1956, accessed 1 August 2011 The site was declared a

in 1964 by the Department of the Interior and added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. Since then, the ruins have not been maintained and have deteriorated, as did the museum. A partial restoration was done in 2005–2007 to stabilize much of the site. The complex is administered by the White Mountain Apache Tribe and the Fort Apache Heritage Foundation as a "satellite" element of the

Fort Apache Historic Park Fort Apache Historic Park (Tł’óghagai in Apache language, Apache) is a tribal historic park of the White Mountain Apache, located at the former site of Fort Apache on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. The park interprets the rich and troubl ...

. The White Mountain Apache require visitors to obtain a permit to visit the Kinishba Ruins site. The White Mountain Apache have built their own museum at the Fort Apache Historic Park, based on their traditional style of a , or home. It is called (House of Our Footprints), or the White Mountain Apache Culture Center and Museum."Fort Apache Historic Park and Kinishba Ruins"
''Nohwike' Bágowa'' (House of Our Footprints), White Mountain Apache Culture Center & Museum, accessed 1 August 2011 The park includes a National Historic District, with 27 buildings dating from the US Army's use of the fort during the Apache Wars. The reservation has standing structures ranging in age from ancient to contemporary times. The tribe has provided explanations of the history of the Mogollon Rim Pueblo, as well as the historic and contemporary White Mountain Apache.

Footnotes

References

* Welch, John R., ed. "The site that nobody really Knows: Kinishba revisited." Special issue, ''Archaeology Southwest Magazine'' 30, no. 1 (Winter 2016).
Welch, J.R. (2007) "‘A Monument to Native Civilization’: Byron Cummings’ Still-Unfolding Vision for Kinishba Ruins"
'' Journal of the Southwest'' 49 (1): 1–94, 22 March 2007 * Welch, J.R. (2007) "The White Mountain Apache Photographs of Chuck Abbott and Esther Henderson", ''Journal of the Southwest'' 49 (1): 95–116, 22 March 2007
Welch, J.R. (2007) "Kinishba Bibliography"
'' Journal of the Southwest'' 49(1): 117–127, 22 March 2007.

External links

"Kinishba Ruins"

"Kinsihba Ruins National Historic Landmark"
National Park Service

''Nohwike' Bágowa'' (House of Our Footprints), White Mountain Apache Culture Center & Museum
Fort Apache Heritage Foundation

Galen R. Frysinger Website: People and Places
Randal Schulhauser, "Ghost of a Dream"
Hike Arizona, historic and contemporary photos of Kinishba and article about its archaeology {{authority control Oasisamerica cultures National Historic Landmarks in Arizona Buildings and structures in Gila County, Arizona Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona Ruins in the United States Mogollon culture Mogollon Rim Former populated places in Arizona Tourist attractions in Gila County, Arizona Former populated places in Gila County, Arizona National Register of Historic Places in Gila County, Arizona Populated places on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona Ancient Puebloan archaeological sites in Arizona White Mountain Apache Tribe