Hopi Pottery and Prehistoric Salt Procurement in Southern Utah Canyon Country

Abstract

Hopi pottery sherds dating to the PIV period have been documented at sites throughout southeastern Utah, but an unusual cache of Hopi Pueblo IV whole vessels, gourds, shredded bark, and corn cobs, found in an alcove in a remote location in Canyonlands National Park, raises new questions about long-distance interactions in the protohistoric period. The pottery appears to date sometime between AD 1450 and 1629, and to come from the Hopi Mesas. Carbon dating of samples from the gourds and bark returned dates that conformed well with the relative dates of the pottery. One of the pots contained salt; inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analysis of a salt sample from the pot was compared to other natural and cultural salt samples from the region. The source of the cache salt is yet to be determined. Possible explanations are explored, including (1) persistent occupation of the region by Pueblo populations into the Pueblo IV period, (2) intermittent use of the area by PIV people for the purposes of hunting, gathering, visiting shrines, and/or salt gathering, and (3) interaction and trade between Numic speakers and the Hopi during the PIV period, with Numic people leaving behind Hopi pottery sherds and vessels.

Tepalcates cerámicos Hopi que datan para el periodo Pueblo IV han sido documentados en sitios localizados en el suroeste de Utah. No obstante, un depósito ritual inusual consistente de vasijas completas Hopi Pueblo IV, jícaras, corteza triturada y mazorcas de maíz se ha encontrado en un nicho en lugar remoto del Parque Nacional Canyonlands. Este caché plantea nuevas preguntas acerca de las interacciones de larga distancia en el periodo protohistórico. La cerámica parece datar en algún momento entre los años 1450 y 1629 y provenir de las Mesas Hopi. Las muestras de carbono procedentes de las jícaras y la corteza produjeron fechas que concuerdan con las fechas relativas de la cerámica. Una de estas vasijas contuvo sal. El análisis ICP-MS de la muestra de sal de la vasija fue comparada con otras muestras de sal natural y cultural de la región. La fuente de la sal del depósito ritual no ha sido determinada aún. Se exploran varias explicaciones posibles, incluyendo: (1) la ocupación persistente de la región por poblaciones Pueblo en el periodo Pueblo IV, (2) el uso intermitente del área por gente PIV con el propósito de cazar, recolectar, visitar santuarios, y/o recolectar sal, y (3) la interacción y comercio entre hablantes Numic y Hopi durante el period PIV, con gente Numic dejando atrás tiestos y vasijas Hopi.

KEYWORDS:

• Hopi Pottery
• Prehistoric salt procurement
• Southeastern Utah

Acknowledgments

Chris Goetze, NPS Southeast Utah Group Cultural Resources Program Manager, has been involved with the Dansdill collection since it was presented to the NPS in 2002, and made the current analysis project possible. Thanks also to Adrienne Anderson and Eric Brunneman, staff archaeologists when Canyonlands National Park was first contacted about this important collection, and to Vicki Webster, the park's curator. Dr. Mark Miller, SEUG Chief of the Division of Resource Stewardship and Science, supported the project and conducted the multivariate analysis of the salt study data.

Thanks to Dr. William Lipe, Dr. Charles Adams, Sally Cole, Kenneth L. Wintch, Don Simonis, Don Montoya, Dr. William Lucius, Dr. Richard I. Grauch, Steven DiNaso, Dr. Antonio Simonetti, and personnel at Beta-Analytic, Inc., who contributed to the ceramic and salt analyses.

Thanks to the many individuals who helped us procure salt specimens for this study: Kurt Dongoske, Ginger Tracy, Neal Broussart, Dr. Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint (and members of the Torrance County Archaeological Society), Michelle Knoll, Dr. Duncan Metcalfe, Janaki Krishna, Dena Seda, Dr. Laurie Webster, Dr. Gary Feinman, Dr. Jonathan Haas, Alan Francisco, Anne Brancati, Dr. Lucy Fowler Williams, Steve Young, Laura Martin, and Lee Bennett.

Supporting material for this study can be found at: https://irma.nps.gov/Portal. Search on the title of this article.

Notes

¹ Radiocarbon age is calibrated by comparing the radiocarbon measurements derived from the sample to those made on material of known age (typically tree rings). For those samples where two or more date ranges are presented, the 95% confidence interval intersected the calibration curve at two points.

² We have a photograph of some Utes, including “Joe Bishop and his wife . . . of Arizona” (actually from the Navajo Mountain — Blanding area), taken around the turn-of the century at Koosharem in central Utah, 230 air miles northwest of Blanding. Another Ute in the photo is identified as “Whiskers,” another well-known individual in the Blanding area (Utah State Historical Society Mss C 239). An anonymous biographer of the legendary Zeke Johnson, the first caretaker of Natural Bridges National Monument, relates a story of Zeke making a cross-county trip from Blanding to visit his mother in Tropic, Utah (near Bryce Canyon), a distance of roughly 300 km, following a shortcut trail route that the venerable Paiute Jim Mike (Maik) had drawn for him on the ground (anonymous, undated typescript at the University of Utah Marriott Library Special Collections Ms0511, pp. 149-154). Bishop, Whiskers and Maik are all Paiutes of the Allen Canyon band, with connections to both the Navajo Mountain area and the Wiminuche Utes.