Itamu umumi yooya’ ökiwni (“We Will Arrive as Rain to You”): Evidence of Historical Relationships among Western Basketmaker, Fremont, and Hopi Peoples

Abstract

During Basketmaker II (∼800 BC to AD 400), Kiowa-speaking Eastern Basketmaker (EBM) farmers who migrated north shared threads of common heritage with Fremont peoples [Ortman and McNeil, 2017. The Kiowa Odyssey: Evidence of Historical Relationships among Pueblo, Fremont, and North Plains Peoples. Plains Anthropologist 63(246):152-174]. But were EBM farmers alone on their migration north? In this paper, we draw upon linguistic, archaeological, and rock art evidence to argue that: (1) during BM II, Central Mesa Verde served as a “interaction zone” between Hopi foragers (or forager-farmers) and Kiowa farmers; (2) affiliated Hopi and Kiowa groups migrated through west-central Colorado and the Tavaputs Plateaus to the Uintah Basin; (3) both groups shared threads of common heritage with Eastern Fremont people; and (4) while Kiowa-Fremont farmers remained in the Uintah Basin until approximately AD 1300 [Finley et al. 2019. Multidecadal Climate Variability and Florescence of Fremont Societies in Eastern Utah. American Antiquity, in press]. Hopi-Fremont who became farmers left earlier (∼AD 1050), embarking on a return migration south to join Hopi-speaking kinsmen in the south.