Lower Gila Research Articles

History of the Hickiwan District, Tohono 'O'odham Nation

History of the Hickiwan District, Tohono 'O'odham Nation Harry J. Winters Jr. (bio) The lands of the Tohono 'O'odham Nation are divided into 11 districts. The district boundaries reflect ancient patterns of ownership and use of natural resources such as farmlands, watering places, and areas for gathering food plants by different groups of Tohono 'O'odham. The Nation is governed by a Tribal Council with a tribal chairperson and a vice chairperson. All 11 districts are represented on the council. Each district has its own District Council with a district chairperson and a district vice chairperson. The Hickiwan District headquarters is at the village Vavhia Chiñ, Mouth Of The Well. This history is dedicated to the 'O'odham of the Hickiwan District. Many 'O'odham of younger generations are not familiar with the vocabulary used by their ancestors and even their grandparents and parents. One purpose of this history is to help them learn some of those old words which were so important to their elders. A list of 'O'odham words used in this history and their meanings is appended at the end of the history. If the meaning of a word or name is not in the text, look in that appendix. Location of the Hickiwan District The Hickiwan District is the most northwestern of the nine contiguous districts that include most of the Tohono 'O'odham Nation lands in the United States. The district's maximum dimensions are about 30.3 miles from the northeast corner to the southeast corner and about 28.6 miles east to west. The northernmost point of the district is in the Sauceda Mountains near the mouth of Couger Canyon and less than a mile [End Page 100] southwest of the mountain 'E'eḍ Vahudam, Barn Owl. This point is also about 1.75 miles southwest of the junction of two extremely important old 'O'odham trails at the hill 'Eḍa Kavolik, Kavolik In The Middle, so named because it sits right between those two trails and immediately southeast of their junction. See the Hickiwan District map. Click for larger view View full resolution Hickiwan District Map From the northwestern corner the boundary runs east across the southern end of the Sand Tank Mountains to a point about 5.5 miles north of Gagga village, spelled Kaka on U.S. Geological Survey maps [End Page 101] and meaning Clearings For Fields. At that point it turns north for 3 miles and then turns south-southeast and follows a slightly irregular course to the site of the old village Moik Vavhia, Soft Well, so named because digging the ground for the well was easy. Moik Vavhia was the easternmost well village of the people of Gagga as recently as the first part of the 20th century. From Moik Vavhia the boundary follows a zigzag course to the southwest, passing just east of the village Vavhia Chiñ, Mouth Of The Well. At a point 4 miles southwest of Vavhia Chiñ the boundary turns south-southwest and runs to a point less than a mile south of Arizona State Route 86 from Tucson to Ajo. At that point the boundary turns west for about 17.5 miles, passing just south of Nine Mile Peak, Bihinolik in 'O'odham, and passing between the old Gunsight mine on the south and S-Chuchuligk village on the north until it reaches the western boundary of the Hickiwan District and the Nation's lands. The name Bihinolik comes from the shape of the little butte. It looks like something wrapped up and slumped over. S-Chuchuligk means Place With Lots Of Chickens. It is also called Gunsight after the old mine. For its entire length, the northern boundary of the district lies along the southern boundary of the U.S. Air Force Barry M. Goldwater Range, in an active tactical area of that range. Establishment of the range, formerly known as the Luke Air Force Range, in 1941 cut off direct access of the Tohono 'O'odham from the villages in the Hickiwan District to the Lower Gila River via two ancient trails. For centuries those trails were very important to 'O'odham...

Lowland Patayan Pottery: A History, Crisis, and Manifesto

ABSTRACT Archaeologists working in the far western Southwest distinguish the Lowland Patayan tradition by virtue of a distinctive, typically undecorated, light-colored pottery found along the lower Gila and lower Colorado rivers and in surrounding deserts. Known generally as “Lower Colorado Buff Ware,” research into Lowland Patayan pottery has a convoluted history, including the formulation of multiple typologies that are incompatible and whose chronologies contradict each other. This article discusses this history and critically evaluates the prevailing typology to expose some of its shortcomings. It also presents some data amassed over the past 40 years to show that the chronology girding it is inaccurate. To overcome this problem, I suggest that researchers of Lowland Patayan pottery temporarily set aside the ceramic type concept and consider the importance of attributes in relation to well-defined research questions, with particular attention directed at chronological refinement and material sourcing.

Remotely Sensed Changes in Vegetation Cover Distribution and Groundwater along the Lower Gila River

Introduced as a soil erosion deterrent, salt cedar has become a menace along riverbeds in the desert southwest. Salt cedar replaces native species, permanently altering the structure, composition, function, and natural processes of the landscape. Remote sensing technologies have the potential to monitor the level of invasion and its impacts on ecosystem services. In this research, we developed a species map by segmenting and classifying various species along a stretch of the Lower Gila River. We calculated metrics from high-resolution multispectral imagery and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data to identify salt cedar, mesquite, and creosote. Analysts derived training and validation information from drone-acquired orthophotos to achieve an overall accuracy of 94%. It is clear from the results that salt cedar completely dominates the study area with small numbers of mesquite and creosote present. We also show that vegetation has declined in the study area over the last 25 years. We discuss how water usage may be influencing the plant health and biodiversity in the region. An examination of ground well, stream gauge, and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) groundwater storage data indicates a decline in water levels near the study area over the last 25 years.

Regional-scale transport of air pollutants: impacts of Southern California emissions on Phoenix ground-level ozone concentrations

Abstract. In this study, WRF-Chem is utilized at high resolution (1.333 km grid spacing for the innermost domain) to investigate impacts of southern California anthropogenic emissions (SoCal) on Phoenix ground-level ozone concentrations ([O3]) for a pair of recent exceedance episodes. First, WRF-Chem control simulations, based on the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2005 National Emissions Inventories (NEI05), are conducted to evaluate model performance. Compared with surface observations of hourly ozone, CO, NOX, and wind fields, the control simulations reproduce observed variability well. Simulated [O3] are comparable with the previous studies in this region. Next, the relative contribution of SoCal and Arizona local anthropogenic emissions (AZ) to ozone exceedances within the Phoenix metropolitan area is investigated via a trio of sensitivity simulations: (1) SoCal emissions are excluded, with all other emissions as in Control; (2) AZ emissions are excluded with all other emissions as in Control; and (3) SoCal and AZ emissions are excluded (i.e., all anthropogenic emissions are eliminated) to account only for Biogenic emissions and lateral boundary inflow (BILB). Based on the USEPA NEI05, results for the selected events indicate the impacts of AZ emissions are dominant on daily maximum 8 h average (DMA8) [O3] in Phoenix. SoCal contributions to DMA8 [O3] for the Phoenix metropolitan area range from a few ppbv to over 30 ppbv (10–30 % relative to Control experiments). [O3] from SoCal and AZ emissions exhibit the expected diurnal characteristics that are determined by physical and photochemical processes, while BILB contributions to DMA8 [O3] in Phoenix also play a key role. Finally, ozone transport processes and pathways within the lower troposphere are investigated. During daytime, pollutants (mainly ozone) near the Southern California coasts are pumped into the planetary boundary-layer over the Southern California desert through the mountain chimney and pass channel effects, aiding eastward transport along the desert air basins in southern California and finally, northeastward along the lower Gila River basin in Arizona, thereby affecting Phoenix air quality during subsequent days. This study indicates that local emission controls in Phoenix need to be augmented with regional emission reductions to attain the federal ozone standard, especially if a more stringent standard is adopted in the future.

Modeled Sources, Transport, and Accumulation of Dissolved Solids in Water Resources of the Southwestern United States1

Information on important source areas for dissolved solids in streams of the southwestern United States, the relative share of deliveries of dissolved solids to streams from natural and human sources, and the potential for salt accumulation in soil or groundwater was developed using a SPAtially Referenced Regressions On Watershed attributes model. Predicted area-normalized reach-catchment delivery rates of dissolved solids to streams ranged from <10 (kg/year)/km2 for catchments with little or no natural or human-related solute sources in them to 563,000 (kg/year)/km2 for catchments that were almost entirely cultivated land. For the region as a whole, geologic units contributed 44% of the dissolved-solids deliveries to streams and the remaining 56% of the deliveries came from the release of solutes through irrigation of cultivated and pasture lands, which comprise only 2.5% of the land area. Dissolved-solids accumulation is manifested as precipitated salts in the soil or underlying sediments, and (or) dissolved salts in soil-pore or sediment-pore water, or groundwater, and therefore represents a potential for aquifer contamination. Accumulation rates were <10,000 (kg/year)/km2 for many hydrologic accounting units (large river basins), but were more than 40,000 (kg/year)/km2 for the Middle Gila, Lower Gila-Agua Fria, Lower Gila, Lower Bear, Great Salt Lake accounting units, and 247,000 (kg/year)/km2 for the Salton Sea accounting unit.

Hohokam and Patayan interaction in southwestern Arizona: evidence from ceramic compositional analyses

Ceramic raw material use is one line of evidence for prehistoric territorial boundaries and social interaction. In this paper, we characterize the raw materials used by Hohokam and Patayan potters along the western Hohokam frontier, using data from oxidation analysis, laser-ablation inductively-coupled plasma spectrometry, and petrographic analysis. The sample includes 150 sherds from three sites (AZ Z:1:29[ASM], AZ Z:1:30[ASM], and BMGR-02-F-04) south of Gila Bend, Arizona. Similar Lower Gila River sediments were used for Hohokam and Patayan ceramics during the period A.D. 700–1150. Patayan potters apparently used clay sources from an area dominated by Hohokam settlements, and their ceramics were transported at least 50 km into the desert interior, perhaps representing seasonal movements between the river and the desert.

Continued Invasion by an Introduced Frog (Rana berlandieri): Southwestern Arizona, Southeastern California, and Rio Colorado, Mexico

The Rio Grande leopard frog (Rana berlandieri), previously documented as an introduced species along the lower Gila and Colorado river valleys in southwestern Arizona and south-eastern California, has continued to expand its range into the Imperial Valley of southeastern California, is now well-established west of Phoenix, Arizona, and occurs on the Rio Colorado, Baja California Norte. We found R. berlandieri at 53 new localities in Arizona, California, and Baja California Norte, representing continued invasion of riverine and agricultural habitats, including range extensions of 65 km northeast and 44 km southeast of the eastern-most previously reported locality in Arizona, and 42 km north of the nearest previously reported locality in California. We report the species for the first time in Baja California Norte, 46 km southwest of the next nearest previously reported locality. The species apparently disperses to new areas via agricultural ditches and canals, rivers, and by human introduction. We explore the potential for continued invasion of suitable habitats in California, Arizona, Baja California Norte, and Sonora and discuss implications for regional conservation and management of native ranid frogs.

Quarrying and Production of Milling, Implements at Antelope Hill, Arizona

AbstractTo process mesquite, maize, and other substances, aboriginal groups living in the Lower Colorado-Lower Gila rivers region of SW North America used characteristic milling equipment: squared, flat-faced, convex-based metates (lower grindstones) with elongated manos (upper grindstones) and large wooden mortars with long, cylindrical stone pestles. Andesite and sandstone bedrock outcrops where stone was quarried and milling implements produced have been located. The archaeological deposits at the quarries have not been masked by the debris of later quarrying for rotary mills or building blocks, and thus the quarry sites offer an opportunity to study the production of ancient forms of milling implements, and provide insights into the organization of an ancient stone technology. Antelope Hill, a large arkosic sandstone quarry on the Lower Gila River in Arizona is presented as an example of a widespread phenomenon in the region. Analysis of quarry debris in the field and laboratory, experimental replicat...

Effects of Grazing on Lizard Abundance and Diversity in Western Arizona

Effects of Grazing on Lizard Abundance and Diversity in Western Arizona

Survey of Floodplain Vegetation along the Lower Gila River in Southwestern Arizona

Survey of Floodplain Vegetation along the Lower Gila River in Southwestern Arizona

An Archaeological Survey of the Lower Gila River, Arizona

ABSTRACTDuring January and February 1964, an archaeological survey of the Lower Gila River was undertaken by the Arizona State Museum to locate sites endangered by future Gila River channel alterations. The 85 sites located in the survey reflected occupation in the river valley by several culturally distinct groups. Anglo American, modern Papago, historic Western Yavapai, historic and prehistoric Yuman, and prehistoric Hohokam sites were represented.

Flow Losses in the Lower Gila River

This paper describes a method for estimating losses from infrequent flows in the lower reaches of the Gila River, in Arizona. The same procedure could probably be applied to other intermittent streams if sufficient data are available.

Flow Losses in the Lower Gila River

Method for estimating losses from infrequent flows in lower reaches of Gila River, in Arizona; factors affecting percent of losses between upstream and downstream stations; role of riverbed, dry for long time; equation for determination of cumulative percent loss by considering factor of first day percent loss, days of flow at lower gage, and empirical exponent.

A Brief Archaeological Survey of the Lower Gila River

(1957). A Brief Archaeological Survey of the Lower Gila River. KIVA: Vol. 22, No. 2-3, pp. 1-13.

A New Ptarmigan from Mount Rainier

that though the doves may forsake the cultivated fields they feed in flocks on the desert wherever food is available and that large numbers remain until October or later each year. The practise of hunting these doves in the nesting season is inexcusable, save in occasional instances where it is necessary to protect crops. With the rapid settlement of the country and the reclaiming of land under new irrigation projects at present under way, the large colonies of the White-winged Doves in the lower Gila Valley will disappear. The mesquite groves in which these birds nest furnish valuable wood for domestic use and for fence posts so that the mesquite montes are being steadily cut away. The doves will in consequence be reduced in number as they have been elsewhere, near Phoenix and Tucson, but should remain fairly common, as scattered pairs will continue to nest on the desert and others will take up domiciles in cottonwoods and other trees scattered through the cultivated fields and along the irrigation ditches. Washington, D. C., February 18, 1920.