Land and the Social Consequences of Land Loss: Navajo Oral History, Ethnoarchaeology, and Spatial Analysis at Wupatki National Monument, Arizona.

Summary

     There is a contentious history between Navajo families living in the Wupatki Basin, ranchers, and the National Park Service. The creation of the monument in 1924 gradually displaced indigenous residents from ancestral homelands, leading to loss of territory and connection to family. Here I focus on change in Euroamerican demands for land and federal management policies, as well as Navajo kinship, family dynamics, and oral history as told by descendants of the first Navajo settlers in the Wupatki Basin.

     Using spatial analysis of settlements to discern Wupatki Navajo land use patterns before and after the establishment of the monument, I demonstrate the historic and ongoing importance of land and the social consequences of land loss for Navajo people. My findings are that the intersection of external pressures and internal factors led to disruption of traditional lifeways, values, and family, as well as loss of connection to culture.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018   •
• Reservation Archaeology: Culture Change, Historical Trauma, and Community Resilience in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Native North America

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 664