The Other Black on White: Aspen Carvings of the Flagstaff Region

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Historical Archaeologies of the American Southwest, 1800 to Today" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Once a widespread industry throughout the southwest, sheepherding has left its mark, albeit a delible and dwindling one, throughout the high elevation mountains of the American southwest. Aspen carvings made by sheepherders provide a window into the daily lives, ethnicity, politics, and personal sentiments of these men. In the 1990s through the 2000s archaeologists from the Coconino National Forest led volunteers into the aspen groves in the mountains surrounding of Flagstaff, Arizona to document hundreds of names, dates, and images carved into the aspens by Basque and Hispanic sheepherders during the early to mid-twentieth century. The work has continued through several contract archaeology projects on the forest. This paper reports the results of these efforts, provides a preliminary analysis of the spatial and temporal distribution of these dendroglyphs, and attempts to apply these glyphs towards understanding the people who cultivated the sheepherding industry of Flagstaff.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Historical Archaeologies of the American Southwest, 1800 to Today   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26237