Wooden Features on the Jicarilla Apache Nation: An Analysis of Navajo and Apache Land Use

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Jicarilla Apache Nation (JAN) reservation was established in Northern New Mexico in 1887 with additional lands added to the southern boundary in 1907-08. Today, the reservation comprises approximately 879,917-acres of pinyon-juniper uplands and sagebrush flats in lower elevations. Prior to the establishment of the JAN reservation, these lands comprised a portion of the Dinétah homelands; archaeological evidence of early habitation by ancestral Navajo and earlier Paleoindian, Archaic, and Puebloan ancestors is present throughout the landscape. While minimal structural remnants are encountered for earlier periods, ubiquitous wooden features demonstrate the diversification of animal husbandry practices in the period after the Pueblo Revolt. These features range from large-scale traps to smaller corral and pens representing cultural and socio-economic shifts from communal hunting to majority pastoralism of herd animals post-1868. Using extant data from the New Mexico Cultural Resources Information System (NMCRIS) and the JAN Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO), this poster will present an aggregated analysis of archaeological sites containing wooden features within JAN reservation lands (1887-1908). This will include a comparison to similar features identified in adjacent regions and a discussion of salient issues in refining use history when land-use, repair/modification, and wood salvaging behaviors are considered.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40039.0