<html>Dendroarchaeological Explorations of the Diné-Hispanic Raiding Relationship in 18<sup>th</sup> & 19<sup>th</sup> Century New Mexico</html>

Author(s): Wade Campbell

Year: 2025

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Retelling Time in Indigenous-Colonial Interactions across North America" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

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Accounts from Spanish and Mexican-era New Mexico have long emphasized the central role that raiding and captive-taking played in defining the colonial relationship with the Diné (Navajo) during the 18<sup>th</sup> and 19<sup>th</sup> centuries. Much of the research to date has focused on understanding how New Mexicans experienced this history, including: the impacts of Navajo “depredations,” the mounting of punitive military responses, and how acculturated Athabaskan (i.e., Navajo and Apache) slaves were incorporated into the multi-ethnic Genízaro communities that guarded the New Mexican frontier. However, these insights into the social, political, and economic impacts of Diné-Spanish raiding on colonial New Mexican society beg the question of how Diné communities experienced the same types of activities. While Diné oral histories clearly document the occurrence of raids by/of the Naakai (Hispanic New Mexicans) prior to the US-Navajo Treaty of 1868, we know very little about the frequency and intensity of such events, nor how Diné communities responded on a broader societal scale. This paper discusses the results of recent dendroarchaeological fieldwork at a series of Navajo defensive sites in the southern San Juan Basin to date and better understand the Diné side of the dynamic 18<sup>th</sup> and 19<sup>th</sup> century New Mexican raiding relationship.

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Cite this Record

Dendroarchaeological Explorations of the Diné-Hispanic Raiding Relationship in 18th & 19th Century New Mexico. Wade Campbell. Presented at The 90th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2025 ( tDAR id: 509477)

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Keywords

General
Chronology • Colonialism • Dating Techniques • North America

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52827