Kinishba Ruins
Encyclopedia
Kinishba Ruins is a sprawling, 600-room great house
archaeological site in eastern Arizona and is administered by the Southern Athabaskan-speaking White Mountain Apache Tribe of the nearby Fort Apache Indian Reservation
. As it demonstrates a combination of indigenous Mogollon and Anasazi cultural traits, archeologists consider it ancestral to the peoples of both the Hopi
and Zuni cultures.
Kinishba is located at 5,000 feet above a pine-fringed alluvial valley, near Whiteriver, Arizona
, the seat of government for the White Mountain Apache Tribe. The first European to write about it was Adolph Bandelier in 1892, who was a pioneering archaeologist. From 1931 to 1940, the archeologist Dr. Byron Cummings, Director of the Arizona State Museum and head of the Department of Archeology at the University of Arizona
, led a team of archaeology students and Apache over several seasons to excavate and restore Kinishba. He named the site, derived from the Apache words: ki datbaa, meaning "brown house." The teams also built a pueblo-style museum and visitor's center, as Cummings envisioned it as a destination to help with economic development of the area. Cummings hoped Kinishba would be declared a national monument and taken under National Park Service
management, but did not succeed in this.
In 1964, the NPS designated the site as a National Historic Landmark
, by which time it had fallen into disrepair. The ruins received limited cleanup and restoration in 2005-2007.
and north of the Salt River
. It is at the eastern foot of Tsé Sizin (“Rock Standing Up” or Sawtooth Mountain), on White Mountain Apache trust lands associated with the Fort Apache Indian Reservation
. The reservation is located in the valley that slopes to the White River. The site is the most publicly accessible of the 20 or so large (150 or more rooms), Ancestral Pueblo village ruins in the area.
These were built and occupied as part of the ancient American Indian
colonization of the Mogollon Rim region in the AD 1100s to 1300s. They were considered part of the western Pueblo complex. The largest 13th- and 14th-century ruins along the Mogollon Rim all share architectural elements, ceramic assemblages, and similar locational characteristics. They are proximate to expanses of land suitable for dry maize
farming, and the have ready access to domestic water, tabular sandstone or limestone, and ponderosa pine
.
All of these large villages were built up from apartment
-style room blocks, laid out to define communal courtyard
s or plaza
s. The Kinishba pueblo
is composed of nine major building mound
s, the remains of masonry
room blocks, with some originally three stories tall. There were two large apartment blocks, and several smaller buildings, with two communal courtyards. At its peak, Kinishba may have housed up to 1000-1500 people. The masonry walls are unique for their double-walled construction: one side is faced and the other made of rubble. The rooms averaged 14' by 12', with a firepit in the center. Scholars believe that most families occupied two rooms, one for living quarters and one for storage.
In the smaller courtyard was a kiva
, a room built underground for ceremonies. The larger courtyard revealed evidence of three ceremonial stages. It is 63 by 51 feet. In the first stage, of the late 1100s or early 1200s, five underground rooms, each the size of the kiva, were built; they had earthen rather than masonry walls. About the middle of the 1200s, these rooms were filled in and juniper posts were set into the ground to support beams and a roof, making a large, above-ground room of the courtyard. Later the roof burned, and researchers found no evidence that it was replaced. Ceremonies were moved to other rooms of the pueblo.
The people cultivated corn, beans and gourds nearby, which were raised together to conserve moisture. They may have raised cotton as well, and gathered fruits, berries, nuts and other foods locally. The men hunted game for food, and the women processed the skin, sinew and bones for clothing, tools, and other needs.
Scholars believe that Kinishba may have been the pueblo Chiciticale referred to in narratives of the 1540-41 Spanish expedition led by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
. Kinishba and its sister villages were abandoned in the late 14th or early 15th century for unknown reasons. It may have been related to a water source drying up. The area was virtually unoccupied until the 16th or 17th-century migration of nomadic Apache from the western Great Plains
. They did not live at the ruins but had territory in the area.
From 1931 into the 1940s, Byron Cummings of the University of Arizona led a team of students and a varying workforce of 10-27 White Mountain Apache to excavate and restore the site. Cummings named the site, derived from the Apache words: ki datbaa, meaning "brown house." He created a university field school at the camp of the site, which had seasons from 1931-1939. He used a variety of funding means, including his broad network of supporters and the Civilian Conservation Corps
and Bureau of Indian Affairs
(which administered the Fort Apache Agency), to pay for workers and materials. Chester Holden, David Kane, and Turner Thompson were Apache men who spent at least five seasons at the site and became strongly attached to the project.
In addition, the teams built a small museum and tourist site in 1939 to hold artifacts and interpret the site, as well as to provide a place to sell contemporary Apache arts and crafts, and to provide continuing employment for tribal members. Cummings was a scholar-entrepreneur, who "combined archaeological research and training; intertribal and interagency collaboration; historic preservation; and museum, community, and tourism enterprise development" in the first project of its kind in Arizona." With his teams, Cummings "excavated at least 220 rooms," and "rebuilt about 140" to create what today is called a heritage tourism
destination.
He hoped to have the Department of Interior designate the site as a National Monument
and add it to properties managed by the National Park Service
. It gave preference to more accessible sites, given the needs of the Great Depression
quickly followed by World War II
. Cummings did not succeed in having the NPS take over the site.
In 1956 the Department of Interior published a pamphlet on the site, referring to the "Kinishba Ruins and Museum". The site was declared a National Historic Landmark
in 1964 by the Department of Interior and added to the National Register of Historic Places
.
Since then, the ruins deteriorated without maintenance, as did the museum. A partial restoration was done in 2005-2007 to stabilize much of the site. It is administered by the White Mountain Apache Tribe and the Fort Apache
Heritage Foundation as a "satellite" element of the Fort Apache Historic Park. The White Mountain Apache require visitors to obtain a permit to visit the Kinishba Ruins site.
The White Mountain Apache have built their own museum at the Fort Apache Historic Park, based on their traditional style of a gowa
, or home. It is called Nohwike’ Bágowa (House of Our Footprints), or the White Mountain Apache Culture Center and Museum. The park includes a 288-acre National Historic District
, with 27 buildings from when the fort was used during the Apache Wars. The reservation can provide visitors with standing structures from ancient to contemporary times, and explanations of history of the Mogollon Rim Pueblo, as well as the historic and contemporary White Mountain Apache.
Great house
A great house is a large and stately residence; the term encompasses different styles of dwelling in different countries. The name refers to the makeup of the household rather than to any particular architectural style...
archaeological site in eastern Arizona and is administered by the Southern Athabaskan-speaking White Mountain Apache Tribe of the nearby Fort Apache Indian Reservation
Fort Apache Indian Reservation
The Fort Apache Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in Arizona, United States, encompassing parts of Navajo, Gila, and Apache counties. It is home to the federally recognized White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation, a Western Apache tribe. It has a land area of 2,627.608...
. As it demonstrates a combination of indigenous Mogollon and Anasazi cultural traits, archeologists consider it ancestral to the peoples of both the Hopi
Hopi
The Hopi are a federally recognized tribe of indigenous Native American people, who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The Hopi area according to the 2000 census has a population of 6,946 people. Their Hopi language is one of the 30 of the Uto-Aztecan language...
and Zuni cultures.
Kinishba is located at 5,000 feet above a pine-fringed alluvial valley, near Whiteriver, Arizona
Whiteriver, Arizona
Whiteriver is a census-designated place in Navajo County, Arizona, United States. The population was 5,220 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Whiteriver is located at ....
, the seat of government for the White Mountain Apache Tribe. The first European to write about it was Adolph Bandelier in 1892, who was a pioneering archaeologist. From 1931 to 1940, the archeologist Dr. Byron Cummings, Director of the Arizona State Museum and head of the Department of Archeology at the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
, led a team of archaeology students and Apache over several seasons to excavate and restore Kinishba. He named the site, derived from the Apache words: ki datbaa, meaning "brown house." The teams also built a pueblo-style museum and visitor's center, as Cummings envisioned it as a destination to help with economic development of the area. Cummings hoped Kinishba would be declared a national monument and taken under National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
management, but did not succeed in this.
In 1964, the NPS designated the site as a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
, by which time it had fallen into disrepair. The ruins received limited cleanup and restoration in 2005-2007.
Description
Kinishba is located at about 5,000 feet above sea level, south of the Mogollon RimMogollon Rim
The Mogollon Rim is a topographical and geological feature running across the U.S. state of Arizona. It extends approximately from northern Yavapai County eastward to near the border with New Mexico.-Description:...
and north of the Salt River
Salt River (Arizona)
The Salt River is a stream in the U.S. state of Arizona. It is the largest tributary of the Gila River. The river is about long. Its drainage basin is about large. The longest of the Salt River's many tributaries is the Verde River...
. It is at the eastern foot of Tsé Sizin (“Rock Standing Up” or Sawtooth Mountain), on White Mountain Apache trust lands associated with the Fort Apache Indian Reservation
Fort Apache Indian Reservation
The Fort Apache Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in Arizona, United States, encompassing parts of Navajo, Gila, and Apache counties. It is home to the federally recognized White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation, a Western Apache tribe. It has a land area of 2,627.608...
. The reservation is located in the valley that slopes to the White River. The site is the most publicly accessible of the 20 or so large (150 or more rooms), Ancestral Pueblo village ruins in the area.
These were built and occupied as part of the ancient American Indian
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
colonization of the Mogollon Rim region in the AD 1100s to 1300s. They were considered part of the western Pueblo complex. The largest 13th- and 14th-century ruins along the Mogollon Rim all share architectural elements, ceramic assemblages, and similar locational characteristics. They are proximate to expanses of land suitable for dry maize
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
farming, and the have ready access to domestic water, tabular sandstone or limestone, and ponderosa pine
Ponderosa Pine
Pinus ponderosa, commonly known as the Ponderosa Pine, Bull Pine, Blackjack Pine, or Western Yellow Pine, is a widespread and variable pine native to western North America. It was first described by David Douglas in 1826, from eastern Washington near present-day Spokane...
.
All of these large villages were built up from apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
-style room blocks, laid out to define communal courtyard
Courtyard
A court or courtyard is an enclosed area, often a space enclosed by a building that is open to the sky. These areas in inns and public buildings were often the primary meeting places for some purposes, leading to the other meanings of court....
s or plaza
Plaza
Plaza is a Spanish word related to "field" which describes an open urban public space, such as a city square. All through Spanish America, the plaza mayor of each center of administration held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the cabildo or administrative center, which might be...
s. The Kinishba pueblo
Pueblo
Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
is composed of nine major building mound
Mound
A mound is a general term for an artificial heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. The most common use is in reference to natural earthen formation such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. The term may also be applied to any rounded area of topographically...
s, the remains of masonry
Masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...
room blocks, with some originally three stories tall. There were two large apartment blocks, and several smaller buildings, with two communal courtyards. At its peak, Kinishba may have housed up to 1000-1500 people. The masonry walls are unique for their double-walled construction: one side is faced and the other made of rubble. The rooms averaged 14' by 12', with a firepit in the center. Scholars believe that most families occupied two rooms, one for living quarters and one for storage.
In the smaller courtyard was a kiva
Kiva
A kiva is a room used by modern Puebloans for religious rituals, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, kivas are square-walled and underground, and are used for spiritual ceremonies....
, a room built underground for ceremonies. The larger courtyard revealed evidence of three ceremonial stages. It is 63 by 51 feet. In the first stage, of the late 1100s or early 1200s, five underground rooms, each the size of the kiva, were built; they had earthen rather than masonry walls. About the middle of the 1200s, these rooms were filled in and juniper posts were set into the ground to support beams and a roof, making a large, above-ground room of the courtyard. Later the roof burned, and researchers found no evidence that it was replaced. Ceremonies were moved to other rooms of the pueblo.
The people cultivated corn, beans and gourds nearby, which were raised together to conserve moisture. They may have raised cotton as well, and gathered fruits, berries, nuts and other foods locally. The men hunted game for food, and the women processed the skin, sinew and bones for clothing, tools, and other needs.
Scholars believe that Kinishba may have been the pueblo Chiciticale referred to in narratives of the 1540-41 Spanish expedition led by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado y Luján was a Spanish conquistador, who visited New Mexico and other parts of what are now the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542...
. Kinishba and its sister villages were abandoned in the late 14th or early 15th century for unknown reasons. It may have been related to a water source drying up. The area was virtually unoccupied until the 16th or 17th-century migration of nomadic Apache from the western Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
. They did not live at the ruins but had territory in the area.
Archeological excavation
Over the years, the site was pulled apart by pot hunters and soldiers from Fort Apache seeking souvenirs. In 1892 Adolph Bandelier, a pioneering archaeologist, was the first European to write about the site, and other archeologists visited it.From 1931 into the 1940s, Byron Cummings of the University of Arizona led a team of students and a varying workforce of 10-27 White Mountain Apache to excavate and restore the site. Cummings named the site, derived from the Apache words: ki datbaa, meaning "brown house." He created a university field school at the camp of the site, which had seasons from 1931-1939. He used a variety of funding means, including his broad network of supporters and the Civilian Conservation Corps
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D...
and Bureau of Indian Affairs
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...
(which administered the Fort Apache Agency), to pay for workers and materials. Chester Holden, David Kane, and Turner Thompson were Apache men who spent at least five seasons at the site and became strongly attached to the project.
In addition, the teams built a small museum and tourist site in 1939 to hold artifacts and interpret the site, as well as to provide a place to sell contemporary Apache arts and crafts, and to provide continuing employment for tribal members. Cummings was a scholar-entrepreneur, who "combined archaeological research and training; intertribal and interagency collaboration; historic preservation; and museum, community, and tourism enterprise development" in the first project of its kind in Arizona." With his teams, Cummings "excavated at least 220 rooms," and "rebuilt about 140" to create what today is called a heritage tourism
Heritage tourism
Cultural heritage tourism is a branch of tourism oriented towards the cultural heritage of the location where tourism is occurring...
destination.
He hoped to have the Department of Interior designate the site as a National Monument
National monument
A National monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of national importance such as a war or the country's founding. The term may also refer to a specific monument status, such as a National Heritage Site, which most national monuments are by reason of their cultural...
and add it to properties managed by the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
. It gave preference to more accessible sites, given the needs of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
quickly followed by World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Cummings did not succeed in having the NPS take over the site.
In 1956 the Department of Interior published a pamphlet on the site, referring to the "Kinishba Ruins and Museum". The site was declared a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
in 1964 by the Department of Interior and added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Since then, the ruins deteriorated without maintenance, as did the museum. A partial restoration was done in 2005-2007 to stabilize much of the site. It is administered by the White Mountain Apache Tribe and the Fort Apache
Fort Apache
-Places:* Fort Apache, Arizona* Fort Apache Indian Reservation, the White Mountain Apache tribe's reservation and former US Army cavalry post near Whiteriver, Arizona* Fuerte Apache, a housing project outside Buenos Aires, Argentina.-Military:...
Heritage Foundation as a "satellite" element of the Fort Apache Historic Park. The White Mountain Apache require visitors to obtain a permit to visit the Kinishba Ruins site.
The White Mountain Apache have built their own museum at the Fort Apache Historic Park, based on their traditional style of a gowa
Gowa
Gowa is a region in the province of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is a "level 2 district," with an area of 1,883 km² and a population of approximately 500,000 people...
, or home. It is called Nohwike’ Bágowa (House of Our Footprints), or the White Mountain Apache Culture Center and Museum. The park includes a 288-acre National Historic District
National Historic District
National Historic District may refer to a historic district designated by a national government, including:* a historic district listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places * a United States National Historic Landmark District...
, with 27 buildings from when the fort was used during the Apache Wars. The reservation can provide visitors with standing structures from ancient to contemporary times, and explanations of history of the Mogollon Rim Pueblo, as well as the historic and contemporary White Mountain Apache.
Further reading
- Todd w. Bostwick, Byron Cummings: Dean of Southwest Archeology, 2006
- Byron Cummings, KINISHBA: A Prehistoric Pueblo of the Great Pueblo Period, University of Arizona Press (1940). Reprinted by Kessinger Publishing, 2007, in a facsimile edition, ISBN 978-1432563721
External links
- "Kinishba Ruins", National Park ServiceNational Park ServiceThe National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
- "Kinsihba Ruins National Historic Landmark", National Park Service
- "Fort Apache Historic Park and Kinishba Ruins", Nohwike’ Bágowa (House of Our Footprints), White Mountain Apache Culture Center & Museum
- Fort Apache Heritage Foundation
- "Kinishba Ruins: photo gallery", Galen R. Frysinger Website: People and Places
- Randal Schulhauser, "Ghost of a Dream", Hike Arizona, historic and contemporary photos of Kinishba and article about its archaeology