DEEP ROOTS A 10,000-Year Indigenous History of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument - i - - ii - Deep Roots: A 10,000-Year Indigenous History of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument By Jerry D. Spangler and Matthew K. Zweifel 2021 Utah Bureau of Land Management Cultural Resources Series No. 30 Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Special Publication No. 5 - iii - This work is dedicated to our fathers, who were always fascinated by what we do, but who never got the chance to read this volume: Emery Emerson Spangler (1939 to 2021) Dr. Richard G. Zweifel (1926 to 2019) - v - Acknowledgments The following volume involved reviewing and digesting literally hundreds of archaeological reports, theses and dissertations, monographs, and books, and then condensing complex concepts into only a few paragraphs. This difficult (and some- times impossible) task was greatly facilitated by more than a dozen archaeologists who willingly reviewed drafts, offered polite corrections and different perspectives, contributed unpublished data, and shared copies of long-forgotten reports we had once thought to be lost. We offer our gratitude to Joel C. Janetski, Richard K. Talbot, and James Allison, all of Brigham Young University; paleoenvironmental specialist Rob D’Andrea; Connie Reid of the Kaibab National Forest; Lori Hunsaker, at the time with the St. George Field Office (BLM); Sarah Page with the Arizona Strip Field Office (BLM); Heidi Roberts of HRA Inc. in Las Vegas; Jennifer Dierker with Grand Canyon National Park; retired BLM archaeologists Doug McFadden and Gardiner Dalley; Phil Geib at the University of Nebraska, Karen Harry at University of Ne- vada-Las Vegas; Kelly Beck with SWCA Environmental, and Peter Yaworsky, Kenneth Blake Vernon, and Brian Codding at the University of Utah. We also acknowledge the efforts of Nathan Thomas at the Utah State Office and Valerie Russell, the new archaeologist at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, for pushing this man- uscript toward publication in time for the 25th anniversary of the Monument. Special thanks are also in order for our technical editors Jame M. Aton, James Thalman, and Donna Kemp Spangler. All mistakes and misinterpretations of the data are ours alone. - vi - Preface No one knows what the Ancient Americans of southern Utah called themselves. Most likely it was some variation on the term “The People.” Many different names have been ascribed to the Ancients by modern groups, and some of those names are now deemed inappropriate or offensive to those who trace their ancestry to the Ancients. We prefer the term Hisat’sinom, a Hopi word meaning ancient people or those who came be- fore. In the Hopi view, the Hisat’sinom are not distinguished on the basis of ethnicity, language, or cultural practices. All who came before are Hisat’sinom. We find this all-encompassing term quite appropriate, but per- haps a bit cumbersome to the average reader. By necessity, we use a number of different names in the following chapters — Archaic, Fremont, Ancestral Puebloan, Ancestral Paiute — as literary shorthand for many different groups who occupied the Monument over ten millennia. Archaeologists still cannot agree, for the most part, who the Ancients were, when and where they came from, and where they went, if they went anywhere at all. In the following chapters, the Hisat’sinom of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument are discussed from the perspective of various archaeological and ethnographic perspectives offered by researchers over the past 150 years. In effect, this publication is a his- tory of previous archaeological research. It is also inherently biased. The thoughts, ideas, and theories offered over the years have come from Euro-American researchers, most of whom gave little thought to what the mod- ern descendants might have to say about their conclusions and interpretations. This entrenched ethnocentrism is slowly eroding due to federal laws mandating greater tribal consultation and involvement, as well as a handful of archaeologists who have actively engaged the tribes during the course of their research. Tribal perspectives are extremely rare in any of the reports synthesized in this overview, and hence they are sorely lacking in the following discussions. But as more archaeologists embrace the wisdom and oral traditions of indigenous groups, chances are that tribal voices will ring more prominently in future publications than they do in this one. - vii - Table of Contents Chapter 1 Making Sense of the Past: An Overview ……………………………………………… 1 Location and Setting ……………………………………………… 4 Environmental Context ……………………………………………… 9 Archaeologists on the Monument ……………………………………………… 12 The First Archaeologists ……………………………………………… 14 The Glen Canyon Project ……………………………………………… 18 CRM Archaeology ……………………………………………… 22 Organizational Context ……………………………………………… 23 Chapter 2 Ice Age Hunters of the High Plateaus (10,000 to 8000 BC) ……………………………… 29 Paleo-Indian or Paleo-Archaic ………………………………………………. 29 Climate Change ………………………………………………. 32 The Paleo Diet ………………………………………………. 35 Complexes and Categories ………………………………………………. 37 Clovis Complex ………………………………………………. 37 Folsom Complex ………………………………………………. 39 Plano Complex ………………………………………………. 41 Western Stemmed Tradition ………………………………………………. 42 Summary ………………………………………………. 46 Chapter 3 The Archaic Foragers (8000 to 1000 BC) ………………………………………………. 49 Theoretical Context ………………………………………………. 52 Recognizing the Foragers ………………………………………………. 54 A Time of Plenty: The Early Holocene ……………………………………… 55 Regional Perspectives ………………………………………………. 57 GSENM Perspectives ………………………………………………. 60 Pinto Series Points ………………………………………………. 64 The Elko Problem ………………………………………………. 65 Lanceolate Points ………………………………………………. 67 Organizing the Evidence ………………………………………………. 69 Early Holocene Summary ………………………………………………. 69 Responding to Drought: The Middle Holocene ……………………………………… 70 Regional Perspectives ………………………………………………. 74 GSENM Perspectives ………………………………………………. 75 Changing Tools, Changing Preferences ……………………………… 79 Organizing the Evidence ………………………………………………... 81 Better Climates, More People: Transitioning to the Late Holocene ……………… 84 Regional Perspectives ………………………………………………… 87 GSENM Perspectives ………………………………………………… 89 Late Archaic Points ………………………………………………… 92 Organizing the Evidence ………………………………………………… 94 Totems and Iconography ………………………………………………… 96 Late Archaic Summary ………………………………………………… 98 - viii - Chapter 4 Transitioning to the Formative: 1000 BC to AD 500 ……………………………………….. 101 What Do We Call Them? ………………………………………………… 104 The Earliest Farmers ………………………………………………… 107 Basketmaker II Farmers ………………………………………………… 108 Grand Staircase Foragers ………………………………………………… 113 Foraging and Farming Along the Escalante River ………………………............. 115 Foraging on the Kaiparowits Plateau ……………………………………….. 122 Shelter from the Storms ………………………………………………………….. 124 Basketmaker II Pithouses ………………………………………………… 125 Brush Houses of the Escalante River ………………………………………, 134 Buffering Uncertainty: Food Storage Strategies ……………………………... 137 Grand Staircase Storage ………………………………………………… 137 Escalante River Storage ………………………………………………… 142 Atlatls and Arrows: Changing Technologies ……………………………………….. 145 Death in the Grand Staircase …………………………………………………. 148 Basketmaker II Imagery …………………………………………………. 152 General Summary …………………………………………………. 155 Chapter 5 The Fremont Complex: AD 500 to 1300 …………………………………………………. 159 The Fremont in Historical Context …………………………………………………. 162 Variants and Phases …………………………………………………. 164 Pots and Beans: An Overview ………………………………………………… 168 The Fremont Database ………………………………………………… 172 Summer Camps ………………………………………………… 172 Lowland Field Camps ………………………………………………… 176 Upland Field Camps ………………………………………………… 178 Foraging Camps ………………………………………………… 181 Fremont Storage Sites ………………………………………………… 184 Storage Cists ………………………………………………… 186 Masonry Granaries ………………………………………………… 190 On-Site Storage ………………………………………………… 193 Fremont Residential Architecture ………………………………………………… 195 Valley Pithouses ………………………………………………… 198 Seasonal Residences ………………………………………………… 202 Fremont on the Fiftymile ………………………………………………… 205 Wide Hollow Phase ………………………………………………… 207 Fiftymile Mountain Phase ………………………………………………… 210 Futility of Farming the Fiftymile ……………………………………….. 213 Fremont Rock Images ………………………………………………… 216 General Summary ………………………………………………… 219 Chapter 6 Ancestral Puebloan Farmers: AD 500 to 1300 ………………………………………………… 223 Similar but Different: A Historical Perspective ……………………………………….. 225 Ceramics Semantics …………………………………………............. 229 Basketmaker III: AD 500 to 700 ………………………………………………… 232 Grand Staircase Basketmaker III ……………………………………….. 233 Regional Comparisons ………………………………………………… 241 Basketmaker III Iconography ………………………………………………… 244 - ix - Pueblo I: AD 700 to 900 …………………………………………………. 247 Grand Staircase Pueblo I …………………………………………………. 248 Pueblo I Rock Imagery …………………………………………………. 256 Regional Comparisons …………………………………………………. 257 Early Pueblo II: AD 900 to 1050 …………………………………………………. 262 Grand Staircase Early Pueblo II ………………………………………... 262 Regional Comparisons …………………………………………………. 268 Late Pueblo II: AD 1050 to 1150 …………………………………………………. 272 The Chaco Phenomenon …………………………………………………. 273 Grand Staircase Late Pueblo II ………………………………………… 275 Fiftymile Mountain Phase …………………………………………………. 282 Regional Comparisons …………………………………………………. 285 Pueblo III: AD 1150 to 1300 …………………………………………………. 289 Grand Staircase Pueblo III …………………………………………………. 290 Regional Comparisons …………………………………………………. 294 General Summary …………………………………………………. 301 Chapter 7 Ancestral Paiutes and the Late Prehistoric Period (AD 1300 to 1775) …………………… 303 Theoretical Context …………………………………………………………... 305 Language Indicators …………………………………………………………... 306 Displacement and Assimilation ………………………………………………… 309 Environmental Perspectives ………………………………………………… 312 Summary …………………………………………………………... 313 Coexistence of Replacement? The Demise of Farming …………………………….... 315 Escalante River Basin …………………………………………………………... 317 Kaiparowits Plateau …………………………………………………………... 319 Grand Staircase …………………………………………………………... 321 Regional Comparisons ………………………………………………..... 324 Obsidian Markers …………………………………………………………... 326 Summary …………………………………………………………... 329 GSENM Site Database …………………………………………………………………...... 330 Basketry …………………………………………………………... 331 Brownware Ceramics ………………………………………………..... 332 Projectile Points …………………………………………………………... 334 Other Indicators …………………………………………………………... 335 Late Prehistoric Foraging Patterns ………………………………………………… 337 Historic Southern Paiute ………………………………………………………….. 341 The Kaibab Band ………………………………………………………….. 341 Kaiparowits Band ………………………………………………………….. 346 Panguitch Band ………………………………………………………….. 349 General Summary ………………………………………………………….. 353 Chapter 8 Monument Archaeology Past and Future ………………………………………. 357 The Paleo-Archaic ………………………………………………………….. 358 The Archaic ………………………………………………………….. 360 The Transitional Period ……………………………………………….... 366 The Fremont Complex ………………………………………………… 369 Ancestral Puebloan Farmers ………………………………………………… 371 The Late Prehistoric ………………………………………………… 373 Historical Perspective ………………………………………………… 376 - x -