Chris Loendorf -“Eastern Pueblo Immigrants on the Middle Gila River”

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Recent data recovery investigations undertaken at GR-1425 in the Blackwater area of the Gila River Indian Community found evidence that immigrants from the Eastern Pueblo region of the Southwest temporarily stayed at the site. These data include artifacts that have not previously been identified in the region, including Jemez obsidian and Rio Grande glaze wares. Extensive evidence for weapon manufacturing also suggests that the temporary relocation occurred during a time of conflict, and the immigrants appear to have moved elsewhere after a relatively short stay along the middle Gila. Although the site has evidence for a long period of use from the Colonial (AD 750-950) through the late Historic periods (AD 1850-1900), it appears that the exotic cultural materials were left behind by the immigrants in the late Classic period (circa AD 1450), or more likely during the early Protohistoric in the 1500s. 

Biography

Chris Loendorf is the Senior Project Manager for the Gila River Indian Community Cultural Resource Management Program. He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. at Arizona State University, and his B.A. at the University of Montana. He has worked on a wide variety of archaeological projects from the Northern Plains to the Southwest. He has studied Hohokam archaeology since coming to Arizona in 1989, and he began his career as a professional archaeologist in 1981. His research expertise includes projectile point design, rock art analysis, mortuary studies, and x-ray florescence analysis of archaeological remains.

Suggested Reading

Loendorf, Chris
2014 Historic Period Akimel O’odham Projectile Points and Settlement Patterns. Kiva 79(1):81-101.

Loendorf, C., C. M. Fertelmes, D. H. DeJong, M. K. Woodson, and B. V. Lewis
2019 Blackwater Village at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: Akimel O’Odham Perseverance and Resiliency. Kiva 85(1):25-48.

Wilson, John P.
2014 Peoples of the Middle Gila: A Documentary History of the Pimas and Maricopas 1500s-1945.  Anthropological Research Papers No. 6. Cultural Resource Management Program, Gila River Indian Community, Sacaton, Arizona.