The Grand Canyon is not only one of the geologic wonders of North America, it is also considered one of the geologic wonders of the world. It has an amazing history that predates human existence and most of its human visitors today are fascinated with the geological story that it has to tell. However, the Grand Canyon also has a human history, a history that began long before the national park was created and long before the European invasion of the Americas. The Grand Canyon has an American Indian history which stretches back for thousands of years.
Barrier Canyon Style
We don’t know for sure when humans first discovered the Grand Canyon. At the present time, the earliest archaeological findings in the Grand Canyon area were found in the White River drainage in Colorado. At about 5000 BCE, American Indian people in this area were creating anthropomorphic rock art images which archaeologists call the Barrier Canyon Style. According to Dennis Slifer, in his book The Serpent and the Sacred Fire: Fertility Images in Southwest Rock Art:
“It is likely that Barrier Canyon Style sites served as religious shrines or ceremonial places, due to the remote and special locations selected and the depictions of large, striking shamanistic figures that convey a sense of spiritual power.”
Many of the figures appear to be ghostly and may represent trance-state experiences. Dennis Slifer also reports:
“At some sites the rock paintings appear to be the work of one person or a limited number of people, suggesting that they were probably made by a select few artists or shamans.”
Desert Archaic Peoples
The earliest inhabitants of the Grand Canyon were a hunting and gathering people known to archaeologists as the Desert Archaic Peoples. The Desert Archaic Culture flourished between 6000 BCE and 450 CE.
With regard to human settlement in the Grand Canyon per se, Julian Smith, in an article in Archaeology, writes:
“People have lived in the Grand Canyon for at least 5,000 years. Far from being a hindrance to movement, the canyon was a cultural crossroads. Settlers were drawn to the dependable flow of the Colorado, a rarity in the Southwestern desert, as well as the wide variety of plants and animals that lived there, from bighorn sheep and mule deer to piñon pine and Indian ricegrass.”
Split-Twig Figurines
About 2900 BCE, the Indian people in the greater Grand Canyon area began making split-twig figurines representing miniature animals. These figures are made by bending and folding a single willow twig. In his book The Ice-Age History of Southwestern National Parks, Scott Elias writes:
“Most are thought to represent deer or bighorn sheep; others may represent antelope.”
Archaeologists have uncovered about 400 of these figurines from 30 sites in four states. Many of these were found in cave sites in the Grand Canyon. Indian people continued to make and use these figurines for about 1700 years. The figures may have been made for use in hunting medicine.
Writing about split-twig figures in the American Southwest, Nancy Coulam and Alan Schroedl, in an article in American Antiquity, report:
“Ritual sites do not contain cultural deposits but may contain cultural features including cache pits and cairns. They show evidence of magic, indicated by speared and dung-filled figurines, and by the the placement of the figurines in association with Pleistocene-age artiodactyls within the site.”
Nancy Coulam and Alan Schroedl also report:
“Some of the figurines from ritual sites show clear evidence of magic: they are pierced with miniature spears and contain animal dung within the body cavity.”
Shrine Caves
By 2390 BCE, Indian people were creating shrine caves high in the walls of the Grand Canyon. The caves are difficult to reach because of the sheer precipices which lack handholds and footholds.
In these caves there were rows of rock cairns. In his book The Ice-Age History of Southwestern National Parks, Scott Elias reports:
“Some of the cairns were made of only piles of rock; others were made of combinations of rocks and pieces of late Pleistocene packrat midden that had been dug out of larger middens in the cave.”
Some of the cairns incorporated horn sheaths from the extinct Harrington’s mountain goat as well as split-twig figures. According to Scott Elias:
“the people who used the mountain goat remains in setting up their shrines obviously considered the mountain goat fossils unusual.”
By 2000 BCE, Indian people were placing miniature figures in caves in the walls of the Grand Canyon. With regard to the placement of the figures within the caves, David Roberts, in an article in Smithsonian, reports:
“In these caves, the objects were placed under flat rocks or small cairns, and no accompanying relics have ever been found.”
Basketmaker
By 1500 BCE, the cultural pattern called Basketmaker by archaeologists began to appear in the Southwest. Basketmaker people were farmers, growing crops which included maize (corn) and squash. While their rock art often depicts mountain sheep and deer, the meat of wild animals formed only a small part of their diet. Archaeologists so far have found no evidence of Basketmaker people living in the Grand Canyon area until about 500 CE.
Agriculture
By 700 CE, Indian people had established some small farming settlements on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Three centuries later, the increase in precipitation had resulted in an increase in the number of people living in the Grand Canyon. In an article in Archaeology, Julian Smith reports:
“Terraced fields of corn, beans, squash, and cotton covered the rich deltas where side canyons meet the Colorado. Farmers built cliff granaries to hold excess seeds and hunters stalked deer at higher elevations.”
By 1050, the Havasupai were cultivating lands on the floor of the Grand Canyon on a permanent basis. Anthropologist Douglas Schwartz, in his chapter in the Handbook of North American Indians, writes:
“Thus originated, in all likelihood, the characteristic Havasupai economic pattern based on summer irrigation agriculture in the canyon and winter hunting-gathering on the plateau.”
At this same time, ancestral Puebloans had communities on the floor of the Grand Canyon near arable deltas and on the rim of the canyon. According to David Noble, in his book Ancient Ruins of the Southwest: An Archaeological Guide:
“Alternating their residence seasonally between these two areas, which have a 5,600-foot elevation differential, gave these farmers the advantage of a long growing season.”
In his chapter on the Western Anasazi in the Handbook of North American Indians, Fred Plog write:
“Availability of trails out of the canyon, domestic water, and shelter were the most important determinants of site location. Most settlements consist of one or two rooms, although larger sites occur both in the canyon bottom, and on the rim.”
There were now several hundred pueblos along the base of the canyon. A small, single family dwelling was constructed at Walhalla Glades on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. According to David Noble:
“The Indians at Walhalla Glades probably moved into the inner canyon in winter to avoid the frigid temperatures and deep snows of the North Rim’s eight-thousand-foot elevation.”
About 1050 CE, Indian people built a pithouse at Bright Angel in the Grand Canyon. This pithouse was abandoned about 1065.
About 1100 CE, Indian people built a small pueblo at Bright Angel in the Grand Canyon. They were farming a small garden. The small pueblo at Bright Angel in the Grand Canyon was abandoned about 1140.
The Grand Canyon was almost deserted by 1225 CE because of a drought.
More Ancient America
American history does not begin with Columbus or with the Pilgrims: North America has a long history that predates the European invasion.
Ancient America: A very short overview of Clovis
Ancient America: Kennewick Man (The Ancient One)
Ancient America: American Indians at Rancho La Brea
Ancient America: Columbia River Pictographs (Photo Diary)
Ancient America: The California Story Begins
Ancient America: Life in a California Rock Shelter (Photo Diary)
Ancient America: The Great Basin Archaic
Ancient America: The Halliday Site in Illinois
