ANCIENT AND MODERN ARIZONA. 



THE GROWTH OF A NEW INDUSTRY ON THE RUINS OF THE OLD: 



BY LINCOLN FOWLER. 



WITHOUT question, irrigation was first prac- 

 ticed within the limits of the United States, on 

 an extended scale, in Arizona. The primitive races 

 to whose efforts the works are due were, perhaps, of 

 the racial stock of which the Zuni and Moqui tribes 

 are the later day representatives. Their work was 

 probably to some extent influenced by the develop- 

 ment of the Mexican system under the Toltec, Aztec 

 and kindred races. The result of the work of archae- 

 ologists tends to place the termination of this era 

 at 500 A. D. to 1200 A. D. Evidences of their works, 

 buildings, temples and canals attracted the attention 

 of the early Spaniards, and have ever since furnished 

 " ruins " for the seat of ancient baronial estates. 

 Early in the sixteenth century the Spanish explorers 

 found only ruins and attending legends, and until the 

 religious ceremonies and habits of tribes of the same 

 parent stock were studied, little idea was really had 

 of their true place in the history of the American 

 continent. Lieutenant Frank Hamilton Gushing, 

 under the auspices of the Hemmenway Southwestern 

 Exploring Expedition, carried forward a work of very 

 great ethnological value in helping to arrive at a 

 theory for the solution of the questions connected 

 with the settlement of the valleys of Arizona and 

 northern New Mexico. 



Many points of common origin seem to be indi- 

 cated between the Zuni and Moquis and the pre- 

 historic settlers of central Arizona. 



Bandelier and others have also contributed to this 

 research. 



I._ANC1ENT WORKS. 



A development of the waters of torrential streams, 

 conducted to level plains and distributed through 

 laterals running with the trend of the natural slope, 

 seems to have been the principal part of their system. 

 Of their works of diversion little can be. known, but 

 in all probability they were purely gravity and at 

 most the rudest sort of weirs. 



They also had a system of small reservoirs filled 

 from mountain torrents, which were also used during 

 the time of flood to irrigate fields. This plan is yet in 

 use by some tribes of Indians for small planting, 

 with fairly good success. It is not likely that the 

 greatest development of the prehistoric era went be- 

 yond 1,000,000 acres in Arizona, and perhaps this was 

 used partly or at different periods. A very large 

 population of primitive agriculturists must have con- 

 tributed to the construction of these irrigation works. 

 The final development of their civilization supported 



quite a numerous class of priesthood. They reached 

 an age of polished stone implements, but it is doubt- 

 ful if they knew the use of metals. 



Their fabrics seem to have included the use of cot- 

 ton, and some species of maize was probably their 

 principal field crop. Among the Pima and Maricopa 

 Indians of the Gila valley is to be found, perhaps, the 

 nearest approach in central Arizona to the ancient 

 races in methods of cultivation. Their chief charac- 

 teristic is an agricultural habit. Under their method 

 we see the basin system of irrigation applied to field 

 crops. For harvesting with modern machines these 

 small square basins would be prohibitory, but for 

 these Indians, who harvest with sickles, very small 

 amounts of water produce large crops. 



II. SPANISH AND MEXICAN. 



A new era began with the extension of the rule of 

 the Spanish Conquistadores who, for the glory of 

 God and incidentally the accumulation of gold, 

 spread over the semi-civilized countries of the west- 

 tern hemisphere, as well as the savage ones, wher- 

 ever there was gold, either natural or accumulated 

 by trade. In a very short course of exchange the 

 Indians received from the pious Padres a sufficient 

 supply of religion as an equivalent for the gold that 

 might be had by enforced mining and virtual seizure 

 of all hoards. To accomplish this and continue the 

 beneficent work, agricultural operations were neces- 

 sary for subsistence, and we find their spread coinci- 

 dent, in the main, with the extent of the mining 

 region and allied industries. 



To teach their converts to cultivate and irrigate 

 after the manner of old Spain, in so far as they might 

 be an improvement on the native methods, was likely 

 no greater difficulty than to promote their attention 

 to mining, and both together led to the establishment 

 of the system of peonage lately abolished in Mexico. 

 Though exploring expeditions went farther north, 

 these hardy sons of Spain did not effect lodgment 

 beyond the Gila river in Arizona, for wherever they 

 encountered the Apache, that fierce interloper from 

 the Arctic regions, an offshoot of the great Thlinket 

 nation, Spanish swords were outmatched. 



Among the Pima tribe, adjoining the Apaches, the 

 Spaniards converted a part and found them satisfac- 

 tory miners and cultivators of the soil. But an insur- 

 rection occurred during which the priests and papa- 

 goes or "cut hair'' converts were driven out, almost 

 completely putting an end to the Spanish occupation 

 of Arizona. 



