Dailey ArleneThe first human settlements on the territory of Arizona appeared as early as 12 thousand years B.C.
Archaeological excavations prove this; scientists suggest that the first settlers of these lands were engaged in hunting and gathering plants. They used stone tools and built temporary dwellings for themselves.
About 2,000 years ago, people, whom archaeologists have called the Anasazi, settled the northwestern Arizona plateau. Because they were nomadic, the Anasazi lived in large, multi-room caves and built “kiva”-round structures used for rituals.
The Mogollon people lived in the mountains of eastern Arizona. Their culture was based on the traditions of the peoples who inhabited both the plateaus and the desert.
In central Arizona, the Hohokam tribe lived in the river valley. They grew corn and invented an irrigation system that irrigated their fields with river water for their farming needs.
On the Arizona Plateau, the Anasazi people also knew how to grow corn, and besides corn they cultivated other grain and cereal crops, as well as – cotton. However, the people of the plateau knew nothing about irrigation systems and used rainwater for their crops.
From 700 B.C. to 1100 A.D. these people reached a very high level of craft and agricultural culture. They were engaged in construction, pottery making, and weaving.
The Hohokam and Anasazi peoples’ culture flourished from 1100 to 1300. The largest, most massive, multi-room cave houses in the cliffs were built by the people of these tribes during this period of time.
In the 13th century the drought that broke out exhausted all the reserves accumulated by the tribes. And after 1300, the population of the peoples living on the plateau declined sharply. When the Spanish arrived in these lands in the 16th century, they found the people of these two great tribes widely dispersed throughout Arizona. Only the Navajo and Apache nomadic peoples, who had migrated to these lands shortly before the Spaniards arrived, remained a solid, scattered tribe.