THE AMERIND FOUNDATION

PASSPORT TO ADVENTURE THE AMERIND FOUNDATION

“When as a young man you began exploring the early history of the Indians of our Southwest, you could not have imagined how far your researches would take you. What began as a hobby has become an outstanding achievement in archaeology and ethnology, not merely of Arizona and New Mexico, but. of the Indians throughout this hemisphere. Your museum in Arizona is known everywhere by scholars for the range and perfection of its artifacts, for the importance of its publications, and for the generosity and learning of its creator...” The above citation was made at Yale's 259th commencement exercises. The man being honored, an alumnus who had graduated in 1903, was about to be conferred with an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. A year before, in 1959, he had received an honorary degree of Doctor of Science at the University of Arizona. He was something of a visionary, this man; and he had the means, will power, and tenacity to see his dream turn into reality.

His vision was not as simple as the citation makes it appear at first glance: a museum of Indian antiquities noted for the significance of its scholarly reports and pamphlets. For the Amerind Foundation is not simply this, but far more. It's a research foundation; one of the finest if not the finest of its kind in the world. An establishment devoted at once to the concept that archaeology is a science and an art; that to know the past is to be better equipped to deal with the future. The Amerind Foundation is an infinity of worlds to stimulate the adventurous mind.

Dry and dusty preconceptions regarding everything from anthropology (study of man), ethnology (origins, customs and crafts of a people), and paleography (study and deciphering of ancient writings), to archaeology (study of the material remains of the past) meet their match here. The result is never less than fascinating and very often startling.

The word Amerind is straight from the dictionary. American plus Indian equals Amerind. The Amerind Foundation was conceived by Dr. William Shirley Fulton. He died in 1964 and is buried close to the Foundation's headquarters, in a small cemetery nestled softly in the hills of the Little Dragoons, not far from Cochise's Stronghold, that mountainous area that appears to begin as scrub and climbs upward to hostile buttes and barren hills. The legendary town of Tombstone isn't too far off.

William S. Fulton was a Waterbury, Connecticut, industrialist who retired from the business world in 1930. In his capacity as president of Waterbury Farrel Foundry and Machine Company, one would have hardly detected the scent of the budding archaeologist.

An incident that occurred about the time of World War I starts the tale.

Fulton and his wife, Rose, were spending a brief holiday in Arizona visiting the property of Mrs. Fulton's father, the Copper Chief, a mine near the now semi-ghost-town of Jerome. Of a curious nature, Fulton explored the depth of the mine and discovered a ceramic wide-mouthed jar, called in Spanish an olla. It wasn't particularly large or even unusual, but finding the pot in such a peculiar location whetted his appetite to find out more. How did the olla get there? Who made it? What was its age?

And so it began, slowly, as such things do. On subsequent trips to Arizona, Fulton scouted the Indian reserva-tions to the north and found still more curios and relics that attracted his attention. He began to collect. More than this, he began to study the archaeological finds he unearthed and bar-gained for. It was inevitable that sooner or later Fulton would devote his life to his now-consuming interest. In a sense, the hobbyist was to become the professional.

The Foundation was incorporated in Hartford on November 23, 1937, an entity vested with the right to receive and to acquire property, to promote scientific studies and field expeditions and to publish the results of studies about aboriginal people. Working capital was suppliedby Fulton himself. This legal framework pro-vided a method to more effectively handle Amerind'sever-expanding projects. The physical operation began with one small building, a museum to house Fulton's collection of Indian artifacts.

Geographically, the Amerind Foundation is located in Texas Canyon, in the foothills of the Little Dragoon Mountains, a short distance from the Benson-Willcox Highway, Arizona 86 or Federal Arizona Interstate 10. No one knows for sure just how the spot got its name, but local counsel suggests that the valley was first settled by Texans who were one jump ahead of the sheriff. The Dragoon population amounts to about seventeen families.

The Foundation sits in the center of the Double F Ranch, much in the manner that the Hopi reservation is surrounded on all sides by the Navajo. Roughly, it covers some three square miles. The lay of the reddish brown land remains pretty much the way nature intended it should. All pipes run underground, and the houses belonging to the Foundation are so situated that no house can be looked down upon from another. The Triangle T Guest Ranch is down the road but out of sight. sight. The land's pastoral atmosphere and rugged character are betrayed on rare occa-sion when the wind is right and carries the sound of a diesel truck pass-ing in the distance.The Double F Ranch, which belongs to the Fulton family, is famed throughout the state as a breeder of fine and spirited quarter horses.

There exists a closed-door feeling about the Amerind Foundation. Since it is concerned with science it shuns any publicity that might lead the public to believe it is an open museum.

The buildings are Moorish inspired-twisting stairways, glazed tiles, balcony-railings, stucco facing. Everything is immaculately appointed and maintained; the effect is spellbinding.

The museum winds through several rooms. Indian masks, handicraft, ceremonial paraphernalia, and the outstanding "Hall of Archaeology" chant with the name of Algonquin, Sioux, Seminole, Aztec, Choctaw, Pawnee, Toltec, Hohokam, Pima, Eskimo.

Apart from the offices, laboratories, working sections, and eye-widening museum, the Foundation shelters a library that would seem to exhaust the subject of the American Indian.

In point of fact, the Foundation is authorized to go anywhere in the world to investigate peoples and sites that might have a connecting link with the American Indian, a congé that could conceivably find the Amerind personnel on the shores of Sulu Sean the Philippines as easily as on the approach to Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire) at the southernmost tip of Argentina.

Dr. Charles C. Di Peso, director of the Foundation, speaking: "There is not a single pot, basket, carving, or adornment on view that cannot be picked up and handled by anyone who comes here."

Dr. Di Peso, a pilot stationed at Williams Field in Arizona during World War II, holds sundry degrees and has received enough honors, including the Alfred Vincent Kidder Award for achievement in American Archaeology, to make him appear on paper an octogenarian. Nothing could be more misleading. He's young, athletic-looking, challenging, and quite obviously the right man to carry on with Fulton's dream.

The visitor to the museum will find on exhibition

MONTEZUMA CASTLE

A prehistoric "high rise" cliff dwelling structure created in the early 11th century in the high limestone cliff on Wet Beaver Creek, Yavapai County, Arizona

everything from a cigar store Indian to a shrunken head. The rooms are kept at prescribed temperature levels and the varied collections receive excellent maintenance. One man is authorized to clean the artifacts and prevent deterioration. The viewer sees the wondrous accumulation in a state of near-perfect preservation with every provision made for eye comfort and viewing pleasure.

All of the Amerind publications are painstakingly exact and well-produced, complete with drawings, photo-graphs, illustrations, and copious data, but they are all immensely readable.

"When an archaeologist (Dr. Di Peso speaking) completes his research and begins to prepare his findings, he must decide whether to write in scientific jargon for the benefit of his colleagues or in popular language for the benefit of the public.

"Some give up and write two separate papers. I try to capture both audiences in one manuscript."

This philosophy may be a carry-over from the earlier days of Fulton, who had a good sense of humor and was Tern, for the Foundation was designed to reconstruct the prehistory of Arizona's San Pedro Valley and the adjacent area of Cochise County.

Dr. Di Peso has strong opinions regarding the girth of archaeological investigation.

"We suffer somewhat from over-specialization. A historian has one set of tools, the archaeologist another. In the past each was inclined to look at a subject in a limited way.

"Nowadays an archaeologist has to be well-versed in what I call archaeo-history. He has to be able to get the perspective from all sides, all angles, and piece them together. He has to seek out not just the written history, but the verbal as well: the stories passed down from genera-tion to generation by storytellers. He has to track down origins and the roots of cultural peculiarities.

"A century ago museums were content to have archaeologists dig into a site, take back what they unearthed and use it to fill up shelves. Today the emphasis is in re-creating the history of a specific era. An archaeologist must know never weighted down with the burden of academic pre-tension.

The library is a high-ceilinged room of dark wood comfortable, and conducive to study. The Amerind publications are but a minute part of the over-all selection available. If a tome, no matter how old or rare, is somehow related to the study of the American Indian, one will most likely encounter it here.

Thus, Karok Indian Myths and Historical Memoir of Pimeria Alta (the area of northern Sonora and southern Arizona) rub bindings with Thrilling Adventure Among the Indians and The Boys Book of Indian Battles.

In addition to the mentioned areas, there is an art gallery displaying works collected by the Fultons: paintings by Remington, Navajo artists, and other chroniclers of the Western scene. Antiques of historical interest are also on view.

The Amerind Foundation is not a "stay-at-home" research center and it is not likely to suffer at any time the stigma of the armchair. Greatly simplified, its aim is to add to the knowledge of Southwestern history between A.D. 1400 and A.D. 1700. The first challenge, or patmapping, engineering, geology, photography, biology, topography, as well as social, applied, physical and ethnic anthropology."

In recent years, two outstanding ventures have borne the stamp of the Amerind Foundation and, perhaps better than anything else, illustrate its purpose and methods.

The first concerns the ancient archives in the Mexican town of Hidalgo del Parral, in the state of Chihuahua. The second deals with the astonishing discoveries made at Casas Grandes in the northwestern part of the same state, 125 miles south of Columbus, New Mexico.

The existence of the Parral Archives was not unknown, although few researchers fully understood the range it encompassed. The Parral Papers are the primary source of information concerning the Spanish Colonial Period from 1631 to 1821. They deal exclusively with what the Spaniards called Uueva Vizcaya, a land coverage greater than the Pimeria Alta. The index breaks down into five divisions. The first deals with the day-to-day administration of the territory; official accounts, records, per-sonal letters, formal reports. There are numerous references to livestock and commercial controls. Also reams of materialon Indian affairs. (The Amerind Foundation has made intensive use of this section). The second component deals with civil law, the third with protocol and the minutiae that accompanied the day-to-day life of the Spanish officials. Such episodes are priceless in assessing significant historical figures. Section four deals primarily with the topic of mining. The fifth, and the most exhaustive, focuses on crime. For the student of sociology and criminology the material is a bonanza. At present a number of scholars are engaged in projects that stem directly from the Parral manuscripts.

Di Peso: "These Archives contain the greatest bulk of untapped history pertaining to northern New Spain. The records include detailed information concerning not only the Spanish movements to the northern Sierra but also ethnological descriptions of the tribes which occupied these areas and about which we know very little. Such gaps in our knowledge as are concerned with the Jacome, Concho, Suma, Manzo, etc., will be filled by those data contained in the Parral Papers."

The Babocomari Village site on the San Pedro, and other investigative expeditions have all contributed enormously in bringing to light the pre-Columbian era (prior to A.D. 1492) of the American Southwest. Casas Grandes, however, remains the crowning achievement to date. Imagine a valley in a remote pocket of Chihuahua, Mexico; an area pitted with prehistoric sites of various ages; a relatively unexplored terrain hinting at some longforgotten past glory, with its secrets shadowed by doubt and locked in riddle. Sounds like something for the pulps, no doubt about it. Casas Grandes has all the traits of fiction and imaginative wandering, but the fiction has been dispelled and the truth remains a thousand times more strange.

The region was mentioned by the Spanish in the Sixteenth Century. In passing through, they were impressed by the size of the buildings, even then in ruins. The soldiers of the King of Spain promptly dubbed them "Big Houses" (Casas Grandes).

The indexing of the papers covered a period of fifteen months. The Amerind Foundation and the Language Department of the University of Arizona assisted with the paleographical chore. Without proper care the Parral Papers might have escaped survival. Thanks to the interest of people imbued with the same enthusiasm that fired Fulton and the technical assistance offered by the Amerind Foundation, some of history's question marks are beginning to fade. All of the papers are now on microfilm-over 360,000 manuscript pages. The master microfilm has been permanently stored by the Bell & Howell Company in temperature and humidity-controlled vaults in Cleveland. The pages run to approximately 30,000 feet of 35mm film and the table of contents boasts 475 pages. Indeed, what a loss it would be to archaeo-history if El Archivo de Hidalgo del Parral had been destroyed by fire or negligence long before the microfilming process was begun. The published findings of the Foundation that deal with the Sobaipuri Indians of the Upper San Pedro River Valley, the Upper Pima of San Cayetano del Tumacacori,When the Spanish arrived, the Indians then living in the valley were Sumas, Janos, and possibly some Tarahumaras. The first serious student to visit and investigate the site was A. F. Bandelier, certainly the foremost archaeologist of his day. He visited Casas Grandes in the 1880's. Bandelier recorded: "They (the buildings) belong to the class of ruins which are beyond the reach of historical knowledge, but I have no doubt that, when the folklore of tribes living today at a distance from the place becomes thoroughly known, much will be revealed that may to some extent remove the veil of mystery now shrouding their past."

Bandelier re-created via research what is today known as the "Anasazi Culture" (basketmakers, cliff and pueblodwellers). The homeland of the Anasazi since Christian times has been Four Corners, the region where the borders of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah meet. Casas Grandes, since Bandelier's time, has been known to both the anthropologist and the more adventurous traveler. On and off, the site had been investigated, the belief being that vanished community was nothing but an exten-sion of the prehistoric Anasazi of northern Arizona and New Mexico, despite the fact that pyramids, ball courts similar to those encountered in Guatemala, and the possi-bility of human sacrifice cast suspicion.

Mexico declared the site a national monument in 1930, but there was still so much work to be done with the Aztec, Toltec, and Mayan sites to the south that Casas Grandes occupied an also ran position. The question of funds was not insignificant.

The Amerind Foundation was tremendously interested in Casas Grandes. It sought the relation between the people who lived there and those who lived in the south-western United States in pre-Columbian times.

It was Di Peso's unorthodox theory that the culture that most concerned the Foundation did not go from north to south, rather south to north, jumping over the Sierra Madre. Too, the theory was considered that at some point the culture of the north and the south met. Could that locale be Casas Grandes? There is a modern parallel to this north mingling with the south. Mormons fleeing anti-poly-gamy restrictions in the United States during the 1880's settled the com-munity of Dublan, in the vicinity of Casas Grandes. Mostly, their descendants are fruit-farmers whose Spanish sounds very Mexican and whose English is very North American. Their children usually receive their higher education at Brigham Young University in Utah.

The excavation sponsored by the Amerind Foundation and Mexico's Institute of Anthropology and History was officially known as the "Joint Casas Grandes Expedition." The endeavor took a period of three years to complete. The total cost exceeded $300,000. A grant from the National Science Foundation, an independent executive branch of the government directly responsible to the President, provided finances to cover the salaries of additional personnel.

Roman Pina Chan, Director of Prehistoric Monuments for the Mexican Institute: "In all probability, a cultural stream of groups from the Southwest penetrated into the north-ern part of Mexico, going at least as far as Durango; while at the same time another cultural stream (Mesoamerican) infiltrated to-ward north, with the possibility they almalgamated at some points, among them Casas Grandes."

"Casas Grandes intrigued us because of its location," says Dr. Di Peso. "It lies between two great concentrations of pre-Columbian culture, so we had to dig there in order to further our studies of Mesoamerican influence in the American Southwest."

Archaeological matter cannot be taken from Mexico permanently, but Dr. Di Peso arranged that considerablematerial be sent on to the United States for study. Wooden beaming went to the University of Arizona for analysis and tree-ring dating The scientific term is dendrochronology and it was developed by the university's late and famed Dr. A. E. Douglass. Human bones, representing over 600 bodies were sent to the University of Texas at Austin.

The recorded material amassed by Amerind from the diggings is impressive: 15,000 pages of notes, 8,000 color slides, 12,000 black-and-white photographs, data on 800,000 shards (pieces of broken pots).

In its later development Casas Grandes boasted artisans of extraordinary skill. In monk-like cells they created exquisite jewelry, religious ornaments, and good luck charms. Northern Mexico and the American Southwest had never experienced the likes of the Joint Casas Grandes Grandes Expedition.

"It more than lived up to our hopes," Dr. Di Peso says. "We found an indigenous culture that had never been identified before."

An aqueduct, supplying a city of 5,000 to 10,000 was discovered, and five-story apartment houses with plastered walls painted white. Residents slept on beds in alcoves. Stairs went from level to level and large logs hauled in from the mountains were used to make the floors of the upper-story rooms. Casas Grandes, it turned out, was a metropolis of northern Mexico. More than this, it proved to be a flourishing commercial center with trade routes spanning the immense geographical block called by the Spaniards Chichimeca. To grasp the scope of this mercantile empire, take a map of North America. Draw a line from San Francisco to Wichita, down from Wichita to the Tropic of Cancer just below Ciudad Victoria, from Ciudad Victoria west to Mazatlan, then draw the line up from this point and connect with San Francisco.

Di Peso thinks that the feathered serpent religion that thrust through Mexico was practiced at Casas Grandes and that native missionaries carried it northward. The plumed serpent (Quetzalcoatl) represents the symbol of the Mayan cultural conquest of the rest of the continent and at least one theory considers Arizona's Hopi Thunderbird to be a variation. Considerable evidence was found to support snake-worship, including a serpent sculptured from rock and measuring some 100 meters in length. One of the oddities encountered once the digging progressed were breeding bins or aviaries for macaws and turkeys. On this Dr. Di Peso comments, "I think they were raising the macaws to trade the plumes. The people here might have traded plumes for turquoise ornaments made by the ancestors of Zuñi Indians in Arizona." (Could this be the origin of the term "feather-merchant"?) Disaster, invasion by a stronger tribe, or bloody political upheaval eventually toppled the community. It happened rapidly. Evidence shows that the fleeing survivors did not return to bury their dead.

Scientific speculation regarding Casas Grandes will continue for decades. Naturally, as with the Parral Papers, new theories will be formulated. Older beliefs are likely to be overturned or qualified. The tools now exist. Casas Grandes, like Angkor Wat, that assemblage of mystic ruins in the forests of Cambodia, is slowly revealing its secrets.

"There are many ghosts about at Casas Grades," Di Peso says. "The Amerind Foundation is helping to put flesh on these ghosts, to bring knowledge of that fantastic northern Mexico culture to the realm of literature.

"We've fleshed out one mystery, we think. It once was thought that the Hohokam of Arizona's Casa Grande were a splinter group from the Casas Grandes of Chihuahua, Mexico. Our findings indicate, however, that the people of the Casas Grandes traded up and down the west coast of Mexico, that their ideas reached out to the coast, up to the Sonoran coast and across the land to be adopted Good accommodations and restaurants. In Nuevo Casas Grandes, El Ranchito Motel can be recommended; in Hidalgo del Parral El Camino Real Motel. The ruins are open during daylight hours only. The fee is 2 pesos (sixteen cents), although there is no charge on Sundays. A good direct route leads from El Paso, Texas, connecting with Mexican Highway 45. A cutoff south of El Sueco north of Gallego brings the tourist to Buenaventura. Casas Grandes lies to the northwest. There are some alternate routes, but these are for the jeep-minded and hardy. Highway 45 is paved and decently maintained. From Phoenix, U. S. Highway 70 can be followed to Deming, New Mexico, then 80 to El Paso. The ruins are approximately 250 miles from the border.

Hidalgo del Parral, with its truly fabulous archives, is a mite less than 400 miles from Casas Grandes, still following Mexican Highway 45. The butcher boy who lived to be a rebel general, Pancho Villa, is buried in the city cemetery. His grave is the only one without a cross. A tourist card, which can be obtained at the border crossing, is required. Proof of U. S. citizenship must be By the Casa Grande Hohokam. But they were not the same people, as was formerly believed. That is the most ghostly mystery of all: the Hohokam. The word itself excites mystery. It's a Pima word meaning, "Those Who Have Vanished.' And what became of the Casa Grande people, who had attained a level of urban culture in the Southwest that we'd never dreamed existed? One day we'll know that whole exciting history. One day we can put flesh on the ghosts and skeletons. And that, in effect, is what the Amerind Foundation is all about. The excavations at Casas Grandes have brought about a tourist-and economic-boom and the Mexican government is vigorously encouraging travel. Academicians can debate, theorists can argue, scientists can forever explore, but to the layman not attuned to these heady vibrations, Arizona's Amerind Foundation signifies but one thing adventure.

The ruins are about five minutes from the village of Viejo Casas Grandes, a settlement easily marked by the two spires of its baroque church built by the Spaniards. Close by is the modern city of Neuvo Casas Grandes with shown. There is no charge if the visitor plans to remain in Mexico less than 30 days. If longer, the fee is $3. An automobile permit will also be issued, without charge, and must be returned upon re-entering the United States.

The Amerind Foundation, being privately endowed, does not seek financial contributions. It does make a plea for the preservation of articles having historic and prehistoric value relating to the saga of the American Indian. Such items, often stored away in places where they eventually become damaged, destroyed, or lost can be deposited with the Amerind Foundation for its museum. However, the Foundation does reserve the right to decide on ultimate disposition. The monetary value of any donation is an allowable deduction in computing federal income taxes.

Scholars, researchers, and students are always welcome, and on Saturdays and Sundays there are guided tours for the general public. It must be emphasized that an appointment must first be made. Therefore, anyone planning to visit the Amerind Foundation should write or call in advance of anticipated arrival. Address: The Amerind Foundation, Inc., Dragoon, Arizona 85609.