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A History of The Salado People
(Believed to have descended from the Hohokam)
A WORD ABOUT THE HOHOKAM CULTURE: The Tonto National Forest of Arizona has a rich heritage reaching thousands of years into the past. Originally home to several prehistoric Indian groups who hunted and gathered wild plants in the Mazatzal Mountains and Sierra Ancha and also along the Salt and Verde Rivers and their tributaries, it was colonized more than a thousand years ago by a related group of people known today as the Hohokam. |
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To see a larger map (40K), click on the map above.
The Hohokam were accomplished farmers, craftsmen, traders, and warriors who built large towns and villages and dug hundreds of miles of irrigation canals along the Salt and Gila Rivers around Phoenix. Centuries of trade and conflict then gave rise to several distinctive new cultures, the best known of which is the Salado of Tonto Basin. Eventually, by about 600 years ago, the effects of several hundred years of droughts, floods, and warfare took their toll on the Salado, the Hohokam, and their neighbors and most of these people left the Tonto area, never to return. Their descendants, however, can be found today among the Pima, Hopi, and Zuni Tribes. |
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THE SALADO CULTURE:
In the Tonto Basin in southeastern Arizona (see the above map), shallow caves shelter masonry ruins nearly 700 years old. This was home to the prehistoric Salado people, named in the early 20th century after the lifegiving Rio Salado, or Salt River. For three centuries, they made their living from nature in this mountainous desert terrain. On the surface, this area seems very inhospitable, but in looking a little deeper, we can discover the wealth of nutritious foods and useful items that were at hand. It is believed that the Salado people were descendents of the Hohokam, who lived in much the same way. They were pueblo-dwelling farmers. Their villages along the river had irrigated fields... with water coming from a canal system begun by the Hohokam. (Some of these canals are used today in the Phoenix Metropolitan area, since irrigation is a must for growing crops here, even now. Of course, the canals have been modernized with a concrete lining, etc., but the layout is essentially the same for many of them.) The Salados are known to have grown corn, beans, pumpkins, amaranth, and cotton. This was supplemented by hunting in the nearby mountains, and gathering buds, leaves and roots. The Salado developed a trading arrangement using their surplus foods and other goods with neighboring tribes. This was part of a trade network that extended from Colorado to Mexico, and west to the Gulf of California. By the early 1300’s, many Salados had migrated into the surrounding foothills. Cementing rocks together with mud, the Salado constructed apartment-style dwellings (pueblos) adequate for sleeping, storage, cooking, and protection. Looking carefully at some pictures of the surviving ruins, it is possible to see their handprints in the mud. At the Tonto National Monument, overlooking what is now Roosevelt Lake, the pueblo called the Lower Ruin consisted of 16 ground floor rooms, three of which had a second story. Next to this was the 12-room annex. The Upper Ruin, located within a similar shelter on a nearby ridge, was much larger - 32 ground floorrooms, eight with a second story. Terraces and rooftops provided level open space for work and play. The highlands offered a bounty of useful plants and animals. The Salado looked to the desert to supplement cultivated foods and fulfill their material needs. Mammals, birds, and reptiles were important to the diet, and the bones were fashioned into tools. The yucca provided edible stalks and buds, sewing needles from leaf tips, and leaf fiber for rope, nets, mats, and sandals. Soap was extracted from its roots. Succulent new leaf pads and fruit from the prickly pear offered seasonal variety, as did the sweet, red fruit of the saguaro. The ribs of dead saguaro made sturdy ceilings. The beans of the mesquite tree, which were eaten raw, roasted, or ground into flour, were rich in protein. The Salado lived in the Tonto Basin area for about 300 years. Sometime between 1400 and 1450 they left. No one really knows why, although the Salado were not the only ones to depart their homelands in the southern mountains of the Southwest around this time. The cliff dwellings, less than 150 years old, were abandoned to the sun and wind. This is a haunting mystery to anyone who is interested in these ancient cultures. |
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The Salado were fine craftsmen, producing some of the most exquisite polychrome pottery and intricately woven textiles to be found in the Southwest. Because pottery and fragments survive the centuries and because artistry and materials vary from place to place, we can identify Southwestern cultures by their pottery. Like other pueblo people, the Salado women fashioned plain and decorative wares for cooking, storage, and ceremonial use. Red clay came from local pits along the river or hillsides, and coloring was derived from plants and minerals.
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Archeologists continue to study these people, hoping one day to reveal additional aspects of this culture. Even with all of the study, we have only a vague notion of who the Salado actually were. They left no written record of their existence, no chronology of events that shaped their society. The most vivid signs of life are in their pottery, in remnants of fabric, in smoke stains from their cooking fires, and in hand prints on pueblo walls - all reminders that these Ancient Ones once led rich and productive lives here by the Salt River.
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Photographs and commentary about a hike to the Salado Ruins in Rogers Canyon in the Superstition Mountains can also be enjoyed in the Photo Gallery area of SpiritKeep... go on an “armchair hike” with John Martin.
Information used to compile the above was based on information found Tonto National Monument (National Park Service) | Tonto National Forest - Official Website |
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