Yuman Origins - Sinagua and Kumeyaay and, possibly the Hopi. Kumeyaay and Sinagua Rock Art. Rock Art of Sedona, Arizona. Origins of La Rumorosa Style.

Recently we revisited some sites in the Sedona, Arizona area. Luckily this was just before the fires in Oak Creek.  While the rock art is different in style from La Rumarosa, the elements within these two rock art areas clearly seem to have some common cores.  I have included below a few examples from the Sedona area.  These are from a more remote panel that has received some protection by being on private property.

Between the 6th and the 15th centuries the Sinagua people, who probably emerged from Yuman origins, occupied this area.  The region of settlement encompasses the ponderosa and pinyon/juniper forests, grasslands, and desert scrub country in Arizona from the vicinity of the Sunset Crater volcano southwestward to the Verde River.  In the early centuries the Sinaguas practiced a rudimentary flood plain agriculture, watering their farm plots with systems of check dams and irrigation ditches.  They supplemented their crops with hunting and gathering.  This is similar to the lower Yuman/Kumeyaay/Patayan types of social and economical evolution around the Colorado River and Lake Cahuilla.  Remember that the Kumeyaay are also of Yuman stock and their predecessors are likely the Patayan.

The Sinagua who occupied the northeastern part of their range experienced a cataclysmic interruption of their lives between 1064 and 1067.   At this time the Sunset Crater erupted repeatedly, blanketing some 800 square miles of land with lava, cinder, and ash.  Although Sunset Crater continued to erupt intermittently for two more centuries the Sinagua began to move back into the region within a matter of years.   They capitalized on a period of increased rainfall and possibly the mulching effects of the volcanic ash.  As they established new pithouse and pueblo villages, the Sinagua – more than either the River and Delta or the Upland Yuman groups – expanded their sphere of interaction with both near and distant peoples.  These groups included the Mogollon, Hohokam, Anasazi, Patayan and possibly even the Mesoamericans.

In the 13th century the Sinagua of Sunset Crater began to abandon their region, probably because annual average rainfall had diminished.  Some moved to the southwestern part of their range.  In the 14th and 15th centuries they built cliff dwellings, including the famous five-story 20-room Montezuma’s Castle.

The Sinagua probably moved east to the Zuni area and the Rio Grande Valley.  The Sinagua migrations seem to be incorporated in Hopi oral histories, indicating they may have moved through the Hopi Buttes area before arriving at the Hopi Mesas.  The Sinagua culture disappeared as a distinct entity from the archaeological record after the 15th century.

Are the Hopis descendants of the Sinaguas?  What common pathway did the Kumeyaay and Sinagua share?
I selected the rock art panels below because I like the art, but it is amazing how many elements look like La Rumorosa.  However, there are some clear differences.  This is not a formal study, just an impressionistic and cursory glance.

Don Liponi,  Photographs copyright 2014.  Dstretch courtesy of Jon Harman.
Desert USA supplied most of the Sinagua history.