![]() The prehistoric people who lived outside the Hohokam culture area also constructed irrigation systems, but none was of near the grand scale as the Hohokam irrigation systems. Canal use was either quite limited or entirely absent among the Pima Indians, who were the successors to the Hohokams Indians. ![]() A major flood in 1358 ultimately destroyed the canal networks, resulting in movement of the people. It is unknown who originated the idea of irrigation in Arizona, whether it was local technology or introduced to them from cultures in Mexico.Īround 1450 C.E., the Hohokam culture declined, possibly because of a combination of factors: flooding in the 1080s, hydrologic degradation in the early 1100s, and the recruitment of labor by the surrounding population. Even though the Indians of Arizona began limited farming nearly 3,000 years ago, the construction of the Hohokam irrigation systems probably did not begin until a few centuries C.E. These Hohokam Indian canal builders were given the name later by the Pima Indians. The Hohokam people inhabited the lower Salt and Gila River valleys in the Phoenix area in Arizona. The Chaco and the Hohokam systems evolved in quite different environments, having considerably different irrigation infrastructure. These systems were of the similar time period but seemed to have developed and functioned independently, with little interaction. These two systems expanded over broad geographic areas of similar size (the Hohokam in Arizona and the Chacoans in New Mexico). The Hohokam and the Chaco regional systems stand out as two of the major prehistoric developments in the American Southwest. Arizona State Parks, Phoenix: no date.Canal Irrigation (North America: Chaco and Hohokam Systems) The remains of Hohokam irrigation systems on the Salt River caught the attention of American settlers in the late 1860s and led to development of a second irrigation-based agricultural economy in the Salt River Valley.Īdapted and modified from Prehistoric Water Utilization and Technology in Arizona by Michael S. Descendants of the Hohokam, today's Akimel and Tohono O'odham (Pima and Papago, respectively) practice some irrigation agriculture, but nothing like their ancestors. What happened remains somewhat of a mystery, but extended drought, overpopulation, too much salt in the fields from hundreds of years of irrigating, major floods that destroyed key components of the irrigation system, and perhaps conflict within Hohokam society likely contributed to abandonment of Salt and Gila river valleys by A.D. 1300, the canal systems and the culture it supported began to collapse. The villages assisted in maintaining the canals and ditches.Īround A.D. Smaller villages were located along the main canal and its numerous distribution ditches. This primary Hohokam village was located near the head of a main canal. The canal systems appear to have served both practical (building and maintenance) and political (administration and distribution of water) purposes. The lower Salt River contains the largest concentration of Hohokam canal systems similar systems are found on the Gila and Santa Cruz rivers. for Arizona Department of Transportation) (Map compiled and produced by GEO-MAP, Inc. The distribution of prehistoric Hohokam irrigation canals in the Salt River Valley 1992. While the technology was simple, the systems were engineering marvels, monumental in scale. Hohokam irrigation systems reached their peak between A.D. In fact, archaeological evidence indicates that irrigation developed independently in the Tucson area and was not imported from Mesoamerica. The earliest canals found in North America are located along the Santa Cruz River in Tucson and date to around 1100 B.C. Hohokam villages and farms were usually located along the main rivers like the Salt, Gila, and Santa Cruz, and their tributary rivers. Prehistoric farmers and artisans known as Hohokam survived for over 1000 years in this harsh environment because of the hundreds of miles of irrigation canals and ditches they engineered, dug, and maintained. Ironically, it is also very "green" with a large variety of desert-adapted plants, many of which provide edible pods, flowers, seeds, roots, and tubers. ![]() The Sonoran Desert is one of the hottest and driest places in the world. A prehistoric Hohokam canal has been incorporated into the Consolidated Canal in the eastern Salt River Valley, 1906. ![]()
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