Indian Mesa is a flat top hill whose sides are steep cliffs. Indian Mesa is located within the
Lake Pleasant Regional Park
Lake Pleasant Regional Park is a large outdoors recreation area straddling the Maricopa and Yavapai county border northwest of Phoenix, Arizona. The park is located within the municipal boundaries of Peoria, Arizona, and serves as a major rec ...
grounds by the shores of Lake Pleasant and Agua Fria River in the
Bradshaw Mountain Range. Lake Pleasant Regional Park is within the municipal boundaries of
Peoria, Arizona
Peoria is a city in Maricopa and Yavapai counties in the state of Arizona. Most of the city is located in Maricopa County, while a portion in the north is in Yavapai County. It is a major suburb of Phoenix. As of the 2020 census, the populati ...
. On top of the mesa there are ruins of a prehistoric
Hohokam
Hohokam () was a culture in the North American Southwest in what is now part of Arizona, United States, and Sonora, Mexico. It existed between 300 and 1500 AD, with cultural precursors possibly as early as 300 BC. Archaeologists disagree about ...
village which is monitored by the Arizona Site Stewards and considered an important archaeological site by the
U.S. Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...
. There is a small, steep and narrow path which begins at the skirt of the hill and leads to the top of the mesa.
[Indian Mesa Ruins](_blank)
/ref>[Lake Pleasant Events](_blank)
/ref>
Indian Mesa and the Hohokam village
Indian Mesa is located in the Lake Pleasant Regional Park area which has an area of 10,000 acres (40 km² or 15.6 mi²). The lake is one of the most important artificial reservoirs surrounding the Phoenix metropolitan area and is filled by the Agua Fria River
The Agua Fria River (Spanish for "cold water") is a long intermittent stream which flows generally south from east-northeast of Prescott in the U.S. state of Arizona. Prescott draws much of its municipal water supply from the upper Agua Fria w ...
.
It is estimated that in the years AD 1000 to AD 1200, Native Americans from the Hohokam cultural tradition built a community which housed anywhere from 100 to 200 people on top of the mesa. The location presented an easily defensible position for the Hohokam of their village in the event that they were attacked by intruders.
Hohokam is an O'odham
The O'odham peoples, including the Tohono O'odham, the Pima or Akimel O'odham, and the Hia C-ed O'odham, are indigenous Uto-Aztecan peoples of the Sonoran desert in southern and central Arizona and northern Sonora, united by a common herita ...
word used by archaeologists to identify a group of people who lived in the Sonoran Desert
The Sonoran Desert ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States (in Arizona ...
of North America. The Hohokam may have been the ancestors of the historic Akimel O'odham
The Pima (or Akimel O'odham, also spelled Akimel Oʼotham, "River People," formerly known as ''Pima'') are a group of Native Americans living in an area consisting of what is now central and southern Arizona, as well as northwestern Mexico in ...
(Pima) and Tohono O'odham peoples in Southern Arizona
Southern Arizona is a region of the United States comprising the southernmost portion of the State of Arizona. It sometimes goes by the name Gadsden or Baja Arizona, which means "Lower Arizona" in Spanish.
Geography
Although Southern Arizona ...
. They developed an urban society built around irrigated agriculture, watered by an elaborate canal system.
The Hohokam men spent most of their time hunting, and the women tended the children and houses. The Hohokam used their houses for sleeping. They also used the houses for storage and as a defense against bad weather. They dug a posthole inside their houses and placed heavy mesquite or pine posts on them to support a roof. Among the ruins are fire pits which were used for cooking and for the making of pottery. The clay used to make pottery was gathered on the shore of the Agua Fria River. Even though the process of pottery making was a time-consuming one, the end product was a very useful one. The pots were used for serving water and if broken, the pieces were used for ornaments. The Hohokam also produced jewelry made of raw shell imported from northern Mexico which they traded.
The reason for which the Hohokam abandoned the village is unknown. There was a radical decline in the procurement and trade of raw shell from Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
and its manufacture into jewelry. The transition from pit-houses (a primitive dwelling
In law, a dwelling (also known as a residence or an abode) is a self-contained unit of accommodation used by one or more households as a home - such as a house, apartment, mobile home, houseboat, vehicle, or other "substantial" structure. The ...
dug into the ground and roofed over) to pit-rooms and the introduction of spherical spindle whorls may have added to the relatively sudden and widespread abandonment or relocation of many Hohokam villages and a short-lived population decline. Archaeological evidence, such as the ones found at Indian Mesa, indicate that the Hohokam did not vanish nor did they abandon their village overnight. It is believed that the cultural collapse of the Hohokam was a process that lasted several generations and that what may have remained of their culture was passed on to their descendants, the Pima and Tohono O'odham peoples. The ruins in the mesa are some of the best-preserved pieces left behind by this Indian community. The ruins and the mesa are now under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and monitored by the Arizona Site Stewards.
Hiking Indian Mesa
A permit is not required to hike the mesa. The entrance to the area is reached from Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...
by travelling north on the I-17 highway and exiting at Table Mesa Road. The hike to the mesa is 3 miles from the designated vehicle parking area. The hike consists of a total of six miles round trip on a rocky terrain which is made up of a blend of desert and semi-desert ecosystems
An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...
. The climb to the top of the mesa, whose height is approximately 400 feet, is reached through a steep and narrow path that has a dangerous hundred foot drop. Removal of artifacts are strictly forbidden.Lake Pleasant Park and Recreation
On January 11, 2000, President Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
declared the area in which Indian Mesa is located the "Agua Fria National Monument
Agua Fria National Monument is in the U.S. state of Arizona, approximately north of downtown Phoenix, Arizona. Created by Presidential proclamation on January 11, 2000, the monument is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, an agency within ...
" under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management.[Antiquities Act of 1906](_blank)
/ref>
As such the area, including the artifacts located on the site, are protected under the Antiquities Act of 1906
The Antiquities Act of 1906 (, , ), is an act that was passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt on June 8, 1906. This law gives the President of the United States the authority to, by presidential procla ...
. The act is a bill (16 USC
USC most often refers to:
* University of South Carolina, a public research university
** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses
**South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program
* University of ...
431–433) passed by the United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
and signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
on June 8, 1906 which strictly forbids the removal of artifacts from Indian Mesa.
According to the law "Any person who shall appropriate, excavate, injure, or destroy any historic or prehistoric ruin or monument, or any object of antiquity, situated on lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States, without the permission of the Secretary of the Department of the Government having jurisdiction over the lands on which said antiquities are situated, shall, upon conviction, be fined or be imprisoned for a period of not more than ninety days, or shall suffer both fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court."
Gallery
The following pictures are of the thousand year old Hohokam village on top of Indian Mesa.
See also
*List of historic properties in Peoria, Arizona
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
*Lake Pleasant Regional Park
Lake Pleasant Regional Park is a large outdoors recreation area straddling the Maricopa and Yavapai county border northwest of Phoenix, Arizona. The park is located within the municipal boundaries of Peoria, Arizona, and serves as a major rec ...
*Lake Pleasant Camp
Scouting in Arizona has a long history, from the 1910s to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the environment in which they live.
Early history
Boy Scouting was founded by Robert Baden-Powell in England and co-fo ...
*Rio Vista Pond
Rio Vista Pond is located in Rio Vista Park in south central Peoria, Arizona, United States, on Rio Vista Boulevard, just north of Thunderbird Road.
Fish species
* Rainbow trout
* Largemouth bass
* Sunfish
* Catfish (channel)
* Tilapia
* Ca ...
* Weedville
*Sears-Kay Ruin
The Sears-Kay Ruin are the remains of what once was a fortification of the Hohokam culture. The ruins are located in the area of the Tonto National Forest just outside of the town of Carefree, Arizona. On November 24, 1995, it was listed in the Na ...
References
{{authority control
Mesas of Arizona
Archaeological sites in Arizona
Regional parks in the United States
Hills of Arizona
Ancient Puebloan archaeological sites in Arizona
Parks in Maricopa County, Arizona
Parks in Yavapai County, Arizona
Reservoirs in Maricopa County, Arizona
Reservoirs in Yavapai County, Arizona
Geography of Peoria, Arizona
Hohokam trincheras sites
Reservoirs in Arizona