A Summary Prehistory and History of the Sierra Pinacate, Sonora

Abstract

The 600-sq.-mi. volcanic area of the Sierra Pinacate, in the desert of far northwestern Sonora, Mexico, comprises a geologic and ecologic enclave in which archaeological remains have been undisturbed by erosion. Following a late pluvial occupation by people of the San Dieguito complex, Phase I, the area was abandoned during the Altithermal and later reoccupied by the Amargosans, whose culture pattern, diverging from that of adjacent regions, developed several unique traits through the Amargosa Phase I and Phase II periods. Ceramics were never made by the Amargosan Pinacateños, who traded for pottery almost exclusively with the Yumans of the Lower Colorado River, and later of the Gila River, from about A.D. 700 until early in the 20th century. In historic times, the occupants of the Pinacate spoke a Papago dialect but were hostile to other Papagos and associated almost exclusively with the Yumans. Survivors of the isolated Pinacate band, nearly wiped out in 1851 by yellow fever, joined their relatives and neighbors, the Areneños or Sand Papagos, who also used Yuman pottery. It is proposed that the Amargosan Pinacateños were Uto-Aztecan speakers, and that, therefore, the Papago proper are descendants of the early Amargosan occupants of Papagueria.