Old Pueblo Archaeology Center

March 22, 2007

TOHONO O’ODHAM NATION PROVIDES
EDUCATION PROGRAM GRANT TO OLD PUEBLO

In a news conference held in Tucson on March 22, 2007, the Tohono O’odham Nation announced that it has awarded Old Pueblo Archaeology Center with a $50,000 grant to fund new and ongoing programs of Old Pueblo, using revenues of the Nation’s Indian Gaming endeavor. The Nation’s grant was funneled to Old Pueblo via the Town of Marana in accordance with regulatory procedures for how Indian tribes can award gaming-proceeds grants to nonprofit organizations under Arizona Proposition 202 that was passed by the State’s voters in 2002.

The Nation’s grant will fund Old Pueblo’s education programs for Tohono O'odham children and adults, and allows us to expand our existing outreach programs conducted for the general public. Specifically, Old Pueblo will utilize grant funds to:

* Collaborate with Nation’s Hickiwan District to find ways to develop education programs focused on the Ventana Cave archaeological site, a National Historic Landmark where the Arizona State Museum (University of Arizona) conducted extensive excavations in the 1940s under the direction of archaeologists Dr. Emil W. Haury and Mr. Julian Hayden. The Museum’s excavations uncovered layered deposits of earth extending more than 6 meters deep, in which there were successive layers of artifacts and human-made features extending from historical times far back into prehistory. Ventana Cave provided a record of human occupation that established how southwestern cultures changed through centuries, from at least the Early Archaic period (8000 B.C. or earlier) through the Middle Archaic, Late Archaic, Hohokam, and Tohono O’odham cultural periods. The Hickiwan District, in which Ventana Cave is located, is interested in developing a caretaker facility that may also serve as an interpretive center for Tohono O’odham history and culture, and is involving Old Pueblo in ideas for providing archaeological interpretation and educational tours to Ventana Cave.

* Develop and offer a program that will provide elementary-age Tohono O’odham children with a unique and hands-on learning experience about their ancestors’ traditional survival skills. This program, scheduled for June 2007 at the Nation’s Venito Garcia Library in Sells and at Old Pueblo’s facility in Marana, will include stone artifact- and pottery-making activities, a tour of one or more archaeological sites, and a hands-on introduction to archaeological discovery and interpretive methods.

* Send Old Pueblo's instructors into schools on the reservation and into off-reservation schools whose kids include large numbers of Tohono O'odham students, to present various archaeological education programs.

* Continue Old Pueblo’s tuition waiver program for our OPEN2 simulated archaeological dig children's education program, to help cover the fees for schools that have high percentages of students from low-income families.

* Provide Old Pueblo's archaeologists and instructors to Tohono O'odham district offices, the Sells Library, elderly centers, and other adult gathering places to present programs about the archaeology of southern Arizona.

Old Pueblo thanks the Tohono O’odham Nation and the Town of Marana for making the Nation’s grant possible.

VISTA DEL RIO EDUCATION PROGRAM

The Vista del Rio Cultural Resource Park was established by the City of Tucson in 2004 just north of the Tanque Verde Road and Dos Hombres Road intersection to preserve part of archaeological site AZ BB:9:58(ASM), the Vista del Rio Hohokam village site.

The Vista del Rio archaeological site is where a large Hohokam village once covered a large area along Tanque Verde Creek. Limited archaeological excavations at the site have discovered concentrations of artifacts, many Hohokam pithouses that are well-preserved, a possible above-ground house ruin, outdoor storage and roasting pits, and what may be an ancient irrigation canal. The styles of artifacts that have been identified there indicate the settlement was occupied between about A.D. 1000 and 1200.

The Vista del Rio site was determined to be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places by the State Historic Preservation Office in 2002. Beginning around that same time a nonprofit neighborhood association of surrounding homeowners, the Vista del Rio Residents’ Association, Inc., mustered support to preserve the archaeological features in place and leave the property in its natural state. Through cooperative efforts between the City of Tucson and neighbors, the City designated the open space that contains the still-undisturbed portion of the archaeological site as the Vista del Rio Cultural Resource Park. To preserve archaeological features still present, the City has limited park development to a ramada, a walking trail, and some interpretive plaques.

With assistance of a significant grant from the Tohono O’odham Nation the Residents’ Association recently embarked on a public education program to make Tucson residents aware of the park’s existence and purpose, and to educate the modern population about the rich archaeological heritage of Tucson. This past October the Residents’ Association contracted Old Pueblo Archaeology Center to provide a public interpretive program focused on the Vista del Rio Cultural Resource Park. In this program Old Pueblo is providing opportunities for children and adults to learn about the Native American prehistory and history of the American Southwest, and, in particular about the native cultures of southern Arizona and Tucson’s Vista del Rio Hohokam archaeological site. The program includes free public presentations about Arizona Archaeology, Native American Cultures, and the Vista del Rio Hohokam site, for children as well as for adults. Also being offered are opportunities for kindergarten through eighth grade classes to go on field trips to the Vista del Rio site and participate in hands-on learning programs related to the Park and the ancient Hohokam archaeological culture. In the 2-hour field trip program being offered to schools, children will learn about the lifestyle of the Hohokam through a presentation by an Old Pueblo educator and by seeing and handling real and replica artifacts, as well as a model of a Hohokam pit-house. They will have the opportunity to try their hand at grinding corn using a real metate and mano and making petroglyph rubbings. They will also learn about what archaeologists do, how they do it, and how they learn about people through their work.

The Vista del Rio Park is located north of Tanque Verde Road between Sabino Canyon Road and the Pantano/Wrightstown roads grade-separated interchange. To visit the park, take Dos Hombres Road (at the traffic light) north from Tanque Verde Road to where Dos Hombres ends at Desert Arbors Street. Parking is available on Desert Arbors or around the corner to the west on Essel Drive (which runs along the west side of the park). For more information about the Vista del Rio education program contact Old Pueblo Archaeology Center at 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org.

PUBLIC-ASSISTED EXCAVATIONS AT THE
CNN CAMP BELL HOHOKAM ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE

From October 2006 through March 2007 Old Pueblo Archaeology Center conducted excavations and offered free guided tours at Tucson’s “CNN Camp Bell” archaeological site on North Campbell Avenue between Allen and Roger roads. The CNN Camp Bell site is part of an ancient village inhabited around A.D. 1100 by Hohokam Indians, who are known for creating distinctive pottery, seashell jewelry, “pithouse” architecture, and extensive irrigation systems. Old Pueblo’s studies of the site, directed by archaeologist Dr. Courtney Rose, identified several ancient Hohokam pithouse ruins, an unusual slab-lined pit, other outdoor pits, and hundreds of artifacts.

Old Pueblo’s research at this site is being funded by Tucson’s CNN Realty Services. CNN contracted Old Pueblo in 2003 to inspect the Campbell Avenue property to determine whether ancient artifacts or archaeological features were present, and to conduct exploratory excavations after prehistoric artifacts were found. After the test excavations identified buried Hohokam archaeological features, CNN Realty began funding Old Pueblo’s current research at the CNN Camp Bell site to recover and interpret archaeological materials and information, to ensure that any damages that might be caused by future construction will be mitigated by Old Pueblo’s data recovery and interpretation effort.

School classes and other groups may arrange to take tours guided by Old Pueblo’s archaeologists at the CNN Camp Bell site through Spring 2006. See the “Tours” pages of Old Pueblo’s web site for more information.