Who were the Sinagua Indians?

The Sinagua were a resilient, resourceful, and culturally diverse people who inhabited the forests, canyons, grasslands, and deserts of central and northern Arizona from about A.D. 600 through A.D. 1450.

Where did the Sinagua people go?

Around AD 700 a branch of the Sinagua migrated below the Mogollon Rim to the Verde Valley and began living the good life next to fish-filled rivers and streams that flowed all year around; these migrants are now called the Southern Sinagua, and the ones who stayed behind are called the Northern Sinagua.

What Indians lived in Montezuma’s Castle?

Montezuma Castle National Monument protects a set of well-preserved dwellings located in Camp Verde, Arizona, which were built and used by the Sinagua people, a pre-Columbian culture closely related to the Hohokam and other indigenous peoples of the southwestern United States, between approximately 1100 and 1425 AD.

What did the Sinagua eat?

The Sinagua were primarily farmers supplementing their crops by hunting and gathering. The ancient farmers grew and ate corn, beans, and squash. The immediate surroundings augmented their diet with wild weedy plants and game such as deer, antelope, rabbit, bear, muskrat, turtle, and duck.

How did the Sinagua people get their name?

500 A.D. — 1300 A.D. The word “Sinagua” is a contraction of the Spanish words “sin agua,” or, “without water,” an allusion to the arid country in which the tradition arose. The pronunciation of Sinagua is “seen aug wah.”

What kind of religion did the Sinagua have?

Like the Zuni and Hopi, the Sinagua likely established clans, and they seem to have adapted several different religious beliefs, which we see expressed through their burial customs, including cremations and flexed and extended inhumations.

When was the peak of the Sinagua culture?

Perhaps the most remarkable time in all of Sinagua prehistory is the Elden phase, between A.D. 1150 and A.D. 1220, the peak period of northern Sinagua cultural expression.

When did the Sinagua come to the Verde Valley?

Around 650 A.D. pottery and agriculture appear, and the rise of the people now known as the Sinagua soon began. Most of the ruins in the Verde Valley are Sinaguan.