Arizona Archaeologist No. 29: Apacheans Bearing Gifts: Prehispanic Influence on the Pueblo Indians

This study proposes that Apacheans immigrating into the Southwest from the Northern Great Plains introduced a complex of cultural traits associated with hunting and warfare to the Pueblo Indians before the arrival of the first Spanish explorers. This hunting-warfare complex consists of three artifact types (1) the sinew-backed bow, (2) the mountain lion-skin quiver, and (3) the bison-hide shield – and two motifs that appear in rock art and on artifacts (4) the four-pointed star, and (5) the heartline. Examination of archaeological evidence from the Southwest indicates a lack of the five traits prior to the beginning of the Pueblo IV period, around A.D. 1300. Earliest datable appearances of each of the five traits within the Southwest are found to be within the A.D. 1400s, concurrent with the probable time of arrival of the Apacheans.