1. The Case Study of Sapa’owingeh (LA 306)
Investigating the Dynamic Relationship Between People and Turkey in the Pueblo Southwest:
The Case Study of Sapa’owingeh (LA 306)
A Preliminary Faunal Analysis by Laura W. Steele
Department of Anthropology and Applied Archaeology, Eastern New Mexico University
Ethnographic accounts of Tewa peoples from the early twentieth century suggest the use of turkeys for food was taboo, except in rare cases; however some archaeological interpretations regarding sites predating A.D have cited turkeys as being an integral part of the Puebloan diet. This project seeks to understand if and when a change in turkey-use within Puebloan diets occurred in the late prehispanic or historic period. To address these questions, I examine faunal remains from the ancestral Tewa site of Sapa’owingeh (Sapawe’uinge) located in the Rio Chama watershed in northern New Mexico.
For this project, I sampled room and kiva contexts; by using NISP (Number of Identified Specimen) and MNI (Minimum Number of Individuals) to compare the amount of Meleagris gallopavo (turkey) faunal remains to the amount of other avifauna. I then relate these results to broader trends in Pueblo-turkey relationships across the American Southwest.
Introduction
The History and Importance of Turkey in the Southwest
Turkeys have been a valuable resource in North America for at least 1,300 years. Turkey has not only been critically important in Pueblo subsistence, but also useful as multipurpose resources to create tools, jewelry, and ceremonial items. During the twentieth century, Puebloan people used turkeys in predominantly non-subsistence contexts, including prayer sticks and prayer feathers (Parsons 1996). During the prehispanic period they served both subsistence and non-subsistence purposes.
While the ethnographic evidence creates one picture for the use and importance of turkey, archaeological findings tell a different story. Historically, turkey has been a
multi-purpose resource mainly for the use of its feathers. During the prehipanic period, turkey was also a multipurpose resource, but used in both subsistence and non-subsistence contexts. Through faunal analysis, I investigated when this change might have occurred in the turkey-Pueblo relationship. The purpose of this study is to define the use of turkey and the relationship between individuals and turkeys at a Pueblo IV site, Sapa’owingeh.
Methods and Sampling
Through faunal analysis, I compared trends across time between turkeys and their contexts at the site of Sapa’owingeh in order to illuminate the relationship between the inhabitants of this ancestral pueblo and turkeys.
To answer my question of whether the Pueblo-turkey relationship changed at Sapaw’owingeh, it was first necessary to utilize standard identification and recording procedures associated with faunal analysis. I calculated both the NISP and the MNI and classified them as belonging to the early; middle; or late occupations.
Posterior, cranial view of left femur from a Meleagris gallopavo. Butchering, or cut-marks, are exhibited below the trochanteric ridge.
All excavated Meleagris gallopavo remains were analyzed along with a sample of avifauna from the same contexts. The NISP for the general turkey collection was 1212, with an MNI of 37. The NISP for the avifauna sample was 115, with an MNI of 5. The avifauna sample revealed 77% Buteo jamaicensis (Red-tailed hawk), 6% Aguila chrysaetos (Golden Eagle), with the remaining 17% a wide variety of other species. Very little avifauna was recovered from the early occupation, with greater proportions from the middle and late occupations, respectively.
Aerial photograph of Sapa’owingeh (BLA-306) taken for the UNM fieldschool (from the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology).
Complete Meleagris gallopavo Skeletons
Age
Burning
Cut Marks
Abnormality 1 2
Fourteen nearly complete Meleagris gallopavo skeletons were analyzed (all complete specimens were found associated with the late occupation). Each element was coded with a “1” for adult; “2” for subadult; “1” for presence of a trait; and “2” for absence of a trait. Ten of the fourteen individuals had some kind of bone abnormality including healed fractures and disease such as osteoarthritis. Upon observation, it was noted none of the bones found in rooms during the early occupation from the general Meleagris gallopavo assemblage had
bone abnormalities. There is a greater than 50% probability
that the differences observed between the middle and late occupations are a consequence of the vagaries of sampling.
In other words, there is a greater than 50% risk that we could select samples as different as these if the two occupations did not really differ in regard to normal and
abnormal skeletal proportions (Drennan 2010: ).
Conclusions
The northern Rio Grande is an important area when discussing large-scale changes across the Southwest during the Pueblo III-Pueblo IV transition. It is here several different groups of individuals merged to create new ways of living during the Pueblo IV period. My goal for this faunal analysis was to unravel a small portion of what it means to be human during the Pueblo IV period – what things or ideals are present during this time and how they were being utilized. Similar trends, including an increase in turkey remains through time, have been observed elsewhere in the Southwest: including at Grasshopper Pueblo, Salmon Ruins, and Arroyo Hondo (Durand and Durand 2008; Harris 1984; Reid 1999). Further investigations of these data are needed to draw a more complete picture of activities at Sapa’owingeh.
The attention of this study is concentrated on a faunal assemblage from Sapa’owingeh, a large pueblo site in the Tewa Basin that emerged in the Pueblo IV period. It was excavated by the University of New Mexico Field School under the supervision of Florence Hawley Ellis during the summers of 1963 to 1969.
The Ancestral Tewa village of Sapa’owingeh is located on the west bank of El Rito Creek, upstream from the confluence of El Rito Creek and the Rio Chama, and downstream from the community of El Rito. Sapa’owingeh is the largest adobe ruin in New Mexico, encompassing slightly less than thirty acres, with gravel mulch gardens extending out beyond the residential areas and plazas (Ellis ca. 1970). The excavations at Sapa’owingeh revealed an abundance of faunal material, including at least thirty-eight turkey skeletons (articulated and semi articulated burials) (Emslie 1981:324). The areas excavated included 180 rooms, along with sections of the plazas, porticos, and kivas (Ellis ca. 1970).
The Ancestral Tewa Village: Sapa’owingeh (LA 306)
Acknowledgements
I thank my chair, Dr. Samuel G. Duwe, and my committee members Dr. Kathy Durand-Gore and Dr. John Montgomery for all of their time invested in this project. I also thank Dr. Kerriann Marden for her expertise in bone pathology and taphonomic processes. Additionally, thanks to Dr. David Phillips of the University of New Mexico, Dr. Sunday Eiselt and Rachel Burger at Southern Methodist University, for their efforts in the curation of the Sapa’owingeh faunal collection. Lastly, I would like to thank my editor for his unrelenting support and patience, my family, and my friends to whom I owe much gratitude.