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11. An Archeological Perspective on the Sonora Entrada
- University Press of Colorado
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rcheology has somewhat limited potential in dealing with the Spanish entrada in Sonora. The routes taken by the explorers in their journeys through Sonora are by no means certain and the conquistadors did not remain in one place long enough to make much of an impact of the kind that would leave archeological evidence. Even Coronado’s supply base, the initial location of which was purportedly the town named by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca as Corazones, was moved several times during the relatively brief span of the Coronado expedition. Thus, it is unlikely that direct evidence of the Spanish presence in Sonora in the sixteenth century will be found, unless by serendipity. Nevertheless, archeological data in combination with ethnographic, linguistic, and historic data can contribute indirectly to a number of problems concerning the Spanish entrada. Questions that potentially can be addressed by archeology include the following: 1) The actual routes of the explorers. By comparing late archeological data (protohistoric) with descriptions provided by the various chroniclers of the entrada, we might narrow the alternatives to a few most likely routes. Also, with remarkable luck, we might even identify specific places, although never with certainty. C H A P T E R 1 1 An Archeological Perspective on the Sonora Entrada RICHARD A. PAILES 147 RICHARD A. PAILES 148 2) The identification of indigenous peoples encountered by the explorers or confirmation of such identification made through other sources and knowledge of their cultures. Archeology can both confirm and add to the chroniclers’ descriptions of the peoples of Sonora in the sixteenth century. 3) The impact of Spanish contact on the native cultures during its first eighty to one hundred years, by contrasting the protohistoric archeology with the historic data for the contact period. The routes of the earliest Spanish penetrations into and through Sonora, from the north by Cabeza de Vaca and from the south by Melchior Díaz, Vázquez de Coronado, and Francisco de Ibarra, took place through the eastern half of the state (Di Peso et al. 1974: 37–120; Sauer 1932), in what has been described geographically as the Serrana zone by Braniff C. (1978). The route of fray Marcos de Niza is more uncertain, but Undriener (1947) has made a convincing argument that Marcos followed the coast northward at least as far as the mouth of the Río Sonora before turning inland and that he never entered the Serrana Province either on his outward journey or his return. Two environmental features of this eastern half of Sonora are significant here. First, the topography features a series of mountain ranges aligned on a north-south axis with corresponding intervening valleys and water courses. Second, the streams are live year-round (see Map 8). The Río Sonora is a live stream above Ures, while downstream under natural conditions it is absorbed by the desert before reaching the sea. East and south of the Río Sonora the streams are live and reach the sea under natural conditions. In contrast, the topography of central and northwestern Sonora consists of isolated ranges separated by broad alluvial basins (Dunbier 1968). The rivers, consisting of the lower Río Sonora and its western tributary, the Río San Miguel, and the Río Concepción with its tributaries, the Altar and Magdalena, are ephemeral streams flowing intermittently only during rainy seasons. Hence, as has been noted frequently in the past (see, for example, Pailes 1980; Sauer 1932), the valleys of eastern Sonora provide a natural corridor of north-south travel and it is generally understood that it was through this zone that the explorers traversed northwestern Mexico. Although the mountains of the Serrana appear substantial, in reality they do not present significant barriers to east-west travel until the escarpment of the sierras is reached east of the western arm of the Río Bavispe. The area as a whole represents a unified cultural province as well as a geographic one and is ethnographically , linguistically, and archeologically distinguishable from central and northwestern Sonora (Pailes 1973; Riley 1987). The distribution of Taracahitan speakers [44.210.120.182] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 10:12 GMT) AN ARCHEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE SONORA ENTRADA 149 Map 8. Serrana Culture, sixteenth-century Sonora. in Sonora, consisting of the Tarahumara, Ópata, Eudeve, Warihio, Yaqui, and Mayo, conforms almost exactly to the distribution of live streams, and the only area where Taracahitans reached the sea is in the south along the Río Yaqui...