Dr. Deni Seymour, an Arizona Humanities speaker, presents The Earliest Apache in Arizona: Evidence and Arguments. Recent research provides evidence of ancestral Apaches in the southern Southwest at least as early as the A.D. 1300s. Some of this evidence comes from chronometric dates obtained from a feature type that comparative ethnographic information (including rarely used land claims documents) indicates were used for storage. These features, called platform caches, provide rare and ideal material for accurate dating because they are often covered with grass or leaves. Dates from these features, on Apache pottery, and from roasting pits, all in direct association with Apache material culture of other types (including rock art), provide a continuous sequence of use from at least as early as the A.D. 1300s through the late 1700s. New information about a western route south to this region is combined with other evidence regarding the presence of the earliest ancestral Apache three centuries earlier than many have argued, even in areas where Coronado did not see them.
Dr. Deni Seymour, an Arizona Humanities speaker, is an internationally recognized authority on protohistoric and historic Native American and Spanish colonial archaeology and ethnohistory, with global speaking engagements. For over 30 years, she has studied the ancestral (Chiricahua, Mescalero, and Lipan) Apache, Sobaipuri-O’odham, and lesser-known mobile groups (Jano, Jocome, Manso, Suma, and Jumano). She has excavated two Spanish-period presidios (Santa Cruz de Terrenate and Tubac), several missions, and several indigenous sites. Dr. Seymour works with indigenous groups in reconnecting with their heritage, investigates Coronado and Niza expedition archaeology, and continues to rewrite the history of the pre-Spanish and colonial period in the southern portion of the Southwest. She has published extensively on these groups and this period, with more than 100 publications in refereed journals, edited volumes, and popular venues, and has served as journal guest editors. She has published six books with another under review. Dr. Seymour is a full-time research archaeologist and ethnohistorian, public speaker, and author affiliated with two academic institutions and the nonprofit research group Jornada Research Institute.
The public may attend an Arizona Archaeology Society – Desert Foothills Chapter meeting at no charge, except for the holiday party in December. The AAS-DFC meetings are held on the second Wednesday of each month, September through May. There are refreshments available at 7:00 PM and the meeting begins at 7:30 PM, usually ending prior to 9:00 PM. The meetings are held in the community room (Maitland Hall) at The Good Shepard of the Hills Episcopal Church, 6502 East Cave Creek Road, Cave Creek, AZ 85331 (near the Dairy Queen). www.azarchsoc.wildapricot.org/desertfoothills
