Hohokam Pima National Monument

The Hohokam Pima National Monument is an ancient Hohokam village within the Gila River Indian Community, near present-day Sacaton, Arizona. The monument features the archaeological site Snaketown southeast of Phoenix, Arizona, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964. The museum at the nearby Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, in Coolidge, Arizona, contains artifacts from Snaketown. The Huhugam Heritage Center also has exhibits on tribal history and archaeology.

Definitive dates are not clear, but the site was generally thought to be inhabited between 300 BCE and 1200 CE. Hohokam is an O’odham word meaning “those who have gone.” Specifically who the Hohokam people were and when the site was inhabited is subject to debate.

Cultural history

This site is a significant example of the Hohokam culture, which lived in the broader area from about 1 CE until approximately 1500 CE. Snaketown, contained in a one-half mile by three-quarters mile piece of property, was occupied by Hohokam people during the Pioneer and Early Sedentary stages (approximately 300 BCE to 1100 CE). Early in the Classic Period (1150 CE – 1400/1450) the community of Snaketown, once apparently central to the broader Hohokam culture, was suddenly abandoned. Parts of its structure were burned, and the site was not reoccupied.

The Hohokam were farmers, even though they lived in an area with dry sandy soil, rugged volcanic mountains and slow running rivers. They grew beans, squash, tobacco, cotton and corn. The Hohokam made the sandy soil fertile by channeling water from the local river through a series of man-made canals. Woven mat dams were used to channel river water into the canals. The canals were generally shallow and wide, reaching up to ten miles in length.

Most of the population lived in pit houses, carefully dug rectangular depressions in the earth with branch and mud adobe walls supported by log sized corner posts. These pit houses were similar to those constructed by the neighboring Mogollon pueblo people, but were larger in size and made with a more shallow depression.

The oval shaped fields at Snaketown were identified as ballcourts at the time of excavation. Each was about long, apart, and high. In 2009 it was suggested that the shape of an oval bowl with curved sides, and the uneven embankments on the long sides, are unsuited for any kind of ball game. However, they correspond with dance floors of the Tohono O'odham (Papago) people, used for their Vikita ceremonies until at least the 1930s.

Snaketown's pottery was generally homogeneous during the periods of its occupation. However, most specialists agree that pottery samples contain elements implying the presence two different, but probably related groups, over time.

Snaketown is dated by some scholars to around 300 BCE. Archaeologist Brian Fagan dates Hohokam culture to 500 CE, and sums up the situation by stating that there are simply two separate schools of thought on the subject. Martin and Plog belong to the first group and Haury belongs to the second. The second group argues that these features the first group believes came from Mexico were developed locally. While there is much dispute on the origin of Snaketown, most scholars are able to agree that Hohokam culture peaked between 700 and 900 CE. Snaketown derives its name from another O’odham word meaning “place of snakes” and is considered to be one of the larger Hohokam settlements. Snaketown at its height contained between 1000 and 3000 people.

Snaketown houses were shallow pit houses. There were hearths, small clay lined basins near the doorways. These houses were home to small groups of extended families that focused on the Hohokam tradition at other sites, but eventually led Haury to Snaketown, which he excavated in the early 1930s.

The abandonment of Snaketown

It is not particularly clear what caused the abandonment of Snaketown around 1100 CE. Haury cites over-irrigation leading to soil depletion as a possibility for its fall, but still contends that abandonment also occurred in nearby cultures that were less dependent on irrigation.