Scott Ortman, under the direction of Dr. Michelle Hegmon, will investigate the 13th century A.D. migration of Pueblo Indians from the Four Corners area to northern New Mexico as a case study of the different ways genes, language and culture are affected by episodes of population movement. The rise of population in the northern Rio Grande valley of New Mexico during the 13th century A.D. has long been linked to migration from the Four Corners area to the west and northwest. The diversity of contemporary Pueblo languages in the Rio Grande suggests that people speaking several different languages took part in these migrations, but the material culture of post-migration Rio Grande sites does not map onto historic language distributions very well, and does not exhibit obvious continuities with earlier archaeological cultures of the Four Corners. This lack of fit between language and archaeology is why the origins of the Rio Grande Pueblos remains a classic puzzle in North American archaeology. The proposed research will take a fresh look at this puzzle by investigating the origins of the Tewa, one of the major Pueblo groups of the Rio Grande. Specifically, this research will focus on relationships between the present-day Tewa basin population and the ancient population of the Mesa Verde region, the area most commonly cited as the Tewa homeland. The project will trace the genetic, linguistic, and cultural background of the Tewa using five lines of investigation: 1) biological relationships between Tewa basin and Mesa Verde populations will be assessed using data from skeletal remains; 2) the length of time Tewa has been a distinct language will be estimated through comparative analysis of words for archaeologically-datable objects in Tewa and related languages; 3) the length of time Tewa has been spoken in the Rio Grande will be estimated through archaeological dating of sites with Tewa names; 4) whether Tewa was spoken in the Mesa Verde region prior to migration will be assessed using a new method, which examines the archaeological record for expressions of the metaphors embedded in languages; 5) continuities and discontinuities in material culture between Mesa Verde and Tewa basin sites will be examined using frameworks developed through ethnographic and historic migration studies. This interdisciplinary research will clarify affiliations between specific American Indian communities and archaeological sites, and may assist in the repatriation process mandated by federal law. It will also evaluate a new method for tracing speech communities and will contribute to reunification of the subfields of Anthropology. Members of the public will participate directly through programs at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, and research results will be disseminated to the public and to American Indian advisors through these programs. Finally, this research will greatly expand public interpretation of archaeological sites by determining the languages that were spoken in certain national parks and monuments of the Four Corners area.
