DISCUSSION QUESTIONS/TOPICS

  • Discuss why irrigation was, and is, necessary in the arid southwest. Discuss the importance of water conservation.
  • Discuss how prehistoric, and historic, people used natural herbs and plants to heal their ailments. Have students research medicinal plants. Make notebooks; sketch plants with decriptions of each.
  • The warehouses at Casas Grandes held thousands of trade items. (Trade items were described under the "Mogollon" in Cultural Groups above). Why were these items valuable farther north? Which may have been the most valuable?
  •  Discuss the concept of supply and demand, luxury items vs. utilitarian items, etc. For example, a trader might trade a macaw and turquoise beads (luxury items) for a turkey feather blanket (utilitarian item) from a person of the Ancestral Puebloan. The blanket would, in turn, be traded to someone who lived in the cooler mountain climes (the feather blanket might be essential to keep warm in the winter. This would be a good time to mention that there are real mountains in Mexico).

FURTHER READING

  • Arizona Traveler Guidebooks
    1988, Arizona Cactus, Renaissance House Publishers, Frederick, CO.
    1988, Arizona Parks and Monuments, Renaissance House Publishers, Frederick, CO.
  • Barnett, Franklin
    1973, Dictionary of Prehistoric Indian Artifacts of the American Southwest, Northland Press, Flagstaff, AZ.
  • Baylor, Byrd
    1975, The Desert is Theirs, Aladdin Books, Macmillan Publishing Company, NY.
  • Caduto, Michael and Joseph Bruchac
    1989, Keepers of the Earth, Native American Stories and Environmental Activities for Children, Fulcrum, Inc., Golden, CO. (Three Coyote stories in the book.)
    1995, Native Plant Stories, Fulcrum, Inc., Golden, CO.
    1996, Native American Gardening, Fulcrum, Inc., Golden, CO.
    1997, Keepers of Life, Discovering Plants Through Native American Stories and Earth Activities for Children, Fulcrum, Inc., Golden, CO.
  • Cornett, James W.
    1995, Indian Uses of Desert Plants, Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, CA.
  • Harvey, Karen D. and  Lisa D. Harjo
    1994, Indian Country: A History of Native People in America, North American Press, Golden, CO.
  • Haury, Emil W.
    1994,  The Hohokam, Desert Farmers and Craftsmen (Snaketown, 1964-1965), University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ.
    1989, The Mogollon Culture of SW New Mexico, Medallion Papers 20, Gila Pueblo, Globe, AZ.
  • Houk, Rose
    1992, Hohokam, Southwest Parks andMonuments Association, Tucson, AZ.
  • Larson, Wes
    1997, A Field Folio of Indian and Pioneer Medicinal Plants, Third Mesa Publishing Company, Toquerville, UT.
  • Matson, R.G.
    1991, The Origins of Southwestern Agriculture,  University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ.
  • Moore, Michael
    1979, Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West, Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, NM.
  • Nobel, David Grant (Ed.)
    1991, The Hohokam, Ancient People of the Desert, School of American Research, Santa Fe, NM.
  • Wolfson, Evelyn
    1993, From the Earth to Beyond the Sky, Native American Medicine, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA.