After leaving Benson, AZ, we stopped for 2 nights in Show Low, AZ, to visit Fort Apache and the Kinishba Ruins near Pinetop.
On the way we stopped for lunch at the Hon-Dah Casino, then proceeded to Fort Apache Historic Park.
A little history-------
“On May 16, 1870 an Army post was established at the confluence of the north and east forks of the White River in the foothills of the White Mountains. Located in the center of the White Mountain Apache people’s homeland, the post was constructed to help the White Mountain Apache people to stay peacefully on their lands and to stop conflict among Native people and incoming settlers in the surrounding region.
The military presence at Fort Apache ended in 1922 and the facilities were transferred to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to open the Theodore Roosevelt Indian Boarding School.”
The original museum was in an old log cabin built in 1871 but the new building has many exhibits for an interesting look at Native people’s lives during that time. They have a lot of artifacts as well as many beautiful beaded pieces.
We met a young Apache woman who was making beaded earrings and she noticed my bracelet. We got into a long discussion on beading techniques and when I got back to the coach I emailed her some of my patterns.
I love this sign……………we all know what it says in English!! “Remember---Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires”
From Fort Apache we proceeded to Kinishba Ruins which are the ruins of a village built and occupied by the ancestor’s of today’s Zuni and Hopi Pueblo tribes. Nearby pit houses indicate settlement here as early as AD 800 and pottery especially Hopi Yellow Wares and Zuni Glaze Wares, suggest occupation by Pueblo people into the 1400’s.
Around AD 1325, when Kinishba reached it’s maximum size of about 600 ground-floor rooms (400-800 occupants), the village was made up of four main blocks of rooms. Each room block likely sheltered a cluster of related clans.
Kinishba remains a sacred place for Apache and Pueblo people. Zunis and Hopis maintain spiritual links to this and other sites in the region.
If you have not already guessed, we love studying and experiencing ancient Native Peoples history as well as all US history. So many of our adventures will be based around historical sites.
More in the next blogs………….
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