Centuries before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, a small pueblo south of Santa Fe was busy domesticating the bird that would one day become the staple of Thanksgiving. In a little known chapter of Southwest history, the Tewa Indians of what would later be known as Pindi Pueblo were believed to be raising turkeys by at least the 13th century, keeping them in pens and using their feathers for blankets and ceremonies. In some cases, they may even have treated the awkward birds as pets, right down to giving them formal burials when they died. The pueblo was occupied on and off from the mid-1200s until about 1420 before it was finally abandoned. Today the site, about six miles southwest of Santa Fe along the Santa Fe River in the village of Agua Fría, sits on private land out of public view. Archaeologists Stanley A. Stubbs and W.S. Stallings Jr. of the Laboratory of Anthropology named the pueblo Pindi — the Tewa word for turkey — after they excavated the site in the early 1930s and discovered evidence that the residents were keeping and raising turkeys. While other Southwestern tribes kept wild turkeys as early as the 800s, the archaeologists found that the residents of Pindi had extensively domesticated them. The two men oversaw a six-month excavation of the 250-room site under the auspices of the Civil Works Program at the invitation of the property owners, who had hoped to exploit the pueblo as a tourist attraction. That idea never caught on, probably due to the financial constraints of the Great Depression. Stubbs and Stallings detailed their findings in a report in 1953. But outside of academic circles, the report was largely forgotten until last year, when Eric Blinman, director of the Museum of New Mexico’s Office of Archaeological Studies, and Stephen Post, the office’s deputy director emeritus, cited it in an extensive history of the excavation and pueblo titled, “Pindi Pueblo Comes Home to Roost” in the winter 2013 issue of El Palacio magazine. Pueblo Indians were attracted to the Santa Fe area because of its natural surroundings, including the river, farmland and abundant wildlife in the nearby woods and mountains for hunting, Blinman said in an interview. According to him, there were at least four pueblos housing up to 1,000 people in the immediate Santa Fe area during that time period. “It was a happening place,” he said. Archaeologists have found turkey bones, eggshells and droppings at other pueblos in the Southwest, but the pens at Pindi are unusual, Blinman and Post said. As we celebrate Thanksgiving, Post sees a cultural contrast between how modern Americans and the Pindi residents view turkeys. “The turkey shows up on our table. We eat it and do various things to the carcass. End of story,” he said. “They saw turkeys as a portable organic resource. Their feathers were useful for making blankets, regalia, they could produce eggs, produce young, and you can corral them. And they had meat potential.” But that potential would only be realized if the Pindi denizens could not nab some antelope, deer or rabbit, he and Blinman said. The Stubbs and Stallings excavation report hints that Pindi may have been a turkey trading center. Blinman and Post don’t go quite that far but said it is possible that the residents there used turkeys when bartering for pottery and other goods created at nearby pueblos. Arroyo Hondo Pueblo in the Galisteo Basin was also pretty “turkey friendly,” Post said. But Stubbs and Stalling were probably looking for a romantic name to capture interest for Pindi Pueblo, which was located on the north side of the river and not far from what is called the Agua Fría Schoolhouse site on the south side of the river near the San Ysidro crossing. Archaeologists don’t know exactly why the residents eventually left Pindi but believe it was some combination of drought, flooding or erosion. Cherie Scheick, owner of Southwest Archaeological Consultants, who is taking part in a community excavation of the Agua Fria Schoolhouse site, said Tuesday they are uncovering evidence of turkey bones and egg shells there. But no turkey pens, she said. The difference is not that subtle. At Pindi, “I get the sense that the birds were treated as a member of the community but not as a member of the family,” Blinman said. At Agua Fría, it is possible they ended up on the dinner table more often. “One would presume they were eating turkeys,” Scheick said. James Snead, a native Santa Fean who has studied the Southwest pueblos and is currently an associate professor of anthropology at California State University, Northridge, said by phone Wednesday that the presence of turkeys can help residents of the Southwest today forge a connection with the ancient pueblos. “Turkeys are not very glamorous but they tell us a lot about [the residents’] daily lives,” he said. “We tend to think of people in the past in mystical ways, rituals and all that. But it’s always nice to see that they were farmers, that they needed to eat, that they raised turkeys, the turkeys are squabbling on the plaza and made noise and they had to get rid of the turkey droppings and that’s a pain.” Thanksgiving, he said, is a good time to ponder such points. “People think of the Pilgrims, and that’s fine, but Santa Fe needs to look no further than Pindi for this connection with ancient Native Americans — and the turkey is a great way to bring that to mind.” Contact Robert Nott at 505-986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 17:53:14 +0000
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