People of the Verde

People were long drawn to settle in the Verde Valley for its plentiful food sources, water, and natural shelters. The earliest people to arrive left behind fluted spear points dating to 13,000 years ago. About 1,500 years ago, people began to settle more permanently, marking the beginning of the long-term growth of agricultural communities throughout the valley. As larger numbers lived together during the 1100s, settlements like Tuzigoot replaced small, dispersed farming sites. By 1200, communities extended along the Verde River and its tributaries. Around 1400, these Puebloan farming groups began leaving the valley for other settlements. Nearly 200 years later, when the first Europeans arrived, they found the valley populated by Yavapai people living in scattered rancherías, clusters of dwellings less permanent than pueblos. The Verde Valley remained an exceptional, bountiful place to live, and by around 1300 at least 40 villages with dwellings and farmlands formed a complex settlement network that included large pueblos like Tuzigoot, cliff dwellings such as Montezuma Castle, and at Montezuma Well both kinds of structures as well as pit houses, semi-subterranean homes from an earlier age.

Arizona · United States