HOHOKAM CANAL SYSTEM MAP SERIES

This shows how the arrival of cornВ was integrated into the plant-tending lifestyle of First Society people. Its soil-enhancing qualities were also probably known. TheВ tree also enriches the soil with nitrogen and provides shade for the young plants in the summer.В Mesquite was, of course, a well-known food source for locals for millennia before the arrival ofВ corn. The pods are easy to collect and store and are edible even without cooking. Their beanВ pods can be dried and ground into a highly nutritious flour, which imparts a sweet, nutty tasteВ to Indian breads. Mesquite are relatively tolerant of elevated levelsВ of salinity and also produce a prolific supply of food, building material, and firewood. The answerВ seems to be that these skilled agriculturalists planted locally growing mesquite trees, trees thatВ are today usually considered a mere nuisance. Beans and corn do not respond well to salty soil. In fact, it has been long questioned why the Hohokam built such an extensive canal system on one of the saltiestВ rivers, the Gila, in North America. The Hohokam irrigation system is not as obvious as it might seem at first glance. These places were also goodВ hunting grounds for antelope, jackrabbits, cottontails, bighorn sheep, and mule deer besides offering a continual harvest of edible and useful plants that grew in the upland environments.

The area had another benefitВ in that the upland areas to the north, east, and south, and the desert to the west, were sources ofВ obsidian, turquoise, argillite, galena, steatite, serpentine, and shell. With no draft: animals, everything was dug by hand. Passing through villages and fields, the canals got progressively smaller. They eventually built overВ 800 kilometers of canals ranging in size from two to about twenty meters across, with the largerВ canals serving as the main feeders. Although dry and sunny, it had relatively good soil all that was needed was a water distribution system. TheВ Hohokam recognized the uniqueness of this ecological zone.

HOHOKAM CANAL SYSTEM MAP SERIES

The Salt River, the Gila River, and the Santa River were the mainВ suppliers of the water that flowed down from the mountainous regions at the southern end ofВ a vast continental shelf into a series of broad valleys, some only 500 meters above sea level.

The Hohokam could not have achieved this remarkable accomplishment withoutВ first designing and building an extensive irrigation canal system that was to become unique inВ the North American world. This gave them an especially powerful leverage inВ trade relations. The Hohokam not only grew tobacco, agave, maize, beans, and squash in an area now occupied partially by Phoenix, Arizona, but they also grew the first cotton in the Southwest, a crop thatВ was in high demand as a trade commodity.

Hohokam canal system map