Prehistoric agriculture in the Southwestern United States
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The agricultural practices of the Native Americans inhabiting the American Southwest, which includes the states of Arizona and New Mexico plus portions of surrounding states and neighboring Mexico, are influenced by the low levels of precipitation in the region. Irrigation and several techniques of water harvesting and conservation were essential for successful agriculture. To take advantage of limited water, the southwestern Native Americans utilized irrigation canals, terraces (trincheras), rock mulches, and floodplain cultivation. Success in agriculture enabled some Native Americans to live in communities which numbered in the thousands as compared to their former lives as hunter-gatherers in which their bands numbered only a few dozen.
Maize (corn), the dominant crop, was introduced from Mesoamerica and cultivated in the present-day Southwest U.S. by 2100 BCE at the latest. Non-migrant cultures based on farming developed afterwards including the Hohokam, Mogollon, Ancestral Puebloans, and Patayan.
The environmental challenges of agriculture in the Southwest resulted in the demise or evolution of many once-successful agricultural societies, but they left behind impressive archeological evidence of their existence. Some agricultural cultures, such as the Pueblos of the United States and the Yaqui and Mayo of Mexico, were durable and survive into the 21st century.