Obsidian provenance studies within the Phoenix Basin of south-central Arizona have become increasingly comprehensive during the last four decades. As a result, broad regional and temporal trends have been defined regarding Preclassic (ca. A.D. 650–1150) and Classic period (ca.A.D. 1150–1450) socioeconomic interactions in the Hohokam core area. However, Historic period patterns are still poorly understood, and these data are essential for understanding the relationship between the prehistoric Hohokam and historical Akimel O’Odham. The association between the Akimel O’Odham and Hohokam has been debated since Euro-Americans first visited the area in the late 1600s, yet this issue is still not fully resolved. This article presents analyses of historical obsidian from the Sacate site that suggest that long-term trends in cultural patterns within the Phoenix Basin continued unbroken into the Historic period. These continuities provide another line of evidence that the Akimel O’Odham are the direct cultural descendants of the Hohokam.

Archaeologists have long used the prehistoric inhabitants of the Phoenix Basin in south-central Arizona as an example of a failed or collapsed society, and most prehistorians still assert that Hohokam material culture patterns ended at the close of the Classic period (circa A.D. 1150–1450). Although researchers are increasingly recognizing connections between prehistoric and modern indigenous people, little consensus exists regarding the cause or causes of the dramatic alterations in material culture patterns that occurred in the region. Most archaeologists who have studied the changes at the end of the Classic period, however, have not fully considered the implications of previous and subsequent conditions, including similar and seemingly abrupt shifts in cultural practices that occurred both before and after this time. This paper uses Akimel O'Odham (i.e., Pima) cultural knowledge to contextualize the “Hohokam Collapse.” We show that this perspective of culture history explains the relationship between prehistoric and historic populations and answers many of the long-standing questions regarding cultural variation in the Phoenix Basin.

The 1987 publication "Uses of the Past: Archaeology in the Service of the State" offers the inspiration for considering the emerging role of descendent communities in archaeological research and cultural resource management in the American Southwest. Recognizing that interpretations of the past are seldom "value neutral", we explore the implications and benefits of interpretations of the past when they are "value tribal". Three episodes in twenty-first-century Tribal Archaeology in Arizona are considered including repatriation of religious objects under state statutes, international repatriation of human remains, and Tribal documentation of traditional cultural properties. We conclude that as federally recognized tribes initiate their own programs in archaeological investigation and assume greater responsibility in the cultural resource management process, new perspectives on the past are coming to light that are of potential benefit to everyone. La publicación en 1987 de "Los Usos del Pasado: La Arqueología en Servicio del Estado" nos inspira a considerar el rol emergente que cumplen los descendientes de comunidades indigenas en la investigación arqueológica y la gestión de recursos culturales en el Suroeste de los Estados Unidos. Tomando en cuenta que las interpretaciones del pasado raramente son neutrales ("Value neutral"), exploramos las implicaciones y beneficios que surgen cuando el pasado es interpretado con valores tribales ("value tribal"). Analizamos tres episodios del siglo 21 que transcurrieron en Arizona: la repatriación de objetos religiosos bajo un estatuto kiva, Vol. 81 Nos. 1-2, September, 2015, 62-79 Copyright © 2016 Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society.All rights reserved.DOI 10.1080/00231940.2015.1118738 a nivel de estado, la repatriación internacional de restos humanos, y la documentación tribal de propiedad cultural tradicional. Concluimos que a medida que tribus con reconocimiento federal inician programas de investigación arqueoló-gica y asumen mayor responsabilidad en el manejo de recursos culturales, también surgen nuevas perspectivas acerca del pasado que pueden traer beneficios mayores.

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