| Abstract: | Since the discovery in 1852 that the Apachean dialects belong to the Athabaskan Linguistic Stock, which is otherwise located in the Arctic and Subarctic and along the north Pacific Coast, there has been interest in determining when and how the Apachean tribes reached their present homes in the U.S. Southwest. It has been assumed for over a century that the Apacheans arrived there by one of two possible march routes: one east of the Rocky Mountains, or one west of the Continental Divide. These hypotheses are called, respectively, the Plains and the Intermountain Routes. Connected to the question of march route is that of time of arrival. Some scholars favor a date close to the time of the Spanish entry into the Southwest, while others argue for an earlier arrival. In the thesis, linguistic and archaeological evidence, as well as native tradition, are examined in an attempt to validate one or the other of the hypotheses on march route and time of arrival. It is concluded that the ancestors of the Western Apaches and the Navajos came south by the Intermountain Route, and at a relatively early date. Several ancillary questions are also considered. Among these are the history of the Navajo hogan, Navajo ceramics, and Navajo agriculture. It is concluded that all three originated in the Southwest, and therefore offer no evidence of march route, although the history of Navajo ceramics suggests a plausible arrival time for the ancestral Navajos. It is argued that the latter borrowed ceramic technology from the Largo-Gallina People, who lived until the end of the thirteenth century AD. in the earliest known southwestern homeland of the Navajos, the Dinetah. The ceramic evidence of date of arrival is also bolstered by other archaeological evidence. It is further suggested that the Dinetah Phase does not constitute the earliest Navajo presence in the Southwest, although the earlier PreDinetah Phase may not have originated there. |
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