What were the locations of trade routes of Anasazis and Hohokam?
Kim Suina, researcher and author where she worked as an editor at the New Mexico Historical Review writes that:
The Ancient Trade to Colonial Commerce was established by nomadic tribes that lived by hunting and fishing and when agriculture was developed “great civilizations” emerged and flourished. Trade linked the peoples of the valley of Mexico (Mexico City) with those tribes of the north through the exchange of products such as turquoise, obsidian, salt and feathers, so that by the year 1000, trade had spread from Mesoamerica to Rocky Mountains.
When the Spaniards arrived in today’s Mexico and learned about the silver mines in the north they establish the first of four routes to bring the riches of the new world back to Spain. The central route was called “The Royal Road of the Interior Land,” which was a harsh and dangerous path that run 1,600 miles from Mexico City to the royal Spanish town of Santa Fe from 1598–1882. During this period, the road brought new arrivals to settle the land and carried its crops, livestock and crafts to the markets of greater Mexico.
When the North American Trade Agreement was implemented on January 1, 2008 four corridors were established in the agreement one of which is the Central Western corridor where the ancient trade route was located and It has the second largest trade volume of all the North American corridors. The route connects Chihuahua in Mexico to Denver, Colorado, via El Paso TX, the point of entry of El Paso/Ciudad Juarez between Chihuahua and Texas, and Santa Teresa in New Mexico.
Indian trails covering the Camino Real linked the Aztec Empire and other Mesoamerican civilizations with Chihuahua in the north and the regional trade center at Paquimé, Casas Grandes. Coming from the south in central Mexico the trail trade included marine shells, parrots, macaws, and copper objects. Reverse trade of locally produced items such as turquoise, flints, serpentine, garnet and semiprecious stones as well as, pottery, salt, clays, pigments, and processed bison.
Kim Suina tells us that “many cultural groups have resided in New Mexico, northern Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado through time. All of these societies maintained well-developed agricultural traditions, and relied on comprehensive systems of trade to disperse goods. Anasazi, Mogollon, and Hohokam trade routes connected trade centers throughout the region. The ancestral Pueblo peoples, or the Anasazi as they are more commonly known, resided in the four corners area, with Chaco Canyon as perhaps one of the most important trade centers of their civilization. The Hohokam, a farming culture from southern Arizona irrigated the basins of the Salt and Gila Rivers, and the Mogollon culture, in west-central New Mexico and south-central Arizona, transmitted Mesoamerican agriculture, pottery, and other objects to groups further north like the Anasazi and the Hohokam.”
Kim Suina continues “Indigenous Southwest peoples did not have wheeled vehicles or pack animals like horses or donkeys but had never the less established significant trade routes. The people of Chaco Canyon built a network of roads with clearly demarcated borders. These roads ranged from eight to ten meters in width and adjusted to the treacherous topography, with stairways and ramps built into the roadway to maneuver over sandstone cliffs. These paths connected the various settlements of Chaco and extended to outlying communities miles away.”
Source of Map of “El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro” US National Park Service.
