If I Were Going...: Fort Apache/Kinishba

While we were staying at Fool Hollow, we made two side trips. First, we traveled to Whiteriver, headquarters of the White Mountain Apache Tribe, and visited the White Mountain Apache Cultural Center and Museum, Fort Apache and the Kinishba Runs.

The museum was basically a run-of-the-mill tribal museum with a small collection of artifacts and cultural information. No photography is allowed inside. It provides some good background on the White Mountain Apache tribe.

A cute little museum

Remotely located, the White Mountain Apache tribe had no contact with European-Americans until 1848. In 1869, the U.S. Cavalry sent 100 troops on a mission into the White Mountains with a goal of killing or capturing any Apache people that they encountered. When the Apache chief invited the Cavalry to visit his village, they were so taken by the peacefulness and kindness of the villagers that they decided not to exterminate them. But, they did build a fort that the White Mountain Apache agreed to occupy. The area eventually became Fort Apache.

Historic village

In 1871, the U.S. employed 50 White Mountain Apaches as scouts during the Fifteen-Year Apache Wars, which ended with the surrender of Geronimo in 1886. Because of the scouts' service during the wars, the tribe maintained a large portion of their homeland as the White Mountain Apache Reservation.

A nice restoration

In 1922, the U.S. Army left Fort Apache and, in 1923, the Bureau of Indian Affairs established Theodore Roosevelt Indian Boarding School on the site. As we now know, these Indian schools did much damage to both the psyche and actual lives of students by teaching that the language and customs of the native people were wrong or bad. Now, however, the school, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2012, is a tribal middle-school facility. The Fort Apache Historic Park has 27 buildings from the historic fort and a 288-acre National Historic District. There's a little cafe where we got some delicious prickly pear lemonade.

A good place for a refreshing drink

The Kinishba Ruins, a 600-room Mogollon (pronounced mug-eee-on) great house archaeological site of the western Pueblo culture, is a National Historic Landmark and is located on nearby associated tribal trust lands.

Kinishba Ruins

Long known to the local Apache people and alleged to have been visited by Coronado, the site was first written about in English in 1892 by archaeologist Adolph Bandelier (namesake of Bandelier National Monument).

The old pueblo

The pueblo (village), which was built and occupied from the 12th to 14th centuries, comprises nine major building mounds, the remains of masonry room blocks, some of which were originally three stories tall. There were two large apartment blocks, several smaller buildings and two communal courtyards. At its peak, Kinishba may have housed up to 1,500 people. The masonry walls are unique for their double-walled construction: one side faced and the other made of rubble. The large stones are chinked with smaller stones, creating interesting patterns.

Small rocks fortifying the big ones

The rooms averaged 14 by 12 feet with a firepit in the center. Most families occupied two rooms, one for living quarters and one for storage.

A real window and an accidental one

There was a kiva in a small courtyard and three stages of ceremonial structures in a larger courtyard. In the first stage in the late 12th century or early 13th century, five underground earthen rooms, each the size of the kiva, were built. About the middle of the 13th century, these rooms were filled in and a large above-ground wood-and-masonry room was built. Later the roof burned and ceremonies were moved to other rooms of the pueblo.

Old beams holding the walls up

Kinishba and her several sister villages were abandoned by the Mogollon people in the late 14th or early 15th century for unknown reasons, possibly loss of water sources. The area saw little human interaction until the arrival of the ancient nomadic culture of the Apachu de Nabajo (eventually Apache and Navajo) from the western Great Plains.

A long view

Over the years, the site was pulled apart by pot hunters and soldiers from Fort Apache seeking souvenirs. It is in pretty rough shape.

Crumbled walls

From 1931 to 1940, archaeologist Dr. Byron Cummings, director of the Arizona State Museum (and head of the Department of Archeology at the University of Arizona), worked with a team of archaeology students and local Apache field assistants to excavate and restore Kinishba. They created a university field school and built a small museum and tourist site in 1939 to hold artifacts and interpret the site. The museum was intended as a place for the Apache to sell their contemporary arts and crafts and to provide continuing employment for tribal members.

Doors and windows

The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964 by the Department of the Interior and added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The west is full of all kinds of interesting ruins

Unfortunately, the ruins have not been maintained and have deteriorated, as did the museum. A partial restoration was done in 2005-2007 to stabilize much of the site. Because it is on tribal land, the complex is administered by the White Mountain Apache Tribe and the Fort Apache Heritage Foundation as a "satellite" element of the Fort Apache Historic Park, not by the NPS.