Stephanie Wrote:
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> I have been fascinated with the Navajo
> traditionally growing peaches in Canyon de Chelly
> since I read about it in the Book of the Navajo
> (Locke). Apparently, these orchards were burned
> down by Kit Carson but there is a question as to
> just how the peaches came to be part of Navajo
> culture in the first place. Logic dictates that
> peaches arrived with the Spaniards but I have
> heard mentioned before that a young woman working
> for the park service and earning a degree in
> cultural anthropology noted that peach cultivation
> had been in practice for hundreds of years--before
> the Spaniards.

Did she give any cites on this? Peaches were domesticated in the Old World, & probably originated in China (it's the center of wild & domestic peach diversity). The Americas DO have "wild" peaches, but they aren't particularly edible (huge stone, very thin layer of bitter "flesh") & have nothing to do with the type of peaches grown in Canyon de Chelly.

What I suspect is that the existance of "wild" American peaches is confusing her (I've come across this claim before, mostly in the context of diffusionist literature claiming that ancient Chinese/etc introduced peaches here before Columbus), or that she's defining "before the Spaniards" as "before the Spanish pacified the Four Corners region & engaged in largescale settlement".

Remember, that Santa Fe wasn't founded until almost 90 years after Cortez landed in Mexico.... and that the Pueblo Revolt kicked the Spanish out of the region (for a decade or so) seventy years after that. Now, it wouldn't be surpising for peaches to have arrived in the area within the first decade or two of "Spanish Mexico" (i.e., as soon as the first introduced trees bore fruit & seeds were traded north along established Indian trade routes).... which would be ~70 years before the Spanish settled in the Four Corners Region, 160 years before the Spanish restablished themselves in the wake of the Pueblo revolts.

You might view peaches in the light of watermelons & melons. Columbus introduced these on his second voyage.... they were afterwards recorded as being spread from island to Caribbean island by Indians (viewers saw Indians with them in their canoes, explorers found them in villages & were told they were recent arrivals, etc). Within 20 years or so, the spread of watermelons had outstripped the spread of European exploration & were found in virtually every (agricultural) Indian village that explorers came to.... usually with a tale of having gotten them a few decades prior.

Indians were quick to adopt new crops.... if they liked them.

> In the story of the coming to this world because
> the prior was being flooded, it is Turkey who had
> the foresight to carry seeds stashed in his
> feathers. If the Navajo brought seeds with them
> from their previous world, could it be possible
> that peaches were one of the seeds brought?
> Anybody have any good information on peaches and
> whether there is any documentation that the
> Spaniards introduced them or otherwise?

If the Navajo HAD brought them from the previous world, they'd have spread to other tribes (& been found growing wild over much of North America) by the time the Spanish arrived on the scene..... face it, they're tasty, easy to grow, can grow wild, & can be sun dried for easy storage & convienient transport.... so they WOULD have (been) spread. Instead, we find that the earliest explorer's accounts don't mention peaches, and that the later accounts which DO mention them also mention other crops of likewise "known" Old World origin.

> Stephanie

I've always heard that the Navajo picked them up from the Spanish the same way they got sheep.... that the Spanish took Navajo children as slaves, who'd wait until they were old enough to escape, and then make their way home with assorted oddities (seeds, ideas, skills, livestock that wasn't nailed down, etc) picked up from their erstwhile "masters"..... and/or from raids on Spanish settlements in Mexico or the Southwest. Uh, my memory might be playing me false, but I also seem to recall that the large Navajo loom was picked up from the Spanish this same way, maybe silversmithing as well?

I might be able to track down some specifics, if you need them?

Kenuchelover.