ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a critical transformation in southwestern archaeology, from an era of intuitive and largely atemporal interpretations of Native American myths and legends to a period of local, temporally-grounded culture histories. Jesse Walter Fewkes' goals in southwestern archaeology were relatively simple, and they exemplified the Bureau of American Ethnology program of linking prehistoric ruins with existing Native American groups. Fewkes' reaction to the work is unknown, but if he did read the manuscript in any detail, he could not have missed how very differently the Flagstaff ruins were now being interpreted in comparison to his turn-of-the-century ideas. Fewkes demonstrated his methodological intransigence with an interpretation of the symbolic importance of the Clarke collection, drawing parallels with pottery and artifacts from across the Southwest. His apparent discontent with contemporary archaeology, and his expressed desire for a new cultural classification, very quickfy manifested itself in a major field investigation in the Flagstaff region.
