People

Women were employeed by the federal relief program, the Civil Works Administration at Tuzigoot to put pottery back together.

NPS PHOTO

From the Sinagua culture who bulit this pueblo centuries ago, to the out of work miners who helped excavate in the 1930s, to the folks who still hold the site sacred today, Tuzigoot is about people.

A few interesting people facts:

• Tuzigoot was named by an Apache member of the excavation crew. He suggested naming the pueblo after a near-by water source and suggested the Apache word for 'Crooked Water'. Tuzigoot is an anglicization of the Apache word.
• Caywood and Spicer, the principle archeologists on the excavation, were only graduate students at the time!
• Women, like those in the photo above, were employeed by the CWA. They didn't get to work in the field with the men excavating, but they had the task of putting thousands of pottery sherds back together like fragile puzzle pieces.
• Today most of our artifacts are cared for by conservators and curators at the NPS' Western Archeological and Conservation Center. Come see the great conservation work they performed on the big ollas now back in the remodeled museum!