Guevavi

Guevavi is a unique site for a number of reasons. For one, it was important enough to the Spanish that it saw the construction of
three churches in the same general area. The first was completed in 1701. When Kino came to see what Father Martin had
accomplished under his directive Kino recorded his impression in his journal, referring to the completion of the "neat little
house and church." Kino also noted his request to have it whitewashed, as was typical for European-built structures at the time.
Questions had persisted about what happened to this church for it was not mentioned again, and later two other churches were
constructed. Archaeological investigations indicate that natives (probably rebellious O'odhams, possibly the Sobaipuri) burned
the feature to the ground.

The natives referred to Guevavi as "big well," suggesting that it had a reliable source of water nearby. Plus, this was a location
on the Santa Cruz River where underground water is pushed to the surface causing the Santa Cruz to flow because of a
narrowing of the channel where bedrock is exposed. This assisted with irrigation for the O'odham and other historic and modern
farmers. Remnants of canal and field systems have been charted, some of which were likely started in the prehistoric and
historic periods. This is inferred because several periods of use and rebuilding can be seen and also the historic record indicates
the area was under cultivation and irrigation by the native occupants. Further geomorphical and archaeological research should
be conducted on the canals themselves to ascertain dates of construction and differences in construction techniques and system
characteristics through time.

Guevavi clearly was a focus of activity by relatively large groups of native O'odham, probably brought on by the selection of the
site by the Jesuits as the cabecera, or head church for the region. But this place was not as important to the O'odham as it was
to the Spanish. Apparently this is because the location was considered unhealthy. The O'odham tended not to live in areas
where water accumulated and became stagnate, but there is no indication that this place exhibited those characteristics,
especially given the nature of the river channel. Whether or not these Upper Pimans really saw this place as unhealthy is not
known. It is possible, even probable, that they used this excuse to further their own purpose. Many did not want to settle down in
the European-overseen settlements. They used illness and bad water as excuses when they were retrieved from their preferred
residences in other locations and brought back to Guevavi by the sometimes-resident missionary. They also suggested illness
and bad water were to blame when the missionaries took ill, suggesting that the location itself was unhealthy. In reality it was
probably intentional poisoning by the O'odham that led to the ill health of the missionaries, as one native later admitted to
poisoning an especially Germanic missionary.

The native portion of this settlement shows a site layout different from all other excavated and mapped sites of this period.
Houses are paired as they always were but they are situated extremely close together and they are arranged differently than
they had been for centuries before. The layout adopted here was probably designed this way for defense. This seems to be one
of the primary settlements at which O'odham culture changed irreparably, probably owing to the need for defense but also
because after awhile the missionaries were present for extended periods.

A series of distinct clusterings of O'odham houses are present in several areas across the site, suggesting the site saw a long
series of occupations through time. Many houses are superimposed over one another, suggesting that people stayed here a long
time and refurbished houses either as people died or as the houses wore out.

The site was burned before it was abandoned for the final time in the 1770s. Almost all the houses show evidence of buring. It is
likely that the Apache or unconverted O'odhams, objecting to increasing Spanish influence (see Native Life), attacked this site
for the final time.

Read more about this site:

Kessell, John L., 1970 Mission of Sorrow: Jesuit Guevavi and the Pimas, 1691-1767. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.

Robinson, William J., 1976 Mission Guevavi: Excavations in the Convento. The Kiva 42(2):135-175.

Seymour, Deni J., 1993a Piman Settlement Survey in the Middle Santa Cruz River Valley, Santa Cruz County, Arizona. Report
submitted to Arizona State Parks in fulfillment of survey and planning grant contract requirements. On file at the Arizona State
Museum.

Seymour, Deni J., 1997 Finding History in the Archaeological Record: The Upper Piman Settlement of Guevavi. Kiva
62(3):245-260.

Seymour, Deni J., 2009 Father Kino's 'Neat Little House and Church' at Guevavi. Journal of the Southwest 51(2):285-316.

Seymour, Deni J., 2010 Beyond Married, Buried, And Baptized: Exposing Historical Discontinuities in an Engendered
Sobaípuri-O’odham Household. Chapter 12 Engendering Households in the Prehistoric Southwest, edited by Barbara Roth.
University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

Seymour, Deni J., 2011 Where the Earth and Sky are Sewn Together: Sobaípuri-O’odham Contexts of Contact and Colonialism.
University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.