Least Cost Path Analysis of the O’odham Oriole Song Series Journey
Presentation Time: Fri, 04/26/2024 - 11:00
Keywords: archaeology, GIS, least cost path, O’odham, trails
The Oriole Songs are a series of traditional Akimel O’odham songs which describe a journey from the middle Gila River in southern Arizona to the salt flats on the northern coast of the Gulf of California in Mexico and back. O’odham men travelled from their traditional homelands to gather salt, marine resources, and complete a sacred pilgrimage. Anthropologist Donald Bahr recorded Vincent Joseph, a Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) member, speak and sing the Oriole Song series in the early 1980s. The songs reference landmarks along the route, as well as locations mentioned in O’odham mythologies. Although numerous visible trails segments, trail markers, and linear artifact scatters exist in the archaeological record, the exact path of the route remains unknown. This study explores the potential route(s) utilized by Akimel O’odham and Peeposh peoples and their ancestors on the journey described in the Oriole Song series. A least cost path was created using ArcGIS Pro of the entire hypothetical route beginning and ending in Blackwater, Arizona. The results were compared to trails and trail-related features documented in the archaeological record, historic maps, and ethnographic and modern O’odham knowledge. Results indicate that the least cost path successfully predicted the location of documented trails in some segments but diverted away from others. Areas where the least cost path overlaps documented trails suggests these segments were commonly used trails for routine activities, as they were the most expedient route. However, because the least cost path does not come near documented trails in other segments, the Oriole Songs also demonstrate a cognitive geography of the Akimel O’odham social landscape.
