Spanish mission water systems, northwest frontier of new Spain

Abstract

The Northwest Frontier of New Spain is defined as including the present states of Sonora Baja California, southern Arizona, and California as far north as Sonoma. In the discussion of water systems, chronology is felt to be less important than technology, therefore, the watercontrol structure is used as the basis of comparison. Following a brief examination of the landscape of the region is a section devoted to the region's aboriginal subsistence patterns. Introduced here are the new concepts of the "subsistence focus" and the "subsistence focus area." These were developed to allow a purposely imprecise categorization for Indian subsistence. As the name implies the classification is "focused" on the center of a geographic area where subsistence patterns and subsistence technology are the same or similar, rather than the boundaries of such areas. The technical discussion of water systems separates them into their component units. These are classified and presented in order of their importance and frequency of occurrence, An appendix contains a mission by mission catalogue of the water-control devices used in the region.