Formerly known as the Pueblo Grande Museum, the location not only documents the history of central Arizona’s indigenous people’s through exhibits, but also serves as an archaeological site. Hundreds of years ago this site had been a thriving agricultural community of the Hohokam tribe where they had constructed numerous canals branching off the Salt River. They made the harsh desert bloom long before the arrival of the first European settlers. Now it’s somewhat difficult to picture an agrarian community from the distant past.
Since the remains of this ancient Hohakam people’s site are within the municipal boundaries of present day Phoenix, it can be challenging to imagine the area 500 years ago. The visitor is constantly reminded of bustling modern life with the noisy nearby distractions of traffic on the busy intersection of Washington & 44th Street. There is the continual hum of the commuter train on the northern side of the property and the constant arrivals and departures of jets at Sky Harbor Airport immediately south of S’ edev Va’ aki. Nonetheless, the site is one of the most important to get a sense of how the original peoples lived before the area first became part of the Spanish domain, then part of Mexico and finally the United States.
Much of the canal system developed by the Hohokam to support their agricultural society has been incorporated into the modern system that still allows the area to be inhabited today. However, it’s now required to support a far greater population that is primarily urban and industrial — with agricultural taking a back seat in the modern pecking order. In any event, the Hohokam people were quite progressive for the time, being the first people in the desert Southwest to use irrigation for growing maize (corn), beans, squash, agave, and cotton. They were also among the first to make cotton textiles and built walled towns made of adobe.
Some of these ruins can be seen on the site of S’edev Va’aki today along with reconstructions of the round or “pit” houses that also characterized Hohokam dwellings centuries ago. Archaeologists believe that the Hohokam society flourished around 450 AD (right at the same time that the Western Roman Empire in Europe was in steep decline – for a reference point) and their settlements lasted until around 1450 AD (or about forty years before Columbus made his first voyage to the “New World”. Nobody knows for sure why Hohokam civilization started to die out, with them eventually abandoning all of their settlements in central Arizona.
The causes for this may have been a combination of factors including extended drought, disease outbreaks, or protracted warfare with other indigenous tribes. The S’edev Va’aki Museum not only documents the past history of those who first made the desert bloom but provides insight into the culture and activism of the present-day Salt River/Maricopa Indian Community. This is provided through exhibits and video presentations that educate the museum visitors about a variety of subjects such as nonprofit seed conservation. This organization is known as Native Seeds/SEARCH and is headed by Jacob Butler whose ancestors formed the basis of the Maricopa Indian Community.
The mission of Native Seeds is to ensure that these traditional seeds are conserved and continued for future generations. Along with this important project, there is a great deal to be learned at S’edev Va’aki about other subjects related to the history of the Hohakam/Maricopa people such as basket weaving, pottery, tools used in agriculture, canal construction and housing at the site, along with the native plants and animals who have shared the land with these native communities. It should also be noted that the museum’s name was changed in March, 2023 from Pueblo Grande to S’edev Va’aki to in reference to the large platform mound preserved at the center of the site to honor the indigenous peoples that are the subject of the museum to begin with.
For more information about S’edev Va’aki check out the following website:
