Archeological Excavation
Over the years, the site was pulled apart by pot hunters and soldiers from Fort Apache seeking souvenirs. In 1892 Adolph Bandelier, a pioneering archaeologist, was the first European to write about the site, and other archeologists visited it.
From 1931 into the 1940s, Byron Cummings of the University of Arizona led a team of students and a varying workforce of 10-27 White Mountain Apache to excavate and restore the site. Cummings named the site, derived from the Apache words: ki datbaa, meaning "brown house." He created a university field school at the camp of the site, which had seasons from 1931-1939. He used a variety of funding means, including his broad network of supporters and the Civilian Conservation Corps and Bureau of Indian Affairs(which administered the Fort Apache Agency), to pay for workers and materials. Chester Holden, David Kane, and Turner Thompson were Apache men who spent at least five seasons at the site and became strongly attached to the project.
In addition, the teams built a small museum and tourist site in 1939 to hold artifacts and interpret the site, as well as to provide a place to sell contemporary Apache arts and crafts, and to provide continuing employment for tribal members. Cummings was a scholar-entrepreneur, who "combined archaeological research and training; intertribal and interagency collaboration; historic preservation; and museum, community, and tourism enterprise development" in the first project of its kind in Arizona." With his teams, Cummings "excavated at least 220 rooms," and "rebuilt about 140" to create what today is called a heritage tourism destination.
He hoped to have the Department of Interior designate the site as a National Monument and add it to properties managed by the National Park Service. It gave preference to more accessible sites, given the needs of the Great Depression quickly followed by World War II. Cummings did not succeed in having the NPS take over the site.
In 1956 the Department of Interior published a pamphlet on the site, referring to the "Kinishba Ruins and Museum". The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964 by the Department of Interior and added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Since then, the ruins deteriorated without maintenance, as did the museum. A partial restoration was done in 2005-2007 to stabilize much of the site. It is administered by the White Mountain Apache Tribe and the Fort Apache Heritage Foundation as a "satellite" element of the Fort Apache Historic Park. The White Mountain Apache require visitors to obtain a permit to visit the Kinishba Ruins site.
The White Mountain Apache have built their own museum at the Fort Apache Historic Park, based on their traditional style of a gowa, or home. It is called Nohwike’ Bágowa (House of Our Footprints), or the White Mountain Apache Culture Center and Museum. The park includes a 288-acre National Historic District, with 27 buildings from when the fort was used during the Apache Wars. The reservation can provide visitors with standing structures from ancient to contemporary times, and explanations of history of the Mogollon Rim Pueblo, as well as the historic and contemporary White Mountain Apache.
Read more about this topic: Kinishba Ruins