Bahe, a Native American of Navajo descent, said he brought his daughter to see the area and to view the footprints.

“She made the connection with her ancestors,” Bahe said. “It helped her connect to her past.”

The existence of Native American settlements along the Santa Cruz River, dating back as far or even farther than the recent discovery, has been known for some time.

A major excavation was done in 2009 at the site of the Ina Road Wastewater Treatment Plant, where a network of hand-dug canals were found along with remnants of pit houses and cooking pits.

The recent discovery differs from the Ina Road find, however, because the fields were actually fed by the Rillito River and not the Santa Cruz.

“This is a perfect place for irrigation agriculture,” said Ian Milliken, an archaeologist and program coordinator with Pima County.

Workers at the site have exposed two field cells and a pair of parallel channels that fed the fields with water. There are also signs of what Milliken called a “mud plug” or earthen barrier used to stop or redirect the flows coming from the river.