Hohokam Culture Explained - A Timeline Sequence of Cultural Patterns 

They would carve those glycemeris bracelets with stone generally, but there are also instances of shell that was etched using some waxy substance to preserve a raised exterior design and then soaked in a light acid, like perhaps a cacti-fruit vinegar. This process makes a raised pattern/design where the wax was applied.

@@googlyboogly9119 But I think that's exactly my point. Nahuatl is a Uto-Aztecan language family member from the North and an outlier in Mesoamerican language families. It gives good evidence of an actual migration. The Dine language is another example of a language migrating into the midst of Uto-Aztecan and Puebloan speakers. I'm unaware of anything indicating a Mesoamerican language in the midst of the area in or around Hohokam and Puebloan areas that survived. I'm not a linguist so I'm keenly interested if there is one. I don't dispute the interactions and influences of Mesoamerica with the area at all, and I'm confident archaeology is proving them, but I think a true migration, from Mesoamerica, deep into the northern Uto-Aztecan speakers, which was the speculation made, might have left some clues, with language being a good place to look since a migration would have literally carried language with it. There's nothing to indicate that some form of Uto-Aztecan and Puebloan languages haven't been the dominant language of the area since the time of the Hohokam and Puebloans themselves that I'm aware of. The modern tribes of the area are certainly, by and large, their direct descendants. Hohokam was not so far behind European contact time that its language would have fully evaporated and been replaced by only Uto-Aztecan speakers again. Thats my personal speculation any ways. Bottom Line: I like the proposed idea of a northward migration out of Mesoamerica to kickstart/create/feed/fuel Hohokam and Puebloan cultures, and I'm looking for a string to pull on, but I'm skeptical its anything more than an influencer at the moment. Like I said though, its a new idea to me. Maybe I'll learn something that persuades me more.

The O'odahm languages are Uto-Aztecan, as well as the Hopi's language. The Tohono, Hia'ced, and Akmiel O'odahm people's are the most direct descendents from the Hohokam. Emil Haury who did a lot of the early Archaeology work which defined Hohokam material culture, was one of the first to hypothesize that they may have originated from the South.

That being said, many researchers on the topic also favor the notion that what we call "Hohokam" was a ceramic-era regional development following the early agricultural period 2000-4000 years ago or so. Those early agricultural folks were likely people descended from Archaic peoples in the region. Both hypotheses; of regional development and continuity of culture/people over thousands of years, and migration/connection to groups further south aren't mutually exclusive concepts... Both probably happened.