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The Pueblo peoples are Native Americans in the
Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural list of regions of the United States, region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacen ...
who share common agricultural, material, and religious practices. Among the currently inhabited
Pueblo Pueblo refers to the settlements of the Pueblo peoples, Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settlement ...
s, Taos, San Ildefonso, Acoma, Zuni, and
Hopi The Hopi are Native Americans who primarily live in northeastern Arizona. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi people are enrolled in the Colorado ...
are some of the most commonly known. Pueblo people speak languages from four different
language families A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics ana ...
, and each Pueblo is further divided culturally by
kinship In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...
systems and agricultural practices, although all cultivate varieties of
corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...
(maize). Pueblo peoples have lived in the American Southwest for millennia and descend from the Ancestral Pueblo peoples. The term ''Anasazi'' is sometimes used to refer to Ancestral Puebloans, but it is considered derogatory and offensive. "Anasazi" is a
Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...
adoption of a Ute term that translates to ''Ancient Enemy'' or ''Primitive Enemy'', but was used by them to mean something like "barbarian" or "savage", hence the modern Pueblo peoples' rejection of it (see
exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...
). ''Pueblo'' is a Spanish term for "village". When Spanish conquest of the Americas began in the 16th century with the founding of Nuevo México, they came across complex, multistory villages built of
adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...
, stone and other local materials.
New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
contains the largest number of federally recognized Pueblo communities, though some Pueblo communities also live in
Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
and
Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
and along the
Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...
and
Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
rivers and their
tributaries A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ('' main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which the ...
. Pueblo nations have maintained much of their traditional cultures, which center around agricultural practices, a tight-knit community revolving around family clans, and respect for tradition. Pueblo people have been remarkably adept at preserving their culture and core religious beliefs, including developing
syncretic Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus ...
Pueblo Christianity. Exact numbers of Pueblo peoples are unknown but, in the 21st century, some 75,000 Pueblo people live predominantly in New Mexico and Arizona, but also in Texas and elsewhere.


Etymology

''Pueblo'', which means "village" and "people" in Spanish, was a term originating with the Spanish explorers who used it to refer to the people's particular style of dwelling. The term ''Puebloan'' was previously common in an archeological context during the twentieth century."Anasazi". ''U*X*L Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes.'' U*X*L. 2008. In the twentieth century, Pueblo peoples and their archaeological culture were often referred to by the term ''Anasazi''
exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...
, a term introduced by Alfred V. Kidder from the
Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...
word ''anaasází'' meaning 'enemy ancestors' (''anaa–'' 'enemy', ''-sází'' 'their ancestors') although Kidder thought it meant 'old people'. Contemporary Pueblo object to the use of this term, viewing it as derogatory.


Subdivisions

Despite various similarities in cultural and religious practices, scholars have proposed divisions of contemporary Pueblos into smaller groups based on linguistic and individual manifestations of the broader Pueblo culture.


Linguistic affiliation

Pueblo peoples speak languages from four distinct
language families A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics ana ...
, which means these languages are completely different in
vocabulary A vocabulary (also known as a lexicon) is a set of words, typically the set in a language or the set known to an individual. The word ''vocabulary'' originated from the Latin , meaning "a word, name". It forms an essential component of languag ...
,
grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...
, and most other linguistic aspects. As a result, each Pueblo language is not easily understood by speakers of the other languages, with English now working as the
lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...
of the region. * Keresan: family to which Western and Eastern Keres belong, considered by some a language isolate consisting of a
dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...
spoken at the pueblos of Acoma, Laguna, Santa Ana, Zia, Cochiti, Kewa, and San Felipe. * Tanoan:, consisting of three separate sub-branches: **
Tewa The Tewa are a linguistic group of Pueblo people, Pueblo Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans who speak the Tewa language and share the Pueblo culture. Their homelands are on or near the Rio Grande in New Mexico north of San ...
: the most widespread Tanoan language with several dialects, spoken at
Ohkay Owingeh Ohkay Owingeh (, ), known by its Spanish name as San Juan Pueblo from 1598 to 2005, is a pueblo in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined that community as a census-designated p ...
, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, Tesuque, Nambé, and Pojoaque Pueblos. ** Towa: currently solely spoken at Jemez Pueblo. ** Tiwa: the only Tanoan sub-branch consisting of separate languages: *** Northern Tiwa: a language with two dialects, one spoken at Taos and the other at Picuris. *** Southern Tiwa: also consisting of two dialects, spoken at Sandia and Isleta Pueblos. *
Uto-Aztecan The Uto-Aztecan languages are a family of native American languages, consisting of over thirty languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found almost entirely in the Western United States and Mexico. The name of the language family reflects the common ...
:
Hopi The Hopi are Native Americans who primarily live in northeastern Arizona. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi people are enrolled in the Colorado ...
, spoken exclusively at Hopi Pueblo. * Zuni: family to which Zuni belongs; it is a
language isolate A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi ...
, currently spoken exclusively at Zuni Pueblo.


Cultural practices

Anthropologists have studied Pueblo peoples extensively and published various classifications of their subdivisions. In 1950, Fred Russell Eggan contrasted the peoples of the Eastern and Western Pueblos, based largely on their subsistence farming techniques. The Western or Desert Pueblos of the Zuni and Hopi specialize in dry farming, compared to the
irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...
farmers of the Eastern or River Pueblos. Both groups cultivate mostly corn (maize), but squash and beans have also been staple Pueblo foods all around the region. In 1954, Paul Kirchhoff published a division of Pueblo peoples into two groups based on culture. Paul Kirchhoff
"Gatherers and Farmers in the Greater Southwest: A Problem in Classification"
''American Anthropologist'', New Series, Vol. 56, No. 4, Southwest Issue (August 1954), pp. 529–550
The
Hopi The Hopi are Native Americans who primarily live in northeastern Arizona. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi people are enrolled in the Colorado ...
, Zuni, Keres and Jemez each have
matrilineal Matrilineality, at times called matriliny, is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which people identify with their matriline, their mother's lineage, and which can involve the inheritan ...
kinship systems: children are considered born into their mother's clan and must marry a spouse outside it, an exogamous practice. They maintain multiple kivas for sacred ceremonies. Their creation story tells that humans emerged from the underground. They emphasize four or six cardinal directions as part of their sacred cosmology, beginning in the north. Four and seven are numbers considered significant in their rituals and symbolism. In contrast, the Tanoan-speaking Pueblos (other than Jemez) have a patrilineal kinship system, with children considered born into their father's clan. They practice
endogamy Endogamy is the cultural practice of marrying within a specific social group, religious denomination, caste, or ethnic group, rejecting any from outside of the group or belief structure as unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relatio ...
, or marriage within the clan. They have two kivas or two groups of kivas in their pueblos. Their belief system is based in dualism. Their creation story recounts the emergence of people from underwater. They use five directions, beginning in the west. Their ritual numbers are based on multiples of three.


History of the Pueblo peoples


Origins

Pueblo societies contain elements of three major cultures that dominated the Southwest United States region before European contact: the Mogollon culture, whose adherents occupied an area near Gila Wilderness; the Hohokam culture; and the Ancestral Puebloan culture who occupied the
Chaco Canyon Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park in the American Southwest hosting a large concentration of pre-Columbian indigenous ruins of pueblos. The park is located in northwestern New Mexico, betwee ...
and Mesa Verde regions of the Four Corners area. Archeological evidence suggests that people partaking in the Mogollon culture were initially foragers who augmented their subsistence through the development of farming. Around the first millennium CE farming became the main means to obtain food. Water control features are common among Mimbres branch sites which date from the 10th through 12th centuries CE. The nature and density of Mogollon residential villages changed through time; the earliest Mogollon villages were small
hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...
composed of several pithouses, houses excavated into the ground surface with a stick and thatch roofs supported by a network of posts and beams, and faced on the exterior with earth. Village sizes increased over time so that by the 11th century CE villages composed of ground level dwellings of rock and earth walls and wooden beam-supported roofs were the norm. Cliff-dwellings became common during the 13th and 14th centuries. Hohokam is a term borrowed from the O'odham language, used to define an archaeological culture that relied on irrigation canals to water their crops since as early as the 9th century CE. Their irrigation system techniques allowed for its adherents to expand into the largest population in the Southwest by 1300. Archaeologists working at a major archaeological dig in the 1990s in the Tucson Basin, along the Santa Cruz River, identified a culture and people that were ancestors of the Hohokam who might have occupied southern Arizona as early as 2000 BCE. This prehistoric group from the Early Agricultural Period grew corn, lived year-round in sedentary villages, and developed sophisticated irrigation canals from the beginning of the common era to about the middle of the 15th century. Within a larger context, the Hohokam culture area inhabited a central trade position between the Patayan situated along with the Lower
Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...
and in southern California; the Trincheras of
Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...
, Mexico; the Mogollon culture in eastern Arizona, southwest New Mexico, and northwest Chihuahua, Mexico; and the Ancestral Puebloans in northern Arizona, northern New Mexico, southwest Colorado, and southern
Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
. The Ancestral Puebloan culture is known for the stone and earth dwellings its people built along cliff walls, particularly during the Pueblo II and Pueblo III eras, from about 900 to 1350 CE in total. The best-preserved examples of the stone dwellings are now protected within United States'
national parks A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...
, such as Navajo National Monument, Chaco Culture National Historical Park, Mesa Verde National Park, Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, Aztec Ruins National Monument, Bandelier National Monument, Hovenweep National Monument, and Canyon de Chelly National Monument. These villages were accessible only by rope or through rock climbing. However, the first Ancestral Puebloan homes and villages were based on the pit-house, a common feature in the Basketmaker periods. Villages consisted of apartment-like complexes and structures made from stone, adobe mud, and other local materials, or were carved into the sides of
canyon A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency t ...
walls. Design details from Ancestral Puebloan villages contain elements from cultures as far away as present-day Mexico. In their day, these ancient towns and cities were usually multistoried and multi-purposed buildings surrounding open plazas and viewsheds. They were occupied by hundreds to thousands of Ancestral Pueblo peoples. These population complexes hosted cultural and civic events and infrastructure that supported a vast outlying region hundreds of miles away linked by transportation roadways.


Development of architecture and city-states

By about 700 to 900 CE, Pueblo people began to move away from ancient pit houses dug in cliffs and to construct connected rectangular rooms arranged in apartment-like structures made of adobe and adapted to sites. By 1050, they had developed planned villages composed of large terraced buildings, each with many rooms. These apartment-house villages were often constructed on defensive sites: on ledges of massive rock, on flat summits, or on steep-sided mesas, locations that would afford Pueblo people protection from raiding parties originating from the north, such as the Comanche and
Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...
. The largest of these villages, Pueblo Bonito in
Chaco Canyon Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park in the American Southwest hosting a large concentration of pre-Columbian indigenous ruins of pueblos. The park is located in northwestern New Mexico, betwee ...
, New Mexico, contained around 700 rooms in five stories; it may have housed as many as 1000 persons. Pueblo buildings are constructed as complex apartments with numerous rooms, often built in strategic defensive positions. The most highly developed were large villages or pueblos situated at the very top of the mesas, the rocky tablelands typical to the Southwest.


Spanish contact and colonization

Before 1598, Spanish exploration of the present-day Pueblo areas was limited to several transitory groups. A group of colonizers led by Juan de Oñate arrived at the end of the 16th century as part of an apostolic mission to convert the Natives. Despite initial peaceful contact, Spain's attempts to dispose of the Pueblo religion and replace it with Catholicism became increasingly more aggressive, and were met with great resistance by Pueblo peoples, whose governmental structure was based around the figure of the
cacique A cacique, sometimes spelled as cazique (; ; feminine form: ), was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, who were the Indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles at the time of European cont ...
, a theocratic leader for both material and spiritual matters. Over the years, Spaniards' methods grew harsher, leading to a series of revolts by Pueblo peoples.


Pueblo Revolt

The Pueblo Revolt that started in 1680 was the first led by a Native American group to successfully expel colonists from North America for a considerable number of years. It followed the successful Tiguex War led by Tiwas against the Coronado Expedition in 1540–41, which temporarily halted Spanish advances in present-day New Mexico. The 17th century's revolt was a direct consequence of growing discontent among the Northern Pueblos against the abuses by the Spaniards, which finally brewed into a large organized uprising against European colonizers. The events that led to the Pueblo Revolt go back at least a decade before the formal uprising began. In the 1670s, severe drought swept the region, which caused both a famine among the Pueblo and increased the frequency of raids by the
Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...
. Neither Spanish nor Pueblo soldiers were able to prevent the attacks by the Apache raiding parties. The unrest among the Pueblos came to a head in 1675, when Governor
Juan Francisco Treviño Juan Francisco Treviño was the Governor of Santa Fe de Nuevo México (New Mexico) from 1675 to 1679. As governor, he persecuted the Pueblo people, Pueblo Native Americans, causing the Pueblo Revolt against the Spanish settlers. Biography Trevi ...
ordered the arrest of forty-seven Pueblo medicine men and accused them of practicing sorcery. Four of the medicine men were sentenced to death by hanging; three of those sentences were carried out, while the fourth prisoner committed suicide. The remaining men were publicly whipped and sentenced to prison. When the news of the killings and public humiliation reached Pueblo leaders, they moved in force to Santa Fe, where the prisoners were held. Because a large number of Spanish soldiers were away fighting the Apache, Governor Treviño was forced to release the prisoners. Among those released was an
Ohkay Owingeh Ohkay Owingeh (, ), known by its Spanish name as San Juan Pueblo from 1598 to 2005, is a pueblo in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined that community as a census-designated p ...
Tewa man named Popé. After being released, Popé took up residence in
Taos Pueblo Taos Pueblo (or Pueblo de Taos) is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Taos language, Taos-speaking (Tiwa languages, Tiwa) Native American tribe of Puebloan peoples, Puebloan people. It lies about north of the modern city of Taos, New Mexico. T ...
far from the capital of Santa Fe and spent the next five years seeking support for a revolt among the 46 Pueblo villages. He was able to gain the support of the Northern Tiwa,
Tewa The Tewa are a linguistic group of Pueblo people, Pueblo Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans who speak the Tewa language and share the Pueblo culture. Their homelands are on or near the Rio Grande in New Mexico north of San ...
, Towa, Tano, and Keres-speaking Pueblos of the Rio Grande Valley. The Pecos Pueblo, 50 miles east of the Rio Grande pledged its participation in the revolt as did the Zuni and
Hopi The Hopi are Native Americans who primarily live in northeastern Arizona. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi people are enrolled in the Colorado ...
, 120 and 200 miles respectively west of the Rio Grande. At the time, the Spanish population was of about 2,400 colonists, including mixed-blood
mestizo ( , ; fem. , literally 'mixed person') is a term primarily used to denote people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturall ...
s, and Indian servants and retainers, who were scattered thinly throughout the region. Starting early on 10 August 1680, Popé and leaders of each of the Pueblos sent a knotted rope carried by a runner to the next Pueblo; the number of knots signified the number of days to wait before beginning the uprising. Finally, on 21 August, 2,500 Pueblo warriors took the colony's capital Santa Fe from Spanish control, killing many colonizers, the remainder of whom were successfully expelled.


Return of the Spanish


Comancheria


Mexican period and Rio Arriba Rebellion


Mexican-American War and Taos Revolt


Debate over legal status as Indians


Pueblo Lands Act and Pueblo Lands Board


Self-determination era


21st century

On 22 September 2005, the statue of Po'pay, leader of the Pueblo Revolt, was unveiled in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. The statue was the second commissioned by the state of New Mexico for the
National Statuary Hall Collection The National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol is composed of statues donated by individual states to honor persons notable in their history. Limited to two statues per state, the collection was originally set up in the old Hal ...
; it was the 100th and last to be added to the collection. It was created by Cliff Fragua, Jemez Pueblo sculptor. It is the only statue in the collection to be created by a Native American. In 2018, Deb Haaland became the first Pueblo woman elected to the
United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...
, and later became the first Native American Secretary of the Interior from 2021-2025.


Culture

In 1844 Josiah Gregg described the historic Pueblo people in '' The journal of a Santa Fé trader'' as follows:
'' When these regions were first discovered it appears that the inhabitants lived in comfortable houses and cultivated the soil, as they have continued to do up to the present time. Indeed, they are now considered the best horticulturists in the country, furnishing most of the fruits and a large portion of the vegetable supplies that are to be found in the markets. They were until very lately the only people in New Mexico who cultivated the grape. They also maintain at the present time considerable herds of cattle, horses, etc. They are, in short, a remarkably sober and industrious race, conspicuous for morality and honesty, and very little given to quarreling or dissipation ... ''


Material culture

Pueblo people have woven cloth and used twined and embroidered textiles, natural fibers, and Hide (skin), animal hide in their cloth-making. Since woven clothing is laborious and time-consuming, everyday clothing for working around the villages was sparer. The men often wore breechcloths.


Agriculture

Corn is a primary staple food for Pueblo peoples. Although it is possible that different groups may have grown local plants such as gourds and Chenopodium, chenopods at very early dates, the first evidence of maize cultivation in the Southwest dates from about 2100 BCE. Small, fairly undomesticated maize cobs have been found at five different sites in New Mexico and Arizona. Maize reached the present-day Southwest via an unknown route from Mesoamerica (i.e., present-day Mexico) and was rapidly adopted by peoples in the region. One theory states that maize cultivation was carried northward from central Mexico by migrating farmers, most likely speakers of a
Uto-Aztecan The Uto-Aztecan languages are a family of native American languages, consisting of over thirty languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found almost entirely in the Western United States and Mexico. The name of the language family reflects the common ...
language. Another theory, more accepted among scholars, is that between 4300 BCE and 2100 BCE maize was diffused northward from group to group rather than by migrants. There is evidence that maize was initially cultivated in the Southwest during a Climate change (general concept), climatic period when precipitation was relatively high.


Pottery

The various Pueblo communities have different traditions regarding the making and decoration of pottery artifacts. Present-day archaeologists date Pueblo pottery back the early centuries of the Common Era. File:Maria Martinez pot.jpg, San Ildefonso Pueblo Black-on-Black Pottery Bowl by Maria Martinez File: Zuni figure (UBC-2011).jpg, Zuni owl figure, University of British Columbia File:AcomaJar2.jpg, Acoma Pueblo, pottery jar, Field Museum File:TesuqueJar1.jpg, Tesuque Pueblo, Pottery, Field Museum File:BirdEffigyJarCicuye1.jpg, Bird effigy, pottery, Cochiti Pueblo. Field Museum


Religion

In many Southwest Native communities' belief systems, the Archetype, archetypal Deity, deities appear as visionary beings who bring blessings and receive love. A vast collection of religious stories explore the relationships among people and nature, including plants and animals. Spider Grandmother and kachina spirits figure prominently in some myths. Pueblo peoples in the 16th century believed in Katsina spirits. Katsinas are supernatural beings who are representatives of Pueblo ancestors. They live for half the year in the underworld with the gods and spend the rest of the year with their descendants on earth. Katsinas have the power to take the form of clouds and bring rain for agricultural fields. They heal disease and also cause disease. Pueblo prayer included substances as well as words; one common prayer material was ground-up maizewhite cornmeal. A man might bless his son, or some land, or the town by sprinkling a handful of meal as he uttered a blessing. After the 1692 re-conquest, the Spanish were prevented from entering one town when they were met by a handful of men who uttered imprecations and cast a single pinch of a sacred substance. The Pueblo peoples used ritual 'prayer sticks', which were colorfully decorated with beads, fur, and feathers. These prayer sticks (or 'talking sticks') were similar to those used by other Native American nations. By the 13th century, Pueblo people crafted turkey feather blankets for warmth. Most of the Pueblos hold annual sacred ceremonies, some of which are now open to the public. Religious ceremonies usually feature traditional dances that are held outdoors in the large common areas and courtyards, which are accompanied by singing and drumming. Unlike kiva ceremonies, traditional dances may be open to non-Pueblo people. Traditional dances are considered a form of prayer, and strict rules of conduct apply to those who wish to attend one (e.g. no clapping or walking across the dance area or between the dancers, singers, or drummers).
'' Since time immemorial, Pueblo communities have celebrated seasonal cycles through prayer, song, and dance. These dances connect us to our ancestors, community, and traditions while honoring gifts from our Creator. They ensure that life continues and that connections to the past and future are reinforced.''
Traditionally, all outside visitors to a public dance would be offered a meal afterward in a Pueblo home. Because of the numerous outside tourists who have attended these dances in the pueblos since the late 20th century, such meals are now open to outsiders by personal invitation only. Private sacred ceremonies are conducted inside the kivas and only tribal members may participate according to specific rules pertaining to each Pueblo's religion. One of the primary goals of Spanish colonists in the 17th century was to convert the Natives in New Spain to Christianity. Franciscan priests had prepared for a long process of conversion, building churches and missions all around Pueblo country. Some of the Pueblos' feast days are a product of that process. Feast days are held on the day sacred to its Roman Catholic patron saint, assigned by Spanish missionaries so that each Pueblo's feast day would coincide with one of the people's existing traditional ceremonies. About the imposition of Christianity, Alfonso Ortiz, an Ohkay Owingeh anthropologist and Pueblo specialist states:
''The Spanish government demanded labor and tribute from the Pueblos and vigorously attempted to suppress native religion. (...) In that year'' [1692] ''Diego de Vargas re-entered Pueblo territory, though it was not until 1696 that he gained control over the entire Rio Grande Pueblo area. The Spaniards had learned from the Pueblo Revolt and were gentler in their demands in the next century and a half. However, the Pueblos had learned as well and maintained their ceremonial life out of the view of the Spaniards, while adopting a veneer of Roman Catholicism.''
The public observances may also include a Roman Catholic Mass (Catholic Church), Mass and processions on the Pueblo's feast day. Some Pueblos also hold sacred ceremonies around Christmas and at other Christian holidays.


List of federally recognized Pueblo tribes


New Mexico

* Acoma Pueblo – Keres language, Keres speakers. Known for its location atop a mesa. Established in the 12th century, it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the United States. * Cochiti Pueblo – Keres speakers. Known for its ceramic storyteller figurines, drums, and the nearby Cochiti Dam * Isleta Pueblo – Tiwa language, Tiwa speakers. Established in the 14th century. Located on the southern outskirts of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque. * Jemez PuebloTowa speakers. Known for its runners and running ceremonies. * Kewa Pueblo, New Mexico, Kewa Pueblo (formerly Santo Domingo) – Keres speakers. Known for turquoise work and the Corn Dance. * Laguna Pueblo – Keres speakers. Known for its well-preserved 17th century mission church. * Nambe Pueblo, Nambé Pueblo – Tewa language speakers. Established in the 14th century. Was an important trading center for the Northern Pueblos. * Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo (formerly San Juan) – Tewa speakers. Headquarters of the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council. Home of Popé, one of the leaders of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt against Spanish colonizers. * Picuris Pueblo, New Mexico, Picuris Pueblo – Tiwa speakers. Known for its micaceous pottery. * Pojoaque Pueblo – Tewa speakers. Re-established in the 1930s. * Sandia Pueblo – Tiwa speakers. Established in the 14th century. Located on the northern outskirts of Albuquerque. * San Felipe Pueblo – Keres speakers. * San Ildefonso Pueblo – Tewa speakers. Famous for its valuable black-on-black pottery. Located between Pojoaque and Los Alamos, New Mexico, Los Alamos. * Santa Ana Pueblo – Keres speakers. * Santa Clara Pueblo – Tewa speakers. Established in the 16th century. Located near Española, New Mexico, Española. *
Taos Pueblo Taos Pueblo (or Pueblo de Taos) is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Taos language, Taos-speaking (Tiwa languages, Tiwa) Native American tribe of Puebloan peoples, Puebloan people. It lies about north of the modern city of Taos, New Mexico. T ...
– Tiwa speakers. Known for its UNESCO World Heritage Site architecture. Established in the 11th century, it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the United States. * Tesuque Pueblo – Tewa speakers. Known for the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, Camel Rock Monument, and its ceramic Rain God figurines. Located near Santa Fe. * Zia Pueblo – Keres speakers. Known for their sun symbol, which is Flag of New Mexico, New Mexico's state flag. * Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, Zuni Pueblo – Zuni speakers. Known for being the first Pueblo visited by the Spanish in 1540.


Arizona

*
Hopi The Hopi are Native Americans who primarily live in northeastern Arizona. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi people are enrolled in the Colorado ...
Tribe – Hopi language speakers.


Texas

* Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, El Paso, Texas – originally Tigua ( speakers. Also spelled 'Isleta del Sur Pueblo'.) This Pueblo was established in 1680 as a result of the Pueblo Revolt. Some 400 members of Isleta, Socorro, and neighboring pueblos were forced out or accompanied the Spaniards to El Paso as they fled Northern New Mexico. The Spanish fathers established three missions (Ysleta, Socorro, and San Elizario) on the Camino Real between Santa Fe and Mexico City. The San Elizario mission was administrative (that is, non-Pueblo. * Some of the Piro Pueblos settled in Seneca, and then in Socorro, Texas, adjacent to Ysleta, Texas, Ysleta (which is now within El Paso city limits). When the
Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...
flooded the valley or changed course, as it commonly has over the centuries, these missions have sometimes been associated with Mexico or with Texas due to the changes. Socorro and San Elizario are still separate communities; Ysleta has been annexed by El Paso. * Firecracker Pueblo,Texas beyond history: Firecracker Pueblo, El Paso County, Texas
/ref> Jornada Mogollon culture, abandoned 2nd half of the fifteenth c., excavated beginning 1980. Illustrates the evolution from pit-houses to a linear array of 15–17 rooms. The walls were coursed adobe; the floors were plastered caliche. Room 11 had ''metates'' and a ''mano'' for grinding corn. (Note that ''metates'' exist in the stone floors of caves of nearby Hueco Tanks as well.) Located in El Paso County, Texas.


Endonyms and exonyms

Although most present-day pueblos are known by their Spanish or anglicized Spanish name, each Pueblo has a unique name in each of the different languages spoken in the area. The names used by each Pueblo to refer to their village (''endonyms'') usually differ from those given to them by outsiders (their ''exonyms''), including by speakers of other Pueblo languages. Centuries of trade and intermarriages between the groups are reflected in the names given to the same Pueblo in each of the languages. The table below contains the names of the New Mexican pueblos and Hopi using the official or practical orthographies of the languages. Despite not being a Pueblo language,
Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...
names are also included due to prolonged contact between them and the several Pueblos. With the exception of Zuni, all Pueblo languages, as well as Navajo, are Tone (linguistics), tonal. However, the tone is not usually shown in the spelling of these languages save for Navajo, Towa, and Tewa. In the table above, a low tone is left unmarked in the orthography. Vowel nasalisation is shown by an ogonek diacritic below the vowel; ejective consonants are transcribed with an apostrophe following the consonant. Vowel length is shown either by doubling of the character or, in Zuni, by adding a colon.


Population history

Precontact population size of the Pueblo peoples was possibly as high as up to 313,000 people spread across at least 110 pueblos, according to authors and sources such as Antonio de Espejo, Alonso de Benavides, Relacion del Suceso and Agustín de Vetancurt. By the year 1907 the Pueblo population had been decimated to just over 11,300 individuals, according to James Mooney. However, from the 20th century up to the present day, their population has been rebounding. As of 2020, they numbered 78,884 in the USA, 52,369 of whom lived in New Mexico.


See also

* Ancestral Puebloans * Arizona Tewa * Astialakwa * Casas Grandes *
Hopi The Hopi are Native Americans who primarily live in northeastern Arizona. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi people are enrolled in the Colorado ...
* Keresan languages * Navajo people * Pueblo Revolt * Salado culture * Tanoan languages * Tewa people * Tiwa languages * Zuni people


Notes


References


Bibliography

* Fletcher, Richard A. (1984). ''Saint James' Catapult: The Life and Times of Diego Gelmírez of Santiago de Compostela''. Oxford University Press.
on-line text, ch. 1
* Florence Hawley Ellis
An Outline of Laguna Pueblo History and Social Organization
' Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Winter, 1959), pp. 325–347
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center
in Albuquerque, NM offers information from the Pueblo people about their history, culture, and visitor etiquette. * Gram, John R. (2015). ''Education at the Edge of Empire: Negotiating Pueblo Identity in New Mexico's Indian Boarding Schools.'' Seattle: University of Washington Press. * Paul Horgan, ''Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History''. Vol. 1, Indians and Spain. Vol. 2, Mexico and the United States. 2 Vols. in 1. Wesleyan University Press 1991. * ''Pueblo People, Ancient Traditions Modern Lives'', Marica Keegan, Clear Light Publishers, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1998, profusely illustrated hardback, * Elsie Clews Parsons, ''Pueblo Indian Religion'' (2 vols., Chicago, 1939). * Ryan D, A. L. Kroeber
Elsie Clews Parsons
' American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 45, No. 2, Centenary of the American Ethnological Society (Apr. – Jun. 1943), pp. 244–255 * Parthiv S, ed. ''Handbook of North American Indians'', Vol. 9, Southwest. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1976. *


External links

*

', Pueblo of Laguna
Pueblo of Isleta

Pueblo of Laguna

Pueblo of Sandia

Pueblo of Santa Ana
* Th
SMU-in-Taos Research Publications
digital collection contains nine anthropological and archaeological monographs and edited volumes representing the past several decades of research at the SMU-in-Taos (Fort Burgwin) campus near Taos, New Mexico, includin
Papers on Tao's archaeology
an
Tao's archeology
{{authority control Pueblo peoples, Oasisamerica cultures Southwest tribes Cultural regions of the United States Native American tribes in Arizona Native American tribes in New Mexico Native American tribes in Texas Native American history of New Mexico