Pueblo

I

Introduction

Pueblo (Spanish, “village”), Native Americans living in compact villages of stone or adobe in north-western New Mexico and north-eastern Arizona. They belong to four distinct linguistic groups, but the cultures of the different villages are closely related.

In the eastern villages, located along the upper Rio Grande near Santa Fe and Albuquerque, the Tanoan and Keresan languages are spoken. Two Keresan pueblos, Acoma and Laguna, along with the Zuñi and Hopi pueblos, make up the western villages. Since about 1700 the Zuñi have been concentrated in one large village in westernmost New Mexico. Their language shows no certain relation to any other language. The Hopi live on or near three mesas in north-eastern Arizona. Their language is part of the Uto-Aztecan language family (see Native American Languages).

II

Archaeology and Prehistory

Archaeologists relate the Pueblo to an older South-west culture known by the term Basket Maker. The entire cultural sequence is called the Anasazi (Navajo for “ancient ones”) culture. During the early Basket Maker phase (c. 100 bc-c. ad 500) prehistoric settlements were established in the northern part of the South-west. The inhabitants practised weaving. They lived in caves or built shelters of poles and adobe mud. Pumpkins and maize were grown as a supplement to hunting and the gathering of wild plants. Food was stored in undergound pits, often lined with stone slabs. With the addition of a bean crop and the domestication of the turkey, agriculture became more important than hunting and gathering during the Modified Basket Maker period (ad 500-700). Pottery was introduced. The food storage pits developed into semisubterranean houses and ceremonial chambers, and buildings began to take their present, connected form.

The transition from the Basket Maker to the Pueblo culture occurred in about ad 700. Stone construction was adopted, and the connected, now aboveground houses became larger. The ceremonial chamber developed into the kiva, an underground chamber used for rituals and as a lodge for the men. Several kinds of maize were grown, and the cultivation of cotton may have been introduced. Pottery was produced in a diversity of shapes and styles. During this period the Anasazi made their greatest territorial expansion, reaching as far as central Utah, southern Colorado, and covering a large part of northern Mexico.

During the Classic Pueblo period (1050-1300) the northernmost regions were no longer occupied, and the population became concentrated in large multi-storeyed, terraced pueblos and in similar villages built into recesses in cliffs. Notable advances occurred in pottery and weaving. At the end of this period many large centres of Pueblo life were abandoned, possibly because of drought or because of invading bands of Navajo and Apache. During the Regressive Pueblo period (1300-1700) many villages inhabited today were founded. Houses became less elaborate, but pottery and weaving continued to develop.

III

Historic Period

During the Modern Pueblo period (1700-present), cattle, goats, horses, and sheep were introduced by the Spanish, and wool replaced cotton as the principal textile.

The Pueblos, probably the Zuñi, were first encountered by the Spanish in 1539, by the Spanish Franciscan missionary Marcos de Niza. A year later the Spanish explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, searching for the legendary Seven Cities of Cíbola, led an expedition among the Hopi; failing to find any treasure, however, he withdrew. In 1598 the Spanish occupied the Pueblo country, and, by 1630, Spanish missions were established in almost every village. A mass Pueblo revolt in 1680 drove the Spanish from the territory. No other indigenous group had succeeded in doing this, and the Pueblo were not reconquered until 1692. Few of the missions were re-established, and most of the villages continued their ancient religion. The number of villages during this time was reduced from about 80 to approximately 30. The Pueblo remained under Spanish, and then Mexican, domination until the close of the Mexican-American War in 1848, when they came under US jurisdiction. Throughout this time, they preserved their traditional culture to an unusually high degree, often adopting superficial religious or governmental changes but maintaining the old ways in secrecy. The western villages, in particular, resisted Spanish influence; in the eastern villages, some Spanish elements were assimilated into the underlying indigenous ways.

IV

Present-Day Life

The communal building of a present-day pueblo is a solid structure of adobe bricks or stone set in clay and mortar. The rooms are square, with thick, flat roofs. They are built in terraced storeys, and the roof of one level is reached by a movable ladder from the level below. Traditionally, access to the interiors is by ladders to trapdoors in the roofs, and the outer walls have neither windows nor doors (originally a precaution against attackers). Modern buildings, however, often have glass windows and hinged doors. Rooms are added to the original structure as needed, and a whole village often lives in a single complex building. Each village has at least two, and usually several, kivas.

Social organization is in clans and lineages. Descent is matrilineal (traced through the maternal line), and women own the houses. Marriage is monogamous and must be to someone outside the clan or group of related clans; divorce can occur at will. Although nominally Christianized, all Pueblo maintain—some to a great extent—their ancient beliefs. The principal ceremonies, arranged by the secret societies that use the kivas, are held between crop seasons and consist of prayers and thanksgivings for rain and good crops. Particularly among the western Pueblo, ancestral and other benevolent spirits called kachinas are revered as bringers of rain and social good. Their spirits are believed to possess the masked dancers who impersonate them in rituals, and dolls depicting them are given to children. Some of the eastern Pueblos divide their villages into Summer and Winter People, who alternate responsibility for rituals.

The Pueblo economy is based on agriculture, supplemented by raising livestock and, often, by the sale of handicrafts. Each village cultivates fields in common. The crops include maize, beans, cotton, melons, squashes, and chilli peppers. Men generally work the fields, weave, build houses, and conduct ceremonies; women prepare food, care for children, make baskets and pottery, and carry water. They often help with gardening (as they did in ancient times when hunting was important) and in building the houses.

Each community has an individual style and technique of basketry. Pueblo pottery is characterized by a beauty of decoration and shape that is unique among modern Native Americans, and the work of certain Pueblo potters is highly prized by art collectors. Pueblo men continue to be skilled weavers, producing cotton and woollen clothing and fine woollen blankets.

During the 20th century, low incomes, poor health care, poor schooling, and in some pueblos, unemployment, together with a clash of values with the dominant, mainstream American culture, have led to significant anger and social distress. Most Pueblo who have left their villages return from time to time to regain contact with the social and religious values of their tradition.