Total population | |
---|---|
c. 75,000 [1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Southwestern United States | |
Particularly: New Mexico and Arizona | |
Languages | |
English, Spanish, Hopi, Tanoan languages, Keresan, Keresan Pueblo Sign Language, Zuni | |
Religion | |
Kachina religion, Roman Catholicism, [2] minority Protestantism |
The Puebloans, or Pueblo peoples, are Native Americans in the Southwestern United States who share common agricultural, material, and religious practices. Among the currently inhabited Pueblos, Taos, San Ildefonso, Acoma, Zuni, and Hopi are some of the most commonly known. Pueblo people speak languages from four different language families, and each Pueblo is further divided culturally by kinship systems and agricultural practices, although all cultivate varieties of corn (maize).
Pueblo peoples have lived in the American Southwest for millennia and descend from the ancestral Puebloans. [3] The term Anasazi is sometimes used to refer to ancestral Pueblo people, but it is now largely avoided. Anasazi is a Navajo word that means Ancient Ones or Ancient Enemy, hence Pueblo peoples' rejection of it (see exonym). [4]
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, stone and other local materials. New Mexico contains the largest number of federally recognized Pueblo communities, though some Pueblo communities also live in Arizona and Texas and along the Rio Grande and Colorado rivers and their tributaries.
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. Puebloans have been remarkably adept at preserving their culture and core religious beliefs, including developing syncretic Pueblo Christianity. [5] 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. [1]
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 Puebloan culture.
The clearest division between Puebloans relates to the languages they speak. Pueblo peoples speak languages from four distinct language families, which means these languages are completely different in vocabulary, grammar, 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 of the region.
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. [8] The Western or Desert Pueblos of the Zuni and Hopi specialize in dry farming, compared to the irrigation 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. [9] The Hopi, Zuni, Keres and Jemez each have matrilineal 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. [9] In contrast, the Tanoan-speaking Puebloans (other than Jemez) have a patrilineal kinship system, with children considered born into their father's clan. They practice endogamy, 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. [9]
Puebloan 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 Pueblo culture who occupied the Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde regions of the Four Corners area. [10] [11]
Archeological evidence suggests that people partaking in the Mogollon culture /moʊɡəˈjoʊn/ 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 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 and in southern California; the Trincheras of Sonora, 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.
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, 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 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.
By about 700 to 900 CE, the Puebloans 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 the Puebloans protection from raiding parties originating from the north, such as the Comanche and Navajo. The largest of these villages, Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, contained around 700 rooms in five stories; it may have housed as many as 1000 persons. [12] 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.
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 Puebloans, whose governmental structure was based around the figure of the cacique, a theocratic leader for both material and spiritual matters. [5] Over the years, Spaniards' methods grew harsher, leading to a series of revolts by the Puebloans.
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. 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 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 Tewa man named Popé. After being released, Popé took up residence in Taos Pueblo 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, 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, 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 mestizos, 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 Puebloan warriors took the colony's capital Santa Fe from Spanish control, killing many colonizers, the remainder of whom were successfully expelled. [13]
On 22 September 2005, the statue of Po'pay (Popé), the 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; it was the 100th and last to be added to the collection. It was created by Cliff Fragua, a Puebloan from Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico. It is the only statue in the collection to be created by a Native American. [14]
In 1844 Josiah Gregg described the historic Pueblo people in The journal of a Santa Fé trader as follows: [15]
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 ...
The Puebloans are traditional weavers of cloth and have used textiles, natural fibers, and animal hide in their cloth-making. Since woven clothing is laborious and time-consuming, every-day style of dress for working around the villages has been sparer. The men often wore breechcloths.
Corn is the most readily recognizable staple food for Pueblo peoples. Although it is possible that different groups may have grown local plants such as gourds and 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. [16]
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 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 climatic period when precipitation was relatively high. [16]
The various Pueblo communities have different traditions regarding the making and decoration of pottery artifacts. Present-day archaeologists date the use of pottery by Puebloans dating back the early centuries of the Common Era. [17]
In Native communities of the Southwest's belief system, the archetypal 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.
Puebloan 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. [18]
Pueblo prayer included substances as well as words; one common prayer material was ground-up maize –white 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. [19]
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, Puebloans used turkey feather blankets for warmth. [20]
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-Puebloans. 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). [21]
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. [22]
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. [23]
The public observances may also include a Roman Catholic Mass and processions on the Pueblo's feast day. Some Pueblos also hold sacred ceremonies around Christmas and at other Christian holidays.
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 Puebloan 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 Puebloan language, Navajo names are also included due to prolonged contact between them and the several Pueblos.
English/Spanish Name | Endonym [10] | Navajo [29] | Keres [10] [30] | Tewa [10] [6] | Tiwa [10] [6] [a] | Towa [6] [31] | Hopi [32] | Zuni [10] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Acoma | Áakʼu | Haakʼoh | endonym | Téwigeh Ówîngeh | Tʼoławei | Totyagiʼi | Ákookavi | Haku: |
Cochiti | Kúutyì | Tǫ́ʼgaaʼ | Kʼuuteʼgeh Ówîngeh | Kotəava | Kyʼǽǽtɨɨgiʼi | Kwitsi | Kochudi | |
Laguna | Kʼáwáiga | Tó Łání | Kʼuʼkwʼáage Ówîngeh | Powhiaba | Kyʼóóweʼegiʼi | Kawaikaʼa | Kʼyanałana | |
San Felipe | Kaatishtya | Tsédáá’kin | Nąnwheve Ówîngeh | Pʼatəak | Kwilegiʼi | Katistsa | Wepłabattsʼi | |
Santa Ana | Dámáyá | Dahmi | Shadegeh Ówîngeh | Patuthaa | Tɨ̨́dægiʼi | Tamaya | Damaiya | |
Kewa/Santo Domingo | Kewa/ Díiwi | Tó Hájiiloh | Taywheve Ówîngeh | Tuwita | Tǽwigiʼi | Tuuwíʼi | Wehkʼyana | |
Zia | Tsíiyʼa | Tłʼógí | Sia Ówîngeh | Təanąbak | Sæyakwa | Tsiyaʼ | Tsia'a | |
Nambé | Nąngbeʼe Ôwîngeh | (Not Available) | Nomɨʼɨ | endonym | Nammuluva | Pashiukwa | Tuukwiveʼ Tewa | (Not Available) |
Pojoaque | Pʼohsųwæ̨geh Ówîngeh | (Not Available) | Pʼohwakedze | Asʼonaʼ | (Not Available) | (Not Available) | (Not Available) | |
San Ildefonso | Pʼohwhogeh Ówîngeh | Tsétaʼ Kin | Pʼakwede | Pʼahwiaʼhliap | Pʼææshogiʼi | Suustapna Tewa | Dawsa | |
Ohkay Owingeh/San Juan | Ohkwee Ówîngeh | Kin Łichíí’ | (Not Available) | Pʼakapʼalʼayą | (Not Available) | Yuupaqa Tewa | (Not Available) | |
Santa Clara | Khaʼpʼoe Ówîngeh | Naashashí | Kaipʼa | Haipaai | Shǽǽpʼæægiʼi | Nasaveʼ Tewa | (Not Available) | |
Tesuque | Tetsʼúgéh Ówîngeh | Tłʼoh Łikizhí | Tyutsuko | Tutsʼuiba | Tsota | Tuukwiveʼ Tewa | (Not Available) | |
Isleta | Shiewhibak/ Tsugwevaga | Naatoohó | Dyîiwʼaʼane | Tsiiwheve Ówîngeh | endonym | Téwaagiʼi | Tsiyawipi | Kʼya:shhida |
Picuris | Pʼįwweltha / Pe’ewi | Tókʼelé | Pikuli | Pʼįnwêê Ówîngeh | Pʼêêkwele | (Not Available) | (Not Available) | |
Sandia | Ną’piʼąd | Kin Łigaaí | Waashuutsi | Pʼotsą́nûû Ówîngeh | Sądéyagiʼi | Payúpki | We:łuwalʼa | |
Taos | Təotho | Tówoł | Dâusá | Pʼįnsô Ówîngeh | Yɨ́láta | Kwapihalu | Dopoliana | |
Jemez | Wâlatɨɨwa | Maʼii Deeshgiizh | Héemʼishiitsi | Wą́ngé Ówîngeh | Híemma | endonym | Hemisi | He:mu:shi |
Hopi | Móókwi/ Hópi | Ayahkiní | Mùutsi | Khosóʼon | Bukhiek | Hɨ́pé | endonym | Mu:kwi |
Zuni | Shiwinna | Naashtʼézhí | Sɨ́ɨníitsi | Sųyų | Sunyiʼina | Sɨnigiʼi | Síʼooki | endonym |
Navajo People | Diné | endonym | Tene | Wǽn Sávo | T’ełiém | Kyʼǽlǽtoosh | Tasavu | A:Machu |
With the exception of Zuni, all Puebloan languages, as well as Navajo, are 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.
Pre-contact population size of the Puebloans was possibly as high as up to 313,000 people spread across at least 110 towns (pueblos), according to authors and sources such as Antonio de Espejo, Alonso de Benavides, Relacion del Suceso and Agustín de Vetancurt. [33] [34] By the year 1907 the Puebloan 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. [35]
Pueblo refers to the settlements and to the Native American tribes of the Pueblo peoples in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settlements in the United States, are called pueblos (lowercased).
Tiwa is a group of two, possibly three, related Tanoan languages spoken by the Tiwa Pueblo, and possibly Piro Pueblo, in the U.S. state of New Mexico.
The Pueblo Revolt of 1680, also known as Popé's Rebellion or Po'pay's Rebellion, was an uprising of most of the indigenous Pueblo people against the Spanish colonizers in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, larger than present-day New Mexico. Incidents of brutality and cruelty, coupled with persistent Spanish policies such as those that occurred in 1599 and resulted in The Ácoma Massacre, stoked animosity, gave rise to the eventual Revolt of 1680. The persecution and mistreatment of Pueblo people who adhered to traditional religious practices was the most despised of these. Scholars consider it the first Native American religious traditionalist revitalization movement. The Spaniards were resolved to abolish "pagan" forms of worship and replace them with Christianity. The Pueblo Revolt killed 400 Spaniards and drove the remaining 2,000 settlers out of the province. The Spaniards returned to New Mexico twelve years later.
Tanoan, also Kiowa–Tanoan or Tanoan–Kiowa, is a family of languages spoken by indigenous peoples in present-day New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Indigenous peoples of Arizona are the Native American people who currently live or have historically lived in what is now the state of Arizona. There are 22 federally recognized tribes in Arizona, including 17 with reservations that lie entirely within its borders. Reservations make up over a quarter of the state's land area. Arizona has the third largest Native American population of any U.S. state.
The Tewa are a linguistic group of Pueblo 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 Santa Fe. They comprise the following communities:
Sandia Pueblo is a federally recognized tribe of Native American Pueblo people inhabiting a 101-square-kilometre (40 sq mi) reservation of the same name in the eastern Rio Grande Rift of central New Mexico. It is one of 19 of New Mexico's Native American pueblos, considered one of the state's Eastern Pueblos. The population was 427 as of the 2010 census. The people are traditionally Tiwa speakers, a language of the Tanoan group, although retention of the traditional language has waned with later generations. They have a tribal government that operates Sandia Casino, Bien Mur Indian Market Center, and Sandia Lakes Recreation Area, as well as representing the will of the Pueblo in business and political matters.
The Hopi-Tewa are a Tewa Pueblo group that resides on the eastern part of the Hopi Reservation on or near First Mesa in northeastern Arizona.
Pueblo of Isleta is an unincorporated community and Tanoan pueblo in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, United States, originally established in the c. 14th century. The Southern Tiwa name of the pueblo is Shiewhibak (Shee-eh-whíb-bak) meaning "a knife laid on the ground to play whib", a traditional footrace. Its people are a federally recognized tribe.
The Eight Northern Pueblos of New Mexico are Taos, Picuris, Ohkay Owingeh, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Nambé, Pojoaque, and Tesuque.
Nambé Oweenge Pueblo is a federally recognized tribe of the Pueblo people in Santa Fe County, New Mexico. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined the community as a census-designated place (CDP).
Oasisamerica is a cultural region of Indigenous peoples in North America. Their precontact cultures were predominantly agrarian, in contrast with neighboring tribes to the south in Aridoamerica. The region spans parts of Northwestern Mexico and Southwestern United States and can include most of Arizona and New Mexico; southern parts of Utah and Colorado; and northern parts of Sonora and Chihuahua. During some historical periods, it might have included parts of California and Texas as well.
The Tiwa or Tigua are a group of related Tanoan Puebloans in New Mexico. They traditionally speak a Tiwa language, and are divided into the two Northern Tiwa groups, in Taos and Picuris, and the Southern Tiwa in Isleta and Sandia, around what is now Albuquerque, and in Ysleta del Sur near El Paso, Texas.
The Pueblo linguistic area is a Sprachbund consisting of the languages spoken in and near North American Pueblo locations. There are also many shared cultural practices in this area. For example, these cultures share many ceremonial vocabulary terms meant for prayer or song.
Art of the American Southwest is the visual arts of the Southwestern United States. This region encompasses Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of California, Colorado, Nevada, Texas, and Utah. These arts include architecture, ceramics, drawing, filmmaking, painting, photography, sculpture, printmaking, and other media, ranging from the ancient past to the contemporary arts of the present day.
The Indigenous peoples of the North American Southwest are those in the current states of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada in the western United States, and the states of Sonora and Chihuahua in northern Mexico. An often quoted statement from Erik Reed (1666) defined the Greater Southwest culture area as extending north to south from Durango, Mexico to Durango, Colorado and east to west from Las Vegas, Nevada to Las Vegas, New Mexico. Other names sometimes used to define the region include "American Southwest", "Northern Mexico", "Chichimeca", and "Oasisamerica/Aridoamerica". This region has long been occupied by hunter-gatherers and agricultural people.
The Puebloans of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico are descended from various peoples who had settled in the area, and shaped by the arrival of Spanish colonizers led by Juan de Oñate at the end of the 16th Century. There are three primary cultures: Mogollon, Hohokam and Ancestral Puebloen. They developed significant buildings and culture prior to European contact. After contact, they revolted in 1675 against the Spanish. The Puebloan culture is prevalent in the Southwest today.
Astialakwa Jemez: Walatowa, Navajo: Mąʼii Deeshgiizh) was a prehistoric and historic village built by the ancestral Puebloan people located within the Astialakwa Archeological District, in an area now known as the Jemez Springs area of Northern New Mexico. The archeological area is on the National Register of Historic Places. The location is restricted from access.
Pueblo pottery are ceramic objects made by the Indigenous Pueblo people and their antecedents, the Ancestral Puebloans and Mogollon cultures in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. For centuries, pottery has been central to pueblo life as a feature of ceremonial and utilitarian usage. The clay is locally sourced, most frequently handmade, and fired traditionally in an earthen pit. These items take the form of storage jars, canteens, serving bowls, seed jars, and ladles. Some utility wares were undecorated except from simple corrugations or marks made with a stick or fingernail, however many examples for centuries were painted with abstract or representational motifs. Some pueblos made effigy vessels, fetishes or figurines. During modern times, pueblo pottery was produced specifically as an art form to serve an economic function. This role is not dissimilar to prehistoric times when pottery was traded throughout the Southwest, and in historic times after contact with the Spanish colonialists.
Pueblo religion is the religion of the Puebloans, a group of Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States. It is deeply intertwined with their culture and daily life. The Puebloans practice a spirituality focused on maintaining balance between the physical and spiritual worlds, which they believe is essential for bringing rain, ensuring good crops, and promoting well-being.