99-571: Pueblo Alto ("High Village" in Spanish) is an Ancestral Puebloan great house and archaeological site located in Chaco Culture National Historical Park , northwestern New Mexico, United States. The complex, comprising 89 rooms in a single-story layout, is located on a mesa top near the middle of Chaco Canyon; 0.6 miles (1 km) from Pueblo Bonito , it was begun between AD 1020 and 1050. Its location made
198-715: 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
297-545: 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
396-514: A different cycle unrelated to rainfall. This forced the abandonment of settlements in the more arid or overfarmed locations. Evidence suggests a profound change in religion in this period. Chacoan and other structures constructed originally along astronomical alignments, and thought to have served important ceremonial purposes to the culture, were systematically dismantled. Doorways were sealed with rock and mortar. Kiva walls show marks from great fires set within them, which probably required removal of
495-483: A few generations was probably also due to migrations of people from surrounding areas. Innovations such as pottery, food storage, and agriculture enabled this rapid growth. Over several decades, the Ancestral Puebloan culture spread across the landscape. Ancestral Puebloan culture has been divided into three main areas or branches, based on geographical location: Modern Pueblo oral traditions hold that
594-456: 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
693-424: A large system of easy transportation, as timber was not locally available. Analysis of strontium isotopes shows that much of the timber came from distant mountain ranges. Throughout the southwest Ancestral Puebloan region, the inhabitants built complexes in shallow caves and under rock overhangs in canyon walls. Unlike earlier structures and villages atop mesas, this was a regional 13th-century trend of gathering
792-496: 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. Puebloan societies contain elements of three major cultures that dominated
891-507: A primarily non-residential role. 36°04′11″N 107°57′27″W / 36.0698°N 107.9574°W / 36.0698; -107.9574 This article relating to archaeology in the United States is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This New Mexico state location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Ancient Pueblo peoples The Ancestral Puebloans , also known as
990-465: A range of structures that included small family pit houses , larger structures to house clans , grand pueblos , and cliff-sited dwellings for defense. They had a complex network linking hundreds of communities and population centers across the Colorado Plateau . They held a distinct knowledge of celestial sciences that found form in their architecture. The kiva , a congregational space that
1089-482: A single stage. Most houses faced south. Plazas were almost always surrounded by buildings of sealed-off rooms or high walls. There were often four or five stories, with single-story rooms facing the plaza; room blocks were terraced to allow the tallest sections to compose the pueblo's rear edifice. Rooms were often organized into suites, with front rooms larger than rear, interior, and storage rooms or areas. Ceremonial structures known as kivas were built in proportion to
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#17327719434501188-662: A smooth, leveled surface in the bedrock or removing vegetation and soil. Large ramps and stairways in the cliff rock connect the roads above the canyon to sites at the bottom. The largest roads, built at the same time as many of the great houses (1000 to 1125 CE), are: the Great North Road, the South Road, the Coyote Canyon Road , the Chacra Face Road , Ahshislepah Road, Mexican Springs Road ,
1287-480: 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 Puebloans (other than Jemez) have
1386-713: 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. 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. 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
1485-420: 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
1584-629: 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
1683-417: A veneer of small sandstone pieces, which were pressed into a layer of binding mud . These surfacing stones were often arranged in distinctive patterns. The Chacoan structures together required the wood of 200,000 conifer trees, mostly hauled – on foot – from mountain ranges up to 70 miles (110 km) away. One of the most notable aspects of Ancestral Puebloan infrastructure
1782-721: A widespread practice among Ancestral Puebloans. Ancestral Pueblo people in the North American Southwest crafted a unique architecture with planned community spaces. Population centers such as Chaco Canyon (outside Crownpoint, New Mexico ), Mesa Verde (near Cortez, Colorado ), and Bandelier National Monument (near Los Alamos, New Mexico ) have brought renown to the Ancestral Pueblo peoples. They consisted of apartment complexes and structures made of stone, adobe mud, and other local material, or were carved into canyon walls. Developed within these cultures,
1881-738: 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,
1980-526: Is characterized by fine hatching, and contrasting colors are produced by the use of mineral-based paint on a chalky background. South of the Anasazi territory, in Mogollon settlements, pottery was more often hand-coiled, scraped, and polished, with red to brown coloring. Certain tall cylinders were likely ceremonial vessels, while narrow-necked jars, called ollas , were often used for liquids. Pottery from
2079-541: Is evidence that maize was initially cultivated in the Southwest during a climatic period when precipitation was relatively high. 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. In Native communities of the Southwest's belief system,
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#17327719434502178-560: 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 . 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 ). Pueblo
2277-456: 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
2376-549: 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. Maize reached
2475-812: Is that Ancestral Puebloans responded to pressure from Numic -speaking peoples moving onto the Colorado Plateau, as well as climate change that resulted in agricultural failures. The archaeological record indicates that for Ancestral Puebloans to adapt to climatic change by changing residences and locations was not unusual. Early Pueblo I Era sites may have housed up to 600 individuals in a few separate but closely spaced settlement clusters. However, they were generally occupied for 30 years or less. Archaeologist Timothy A. Kohler excavated large Pueblo I sites near Dolores, Colorado , and discovered that they were established during periods of above-average rainfall. This allowed crops to be grown without requiring irrigation. At
2574-512: Is the Chaco Road at Chaco Canyon, a system of roads radiating from many great house sites such as Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl, and Una Vida. They led toward small outlier sites and natural features in the canyon and outside. Through satellite images and ground investigations, archaeologists have found eight main roads that together run for more than 180 miles (300 km), and are more than 30 feet (10 m) wide. These were built by excavating into
2673-579: The Anasazi and by the earlier term the Basketmaker-Pueblo culture, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah , northeastern Arizona , northwestern New Mexico , and southwestern Colorado . They are believed to have developed, at least in part, from the Oshara tradition , which developed from
2772-658: 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
2871-537: 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
2970-526: The Picosa culture . The people and their archaeological culture are often referred to as Anasazi , a term introduced by Alfred V. Kidder from the Navajo word anaasází meaning 'enemy ancestors' ( anaa– 'enemy', -sází 'their ancestors') although Kidder thought it meant 'old people'. Contemporary Puebloans object to the use of this term, with some viewing it as derogatory. The Ancestral Puebloans lived in
3069-510: 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
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3168-524: 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. The Western or Desert Pueblos of the Zuni and Hopi specialize in dry farming , compared to the irrigation farmers of
3267-490: The sandstone landscape. In areas where resistant strata (sedimentary rock layers), such as sandstone or limestone , overlie more easily eroded strata such as shale , rock overhangs formed. The Ancestral Puebloans favored building under such overhangs for shelters and defensive building sites. All areas of the Ancestral Puebloan homeland suffered from periods of drought and erosion from wind and water. Summer rains could be unreliable and produced destructive thunderstorms. While
3366-485: The "Sky City", in New Mexico. Before 900 CE and progressing past the 13th century, the population complexes were major cultural centers. In Chaco Canyon, Chacoan developers quarried sandstone blocks and hauled timber from great distances, assembling 15 major complexes. These ranked as the largest buildings in North America until the late 19th century. Evidence of archaeoastronomy at Chaco has been proposed, with
3465-432: The 12th and 13th centuries. The main reason is unclear. Factors discussed include global or regional climate change, prolonged drought, environmental degradation such as cyclical periods of topsoil erosion or deforestation, hostility from new arrivals, religious or cultural change, and influence from Mesoamerican cultures. Many of these possibilities are supported by archaeological evidence. Current scholarly consensus
3564-496: The 13th century, Puebloans used 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-Puebloans. Traditional dances are considered
3663-502: The 13th century. Pueblo people 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
3762-736: The American Great Plains , in areas near the Cimarron and Pecos Rivers and in the Galisteo Basin . Terrain and resources within this large region vary greatly. The plateau regions have high elevations ranging from 4,500 to 8,500 feet (1,400 to 2,600 m). Extensive horizontal mesas are capped by sedimentary formations and support woodlands of junipers , pinyon , and ponderosa pines , each favoring different elevations. Wind and water erosion have created steep-walled canyons, and sculpted windows and bridges out of
3861-686: The American Southwest began to leave their historic homes and migrate south. According to archaeologists Patricia Crown and Steadman Upham, the appearance of the bright colors on Salado Polychromes in the 14th century may reflect religious or political alliances on a regional level. Late 14th- and 15th-century pottery from central Arizona, widely traded in the region, has colors and designs which may derive from earlier ware by both Ancestral Pueblo and Mogollon peoples. The Ancestral Puebloans also excelled at rock art , which included carved petroglyphs and painted pictographs . Ancestral Pueblo peoples painted Barrier Canyon Style pictographs in locations where
3960-484: The Ancestral Puebloans originated from sipapu , where they emerged from the underworld . For unknown ages, they were led by chiefs and guided by spirits as they completed vast migrations throughout the continent of North America. They settled first in the Ancestral Puebloan areas for a few hundred years before moving to their present locations. The Ancestral Puebloans left their established homes in
4059-648: 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
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4158-603: 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
4257-495: The Chinle, Animas, Jemez , and Taos Rivers. The larger rivers were less directly important to the ancient culture, as smaller streams were more easily diverted or controlled for irrigation. The Ancestral Puebloan culture is perhaps best 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
4356-403: 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. The Hopi , Zuni , Keres and Jemez each have matrilineal kinship systems: children are considered born into their mother's clan and must marry
4455-521: The Field Museum in Chicago has been studying a group of Ancestral Puebloan villages that relocated from the canyons to the high mesa tops during the late 13th century. Haas believes that the reason to move so far from water and arable land was a defense against enemies. He asserts that isolated communities relied on raiding for food and supplies, and that internal conflict and warfare became common in
4554-550: The Great Houses were elite, wealthier families. They hosted indoor burials, where gifts were interred with the dead, often including bowls of food and turquoise beads. Over centuries, architectural forms evolved but the complexes kept some core traits, such as their size. They averaged more than 200 rooms each, and some had 700 rooms. Rooms were very large, with higher ceilings than Ancestral Pueblo buildings of earlier periods. They were well-planned: vast sections were built in
4653-714: The Mesa Verde and the Bandelier areas. Evidence also suggests that a profound change took place in the Ancestral Pueblo area and areas inhabited by their cultural neighbors, the Mogollon . Historian James W. Loewen agrees with this oral tradition in his book, Lies Across America: What Our Historic Markers and Monuments Get Wrong (1999). No academic consensus exists with the professional archeological and anthropological community on this issue. Environmental stress may have caused changes in social structure, leading to conflict and warfare. Near Kayenta, Arizona , Jonathan Haas of
4752-480: The Pueblo II became more self-contained, decreasing trade and interaction with more distant communities. Southwest farmers developed irrigation techniques appropriate to seasonal rainfall, including soil and water control features such as check dams and terraces. The population of the region continued to be mobile, abandoning settlements and fields under adverse conditions. There was also a drop in water table due to
4851-645: 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. In 1844 Josiah Gregg described
4950-583: 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. 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
5049-410: 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. On 22 September 2005, the statue of Po'pay ( Popé ), the leader of
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#17327719434505148-677: 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
5247-704: 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. Archeological evidence suggests that people partaking in the Mogollon culture /moʊɡəˈjoʊn/ were initially foragers who augmented their subsistence through
5346-608: The Sun Dagger petroglyph at Fajada Butte a popular example. Many Chacoan buildings may have been aligned to capture the solar and lunar cycles, requiring generations of astronomical observations and centuries of skillfully coordinated construction. The Chacoans abandoned the canyon, probably due to climate change beginning with a 50-year drought starting in 1130. Immense complexes known as "great houses" embodied worship at Chaco. Archaeologists have found musical instruments, jewelry, ceramics, and ceremonial items, indicating people in
5445-509: The West Road, and the shorter Pintado-Chaco Road. Simple structures like berms and walls are sometimes aligned along the roads. Some tracts of the roads lead to natural features such as springs, lakes, mountain tops, and pinnacles. The longest and best-known of these roads is the Great North Road, which originates from different routes close to Pueblo Bonito and Chetro Ketl. These roads converge at Pueblo Alto and from there lead north beyond
5544-415: The amount of winter snowfall varied greatly, the Ancestral Puebloans depended on the snow for most of their water. Snow melt allowed the germination of seeds, both wild and cultivated, in the spring. Where sandstone layers overlay shale, snow melt could accumulate and create seeps and springs, which the Ancestral Puebloans used as water sources. Snow also fed the smaller, more predictable tributaries, such as
5643-646: The area. The Ancestral Puebloan homeland centers on the Colorado Plateau, but extends from central New Mexico on the east to southern Nevada on the west. Areas of southern Nevada, Utah, and Colorado form a loose northern boundary, while the southern edge is defined by the Colorado and Little Colorado Rivers in Arizona and the Rio Puerco and Rio Grande in New Mexico. Structures and other evidence of Ancestral Puebloan culture have been found extending east onto
5742-458: The borders of Chaco Culture National Historical Park . Storerooms at Pueblo Alto opened to the outside rather than into the interior rooms and there was a huge midden of pottery. This and chert found in the midden came mostly from the Chuska area 70 km (43 mi) to the west. Research suggests that as few as five to twenty families lived in the complex; this may imply that Pueblo Alto served
5841-418: 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
5940-461: The canyon limits. Along roadways were only small, isolated structures. Archaeological interpretations of the Chaco road system are divided between an economic purpose and a symbolic, ideological or religious role. The system was discovered in the late 19th century and excavated in the 1970s. By the late 20th century, aerial and satellite photographs helped in the study. Archaeologists suggested that
6039-580: The community visible to most of the inhabitants of the San Juan Basin; indeed, it was only 2.3 miles (3.7 km) north of Tsin Kletsin , on the opposite side of the canyon. The community was the center of a bead - and turquoise -processing industry that influenced the development of all villages in the canyon; chert tool production was also common. It shares its mesa with another great house, Nuevo Alto , both of which are now protected within
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#17327719434506138-545: The continuation of the Chaco Canyon elite system, which had seemingly collapsed a century earlier. Other researchers instead explain these motifs as part a wider Pueblo style or religion. During the period from 700 to 1130 CE ( Pueblo I and II Eras ), the population grew fast due to consistent and regular rainfall which supported agriculture. Studies of skeletal remains show increased fertility rather than decreased mortality. However, this tenfold population increase over
6237-404: 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
6336-475: The dismantling of their religious structures was an effort to symbolically undo the changes they believed they caused due to their abuse of their spiritual power, and thus make amends with nature. Most modern Pueblo peoples (whether Keresans , Hopi , or Tanoans ) assert the Ancestral Puebloans did not "vanish", as is commonly portrayed. They say that the people migrated to areas in the southwest with more favorable rainfall and dependable streams. They merged into
6435-543: The elite family whose burials associate them with the site practiced matrilineal succession. Room 33 in Pueblo Bonito, the richest burial ever excavated in the Southwest, served as a crypt for one powerful lineage, traced through the female line, for approximately 330 years. While other Ancestral Pueblo burials have not yet been subjected to the same archaeogenomic testing, the survival of matrilineal descent among contemporary Pueblo peoples suggests that this may have been
6534-668: 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 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
6633-519: The forerunners of contemporary Pueblo peoples although specific site to modern group connections are unclear. Three UNESCO World Heritage Sites located in the United States are credited to the Pueblos: Mesa Verde National Park , Chaco Culture National Historical Park and Taos Pueblo . Pueblo , which means "village" and "people" in Spanish, was a term originating with the Spanish explorers who used it to refer to
6732-678: The form of a 300-year period of aridity called the Great Drought. This also led to the collapse of the Tiwanaku civilization around Lake Titicaca in present-day Bolivia. The contemporary Mississippian culture also collapsed during this period. Confirming evidence dated between 1150 and 1350 has been found in excavations of the western regions of the Mississippi Valley , which show long-lasting patterns of warmer, wetter winters and cooler, drier summers. In this later period,
6831-523: 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
6930-413: 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
7029-495: The growing populations into close, defensible quarters. There were buildings for housing, defense, and storage. These were built mostly of blocks of hard sandstone, held together and plastered with adobe mortar. Constructions had many similarities, but unique forms due to the unique rock topography. The best-known site is at Mesa Verde, with a large number of well-preserved cliff dwellings. This area included common Pueblo architectural forms, such as kivas, towers, and pit-houses, but
7128-481: 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
7227-474: The images were protected from the sun yet visible to the public. Designs include human-like forms. The so-called "Holy Ghost panel" in the Horseshoe Canyon is considered to be one of the earliest uses of graphical perspective where the largest figure appears to take on a three-dimensional representation. Recent archaeological evidence has established that in at least one great house, Pueblo Bonito,
7326-486: 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
7425-466: The massive roof – a task which would require significant effort. Habitations were abandoned, and tribes divided and resettled far. This evidence suggests that the religious structures were abandoned deliberately over time. Pueblo oral history holds that the ancestors had achieved great spiritual power and control over natural forces. They used their power in ways that caused nature to change and caused changes that were never meant to occur. Possibly,
7524-410: 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
7623-500: 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. 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
7722-471: The number of rooms in a pueblo. A small kiva was built for roughly every 29 rooms. Nine complexes each had a Great Kiva, up to 63 feet (19 m) in diameter. T-shaped doorways and stone lintels marked all Chacoan kivas. Although simple and compound walls were often used, great houses usually had core-and-veneer walls: rubble filled the gap between parallel load-bearing walls of dressed, flat sandstone blocks bound in clay mortar. Walls were covered in
7821-498: 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
7920-614: The people also adopted design details from other cultures as far away as contemporary Mexico . These buildings were usually multistoried and multipurposed, and surrounded by open plazas and viewsheds . Hundreds to thousands of people lived in these communities. These complexes hosted cultural and civic events and infrastructure that supported a vast outlying region hundreds of miles away linked by transportation roadways. Built well before 1492 CE, these towns and villages were located in defensive positions, for example on high, steep mesas such as at Mesa Verde or present-day Acoma Pueblo , called
8019-415: 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
8118-541: The people's particular style of dwelling. The Navajo people, who now reside in parts of former Pueblo territory, referred to the ancient people as Anaasází , an exonym meaning "ancestors of our enemies", referring to their competition with the Pueblo peoples. The Navajo now use the term in the sense of referring to "ancient people" or "ancient ones", whereas others ascribe the meaning of Anasazi to "those who are different from our people"; (lit. Ana = "different from us" + asaza = "the old ones"). Hopi people use
8217-469: The pit-house, a common feature in the Basketmaker periods. Ancestral Puebloans are also known for their pottery. Local plainware pottery used for cooking or storage was unpainted gray, either smooth or textured. Pottery used for more formal purposes was often more richly adorned. In the northern portion of the Ancestral Pueblo lands, from about 500 to 1300 CE, the pottery styles commonly had black-painted designs on white or light gray backgrounds. Decoration
8316-461: 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
8415-584: 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
8514-525: The road's main purpose was to transport local and exotic goods to and from the canyon. The economic purpose of the Chaco road system is shown by the presence of luxury items at Pueblo Bonito and elsewhere in the canyon. Items such as macaws , turquoise and seashells, which are not part of this environment, and imported vessels distinguished by design, prove that the Chaco traded with distant regions. The widespread use of timber in Chacoan constructions required
8613-573: The same time, nearby areas that suffered significantly drier patterns were abandoned. Ancestral Puebloans attained a cultural "Golden Age" between about 900 and 1150. During this time, generally classed as Pueblo II Era, the climate was relatively warm and rainfall mostly adequate. Communities grew larger and were inhabited for longer. Highly specific local traditions in architecture and pottery emerged, and trade over long distances appears to have been common. Domesticated turkeys appeared. After around 1130, North America had significant climatic change in
8712-452: 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
8811-409: The southern regions of Ancestral Pueblo lands has bold, black-line decoration and the use of carbon-based colorants. In northern New Mexico, the local black-on-white pottery tradition, the Rio Grande white wares , continued well after 1300 CE. Changes in pottery composition, structure, and decoration are signals of social change in the archaeological record. This is particularly true as the peoples of
8910-715: The space restrictions of these alcoves resulted in far denser populations. Mug House, a typical cliff dwelling of the period, was home to around 100 people who shared 94 small rooms and eight kivas, built right up against each other and sharing many walls. Builders maximized space use and no area was off-limits. Not all the people in the region lived in cliff dwellings; many colonized the canyon rims and slopes in multifamily structures that grew to unprecedented size as populations swelled. Decorative motifs for these sandstone/mortar structures, both cliff dwellings and not, included T-shaped windows and doors. This has been taken by some archaeologists, such as Stephen Lekson (1999), as evidence of
9009-604: 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, called pueblos by Spanish colonists, were accessible only by rope or through rock climbing. These astonishing building achievements had modest beginnings. The first Ancestral Puebloan homes and villages were based on
9108-586: 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 . By
9207-399: The term Hisatsinom , meaning "ancient people", to describe the Ancestral Puebloans. The Ancestral Puebloans were one of four major prehistoric archaeological traditions recognized in the American Southwest, also known as Oasisamerica . The others are the Mogollon , Hohokam , and Patayan . In relation to neighboring cultures, the Ancestral Puebloans occupied the northeast quadrant of
9306-475: 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
9405-474: The various Pueblo peoples whose descendants still live in Arizona and New Mexico. This perspective was also presented by early 20th-century anthropologists, including Frank Hamilton Cushing , J. Walter Fewkes , and Alfred V. Kidder . Many modern Pueblo tribes trace their lineage from specific settlements. For example, the San Ildefonso Pueblo people believe that their ancestors lived in both
9504-556: 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
9603-420: 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 maize – white cornmeal . A man might bless his son, or some land, or
9702-443: Was based around the figure of the cacique , a theocratic leader for both material and spiritual matters. 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
9801-533: Was used mostly for ceremonies, was an integral part of the community structure. Archaeologists continue to debate when this distinct culture emerged. The current agreement, based on terminology defined by the Pecos Classification , suggests their emergence around the 12th century BCE, during the archaeologically designated Early Basketmaker II Era . Beginning with the earliest explorations and excavations, researchers identified Ancestral Puebloans as
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