The Taos Mountain Trail was the historic pathway for trade and business exchanges between agrarian Taos ( New Mexico ) and the Great Plains ( Colorado ) from pre-history (1100 A.D.) through the Spanish Colonial period and into the time of the European and American presence. The Taos Mountain Trail, between northern New Mexico and southern Colorado , connected the high mountain traders and their trading partners north and south of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains . Also called the Trapper's Trail , the pathway was only wide enough for people on foot or horses in single file, but it shortened a trip from Taos to the plains farther north from nearly two weeks to three days in good weather. The Taos Mountain Trail was also known as the Sangre de Cristo Trail and the Aztec Trail.
66-523: In the early period (1100 AD to 1500 AD), the trail connected the Pueblos of northern New Mexico to the Plains Indians— Ute , Arapaho , Apache , Cheyenne and Kiowa . The sedentary Pueblo people traded crops of corn , squash , melons , and beans to the migratory Plains tribes in exchange for buffalo meat, hides and other goods. Legend has it that traders from far away Tenochtitlan ,
132-539: A Huerfano Valley resident, also placed a group of Tarahumara Indians in the area prior to American contact Taos Pueblo was a trading center hosting fall and spring trade fairs. This fair is mentioned as being in existence prior to and throughout the Spanish Colonial period. In good weather, the Taos Mountain Trail provided the pathway for travel from the eastern plains to the wide plateaus of
198-479: 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 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
264-456: 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
330-659: 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
396-420: 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
462-629: 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
528-541: 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,
594-538: Is forbidden. Visitors are advised to confirm events in advance with the Pueblos. Dances include the antelope, bow-and-arrow, Comanche, corn, basket, buffalo, deer, harvest, Matachines , and turtle dances. Puebloan The Puebloans , or Pueblo peoples , are Native Americans in the Southwestern United States who share common agricultural, material, and religious practices. Among
660-519: 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
726-608: 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
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#1732802427852792-515: Is now part of the proper name of some historical sites, such as Pueblo of Acoma . The word pueblo is the Spanish word both for "town" or "village" and for "people". It comes from the Latin root word populus meaning "people". Spanish colonials applied the term to their own civic settlements, but to only those Native American settlements having fixed locations and permanent buildings. In
858-480: The Aztec capital (near modern Mexico City ) used the trail leaving cairns of stones to mark the way. Although there is a great deal of evidence that the people of MesoAmerica traded North into present day Colorado (Mesa Verde), the only evidence for Tarahumaran penetration into Colorado was the discovery of plant of Mexican origin at the top of the pass by William A. Weber, professor emeritus of Botany. Charlie Charlefue,
924-595: 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 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
990-658: 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
1056-801: The Piro/Manso/Tiwa Indian Tribe of the Pueblo of San Juan Guadalupe is currently petitioning the US Department of the Interior for federal recognition. Each Pueblo is autonomous with its own governmental structure. Several organizations serve to unite the interests of difference Pueblos including the Albuquerque-based All Pueblo Council of Governors who collectively negotiates for land and water rights and advocates for Pueblo interests with
1122-673: The Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico, specifically in the region between Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos, the word "pueblo" defines a "distinct cultural group in the Southwestern United States" and their villages. The Holmes Museum of Anthropology defines this specific group as a "common culture with individual variances [that] connects them. Less-permanent native settlements (such as those found in California) were often referred to as rancherías , however,
1188-585: 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 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
1254-510: 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
1320-549: The cliff dwellings and other habitations of the Ancestral Puebloans , who emerged as a people around the 12th century BCE and began to construct their pueblos about 750–900 CE. Many pueblos participate in syncretism between Indigenous Pueblo religion and Roman Catholicism. The pueblos welcome outsiders to participate in feast days, in which the Pueblo communities hold seasonal ceremonial dances, and certain households volunteer to feed visitors meals. Photography
1386-520: 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
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#17328024278521452-441: 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
1518-456: 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 the broader Puebloan culture. The clearest division between Puebloans relates to
1584-512: The American appointed governor Charles Bent . Survivors of the attack at nearby Turley's Mill crossed the Taos Mountain Trail on foot in winter to spread the word of the revolt to El Pueblo Trading Post and Bent's Fort. During the railroad expansion era (1848–1853), the Taos Mountain Trail, also called the Sangre de Cristo Pass, was considered for a railway route. E.G. Beckwith was sent to survey
1650-648: 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
1716-603: 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
1782-645: 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
1848-523: 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
1914-410: 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
1980-622: 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
2046-625: The Southwest, such as Acoma , were located in defensible positions, for example, on high steep mesas . Anthropologists and official documents often refer to ancient residents of the area as pueblo cultures. For example, the National Park Service states, "The Late Puebloan cultures built the large, integrated villages found by the Spaniards when they began to move into the area." The people of some pueblos, such as Taos Pueblo , still inhabit centuries-old adobe pueblo buildings. Contemporary residents often maintain other homes outside
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2112-783: The Southwest, those designated by the King of Spain as pueblo at the time Spain ceded territory to the United States, after the American Revolutionary War, are legally recognized as Pueblo by the Bureau of Indian Affairs . Some of the pueblos also came under the jurisdiction of the United States, in its view, by its treaty with Mexico , which had briefly gained rule over territory in the Southwest ceded by Spain after Mexican independence. There are 21 federally recognized Pueblos that are home to Pueblo peoples . Their official federal names are as follows: One unrecognized tribe ,
2178-775: The Taos Mountain Trail conduit more important. To aid the trade, Bent's Fort was built in 1833 and El Pueblo Trading Post followed in 1842. Traders headquartered in Bent's Fort and El Pueblo went out to trade with goods from Taos. The Taos Mountain Trail continued in use as it provided quick access to a settled community. During the Mexican–American War , the people of Taos (Taoseños), both Native American and Spanish , revolted in January 1847 killing many Americans living in Taos including
2244-533: The Taos Pueblo. Trading companies (desiring furs and hides) determined that sending out men to trade with the Native American groups for the desired hides was more efficient than building trading posts and inviting the Native American people to visit. The traders would obtain their goods from stores in Taos or Santa Fe then return to sell the hides obtained in trade with the Native American thus making
2310-694: The area in 1853. Richard Kern, a topographer and expeditionary artist, traveled with Beckwith to illustrate the land for the report. Although the trail was not chosen for the railroad as it was too steep, the report did provide documentation of the Taos Mountain Trail. Pueblos 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
2376-706: 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
2442-498: 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
2508-629: 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 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
2574-615: 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
2640-523: 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
2706-481: 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
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2772-476: The historic pueblos. Adobe and light construction methods resembling adobe now dominate architecture at the many pueblos of the area, in nearby towns or cities, and in much of the American Southwest . In addition to contemporary pueblos, numerous ruins of archeological interest are located throughout the Southwest. Some are of relatively recent origin. Others are of prehistoric origin, such as
2838-449: The inhabitants, thus protecting them from break-ins and unwanted guests. Larger pueblos were occupied by hundreds to thousands of Puebloan people. Several federally recognized tribes have traditionally resided in pueblos of such design. Later Pueblo Deco and modern Pueblo Revival architecture , which mixes elements of traditional Pueblo and Hispano design, has continued to be a popular architectural style in New Mexico . The term
2904-530: 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
2970-708: 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. Exact numbers of Pueblo peoples are unknown but, in
3036-486: 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
3102-410: 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
3168-500: 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
3234-438: The need for defense, the simple desire for human society in the vast solitude of (rocky plains, or the desert), dictated that it should be so. Nowadays the pueblo might have a population running into thousands. Doubtless, they were much smaller in the early middle ages , but we should probably not be far wrong if we think of them as having had populations of some hundreds. Of the federally recognized Native American communities in
3300-421: 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
3366-489: The north. Four and seven are numbers considered significant in their rituals and symbolism. 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
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#17328024278523432-491: The oldest area of Los Angeles was known as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señorala Reina de los Ángeles del Rio de Porciúncula or El Pueblo de Los Angeles for short. On the central Spanish Meseta the unit of settlement was and is the pueblo ; which is to say, the large nucleated village surrounded by its own fields, with no outlying farms, separated from its neighbors by some considerable distance, sometimes as much as ten miles [16 km] or so. The demands of agrarian routine and
3498-605: The oldest continually occupied settlements in the United States, are called pueblos (lowercased). Spanish explorers of northern New Spain used the term pueblo to refer to permanent Indigenous towns they found in the region, mainly in New Mexico and parts of Arizona , in the former province of Nuevo México . This term continued to be used to describe the communities housed in apartment structures built of stone, adobe , and other local material. The structures were usually multi-storied buildings surrounding an open plaza, with rooms accessible only through ladders raised and lowered by
3564-498: 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
3630-415: 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
3696-519: 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 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
3762-461: 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
3828-584: 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
3894-411: The public about all Pueblos through art, dance, and educational experiences. The center has a museum that presents Pueblo history and artifacts, and an interactive Pueblo House museum. An archive holds a collection of photographs, books, and tape recordings of oral histories. It also has a café and a restaurant, Indian Pueblo Kitchen, serving Indigenous cuisine . Pre-Columbian towns and villages in
3960-452: 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
4026-762: The state and federal government. The interests of Eight Northern Pueblos are served by the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council based in Ohkay Owingeh (formerly San Juan Pueblo). Cochiti, Jemez, Sandia, Santa Ana, and Zia are served by the Five Sandoval Indian Pueblos, a nonprofit organization based in Rio Rancho. The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center , founded in 1976 in Albuquerque, educates
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#17328024278524092-586: 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
4158-475: 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
4224-556: 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
4290-420: 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
4356-443: 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
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