Puebloan peoples

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Laguna Pueblo dwellers
Laguna Pueblo dwellers
Taos Pueblo, circa 1920
Taos Pueblo, circa 1920

The Pueblo people are a Native American people in the Southwestern United States.[1] Their traditional economy is based on agriculture and trade. When first encountered by the Spanish in the 16th century, they were living in villages that the Spanish called pueblos, meaning "villages". Of the approximately 25 pueblos that exist today, Taos, Acoma, Zuñi, and Hopi are the best-known.

Contents

[edit] Subdivisions

While there are numerous subdivisions of Pueblo People that have been published in the literature, Fader (1954) published a subdivision of the Pueblo Indians into two subareas: the group that includes Hopi, Zuñi, Keres, Jemez which share exogamous matrilineal clans, have multiple kivas, believe in emergence of people from the underground, have four or six directions beginning in the north, and have four and seven as ritual numbers. This group stands in contrast to the Rammal-speaking Pueblos (except Jemez) who have nonexogamous patrilineal clans, two kivas or two groups of kivas and a general belief in dualism, emergence of people from underwater, five directions beginning in the east, and ritual numbers based on multiples of three.

Eggan (1950) in contrast, posed a dichotomy between Eastern and Western Pueblos, based largely on subsistence differences with the Western or Desert Pueblos of Zuñi and Hopi dry-farmers, and the Eastern or River Pueblos irrigation farmers.

Linguistic differences between the Pueblos point to their diverse origins. The Hopi language is Uto-Aztecan; Zuñi is a language isolate; Keresan is a dialect continuum that includes Acoma, Laguna, Santa Ana, Zia, Cochiti, Santo Domingo, San Felipe. The Tanoan is an areal grouping of three branches of the Kiowa-Tanoan family consisting of 6 languages: Towa (Jemez), Tewa (San Juan, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, Tesuque, Nambe, Pojoaque, and Hano); and the 3 Tiwa languages Taos, Picuris, and Southern Tiwa (Sandia, Isleta).

[edit] History

The Pueblos are believed to be descended from the three major cultures that dominated the region before European contact:

  1. Mogollon, an area near the Gila Wilderness
  2. Hohokam, archaeological term for a settlement in the Southwest
  3. Ancient Pueblo Peoples or the Anasazi, a term coined by the Navajos [2].

Despite forced conversions to Catholicism by the Spanish, the Pueblo tribes have been able to maintain much of their traditional lifestyle. There are now some 35,000 Pueblo Indians, living mostly in New Mexico and Arizona along the Rio Grande and Colorado River.

These peoples were the first to successfully revolt against the Spanish in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, which expelled the Spanish for 12 years. The code for the action was a knotted rope sent by a runner to each pueblo; the number of knots signified the number of days to wait before beginning the uprising. It began August 10, 1680; by August 21, Santa Fe fell to 2,500 warriors.[3] On September 22, 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 one from the state of New Mexico and the 100th and last to be added to the Statuary Hall collection. It was created by Cliff Fragua, a Puebloan from Jemez Pueblo, and it is the only statue in the collection created by a Native American.

Most of the Pueblos have annual ceremonies that are open to the public. One such ceremony is the Pueblo's feast day, held on the day sacred to its Roman Catholic patron saint. (These saints were assigned by the Spanish missionaries so that each Pueblo's feast day would coincide with a traditional ceremony.) Some Pueblos also have ceremonies around the Christmas and at other times of the year. The ceremonies usually feature traditional dances outdoors accompanied by singing and drumming, interspersed with non-public ceremonies in the kivas. They may also include a Roman Catholic Mass and processions.

Formerly, all outside visitors to a public dance would be offered a meal in a Pueblo home, but because of the large number of visitors, such meals are now by personal invitation only.

[edit] Culture

Pueblo prayer included substances as well as words; one common prayer material was ground-up maize — white cornmeal. Thus a man might bless his son, or some land, or the town by sprinkling a handful of meal as he uttered a blessing. Once, after the 1692 re-conquest, the Spanish were prevented from entering a town when they were met by a handful of men who uttered imprecations and cast a single pinch of a sacred substance.[4]

The Puebloans employed prayer sticks, which were colorfully decorated with beads, fur, and feathers; these prayer sticks (or talking sticks) were also used by other nations.

Cloth and weaving were known to the Puebloans before the conquest, but it is not known whether they knew of weaving before or after the Aztecs. But since clothing was expensive, they did not always dress completely until after the conquest, and breechcloths were not uncommon.

Corn was a staple food for the Pueblo people. They would use pottery to hold their food and water.

[edit] Religion

Further information: Hopi mythology

The most highly developed Indian communities of the Southwest were large villages or pueblos at the top of the mesas, or rocky tableland typical to the region. The archetypal deities appear as visionary beings who bring blessings and receive love. A vast collection of myths, defines the relationships between man, nature, plants and animals. Man depended on the blessings of the gods, who in turn depended on prayers and ceremonies.

[edit] List of Pueblos

[edit] New Mexico

[edit] Arizona

  • Hopi Tribe Nevada-Kykotsmovi — Hopi language speakers. Area of present villages settled around 700 AD

[edit] Texas

  • Isleta del Sur Pueblo near El Paso, Texas (Ysleta, Texas has been annexed into El Paso) — Tigua (Tiwa) speakers. [1]
  • Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, El Paso Texas, — Tigua (Tiwa) speaking. This Pueblo established in 1680 as a result of the Pueblo Revolt. Some 400 members of Isleta and neighboring Pueblos were forced or accompanied the Spaniards as they fled Northern New Mexico.

[edit] Feast days

January
May
June
July
August
September
December
Variable

[edit] Gallery

Pottery of the Pueblo people, Field Museum, Chicago

Zia Pueblo, pottery bowl, Field Museum

Tesuque Pueblo Pottery Jar, Field Museum

Acoma Pueblo, bowl. (background: Tesuque jar.) Field Museum

Acoma Pueblo, pottery jar, Field Museum

Tesuque Pueblo, Pottery Jar, Field Museum

San Ildefonso Pueblo, Black-on-Black Pottery Bowl. Field Museum

Bird effigy, pottery. Cicuye Pueblo, Field Museum

Deer effigy, pottery. Cicuye Pueblo, Field Museum

Pottery Jar, Acoma Pueblo, taken at Field Museum

Pottery Canteen, Acoma Pueblo, taken at Field Museum

Pottery Bowl, Jemez Pueblo, Field Museum, Chicago

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ On June 2, 1924 these peoples were granted US citizenship. In 1948, they were granted the right to vote in New Mexico.
  2. ^ Cordell, Linda S. Ancient Pueblo Peoples. St. Remy Press and Smithsonian Institution, 1994. ISBN 0-89599-038-5.
  3. ^ Paul Horgan (1954), Great River vol. 1 p. 286. Library of Congress card number 54-9867
  4. ^ Paul Horgan, Great River p. 158
  5. ^ "Isleta Pueblo". Catholic Encyclopedia (1910) VIII

[edit] References

  • Fletcher, Richard A. (1984). Saint James' Catapult: The Life and Times of Diego Gelmírez of Santiago de Compostela. Oxford University Press. (on-line text, ch. 1)
  • Florence Hawley Ellis An Outline of Laguna Pueblo History and Social Organization Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Winter, 1959), pp. 325-347
  • Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, NM offers information from the Pueblo people about their history, culture, and visitor etiquette.
  • Paul Horgan, Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History. Vol. 1, Indians and Spain. Vol. 2, Mexico and the United States. 2 Vols. in 1, 1038 pages - Wesleyan University Press 1991, 4th Reprint, ISBN 0-8195-6251-3
  • Pueblo People, Ancient Traditions Modern Lives, Marica Keegan, Clear Light Publishers, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1998, profusely illustrated hardback, ISBN 1-57416-000-1
  • Elsie Clews Parsons, Pueblo Indian Religion (2 vols., Chicago, 1939).
  • Ryan D, A. L. Kroeber Elsie Clews Parsons American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 45, No. 2, Centenary of the American Ethnological Society (Apr. - Jun., 1943), pp. 244-255
  • Parthiv S, ed. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 9, Southwest. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1976.

[edit] External links