Pueblos

The term Pueblo refers both to a group of culturally related, but autonomous, Indian villages in the U.S. Southwest and to the people who live in these villages. When Spanish conquistadors entered the Rio Grande Valley during the 16th century, they found thousands of Indians living in compact villages along the river and westward into the mesa country of northeastern Arizona. They called these tribes Indios de Pueblos (literally village Indians) to distinguish them from their nomadic neighbors—hunters and gatherers such as the Apache and Navajo. Spanish settlers adopted the term as they developed different relations with their Puebloan and Apachean neighbors. The distinction was a legal one as Pueblo Indians were subject to being taxed, conscripted, and incorporated into the imperial system of Spain. When Americans entered the Santa Fe trade, they found the term Pueblo entrenched and embraced it.

The most conspicuous feature of Pueblo Indians' villages is the unique architecture. Their compact adobe villages have been described as “apartmentlike” for the way in which the walls of one building abut the walls of the next building. Each subsequent story can be set back to create a terrace workspace. The room blocks surround a plaza that has a sociore-ligious role in the life of the village. Pueblo villages also have distinctive structures called kivas for the sacred activities of the religious societies. These secret ceremonies occur in conjunction with religious dances in the plazas. Kivas are often round or underground, but not always; they can be built into the room blocks or left freestanding. Although all Pueblo villages were originally built in this classic style, many modern pueblos are a simple single story; however, all maintain at least one plaza and one kiva for village use.

Pueblo Indians are an often misunderstood group in U.S. history. At one time, U.S. culture considered Pueblos to be Mexicans, not Indians at all. At another time, Pueblos were considered to be pagans, and at another time, they were romanticized as noble and peaceful. The reason for this waffling is that Pueblo Indians have been sedentary tribes with long established traditions since pre-Columbian times—traditions that are very different from those of the stereotypical “Indian.” This entry, which uses the lowercase pueblo for the villages and the uppercase Pueblo, Pueblo Indian, or Puebloan for the various peoples, recalls the history of both as well as their presence in today's Southwest.