Pueblo, pronounced PWEH-blo, means “village” or “town” in Spanish. The word has come to stand for a certain kind of Indian village with a certain type of architecture, as well as for the Indians themselves who occupied them. As a result, the word sometimes appears without a capital first letter to denote a village or building, or with a capital to denote the people.
The name, when used for people, is a general term. There were many different Pueblo peoples in the American Southwest, which is referred to as the Southwest Culture Area by scholars (see SOUTHWEST INDIANS). Some of these Indians lived on the Colorado Plateau. These were the HOPI and ZUNI. The Hopi were the westernmost Pueblo peoples, living in what is now northeastern Arizona. The Zuni lived to their east in what is now western New Mexico.
Other Pueblo Indians lived along or near a 130-mile stretch of the Rio Grande, the long river flowing through much of the Southwest all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. There were four tribal groups, speaking different languages: TEWA, TIWA, TOWA (jemez), and KERES. The first three spoke varying dialects of the Kiowa-Tanoan language family. The Keres spoke a different language, called Keresan.
All four groups had different pueblos, or villages, often situated on the tops of mesas (small plateaus). The different pueblos had names. These names are sometimes used as distinct tribal names because villages were separate political units with their own leaders and traditions.
Pueblo Indians are thought to be descendants of Anasazi and Mogollon peoples of the early Southwest cultures and inherited many cultural traits from them, including architecture, farming, pottery, and basketry.
World History
