Pueblos

PUEBLO INDIANS: The Pueblos live in villages in New Mexico and Arizona. Pueblos belong to many different communities, each of which speaks one of six different languages. They were named in the 1500's by the Spanish explorers. The word pueblo means town in Spanish. The Spaniards used the word to refer to both the people and their villages.

    Most of the 53,000 Pueblos live in 19 villages in New Mexico. The majority live along the Rio Grande River. Others live in deserts or high plateau areas called mesas in Laguna and Acoma in west-central New Mexico. Other Pueblos include the Zunis of western New Mexico and hopis of northeastern Arizona.

    Each Pueblos village has its own government and organization, but the pueblo people remain   linked to one another because of similar customs. The pueblos have strong ties to their tradition and homeland. They have lived in the same location longer than any other people of the United States or Canada.

EARLY LIFE: The Pueblos are descentants of a people known as the Anasazi, a name given them by the Navajo Indians. The Anasazi began to build homes of many stories about A.D.700. Between A.D. 1000 and 1300, Pueblo culture develope greatly in nothern Arizona, nothern New Mexico, southern Colorado, and southern Utah. By 1300, many pueblos had moved south to the fertile valleys of the Rio Grande and its branches. 

    Some Pueblo Indians built villages in the valleys, and others lived in desert and mountain areas.