Western Pueblo Tribes

• TRIBES AFFECTED: Acoma, Hopi, Laguna, Zuni
• CULTURE AREA: Southwest
• LANGUAGE GROUPS: Keresan, Tewa, Uto-Aztecan, Zuni
• PRIMARY LOCATION: Southwest
• POPULATION SIZE: 33,633 (2010 US Census); American Community Survey (2018-2022): 2,982 (Acoma Pueblo and Off-Reservation Trust Land, NM), 7,895 (Hopi Reservation and Off-Reservation Trust Land, AZ), 4,460 (Laguna Pueblo and Off-Reservation Trust Land, NM), 8,134 (Zuni Reservation and Off-Reservation Trust Land, NM--AZ)

The Western Pueblo people are considered to be a part of a societal pattern known as the Desert culture. This migration extended southward from the Great Basin and covered most of the Southwest, dating the earliest human inhabitants of this region to some ten thousand years ago. During this long history, most changes in Pueblo culture have occurred since contact with Europeans, particularly with the Spanish. The Pueblo people have managed to control these changes, especially in ceremonial life, through persistence and protection.

Cause for Migration

Early Pueblo peoples are believed to have occupied lands in what is now the "Four Corners" area of the southwestern United States. This is where the current-day states of Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico are joined. A hypothesis has emerged that at several points between the years 500 and 1300 AD, this community was confronted by periods of drought. Archeologists have furthermore discovered evidence of increased violence during periods that coincide with times of arid weather. The first of these episodes is believed to have occurred in approximately 700 AD. Other evidence of the convergence of social tensions and climate change happened at the conclusion of eras termed Pueblo I in 900 AD and Pueblo II in 1140. In a time after 1200 AD, Pueblo communities began to abandon areas in the Four Corners region and migrate south.

The Pueblo Revolt of 1680

Pueblo peoples experienced the impact of three Western European cultures: Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo-American. This is similar to most Indigenous peoples of the Southwest. One of the most disruptive elements for the Pueblo was Western European religions. These tended to be intolerant of competing beliefs and ceremonies. By the middle of the seventeenth century, after almost a hundred years of servitude, the Pueblo Nations plotted to end Spanish oppression. The Pueblo people realized a united effort would be necessary given the strengths of the Spanish and to capitalize on their weaknesses. For example, although the Pueblo people outnumbered the Spanish, the Spanish held an advantage in weaponry. Remarkable efforts were conducted among Indigenous Nations to secretly plan and communicate a strategy to stage a coordinated uprising, which emerged as the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.

The Northern Pueblo laid siege to the Spanish capital of Santa Fe, where more than a thousand colonists and missionaries had taken refuge. Other Pueblo, including Acoma, Hopi, and Zuni, contributed to the revolt by killing the Spaniards and missionaries living in or near Pueblo. Spanish houses, churches, church records, and furniture were burned or destroyed. Through the later testimony of captured Pueblo, it became clear that the leaders of the revolt, Popé among them, wanted to obliterate all representations of Spanish culture and religion. The success of this objective was short-lived. Don Diego de Vargas reconquered the area in the winter of 1691–92; all of New Mexico was reconquered by 1696. Faced with a conquer-and-destroy attitude for hundreds of years, it is a testimony to the strength of the people of the Western Pueblo that they survived and retained many of their customs and beliefs.

Although the Acoma, Hopi, Laguna, and Zuni people share many similar customs and beliefs, they should be viewed as separate, independent societies.

Acoma

The Pueblo of Acoma and Laguna both speak Keresan languages and are closely related. Laguna lies about forty miles west of Albuquerque; Acoma is fifteen miles west-southwest of Laguna. The word “Acoma” means “place that always was.” Archaeologists have generally agreed that Acoma Pueblo has been inhabited at least from 1200 CE to the present. Little is known about the origins of the Acoma, but they claim to have always lived on their mesa.

Acoma, like most Pueblo Nations, are structured by clans that are always matrilineal in descent. A clan comprises all the descendants of a traditional maternal ancestor. Males go to live with the clan of their wife at marriage. The difference between clans and families is that clans are ceremonial institutions. Acoma society is matriarchal; Acoma women own the houses and everything in them, even if an item is brought there by their husbands. Women also have claim to all domestic animals, such as sheep and chickens. Certain ceremonial rights, however, such as entrance into a kiva (ceremonial chamber), are open only to men.

Elections for officials at Acoma are held yearly during the winter solstice. The government consists of a cacique (governor), who nominates those who will run for office. To assist the governor are two lieutenant governors, three war chiefs and their two cooks, along with ten principales. Aside from the cacique and the principales, who serve life terms, offices are held for one year.

The cacique sets the date for ceremonies whose timing may vary, such as those held on the solstices. Rabbit hunts are held before almost every important occasion. Some dances, such as the corn dance, are recreational rather than sacred or ceremonial. Anyone can observe or participate in these dances. The most important communal ceremony is that of the k’atsina (kachina) dancers. K’atsinas are spirit rainmakers. It is said that the k’atsinas used to come to the village, bringing the people gifts and cheering them when they were sad. There was a great fight between the spirits and the people, however, and the spirits refused to come to the village anymore, but they told the people they could wear masks and pretend they were k’atsinas and all would be well; rain would come.

Pottery is the Acoma people's primary form of artistic expression. Acoma pottery is less durable than Zuni pottery but is more varied in its designs, which include trees, leaves, birds, flowers, and geometrical patterns. Pueblo pottery serves both utilitarian and ceremonial functions and has historically been a cultural indicator of what was acceptable or fashionable.

Potters hold a special place of respect at both Acoma and Laguna. Because of the commercial value of modern-day Acoma pottery, a potter may be the primary wage earner of the family. Pottery produced for simple household functions maintains a special significance because it was made from materials of the earth to support some type of life activity. Observers of Acoma have remarked that a pot has a “conscious existence,” and Wanda Aragon, an Acoma potter, has said that “when you’re finished with a pot you flow life into it and it is given life.”

Regardless of culture, potters produce interpretations that reflect changing values and cultural demands. This may explain the preponderance of pottery at Acoma, a village that has emphasized pottery in its economy more than Laguna. Laguna has three times the population of Acoma, but Acoma has many more potters.

Laguna

The Laguna Pueblo is the largest of the Keresan Pueblo, consisting of six major villages situated on more than one hundred acres. Archaeological evidence dates the southeastern section of the Pueblo to the 1400s and the rest to 1699, and historical records suggest that the Laguna peoples' ancestors occupied the area starting around 1300 CE, if not earlier. Historians attribute the founding of the modern Laguna Pueblo to a group of refugees from other Pueblo, including the Jemez, Kewa (or Santo Domingo), Cochiti, and Zia Pueblo, in the wake of the Pueblo Revolt.

The Laguna people also have a matriarchal, clan-based social structure. They have their own calendar, which recognizes twenty-eight days to a moon but has no year designations. Events or phenomena are used to keep track of time. According to this calendar, the winter solstice begins the yearly ceremonies. Migration and the journey from the north are recounted in songs. The Keres words for winter solstice are Kú wa mi Shu ko (Kú wa mi, “south”; Shu ko, “corner”), meaning “the south corner time.” There are also k’atsina dances during planting and harvesting seasons, the importance of rain having a significant role at Laguna.

Hopi

Rain is of major importance for the Hopi people as well. Two general characteristics appear repeatedly in pottery motifs: a respect and desire for rain and a belief in the unity of all life. Pottery making for Hopi people, as for most Pueblo communities, is an art that exists in the mind of the potter. There are no permanent patterns set down for design layouts. Sand paintings made on the floors of kivas are derived from clan traditions; like pottery designs, these designs are carried only in the memory of the artists.

Hopi society is complex, consisting of thousands of people, each of whom is affiliated with one of thirteen villages. Oraibi, once the largest Hopi village, was one of the most determined to reject religious and political imposition during the time of the Pueblo Revolt. Much later, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Oraibi split occurred. The village was divided into two factions, termed “hostiles” and “friendlies” by the United States government. The “hostiles” resented policies that would forcibly educate their children, while the “friendlies” saw advantages to American education. The disagreement escalated, and the “hostiles” were forced from the village in September 1906. Some theories emphasize the role of internal social instability in causing the split. Whatever the case, a well-established society had fragmented.

Hopi villages are matrilineal; women own the houses, and therefore the economy, if they distribute items such as produce from their homes. For ceremonies and politics, men have the most influence, with the major focus of rituals being concentrated in the kiva. These tendencies are generalized, however, and many exceptions occur.

There are several clans among the Hopi, serving as a source of social identity and performing what has become the most important modern function: regulating marriage. The modern government has become mostly secularized, although some religious overtones still emerge. The board of directors’ meetings can be open or closed and can discuss everything from land disputes to the writing of village history.

Zuni

Tribal traditions and history are also a major concern for the Zuni Pueblo people. During the 1980s, the Zuni established their own public school system, which promoted and emphasized Zuni culture. A staff of experts frequently visit classes to explain tribal traditions. Every August there is a tribal fair, including a rodeo, a parade complete with floats, and social dances. The crowning of Miss Zuni takes place during this event; the young woman is not chosen for her beauty but rather for her knowledge of Zuni culture. She must be fluent in the Zuni language, and she is tested on the history of the Nation, ensuring that the culture will be passed on.

Prior to 1934, members of the Zuni Tribal Council were appointed by the Council of High Priests. Since 1934, elections of officers have been open to the Nation, but it was not until 1965 that women were able to vote despite the society's matriarchal structure.

The present-day Zuni Pueblo is located in the village of Halona, one of six Zuni villages that remained by the mid-seventeenth century. The other five villages were abandoned, probably because of raids by the Apache and Navajo, diseases introduced at the time of contact, and the Spanish reconquest. The legend of the “Seven Cities of Cíbola,” reported to be large, rich cities, may have been based on the six Zuni villages. Hearing of the legend prompted Francisco Vásquez de Coronado to explore the area in 1540. He was disappointed to find some rather indigent farmers supplementing their agricultural base with hunting. Spanish chroniclers would later write of the Zuni that “what they worshiped most was water.”

The Zuni language is still the language of social discourse, with most Zuni also being fluent in English. The social structure is a matriarchal, clan-based culture, similar to that of the other Western Pueblo people. Clan divisions and names of clans at Zuni—Eagle, Sun, Badger, Turkey, and so on—are reflected among other Pueblo peoples, and each clan has a specific religious function. Zuni priests act as mediators between the people and the kachinas, the spirits who bring rain.

Most Indigenous Nations in the Southwest make and use fetishes, but of all the Pueblo peoples, the Zuni have the reputation for being the most skillful at carving them. The purposes for which a fetish may be used vary. There are fetishes for hunting, curing diseases, war, gambling, and initiations. Hunting fetishes are the kind most often seen for sale. The fetish most highly prized by a Zuni is one of the natural concretation bearing a resemblance to an animal. Shell, stone, wood, plant, or animal material may be used to carve a fetish; their purpose in assisting humans remains the same, regardless of the material. Fetishes are regarded as living things and must be carefully attended.

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