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Wikipedia / Pueblo

Pueblo refers to the settlements of the Pueblo peoples, Native American governments in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settlements in the United States, are called pueblos (lowercased).

Spanish explorers of northern New Spain used the term pueblo to refer to permanent Indigenous towns they found in the region, mainly in New Mexico and parts of Arizona, in the former province of Nuevo México. This term continued to be used to describe the communities housed in apartment structures built of stone, adobe, and other local material. The structures were usually multistoried buildings surrounding an open plaza. Many rooms were accessible only through ladders raised and lowered by the inhabitants, thus protecting them from break-ins and unwanted guests. Larger pueblos are occupied by hundreds to thousands of Puebloan people.

Several federally recognized tribes have historically resided in pueblos of such design. Later Pueblo Deco and modern Pueblo Revival architecture, which mixes elements of traditional Pueblo and Hispano design, has continued to be a popular architectural style in New Mexico, expanding to surrounding states over time.

The term is part of the official name of some historical sites, such as Pueblo of Acoma.

Etymology and usage

The word is the Spanish word both for "town" or "village" and for "people". It comes from the Latin root word meaning "people". Spanish colonials applied the term to their own civic settlements, but to only those Native American settlements having fixed locations and permanent buildings.

In the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico, specifically in the region between Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos, the word "pueblo" defines a "distinct cultural group in the Southwestern United States" and their villages. The Holmes Museum of Anthropology defines this specific group as a "common culture with individual variances [that] connects them.

Less-permanent Native settlements (such as those found in California) were often referred to as rancherías, however, the oldest area of Los Angeles was known as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Rio de Porciúncula or El Pueblo de Los Angeles for short.

Pueblo tribes

Of the federally recognized Native American communities in the Southwest, those designated by the King of Spain as pueblo at the time Spain ceded territory to the United States, after the American Revolutionary War, are legally recognized as Pueblo by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Some of the pueblos also came under the jurisdiction of the United States, in its view, by its treaty with Mexico, which had briefly gained rule over territory in the Southwest ceded by Spain after Mexican independence. There are 21 federally recognized Pueblos that are home to Pueblo peoples. Their official federal names are as follows:

One unrecognized tribe, the Piro/Manso/Tiwa Indian Tribe of the Pueblo of San Juan Guadalupe is currently petitioning the US Department of the Interior for federal recognition.

Civic institutions

Each Pueblo is autonomous with its own governmental structure. Several organizations serve to unite the interests of difference Pueblos including the Albuquerque-based All Pueblo Council of Governors who collectively negotiates for land and water rights and advocates for Pueblo interests with the state and federal government. The interests of Eight Northern Pueblos are served by the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council based in Ohkay Owingeh (formerly San Juan Pueblo). Cochiti, Jemez, Sandia, Santa Ana, and Zia are served by the Five Sandoval Indian Pueblos, a nonprofit organization based in Rio Rancho.

The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, founded in 1976 in Albuquerque, educates the public about all Pueblos through art, dance, and educational experiences. The center has a museum that presents Pueblo history and artifacts, and an interactive Pueblo House museum. An archive holds a collection of photographs, books, and tape recordings of oral histories. It also has a café and a restaurant, Indian Pueblo Kitchen, serving Indigenous cuisine.

Historical places

Pre-Columbian towns and villages in the Southwest, such as Acoma, were located in defensible positions, for example, on high steep mesas. Anthropologists and official documents often refer to ancient residents of the area as pueblo cultures. For example, the National Park Service states, "The Late Puebloan cultures built the large, integrated villages found by the Spaniards when they began to move into the area." The people of some pueblos, such as Taos Pueblo, still inhabit centuries-old adobe pueblo buildings.

Contemporary residents often maintain other homes outside the historic pueblos. Adobe and light construction methods resembling adobe now dominate architecture at the many pueblos of the area, in nearby towns or cities, and in much of the American Southwest.

In addition to contemporary pueblos, numerous ruins of archeological interest are located throughout the Southwest. Some are of relatively recent origin. Others are of prehistoric origin, such as the cliff dwellings and other habitations of the Ancestral Puebloans, who emerged as a people around the 12th century BCE and began to construct their pueblos about 750–900 CE.

Feast days

Many pueblos participate in syncretism between Indigenous Pueblo religion and Roman Catholicism. The pueblos welcome outsiders to participate in feast days, in which the Pueblo communities hold seasonal ceremonial dances, and certain households volunteer to feed visitors meals. Photography is forbidden. Visitors are advised to confirm events in advance with the Pueblos.

Dances include the antelope, bow-and-arrow, Comanche, corn, basket, buffalo, deer, harvest, Matachines, and turtle dances.

  1. January

  2. 1: Transer of Canes: dances at most pueblos

  3. 6: King's Day Celebration: Nambé, Picuris, Sandia, Santa Ana, Santo Domingo, Taos

  4. 22–23: St: Ildephonsus feast: San Ildefonso

  5. 25: Picuris, San Ildefonso

  6. February

  7. 1st or 2nd weekend: Governor's Feast: Old Acoma, Ohkay Owingeh

  8. 2nd weekend: Caldelaria Day: Picuris, San Felipe

  9. March

  10. 19: St. Joseph feast: Laguna

  11. April

  12. Easter weekend: most pueblos

  13. Easter Sunday: Jemez, Nambé, Santo Domingo, San Ildefonso, Zia

  14. May

  15. May 1: St. Philip Feast: San Felipe

  16. May 3: Feast of the Cross: Taos

  17. First Sunday: Santa Maria Feast: Acoma

  18. June

  19. First Sunday of the month: Blessing of the fields: Tesuque

  20. 13: San Antonio feast: Ohkay Owingeh, Picuris, Sandia, Santa Clara, Taos

  21. 13: Ysleta del Sur

  22. 24: St John the Baptist feast: Ohkay Owingeh, Taos

  23. 29: San Pedro/St. Paul feast: Santa Ana, Santo Domingo

  24. July

  25. 14: St. Bonaventure feast: Cochiti

  26. 25: Santiago feast: Taos

  27. 26: St. Anne feast: Laguna, Santa Ana, Taos

  28. 28: Peoples' Day: Pojoaque, Santa Ana

  29. August

  30. 2: San Persingula feast: Jemez

  31. 4: Santo Domingo feast: Santo Domingo

  32. 9: San Lorenzo feast: Picuris

  33. 10: Pueblo Revolt anniversary and San Lorenzo feast: Acoma, Picuris

  34. 12: Santa Clara feast: Santa Clara

  35. 15: Assumption of Our Blessed Mother feast: Laguna, Zia

  36. 28: San Augustine feast: Isleta

  37. September

  38. 2: San Estevan feast: Acoma

  39. 4: San Augustine feast: Isleta

  40. 8: Nativity of the Blessed Virgin feast: Laguna, San Ildefonso

  41. 14: Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo

  42. 19: St. Joseph feast: Laguna

  43. 25: St. Elizabeth feast: Laguna

  44. 29: San Geronimo Eve feast: Taos

  45. 30: San Geronimo feast: Taos

  46. October

  47. 4: St. Francis of Assisi feast: Nambé

  48. 17: St. Margaret Mary feast: Laguna

  49. 24–27: Laguna

  50. November

  51. 12: San Diego feast: Jemez, Tesuque

  52. Thanksgiving Weekend: Acoma

  53. Thanksgiving Day: Christmas light parade: Zuni

  54. December

  55. 11: Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe feast: Pojoaque

  56. 12: Our Lady of Guadalupe feast: Jemez, Pojoaque, Santa Clara, Tesuque

  57. 24: Christmas Eve celebration: Acoma, Laguna Nambé, Ohkay Owingeh, Picuris, San Felipe, Santa Ana, Taos, Tesuque

  58. 25: Christmas Day: Cochiti, Ohkay Owingeh, Picuris, Santo Domingo, San Ildefonso, Tesuque, Zia

  59. 25–27: Cochiti, Laguna

  60. 26: Ohkay Owingeh

  61. 26–28: Christmas dances at most pueblos

  62. 28: Holy Innocents Day: Ohkay Owingeh, Picuris

See also

References