Southwest Indians

The American Indians of the Southwest culture area traditionally lived in what are now the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Today more than one fifth of Native Americans in the United States continue to live in this region, mostly in the states of Arizona and New Mexico. The north is dominated by the Colorado Plateau, a cool, high plain cut by canyons. Mesas, or flat-topped hills, rise up from the plain. South of the plateau, a series of isolated mountain ranges alternate with several broad, barren basins. The climate is very dry, with some areas averaging less than 4 inches (10 centimeters) of precipitation each year. Droughts are common, and the major ecosystem is desert. In most places, however, the soil is fertile.

Traditional Culture

Peoples and Languages

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Southwest

peoples spoke languages from several different families. The Hokan-speaking Yuman peoples were the westernmost residents of the region. The so-called River Yumans, including the Yuma (Quechan), Mojave, Cocopa, and Maricopa, lived on the Colorado and Gila rivers. Their cultures combined some traditions of the Southwest culture area with others of the California Indians. The Upland Yumans lived on smaller and seasonal streams in what is now western Arizona south of the Grand Canyon. They included the Havasupai, Hualapai, and Yavapai.

The Tohono O’odham (or Papago) and the closely related Pima spoke Uto-Aztecan languages. They lived in the southwestern part of the culture area, near the border between the present-day states of Arizona (U.S.) and Sonora (Mexico). Scholars believe that these peoples descended from the ancient Hohokam culture.

The Pueblo Indians lived in what are now northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico. They spoke Tanoan, Keresan, Kiowa-Tanoan, and Penutian languages. They are thought to be descendants of the prehistoric Ancestral Pueblo culture. Among the best known Pueblo peoples are the Hopi and the Zuni.

The Navajo and the closely related Apache spoke Athabaskan languages. These peoples were relative latecomers to the region. They migrated from Canada to the Southwest, arriving before ad 1500. The Navajo lived on the Colorado Plateau near the Hopi villages. The Apache traditionally resided in the basin and range systems south of the plateau. The major Apache tribes included the Western Apache, Chiricahua, Mescalero, Jicarilla, Lipan, and Kiowa Apache.

Food

Most peoples of the Southwest combined farming with hunting and gathering. In the dry environment a tribe’s nearness to water had a strong influence on how much it depended on one strategy or another. Groups who settled along the Colorado River or other major waterways could rely almost entirely on farming for food. For the River Yumans, the Colorado and Gila rivers provided plentiful water despite scant rainfall and the hot desert climate. Overflowing their banks each spring, the rivers left fresh silt for planting several varieties of corn as well as beans, pumpkins, melons, and grasses. Abundant harvests were supplemented with wild fruits and seeds, fish, and small game.

Many of the Upland Yumans, the Pima, and the Tohono O’odham did not have such a reliable water supply. Some farmed with the help of irrigation. Groups who lived near permanent waterways built stone channels to carry water from streams to their fields of corn, beans, and squash. Groups with no permanently flowing water planted crops in the sediment at the mouths of seasonal streams, which flowed only after summer storms. They built low walls called check dams to slow the torrents caused by the brief but intense rains. These groups relied more on wild foods than on agriculture. Some did no farming at all, instead living in a way similar to the Great Basin Indians.

Pueblo peoples were mainly farmers, growing corn, squash, beans, and sunflower seeds in irrigated fields. They also raised turkeys. Later the Spanish brought them new crops, including wheat, onions, watermelons, peaches, and apricots. The Pueblo also hunted deer, antelope, and rabbits and gathered wild plant foods, including prickly pear cactus, pine nuts, and berries.

Courtesy of the Denver Art Museum, Colorado

When

they arrived in the Southwest, the Navajo and the Apache were nomadic hunters and gatherers. Gradually the Navajo and some Apache groups adopted some of the cultural traits of the Pueblo, settling into villages and learning to grow corn and other vegetables. After the Spanish introduced sheep, goats, and cattle, the Indians began tending flocks of these animals. The Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache continued to rely mostly on hunting and gathering. The chief food plant of the Mescalero was mescal, a desert plant that provided fruit, juice, and fibers. When food was scarce, both the Navajo and the Apache raided Pueblo villages and later Spanish and American settlements.

Settlements and Housing

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The

most remarkable dwellings in the Southwest were those of the Pueblo Indians. The Pueblo lived in compact, permanent villages of apartment houses modeled after the cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Pueblo. They were made from stone and adobe (sun-dried clay). When Spanish explorers saw these huge houses in the 1500s, they called them pueblos, from the Spanish word for village. Pueblo villages were located in river valleys and on high, rocky plateaus called mesas.

Pueblo homes had several stories and many rooms. Each family might have several rooms that they used as people do today, for food preparation, sleeping, or storage. To keep out enemies, the Indians made the ground story without doors or windows. The next story was set back the width of a room, and the roof of the lower story provided a “front yard” for the people of the second story. Higher stories were set back the same way, giving a terraced effect. The residents used ladders to reach their apartments. Special underground rooms called kivas were set aside for religious purposes.

The settlements of the Yumans, the Pima, and the Tohono O’odham differed depending on a tribe’s access to water. Villages near rivers had dome-shaped houses made of log frameworks covered with wattle and daub (woven branches plastered with clay) or thatch. The Indians lived in these villages year-round. Tribes who lived along seasonal waterways divided their time between summer villages and dry-season camps. Summer settlements were near their crops. They consisted of dome-shaped houses built of thatch. During the rest of the year they lived at higher elevations where fresh water and game were more readily available. Their shelters then were lean-tos and windbreaks.

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As the Navajo and some Apache groups gave up their nomadic lifestyle, they settled into villages and learned to farm. The Navajo made round houses, called hogans, of stone, logs, and earth. The Apache remained mostly nomadic. They built brush-covered wickiups and skin tepees for shelter.

Clothing

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Rare

among the North American Indians, the Pueblo wove most of their clothing from cotton they grew themselves. They began raising cotton and making cloth by the ad 700s. The woman’s dress was a long strip of cloth that wrapped across the body and fastened on the right shoulder. A colorful, fringed belt held the garment at the waist. The man wore a breechcloth of white cotton cloth or a short woven kilt with a colorful border. Both men and women wore soft shoes or sandals.

The Navajo and the Apache traditionally wore clothing made of animal skins and plant fibers. After the Europeans came, the Navajo began to make clothes with cloth bought from traders.

Technology and Arts

During their centuries of living together in villages the Pueblo Indians developed ways to bring art to everyday life. Pueblo women made beautiful, strong pottery. Each village, and sometimes each family, had its own styles, colors, and designs. The women had been skilled at basketry since early times. They wove twigs, grass, and fibers from yucca and other tough desert plants into baskets, trays, mats, cradleboards, and sandals.

The men were the weavers among the Pueblo. They also did the work of tanning and making shoes and other leather goods. They made bows and arrows, stone knives, and tools. They drilled and polished turquoise and other stones to make beads. After the Mexicans taught them silverwork, they created silver jewelry set with these stones.

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The Navajo were good at learning the skills of their neighbors and adding improvements and individual touches. They learned weaving from the Pueblo Indians, and their blankets and rugs became more valuable than the Pueblo products. The women did all the work—from shearing the sheep to the final weaving. Navajo men learned silverwork from Mexican artists. They adapted designs from many sources, especially the patterns stamped on Spanish bridles and saddles.

Society

The Yumans, the Pima, and the Tohono O’odham were similar in their social organization. The most important social unit among these groups was the extended family, a group of related people who lived and worked together. Groups of families living in a given place formed bands. Typically the male head of each family participated in an informal band council that settled disputes (often over land ownership, among the farming groups) and made decisions regarding community problems. Band leaders were chosen based on skills in activities such as farming, hunting, and consensus-building. A number of bands made up the tribe. Tribes were usually organized quite loosely—the Pima were the only group with a formally elected tribal chief. Among the Yumans the tribe provided the people with a strong ethnic identity, though in other cases most people identified more strongly with the family or band.

The Pueblo were organized into 70 or more villages before the Spanish arrived. The villages, like the people themselves and their distinctive houses, are known as pueblos. Each pueblo was politically independent, governed by a council made up of the heads of religious societies. These societies were centered in the underground kivas, which also served as private clubs and lounging rooms for men. The Pueblo also established secret societies with specific themes, such as religion, war, policing, hunting, and healing.

Within the villages, kinship played a key role in Pueblo social life. Extended-family households of three generations were typical. Related families formed a lineage, a group that shared a common ancestor. Among the western Pueblo and the eastern Keresan-speaking peoples, several lineages were combined to form a clan. Many villages had dozens of clans. Other Pueblo Indians grouped lineages into two larger units called moieties. Many eastern Pueblo organized themselves into paired groups such as the “Squash People” and “Turquoise People” or the “Summer People” and “Winter People.”

Clans and moieties were responsible for sponsoring certain rituals and for organizing many aspects of community life. They were also important in achieving harmony in other ways. Membership in these groups was symbolically extended to certain animals, plants, and other classes of natural and supernatural phenomena. This linked all aspects of the social, natural, and spiritual worlds together for a tribe. In addition, marriage between members of different clans or moieties smoothed social relations among the groups.

The Navajo and the Apache tended to live in scattered extended-family groups that acted independently of one another. Among the Apache, the most important social group in daily life was the band—a kin-based group of about 20–30 individuals who lived and worked together. Among the Navajo, similarly sized “outfits,” or neighboring extended families, cooperated in resolving issues such as water use. Bands and outfits were organized under the direction of a leader chosen for his wisdom and previous success. They acted on the basis of consensus, or general agreement. People could, and often did, move to another group if they were uncomfortable with their current situation. A tribe was made up of a group of bands that shared bonds of tradition, language, and culture.

Family

Although Southwest peoples shared an emphasis on the extended family, they varied in their approach to tracing family ties. Among the Yumans, the Pima, and the Tohono O’odham, kin relations were usually traced through both the father’s and mother’s sides of the family. In the groups that raised crops, the male line was somewhat favored because fields were commonly passed from father to son. Kinship among the western Pueblo and the eastern Keresan-speaking groups was traced through the mother. The rest of the eastern Pueblo traced ancestry through the father or through both parents. The Navajo and the Western Apache had clans based on the female line, but the rest of the Apache traced kinship through both sides of the family and had little use for clans.

Like many other Indians, Southwest peoples divided household labor between women and men. Among the Yumans, the Pima, and the Tohono O’odham, women generally were responsible for most domestic tasks, such as food preparation and child-rearing. Men’s tasks included the clearing of fields and hunting. Among the Pueblo, the women cared for young children, cultivated gardens, produced baskets and pottery, and preserved, stored, and cooked food. They also cared for certain clan fetishes—sacred objects carved of stone. The men wove cloth, herded sheep, and raised corn, squash, beans, and cotton. Navajo and Apache women were typically responsible for raising children; gathering and processing seeds and other wild plants; collecting firewood and water; producing buckskin clothing, baskets, and pottery; and building the home. The Navajo were an exception to the last rule, as they viewed home construction as men’s work. Navajo and Apache men hunted, fought, and raided. Among the more settled groups, women tended gardens, men tended fields, and both took part in shepherding and weaving.

All Southwest tribes viewed the raising of children as a serious adult responsibility. Most felt that each child had to be “made into” a member of the tribe and that adults had to engage in frequent self-reflection and redirection to remain a tribe member. In other words, ethnic identity was something that had to be achieved rather than taken for granted.

Children were treated warmly and patiently. From birth, they were treated as an integral part of the family. Among the Navajo, for example, the cradleboard was hung on a wall or pillar so that the child would be at eye level with others seated in the family circle. From the beginning of childhood there was training in gender roles. Little girls began to learn food processing and childcare, and little boys were given chores such as collecting firewood or tending animals. Above all, however, they were taught that individuals must always pull their own weight according to their gender, strength, and talents.

When they were between five and seven years old, boys began to spend almost all their time with the men of their households. From then on the men directed their education into masculine tasks and lore. At about the same age, girls began to take on increasing responsibility for household tasks. As boys grew older, the Apache and other nomadic groups stressed the strength and skill needed for battle. Training in warfare intensified as a youth grew to young manhood. Even among the more peaceful Pueblo, however, boys learned agility, endurance, and speed in running. Racing was important to the Pueblo because it was considered to have magical power in helping plants, animals, and people to grow.

Religion

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Like most Indian religions, those of the Southwest Indians were generally characterized by animism and shamanism. Animists believe that spirit-beings animate the sun, moon, rain, thunder, animals, plants, and many other natural phenomena. Shamans were men and women who achieved supernatural knowledge or power to treat physical and spiritual ailments. Shamans had to be very aware of the community’s goings-on or risk the consequences. For example, a number of accounts from the 1800s report the execution of Pima shamans who were believed to have caused people to sicken and die.

Courtesy of the Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado

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spectacular Pueblo ceremonies for rain and growth reflected a conception of the universe in which every person, animal, plant, and supernatural being was considered significant. Without the active participation of every individual in the group, it was believed that the life-giving sun would not return from his “winter house” after the solstice, the rain would not fall, and the crops would not grow. In fact, Pueblo groups generally believed that the cosmic order was always in danger of breaking down and that an annual cycle of ceremonies was crucial to the continued existence of the world.

Brooklyn Museum, New York, Museum Expedition 1903, Museum Collection Fund (03.325.4653)

According

to the Pueblo, humans affected the world through their actions, emotions, and attitudes. Communities that encouraged harmony were visited by spirit-beings called kachinas each year. In ceremonies men in elaborate regalia impersonated the kachinas to call forth the spirits. The kachina religion was most common among the western Pueblos and was less important to the east.

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The

Apache believed that the universe was inhabited by a great variety of powerful beings, including animals, plants, witches (evil shamans), superhuman beings, rocks, and mountains. All could affect the world for good or ill. The Apache talked to, sung to, scolded, or praised each one. Ceremonies appealed to these powerful beings for aid in curing disease and for success in hunting and warfare.

Navajo ceremonies were based on a similar view of the universe. The Navajo believed that power resided in a great many beings that were dangerous and unpredictable. These belonged to two classes: Earth Surface People (human beings, ghosts, and witches) and Holy People (supernaturals who could aid Earth Surface People or harm them by sending sickness). As they turned away from hunting and raiding in favor of farming and herding, the Navajo focused their attention on elaborate rituals or “sings.” These aimed to cure sickness and bring an individual into harmony with his family group, nature, and the spirit world.

In contrast to the animistic religions of other Southwest tribes, the River Yumans believed in a supreme being that was the source of all supernatural power. Dreams were the only way to acquire the supernatural protection, guidance, and power that were considered necessary for success in life. Traditional myths seen in dreams were turned into songs and acted out in ceremonies. The spiritual quest sometimes caused an individual religious or war leader to abandon all other activities—farming, food collecting, and even hunting.

The religion of the Tohono O’odham shared features with those of both the River Yumans and the Pueblo. Like the River Yumans, they “sang for power” and went on individual vision quests. Like the Pueblo, they also held communal ceremonies to keep the world in order.