The most interesting Indians of the Southwest are the Pueblos, so called
from their habit of living in towns. The word Pueblo is Spanish, and means
a village or town. More than three hundred years ago the Spaniards,
exploring northward from Mexico, found these clusters of industrious
Indians living in their quaint towns. They conquered them and brought them
missionaries. They taught them their beautiful language, and even to-day
Spanish is spoken in all the pueblos in addition to the native Indian
tongue. When the Spaniards entered New Mexico there were more than one
hundred pueblos; to-day there are about twenty. Most of these are in New
Mexico, but seven, the Moki towns, are in Arizona.
The home of the Pueblos is a wonderful land. It is a country of desert, of
flat-topped _mesas_, of sharp-pinnacled crests, of broad valleys, and deep
and narrow cañons. It is a land where the sky is almost always blue, and
where the air is clear. There are but few streams, and every spring is
precious. The people always built near water, and selected some spot in a
valley where there was room for the corn-fields.
The largest of the present pueblos is Zuñi, in New Mexico. Some years ago
a white man, Frank Cushing, went to Zuñi and lived for a long time there
to learn about the life and customs of the Pueblo Indians. They were kind
to him, at first taking him into their own houses, and later allowing him
a little house by himself. Since Mr. Cushing went to live at Zuñi, a
number of other persons have lived at other pueblos, so that we know a
good deal about them now.
[Illustration.]