Little is known concerning the origin of these two related groups, who
differ markedly from the Pueblo Indians in language and cultural traits.
Their closest ties are with other Athapaskan-speaking tribes in
northwestern Canada, and available evidence indicates that they are
comparative newcomers to the Southwest. A correlation between the
abandonment of sections of the Pueblo region and pressures exerted by
ancestral Apaches and Navajos has been suggested, but definite proof of
this is still lacking. Raids against the eastern pueblos of the Galisteo
Basin are reported to have occurred in 1525. Coronado’s expedition
encountered nomadic hunters in the plains east of Pecos in 1541,
observing that they followed the movements of herds of bison or buffalo
on whom they were highly dependent for food and shelter, lived in
portable tents of tanned buffalo hides supported by a framework of
poles, and used dogs as beasts of burden. Trade contacts with the Rio
Grande pueblos included exchange of hide “cloaks” for corn grown by the
Pueblo Indians.
Related groups in western and northwestern New Mexico are even more
poorly known, as there was still less contact between them and the
Spanish explorers. Evidently some agriculture was practiced as a
supplement to a subsistence based largely on hunting and gathering, a
pattern of livelihood reminiscent of that of the pre-Puebloan Cochise
people.
The succeeding years of Spanish and American colonization of New Mexico
were to be highly influenced by the Apaches and Navajos, and also by
another group of Plains Indians, the Comanches. The events of this
period, however, are discussed in a separate article.