Zuñi is one of the towns of the Pueblo or Town Indians of the
southwest. It is situated about the middle of New Mexico, near the
Arizona border. The population of Zuñi and its outlying settlements is
estimated at about 1600.
The Pueblo Indians live in about thirty towns in New Mexico and
Arizona, and number about 10,000. They are usually classified according
to language into four or five stocks, the Hopi of Arizona, the Ashiwi
or people of Zuñi, the Keres of Acoma and Laguna to the west and, to
the east, of five towns on the Rio Grande, and, also in the east, the
Tanoans including the Tewa and the people of Jemez.
When the Spanish conquistadores came up from Mexico into this country,
they found the people distributed more or less as they are to-day,
although since that time many old sites have been deserted and new
sites built upon. With increasing protection for life and property,
there has been a tendency to move down from the mesa tops to the better
watered and more fertile valleys.
At the arrival of the Spaniards, and no doubt long before, the people
were not only builders, but skillful potters and farmers, practising
alike dry farming and irrigation. From their economy and complex
ceremonial life, they may be considered the northernmost fringe of the
maize culture area of Middle and South America, that great reach which
included the Inca Kingdom of Peru and the Mayas and Aztecs of Mexico.
Wheat, peach trees and watermelons were brought to the Pueblo Indians
by the Spaniards, as well as sheep, cattle, horses and donkeys. And the
Spaniards established Franciscan missions and a secular governorship,
thereby affecting religion and form of government, to what extent
is still an open question. Less obscure, but no less interesting is
the effect that modern industry is having upon the culture; as might
be expected, American trade has been disintegrating, but entirely
destructive it has not been, as yet.
The ceremonial Mr. Culin describes, belongs either to the Thlewekwe
Society or to the Big Fire-brand Society. See “The Zuñi Indians,” pp.
483-8, 502-1. After the dance, the saplings with butts tapered and
painted red are thrown down a rocky pitch in one of the buttes of the
mesa to the north. Specimens may be seen in the American Museum of
Natural History and in the Museum of the University of California.
That the skull acquired by Mr. Cushing was of questionable authenticity
is a fact at present known at Zuñi; for it is said there that it was
because of this Tenatsali came to his premature death.