New Mexico

H New Mexico Indian Villages, Towns and Settlements

A complete listing of all the Indian villages, towns and settlements as listed in Handbook of Americans North of Mexico. Haatze (Queres: ‘earth’). A prehistoric pueblo of the Cochiti near the foot of the Sierra San Miguel, above Cochiti pueblo, N. Mex. It is claimed to have been occupied after the abandonment of the Potrero de las Vacas. Bandelier in Arch. Inst. Papery, iv, 157, 1892. Hachos (prob. Span.: a fagot or bundle of straw or grass covered with resin) Mentioned as a wild tribe of New Mexico in the 18th century. Villa-Señor, Theatre Am., pt, 2, 412, 1748. Halona … Read more

F- New Mexico Indian Villages, Towns and Settlements

A complete listing of all the Indian villages, towns and settlements as listed in Handbook of Americans North of Mexico. Fejiu. A prehistoric pueblo of the Tewa at the site of the present town of Abiquiu, on the Rio Chama, Rio Arriba co., N. Mex. Fesere. A prehistoric pueblo of the Tewa on a mesa w. or s. of the Rio Chama, near Abiquiu, Rio Arriba co., N. Mex.

E- New Mexico Indian Villages, Towns and Settlements

A complete listing of all the Indian villages, towns and settlements as listed in Handbook of Americans North of Mexico. El Morro (Span.: ´the castle`). A pre historic ruined pueblo, consisting of the remains of two blocks of dwellings, situated on the summit of a rock mesa called El Morro, or Inscription Rock, about 35m. E. of Zuni, Valencia co., N. Mex. The pueblo is reputed to be of Zuñi origin, but there is only legendary testimony of this. The peñol is called El Morro on account of its fancied resemblance to a castle from a distance, and Inscription Rock … Read more

D- New Mexico Indian Villages, Towns and Settlements

A complete listing of all the Indian villages, towns and settlements as listed in Handbook of Americans North of Mexico. Dhiu. Mentioned by Oñate (Doc. Ined., xvi, 114, 1871) as a pueblo of New Mexico in 1598. Doubtless situated in the Salinas, in the vicinity of Abo, E. of the Rio Grande, and in all probability a village of the Piros or the Tigua. Dyapige. A prehistoric Tano pueblo s. E. of Lamy, “some distance in the mountains,” N. central New Mexico.

Ute Tribe

Ute Indians. An important Shoshonean division, related linguistically to the Paiute, Chemehuevi, Kawaiisu, and Bannock. They formerly occupied the entire central and west portions of Colorado and the east portion of Utah, including the east part of Salt Lake valley and Utah valley. On the south they extended into New Mexico, occupying much of the upper drainage area of the San Juan. They appear to have always been a warlike people, and early came into possession of horses, which intensified their aggressive character. None of the tribes practiced agriculture. Very little is known of their social and political organization, although … Read more

Shoshonean Indians

Shoshonean Family, Shoshonean People, Shoshonean Nation. The extent of country occupied renders this one of the most important of the linguistic families of the North American Indians. The area held by Shoshonean tribes, exceeded by the territory of only two families – the Algonquian and the Athapascan, – may thus be described: On the north the south west part of Montana, the whole of Idaho south of about lat. 45° 30′, with south east Oregon, south of the Blue Mountains, west and central Wyoming, west and central Colorado, with a strip of north New Mexico; east New Mexico and the … Read more

New Mexico Indian Reservations

A list of New Mexico Indian reservations showing the Indian tribes the land was set aside for, the amount of acres if known, and the acts, treaties, and executive orders used to establish the reservation.

Tano Tribe

Tano (from Taháno, the Tigua form of T’han-u-ge, the Tano name for themselves). A former group of Pueblo tribes of New Mexico, whose name has been adopted for the family designation (see Tanoan Family). In prehistoric times, according to Bandelier, the Tano formed the southern group of the Tewa, the separation of the two occurring at the ancient village of Tejeuingge Ouiping. In the early historical period the Tano habitat was southward from Santa Fe to the Galisteo basin, a distance of about 20 miles. Coronado passed through the southern part of their territory in 1541, Castañeda describing it as … Read more

Tewa Tribe

Tewa (‘moccasins,’ their Keresan name). A group of Pueblo tribes belonging to the Tanoan linguistic family, now (1905) occupying the villages of San Ildefonso, San Juan, Santa Clara, Nambe, Tesuque, and Hano, all except the last lying in the valley of the Rio Grande in north New Mexico. The pueblo of Hano, in the Hopi country of north east Arizona, dates from the time of the Pueblo revolt of 1680-92. Pojoaque was inhabited by Tewa until a few years ago, when intermarriage with Mexicans and the death of the few full-bloods made it practically a Mexican settlement. It had been … Read more

Tigua Tribe

Tigua Indians (Spanish form of Ti’wan, pl Tiwesh’ (span. Tiguex), their own name). A group of Pueblo tribes comprising three geographic divisions, one occupying Taos and Picuris (the most northerly of the New Mexican pueblos) on the upper waters of the Rio Grande; another inhabiting Sandia and Isleta, north and south of Albuquerque, respectively; the third division, living in the pueblos of Isleta del Sur, Texas, and Senecu del Sur, Chihuahua, on the lower Rio Grande. At the time of Coronado’s visit to New Mexico in 1540-42 the Tigua inhabited Taos and Picuris in the north, and, as today, were … Read more

Pueblo Family

Pueblo Indians, Pueblo Family – (towns, villages , so called on account of the peculiar style of compact permanent settlements of these people, as distinguished from temporary camps or scattered rancherias of less sub stantial houses). A term applied by the Spaniards and adopted by English-speaking people to designate all the Indians who lived or are living in permanent stone or adobe houses built into compact villages in south Colorado and central Utah, and in New Mexico, Arizona, and the adjacent Mexican territory, and extended sometimes to include the settlements of such tribes as the Pima and the Papago, who … Read more

Piros Tribe

Piro Pueblo People

The Piros Tribe, formerly significant Pueblo Indians in New Mexico, occupied two main divisions during the early 17th century: the Rio Grande valley and an area east of the Rio Grande. The establishment of missions among the Piros began in 1626. Despite their initial number of around 9,000, the Piros suffered severe harassment from the Apache, reducing their population significantly. Today, most Piros pueblos are extinct, with only a small number of Piros individuals known to survive. Their history reveals a struggle for survival in a harsh desert environment and amidst constant intertribal conflict.

Pawnee Tribe

Petalesharro

Pawnee Indians. A confederacy belonging to the Caddoan family.  The name is probably derived from parika, a horn, a term used to designate the peculiar manner of dressing the scalp-lock, by which the hair was stiffened with paint and fat, and made to stand erect and curved like a horn.  This marked features of the Pawnee gave currency to the name and its application to cognate tribes. The people called themselves Chahiksichahiks, `men of men.’ In the general northeastwardly movement of the Caddoan tribes the Pawnee seem to have brought up the rear. Their migration was not in a compact … Read more

Pecos Tribe

Pecos Indians (from P’e’-a-ku’, the Keresan name of the pueblo). Formerly the largest and most populous of the pueblos of New Mexico in historic times, occupied by a people speaking the same language of the Tanoan family, with dialectic variations, as that of Jemez; situated on an upper branch of Pecos River, about 30 miles south east of Santa Fe. In prehistoric times the Pecos people occupied numerous pueblos containing from 200 to 300 rooms each, and many compactly built single-story house groups of from 10 to 50 rooms each. These were scattered along the valley from the north end … Read more

Navajo Tribe

Navajo Nation, Navajo Indians, Navaho Indians, Navaho Tribe (pron. Na’-va-ho, from Tewa Navahú, the name referring to a large area of cultivated lands; applied to a former Tewa pueblo, and, by extension, to the Navajo, known to the Spaniards of the 17th century as Apaches de Navajo, who intruded on the Tewa domain or who lived in the vicinity, to distinguish them from other “Apache” bands. Fray Alonso Benavides, in his Memorial of 1630, gives the earliest translation of the tribal name, in the form Nauajó, ‘sementeras grandes’ – ‘great seed-sowings’, or ‘great fields’. The Navajo themselves do not use … Read more

Keresan Indians

Keresan Family, Keresan People, Keresan Pueblos (adapted from K’eres, the aboriginal name). A linguistic family of Pueblo Indians including the inhabitants of several villages on the Rio Grande, in north central New Mexico, between the Rito de los Frijoles (where, before being confined to reservations, they joined the Tewa on the north) and the Rio Jemez, as well as on the latter stream from the pueblo of Sia to its month. The west division, comprising Acoma and Laguna pueblos, are situated westward from the Rio Grande, the latter on the Rio San Jose. Like the other Pueblo tribes of New … Read more

Cochiti Tribe

Cochiti Indians (Ko-chi-ti’). A Keresan tribe and its pueblo on the west bank of the Rio Grande, 27 miles south west of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Before moving to their present location the inhabitants occupied the Tyuonyi, or Rito de los Frijoles, the Potrero de las Vacas, the pueblo of Haatze on Potrero San Miguel or Potrero del Capulin, and the pueblo of Kuapa in the Cañada de Cochiti. Up to this time, which was still before the earliest Spanish explorations, the ancestors of the present San Felipe inhabitants and those of Cochiti formed one tribe speaking a single dialect, … Read more

Munsee Tribe

Munsee Indians, Munsee People, Munsee First Nation (Min-asin-ink, ‘at the place where stones are gathered together. Hewitt). One of the three principal divisions of the Delaware, the others being the Unami and Unalachtigo, from whom their dialect differed so much that they have frequently been regarded as a distinct tribe. According to Morgan they have the same three gentes as the Delaware proper, viz, Wolf (Tookseat ), Turtle (Pokekooungo), and Turkey (Pullaook). Brinton says these were totemic designations for the three geographic divisions of the Delaware and had no reference to gentes. However this may be, the Wolf has commonly … Read more

Coyotero Apache Tribe

Coyoteros Indians, Coyoteros Tribe (Span.: wolf-men; so called in consequence, it is said, of their subsisting partly on coyotes or prairie wolves; but it seems more probable that the name was applied on account of their roving habit