SantaFe.com

The Spanish attitude toward the Indians was that they saw themselves as guardians of the Indians basic rights. The Spanish goal was for the peaceful submission of the Indians. The laws of Spain controlled the conduct of soldiers during wars, even when the tribes were hostile. The missionary's role was to convert the Indians to Christianity. This would be followed by the Indians being accepted as members of the Spanish civilization. However, the exploitation of the Indian occurred constantly.

The Anglo attitude was one of total removal from their lands or total annihilation. The Indian was...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

In the 1880s virtually everyone agreed that the only way to educate Indian children was to take them away from their homes and cut them off from their families for at least four years. At first, Charles Lummis was a believer in that approach, exemplified by the famous Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. He wrote approvingly of the Carlisle School's “kill the Indian, save the child” theory of Indian education when he toured two Indian schools during his tramp across the continent in 1884. But within a year of his move to the pueblo of Isleta, New Mexico, in late 1888, Lummis had changed...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
courtesy of CharlesLummis.com

The Hopi, the westernmost branch of the Pueblo Indians, are believed to be descendants of an ancient people who built a sophisticated civilization in the desert areas of the American Southwest. The Hopi and their ancestors have lived in the area of northern Arizona and neighboring states since the time of the birth of Christ. Their ancestors are referred to as the Anasazi by outsiders, although the Hopi call them Hisat-Sinom or Hisat-Senom. (Many Native words have pronunciations with non-English, or between-English sounds. These words frequently appear in different publications with...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

The Navajo are part of the Apache, a mobile, independent group that has been traced to roots in Canada's Northwest Territories and Alaska. Their language is of Athabascan stock, and can still be understood, to some degree, by tribes in the North-Country. The name “Apache” is a corruption of a Pueblo term, Apachu, variously suggesting a translation as “strangers” or “enemies,” depending on the context. This reveals the age-old antagonisms that have existed between the Pueblo (including the Hopi) and the Apache.

The Apache were hunter-gatherers who survived by constantly moving into new,...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
courtesy of The Native American Nations of the Black Mesa Region

Kachina, or katsina, is a Southwestern Pueblo Indian word meaning spirit father or life. Kachinas represent the spirit of the gods who personify nature: clouds, sky, storms, trees, etc. They function as protective supernatural beings who can help humans if they are asked properly. They also represent the spirits of good people who die and become clouds, bringing much-needed rain. They serve as entertainers and discipliners of children. Kachinas look after the interests of humans, serve as intermediaries to the gods, and can bestow good fortune, such as fertility, power, and long life.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
by Ardeth Baxter

(1985 pop. 7,754), McKinley co., W N.Mex., in the Zuni Reservation; built c.1695.

Its inhabitants are Pueblo of the Zunian linguistic family. They are a sedentary people, who farm irrigated land and are noted for basketry, pottery, turquoise jewelry, and weaving. The original seven Zuni villages are usually identified with the mythical Seven Cities of Cibola, which were publicized by Marcos de Niza. In 1540, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado attacked the villages, thinking that they had vast stores of gold. The villages were abandoned in the Pueblo revolt of 1680. The present pueblo was built...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

The Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Arizona are descendants of the first people to enter the Americas, perhaps 20,000 years ago. These earliest groups, called Paleo-Indians, encountered an environment very different from that of today. The climate was cooler and wetter with glaciers on top of the mountains A wide variety of exotic animals roamed the area, from mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, and dire wolves. Paleo-Indian lives were centered on the hunting of large game, but there was still a need to collect plants and seeds, and the people moved their campsites often and over great...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
courtesy of Adobe Trading Post, Inc.

The name given by the Spanish to the sedentary Native Americans who lived in stone or adobe communal houses in what is now the southwestern United States. The term pueblo is also used for the villages occupied by the Pueblo. Their prehistoric settlements, known as the Anasazi and Mogollon cultures, extended southward from S Utah and S Colorado into Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent territory in Mexico. The transition from archaic hunters and gatherers to sedentary agricultural populations occurred around the first century a.d. , when maize, squash, and beans were widely adopted; the trio...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
courtesy of NativeAmericans.com

In 1886 Washington, D.C. was emerging as the metropolitan capital of a booming nation. The trauma of the Civil War was in the past, industrialization and urbanization were in full swing. In the West, the last Indian tribes had been defeated. America had achieved its “manifest destiny.” Now it was beginning to face the consequences of rapid growth and settlement. In Washington, a new generation of young professionals were eager to tackle these problems, especially the exploration of the West and its resources, including its native people.

Prominent among these were the anthropologists...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008