Cliff_Dwellings

The cliff dwellers of the Southwestern United States came from distinct but perhaps related cultures. Construction of the cliff dwellings started around 1000AD and they had mostly been abandoned by 1300.

In the Four Corners area the people who lived there likely came from the Chaco Canyon area, and dispersed to settlements on more fertile land. Many of these Pueblos still exist today. Some may be the longest continuously-inhabited places in North America. Acoma has existed since 1200 and, new excavations suggest, perhaps since before the time of Christ[1]. Oraibi on Hopiland's Third Mesa, was established in 1100.

Nomenclature

Cliff dwellers of the Four Corners area are generally called Pueblo ancestors or Ancestral Pueblo Peoples, although they have also been called Anasazi. However, this name means "ancestors of our enemies" in Navajo and may offend present-day Pueblo.[2] The Hopi sometimes use the word Hisatsinom[3], which also means ancestors. Some academics seem to be adopting this term.

Current Pueblo Settlements

Pueblo Language Group Image
Acoma, continuously inhabited since 1150[4], is the only Native American member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Example thumb
Cochiti Example thumb
Isleta Southern Tiwa, a possibly endangered Kiowa-Tanoan language thumb
Jemez [www.jemezpueblo.com Towa]
Laguna Pueblo | Western Keresan
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Ohkay Owingeh, was also called the name the Spanish gave it, San Juan Pueblo, until 2005. It was probably settled around 1200[5]. Example Example
Picurus Pueblo has historic ties to Pot Creek an Anasazi outlier site, and the Park Service maintains a site in Kansas where a group of Picuris and Apaches lived Northern Tiwa Example
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Sandia Pueblo's tribal government both operates a casino-resort and maintains a herd of buffalo on tribal land Southern Tiwa, a Tanoan language Kewa Pueblo, until 2009 known as Santo Domingo, the name the Spanish gave it. Eastern Keresan Example
San Felipe Eastern Keresan
19th century image from Smithsonian holdings
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Abandoned Pueblos Pecos Pueblo bustled in its heyday but disease, raids and migration had reduced its population to less than 300 by around 1780, when its entire population left the site and moved [6] to Jemez.

The Guadeloupe Pueblo in the Las Cruces area seems to have formed from the remnants of the Cliff Dwellings of the Pueblo Ancestors

Sinagua Cliff Dwellings in the Flagstaff Area

Sinagua in the Verde Valley

The Mogollon created the Gila Cliff Dwellings and the Mimbres culture may have grown from theirs. Emil Haury first made the case for the Mogollon as a a separate culture, although he is better known for his Hohokam excavations at Snaketown.

Casa Grande Mesa Grande

Also see

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References

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  1. ^ of Acoma Pueblo
  2. ^ Anasazi was first used in the English language by Richard Weatherill, a local rancher and amateur collector of artifacts. Although hardly the only archaeological enthusiast to have damaged a site, his work hardly makes him an authority on correct naming in another language.
  3. ^ Awkward, wordings can result from trying to include all names
  4. ^ Haak'u Museum at Acoma
  5. ^ New Mexico State Historian's summary of Ohkay Owingeh history
  6. ^ Park Service page, for the Pecos National Monument
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