People and Languages

Three language families predominated among peoples in the Southwest: Uto-Aztecan, Yuman, and Athapaskan. Uto-Aztecan speakers included the Hopi of Arizona and the Tohono O’Odham (Papago) and Akimel O'Odham (Pima) of Arizona and northern Mexico. Some Pueblo peoples, including the Tewa, Tiwa, and Towa in modern-day New Mexico, spoke dialects of Kiowa-Tanoan, a language family related to Uto-Aztecan. The Cocopah, Havasupai, Hualapai, Maricopa, Mojave, Yavapai, Yuma (Quechan), and other neighboring peoples in Arizona spoke Yuman, and they are referred to collectively as Yumans. The Apache and Navajo (Diné) of New Mexico and Arizona and the southern fringe of Colorado and Utah spoke Athapaskan. Southwest languages considered distinct from the main language families included Coalhuitecan of the Coalhuitec in Texas and northern Mexico; Karankawan of the Karankawa in Texas; Keresan of the Keres, a Pueblo people in New Mexico; and Zunian of the Zuni, another Pueblo people of New Mexico.

When prehistoric peoples first arrived in the Southwest more than 10,000 years ago, there was enough rainfall in the region to support mammoths, bison, and other large mammals. Stone spearpoints found with the remains of these animals provide evidence that ancient Southwest peoples hunted them. After the climate became drier and the large animals disappeared, subsequent generations of Southwest peoples hunted deer and small game and collected fruits, nuts, and seeds of wild plants. About 5,000 years ago the Cochise people in present-day Arizona and New Mexico began growing a primitive species of maize (corn), which was domesticated in earlier centuries in Mesoamerica. By 4,500 years ago they had become skilled farmers.

In later centuries, four distinct farming peoples occupied the Southwest: peoples of the Mogollon, Hohokam, Anasazi, and Patayan cultures, as well as a number of smaller offshoots. The people of these cultures raised maize, beans, and squash. For each of these peoples, the adoption of agriculture permitted the settlement of permanent villages and the continued refinement of farming technology, arts, and crafts, especially pottery.

The Mogollon people of southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, who appeared about 2,300 years ago, are believed to be descendents of the Cochise people. Mogollon Indians built permanent villages in the region’s high valleys and learned to make pottery decorated with intricate geometric patterns. The Mimbres people, a Mogollan subgroup, is famous for painting pottery with dramatic black-on-white geometric designs of animals and ceremonial scenes. From about ad 1200 to 1400 the Mogollan culture was gradually absorbed by the then-dominant Anasazi culture.

The Hohokam people of southern Arizona may also have descended from the Cochise. First appearing about 2,100 years ago, Hohokam Indians dug extensive irrigation ditches for their crops. Some canals, which carried water diverted from rivers, extended many kilometers. Hohokam people also built sunken ball courts—like those of the Maya Civilization in Mesoamerica—on which they played a game resembling a combination of modern basketball and soccer. Hohokam people are thought to be ancestors of the Tohono O’Odham and Pima, who preserved much of the Hohokam way of life.

In the Four Corners region, where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado now join, lived the Anasazi Indians, also known as ancestral Pueblo peoples. The Anasazi culture, which gradually emerged from older Southwestern cultures, had taken on its distinctive characteristics by about 2,100 years ago. Anthropologists refer to the Anasazi of this early era as Basket Makers because they wove fine baskets from rushes, straw, and other materials. Basket Makers hunted and gathered wild foods, tended fields, and lived in large pit houses, dwellings with sunken floors that were topped by sturdy timber frameworks covered with mud. By about ad 700 Basket Maker culture had evolved into the early Pueblo cultural period. Over the next 200 years these peoples made the transition from pit houses to surface dwellings called pueblos—rectangular, multistoried apartment buildings composed of terraced stone and adobe. They built large planned towns connected by an extensive network of public roads and irrigation systems. At its peak, after about 900, Pueblo culture dominated much of the Southwest. From about 1150 to 1300 Pueblo peoples evacuated most of their aboveground pueblos and built spectacular dwellings in the recesses of cliffs. The largest of these had several hundred rooms and could house a population of 600 to 800 in close quarters.

The Patayan people, who lived near the Colorado River in what is now western Arizona, learned to farm by about ad 875. They planted crops along the river floodplain and filled out their diets by hunting and gathering. Patayan Indians lived in brush huts and made brownish pottery, sometimes painted red, as well as baskets. They were known to use seashells from the Gulf of California in trade. The Patayan people are thought to be ancestors of the Yuman-speaking tribes.

During the late 1200s the Four Corners area suffered severe droughts, and many Pueblo sites were abandoned. However, Pueblo settlements along the Rio Grande in the south grew larger, and elaborate irrigation systems were built. Between 1200 and 1500 a people speaking Athapaskan appeared in the Southwest, having migrated southward along the western Great Plains. Based on linguistic connections, these people are believed to have branched off from indigenous peoples in western Canada. They are the ancestors of the nomadic Apache and Navajo. Their arrival may have played a role in the relocation of some Pueblo groups.

This page was last updated Sunday November 07, 2004

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