Southwestern Native Americans

The Southwest Desert cultural region is mostly hot and arid. The tribes of this region live in the desert, the mountains, and the plateaus. They live in extremely hot climates in the summer and freezing temperatures in the winter. The Southwestern people live where four states meet- New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah.

These tribes made their home along the lower part of the Colorado River. These Native Americans developed a village way of life, based on farming. As a result, they became known as the Pueblo Indians. Pueblo is the Spanish word for village. The Pueblo developed irrigation to grow corn, beans, squash, and cotton. They did not need to irrigate, or water, their fields. The water came from the melting snow in the Rocky Mountains.

Their dwellings are called pueblos Their dwellings are called pueblos. The word “pueblo” is Spanish for house or village. Their villages looked like today’s apartment buildings, rising several stories off the ground. The location of their villages helped them defend themselves against enemies. Their homes were places on top of high mesas or peaks. All pueblo villages had at least one kiva. This is an underground room used for religious and secret ceremonies.

The men governed the villages. Men were the weavers of cloth. The women owned all the property and passed it down to their daughters. Women were the weavers of baskets.

Rain is what tribes needed most to survive in their harsh, dry region. They believed that beings called kachinas could bring them this rain and other kinds of help. Dance ceremonies honored the kachinas and sought their aid. Kachina dolls were given to young children to education them about their religion. Read “You Are There” on page 88 in your textbook to get an idea of what a dance ceremony was like. The snake dance was another ceremony which dancers hoped would bring rain. In this dance, the dancers held rattlesnakes and other kinds of snakes in their teeth. When the dance was over, the dancers released the snakes. Everyone in the community attended these ceremonies. To prepare, they washed their hair with suds from the yucca plant. The men wore their hair hanging straight, under a knotted scarf or a broad-brimmed hat. The married women wore their hair in two long braids. Unmarried women wore the “squash blossom” hairstyle. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfmPGcyV7lM