• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

New Mexico Geological Society Downloaded from: http://nmgs.nmt.edu/publications/guidebooks/13 Zuni in brief review Bertha P. Dutton, 1962, pp. 162-170 in: Mogollon Rim Region (East-Central Arizona), Weber, R. H.; Peirce, H. W.; [eds.], New Mexico Geological Society 13th Annual Fall Field Conference Guidebook, 175 p. This is one of many related papers that were included in the 1962 NMGS Fall Field Conference Guidebook. Annual NMGS Fall Field Conference Guidebooks Every fall since 1950, the New Mexico Geological Society (NMGS) has held an annual Fall Field Conference that explores some region of New Mexico (or surrounding states). Always well attended, these conferences provide a guidebook to participants. Besides detailed road logs, the guidebooks contain many well written, edited, and peer-reviewed geoscience papers. These books have set the national standard for geologic guidebooks and are an essential geologic reference for anyone working in or around New Mexico. Free Downloads NMGS has decided to make peer-reviewed papers from our Fall Field Conference guidebooks available for free download. Non-members will have access to guidebook papers two years after publication. Members have access to all papers. This is in keeping with our mission of promoting interest, research, and cooperation regarding geology in New Mexico. However, guidebook sales represent a significant proportion of our operating budget. Therefore, only research papers are available for download. Road logs, mini-papers, maps, stratigraphic charts, and other selected content are available only in the printed guidebooks. Copyright Information Publications of the New Mexico Geological Society, printed and electronic, are protected by the copyright laws of the United States. No material from the NMGS website, or printed and electronic publications, may be reprinted or redistributed without NMGS permission. Contact us for permission to reprint portions of any of our publications. One printed copy of any materials from the NMGS website or our print and electronic publications may be made for individual use without our permission. Teachers and students may make unlimited copies for educational use. Any other use of these materials requires explicit permission. This page is intentionally left blank to maintain order of facing pages. 162 NEW MEXICO GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 0. THIRTEENTH FIELD CONFERENCE ZUNI IN BRIEF REVIEW BERTHA P. DUTTON Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe PHYSIOGRAPHY with its lesser and frequently ephemeral tributaries, flows Like all other Pueblo Indian holdings, the present day into the Little Colorado river, draining the basin. reservation of the Zuni covers much less territory than did The higher elevations are pine clad; pinon and juniper, their lands of prehistoric times; the Zuni originally occupied with accompanying low-growing plants, cover lesser an area straddling the modern Arizona-New Mexico boun- heights; and the valley lands afford agricultural oppor- dary, primarily within a belt extending laterally through tunities. Compared with other districts of the Southwest, Gallup, New Mexico, to St. Johns, Arizona — an area this was an unusually advantageous environment for a sed- more or less bisected by 35° N. Lat. and 109° W. Long. entary people. Here, in the broad, shallow valley of the (Fig. 1 ) . Zuni River, the modern Zuni pueblo is located. It is at the northern limit of the basin, just outside the Gallup sag (Kelley and Clinton, 1960). < I 2 HISTORIC PAST O n N 2 It seems probable that Indian traders and adventure < 3 GALLUP. seekers traveled between Mexico and the area now known G.,. THOREAU as the American Southwest for centuries; and it will be c.0 remembered that the current boundary did not exist be- Nutria tween these regions prior to the time of the Gadsden Pur- SANDERS— 60G d, chase (1853-1854). Until then, Mexico reached east- RAMAH Zuni Buttes A Pe ward to the Rio Grande and northward to the Gila. 0 TINAJA Zara Pescado + Verbal accounts concerning the Indians of the unexplored Corn Mt. 35° Tekapo El Morro 35c lands lying to the north found their way into central . (Towayaland Hawikuh ruin • Mexico, and reached the ears of the Spanish conquerors WITCH WELL° Ojo Caliente • HOLBROOK early in the 1530s. By 1535, the Spaniards had heard of many-storied houses built of stone and adobe, in which ATARQUE the Indians of the north dwelt. The Spanish viceroy, Don o Antonio de Mendoza, became interested in the opportuni- C010,00)' River TRECHADO ST. JOHNS ties of adding new territory and expected riches to the g Salt Lake empire of Charles V, and of bringing the Christian doctrine to the Indians. A Franciscan friar, Marcos de Niza, was QUEMADO • selected to lead an exploring party to the northlands. In P1NE®DALE O SHOW LOW the group, which set forth in the spring of 1539, was a 10 20 30 40 SPRINGERVILLE Barbary Negro, Estevan, and some Mexican Indians. ° 109° Miles 1 Among the Sobaipura, a group of Piman Indians who inhabited the Rio San Pedro and the Gila valleys then, and Figure 1. The Zuni Region until about the end of the 18th century, Fray Marcos met the first Zuni Indian of whom specific mention is known. Physically, old Zuniland was situated in a basin ex- This old man, who must have left his home a long time tending from the Mogollon slope of the Winslow-Holbrook- previous, told of the pueblos in his homeland, and those St. Johns area into New Mexico — the slope which forms of other peoples. He was the first one to speak of Hawi- a wide southern border of the Colorado Plateau, and kuh (Ahacus), which he said was the largest of the vil- which dips gently to the northeast toward the Defiance lages (Bandelier, 1892; Hodge, 1937). and Zuni uplifts. The basin displays anticlinal crests and The Negro, Estevan, had a gift for dealing with troughs of synclines trending chiefly in a northwest direc- strange Indians, and Fray Marcos sent him on ahead with tion. Volcanic centers are displayed especially toward a small party to scout the way and pacify the natives. As the southeast (see Kelley and Clinton, 1960). Estevan progressed, Indians of various groups through Young plateaus with moderately deep canyons char- which he passed, including a number of pretty women, acterize the northern part of the area. The eroded edges attached themselves to his party, and he was given many of the strata show prominently in great retreating cliffs of gifts. He always carried a "magic" gourd, which he ap- red, white, and yellow sandstone. parently got from some of the Texas Indians when, as a From the town of Ramah, New Mexico, Pescado creek slave in the company of Cabeza de Vaca, he had been has cut through a ridge of mesas, traversing a valley from in the Gulf area, a few years before. The gourd was one to two miles in width, "whose bordering walls increase filled with pebbles and was decorated with a red feather in height from 200 to 600 feet before it passes through and a white one (it was, thus, a ceremonial rattle). This a narrow gorge into the Zuni Basin proper. Small canyons he sent ahead with a runner, to notify the Indians of his and ravines empty into it from either side, and it is joined approach. from the northwest by Nutria Creek just before it cuts Elegantly bedecked and filled with self-importance, through the uplift which forms the eastern boundary of the Estevan arrived in Zuniland, which the Spaniards called Zuni Valley" ( Roberts, 1932). In the south, as far as Cibola — reflecting their usual difficulty in pronouncing Atarque, minor nameless streams have cut shallow canyons Indian words; the Zuni people call their land Shiwona or among the lava flows; westward are salt ponds and sinks Shiwinakwin (Hodge, 1937), and refer to themselves as (Spier, 1917). The small but permanent Zuni river, then, Ashiwi, or Shiwi, signifying "the flesh," and apparently NEW MEXICO GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY O THIRTEENTH FIELD CONFERENCE 163 bespeaking their own personal selves, a people distinct ambitious attempts to identify the pueblos do not indicate from all others. A days distance from the nearest pueblo, the seventh with any degree of certainty." He adds that Estevan sent on messengers to present his gourd and give the accounts of 1581-1598 give them as six in number. tidings of his advance. The official who received his Hodge concurs, saying, "Indeed it is much more certain ornate token, threw it angrily on the ground, saying that that there were only six Zuni pueblos in Coronados time," he knew the people with whom the rattle had originated and he lists these as: Kiakima, Matsaki, Halona [or (see Hodge, 1937); he warned the messengers against Halona Itiwana], Kwakina, Hawikuh, and Kianawa or Ke- entering the pueblo, on penalty of death. chipawan, as they appeared from east to west, as shown Returning to Estevan with this adverse news, the run- on Figure 2 (Hodge, 1937). ners found the Negro unwilling to heed the warning. He With the exception of the Estevan incident, the Zuni, went on, "with all the people of his escort, of whom there like the Rio Grande Pueblos, were friendly toward the non- were about three hundred men and many women" (Hodge, Indians when they first came into the region. After the 1937). But the Indians refused to let Estevan enter the short battle of Hawikuh and conquest of the Zuni by Coro- pueblo, which has been identified as Hawikuh. They nado and his small army (seventy-five horsemen and stripped him of his many belongings and housed him and thirty footmen), 7 July 1540, the Spaniards and the Zufii some of his escort in a building outside the village.

Load more

  11

Copy Link