Pueblos are traditional communities of Native Americans in the southwestern United States of America. The communities are recognized worldwide for their adobe buildings, which are sometimes called "pueblos". Some pueblos only have a few of these buildings still standing.

Etymology and usage

The Castilian word pueblo, evolved from the Latin word populus ("people"), means "village".

Of the federally recognized Native American communities in the Southwest, those designated by the King of Spain as Pueblos at the time treaties ceded Spanish territory to the United States are now legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as Pueblos. Some of the Pueblos also came into the United States by treaty with Mexico, which briefly gained jurisdiction over territory in the Southwest ceded by Spain. There are 21 federally recognized Pueblos^[1] that are home to Pueblo people. As listed by their official federal names:

Historic places

Taos Pueblo, circa 1920

Pre-Columbian towns and villages, which of course were not yet called pueblos, were located in defensive positions, for example, on high steep mesas such as Acoma. Anthropologists and official documents often refer to earlier residents of the area as pueblo cultures. For example, the National Park Service states, "The Late Puebloan cultures built the large, integrated villages found by the Spaniards when they began to move into the area."^[2] The people of some pueblos, such as Taos Pueblo, still inhabit centuries-old adobe pueblo buildings.^[3] Residents often maintain other homes outside the historic pueblos.^[3] Adobe and light construction methods resembling adobe now dominate architecture at the many pueblos of the area, in nearby towns or cities and in much of the American Southwest.^[4]

In addition to contemporary pueblos, there are numerous ruins of archeological interest throughout the Southwest. Some are of relatively recent origin; others are of prehistoric origin such as the cliff dwellings and other habitations of the Ancient Pueblo Peoples or Anasazi.^[5]

Notes

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