The Pueblo People

The Pueblo people of the American Southwest represent some of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in North America. Their ancestral homelands extend throughout the Four Corners area of the United States. Two significant ancestral Pueblo settlements on this vast landscape include what are known today as Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon. Pottery created at these places over a thousand years ago represents a form of material culture that is enduring and that has evolved over time, resulting from migration, advancement in cultural practices, access to materials, and the creative spirit of the makers themselves.

The Pueblo people of today reside in thriving communities located on tribal lands while many others live in urban areas across the country. Those who reside off tribal lands return to their communities throughout the year to observe and participate in cultural activities. Even with the influences of settler culture, the Pueblo people retain their language and culture, an inherent and collective responsibility that is taken very seriously.

Convergence of Clay

I see you in a pottery book with your maroon cactus petals. I long to breathe your virtuosity then hold you in my palms.

I see you at Morning Star. Your vines curl in waves of faded beauty. If I knew where you came from, I would take you there.

I see you in a headdress. Seven red-tipped feathers of sunrise and sunset. I adore your resilient design on vintage skin.

I see you at a gallery. Your seasoned interior of vermilion and beige reveals a footprint from infinite recipe blends.

I see you at the Denver Library, sitting atop a bookshelf. The elevated stance displays your symmetry like a regal crest.

I see your reflection in a pond as bees caress your honeycomb. A flight of stairs ascends on your painted cloudblanket motif.

I see you’re in another book of Pueblo treasures: the portrait captures a glimpse of your durable longevity.

I don’t see you for over a decade, until I thumb through a file of photos as your image entices my potter’s eye.

I know I’ll see you when I request your presence in Santa Fe. Your flight from New York lands before the lockdown.

After a postponed year, I see your chafed mask of antiquity. My hands embrace your rare and vigorous shape.

I see you don’t have a distinct spirit line. I’ll select a place to cross your threshold of earthenware permanence.

I see your dough, rising for the adobe bread oven. Your generous tasks of stirring, mixing, and serving food for feast days and dances.

I see your matriarch blend blue corn mush for ma-dzini—piki bread. Her fingers slide batter from your bowl onto a flat sandstone griddle.

I see her filling your deep bowl with apples from the orchard. The last harvest you’ll see prior to leaving your birthplace.

I see you were a kitchen heirloom, lonesome for your home. Amuu’u dyuuni. Hitedâ shra-neesh dyáy-ya?My compassion, pottery. Where have you been?

—Max Early (Laguna)

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Contemporary Pueblo Communities of the Southwest

The list below represents historical changes to the names of our Pueblo communities in the American Southwest. Pueblo is a Spanish word meaning “village” or “people,” and we were named as such by Spanish explorers because we lived in permanent homes and practiced intensive agriculture. Our villages and our people were often named for Catholic saints by the explorers, who sought fabled treasure throughout the Southwest. These names, which continued under the United States government, do not take into account our long history, for we had been living in small communities for millennia before the Spanish arrived in 1540. They also do not account for the fact that we had names for ourselves that continue to be used today.

The list shows how we identify our villages (“Where We Are”) in our own Native languages, as well as the current names by which our communities are known by the broader public and the US government (“How We Are Known”). The “How We Are Known” names are the result of old errors in translation, colonization, transliteration, and, more recently, hard-won efforts of reclamation. We share a common history, and many aspects of our cultures are similar, yet each of our Pueblos is unique, with its own stories of origin, systems of governance, and artistic traditions.

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Where We Are /How We Are Known

(In Our Own Languages)

A-tzal-i-é /SAN JUAN DE GUADALUPE
Haak’u /ACOMA
Halona:wa /ZUNI
Katshitya /SAN FELIPE
K’awaika /LAGUNA
Kewa /SANTO DOMINGO
Kha’p’o Owingeh /SANTA CLARA
Kotyit /COCHITI
Nanbé Owingeh /NAMBÉ
Ohkay Owingeh /OHKAY OWINGEH
Pin,wel,tah /PICURIS
P’osuwaegeh Owingeh /POJOAQUE
P’o Woe-geh Owingeh /SAN ILDEFONSO
Shirr’whip Tui /ISLETA
Tamaya /SANTA ANA
Tay tsu’geh Oweenge /TESUQUE
Tewa Owingeh/Hopi TEWA/HOPI
Tigua /YSLETA DEL SUR
Ts’iya /ZIA
Tuah tah /TAOS
Tuf Sheur Teui /SANDIA
Walatowa /JEMEZ

This map was modified by Nate Francis Tewa, School for Advanced Research, for the Pueblo Pottery Collective, based on a map developed at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology, Santa Fe, New Mexico.