Native American Records
- Indian Tribes of New Mexico
- Apache Indians
- Connections: Together with the Navaho, the Apache constituted the western group of the southern division of the Athapascan linguistic stock.
- Location: Southern New Mexico and Arizona, western Texas and southeastern Colorado, also ranging over much of northern Mexico.
- History: The Apache tribes had evidently drifted from the north during the prehistoric period, probably along the eastern flanks of the Rocky Mountains. When Coronado encountered them in 1540 under the name Querechos, they were in eastern New Mexico and western Texas, and they apparently did not reach Arizona until after the middle of the sixteenth century. They were first called Apache by Onate in 1598. After that time their history was one succession of raids upon the Spanish territories, and after the United States Government had supplanted that of Mexico in the Southwest, the wars with the Apache constituted some of the most sensational chapters in our military annals. Except for some Apache in Mexico and a few Lipans with the Tonkawa and Kiowa in Oklahoma, these people were finally gathered into reservations in New Mexico and Arizona.
- Apache Indian History
- Apache Indian Chiefs
- Apache Indian Divisions
- Chiricahua Apache Nde Nation
- Lipan Apache Tribe
- San Carlos Apache
- White Mountain Apache Nation
- Yavapai Apache Nation (Official Website)
- Comanche Indians
- History: In the Spanish period, the Comanche raided into and across the territory of New Mexico repeatedly.
- Comanche Indian History
- Comanche Indian Tribe (hosted at Kansas Genealogy)
- Comanche Indian Nation (Official Website)
- Jemez Indians
- Connections: With the now extinct Pecos, the Jemez constituted a distinct group of the Tanoan linguistic family now a part of the Kiowa-Tanoan stock.
- Location. On the north bank of Jemez River, about 20 miles northwest of Bernalillo.
- History: The Jemez came from the north, according to tradition, settling in the valleys of the upper tributaries of the Jemez River and at last in the sandy valley of the Jemez proper. Castaiieda, the chronicler of Coronado's expedition, mentions seven towns be-longing to the Jemez tribe besides three in the region of Jemez Hot Springs. After they had been missionized they were induced to abandon their towns by degrees until about 1622 they became concentrated into the pueblos of Gyusiwa and probably Astialakwa. Both pueblos contained chapels, probably dating from 1618, but before the Pueblo revolt of 1680 Astialakwa was abandoned and another pueblo, probably Patoqua, established. About the middle of the seventeenth century, in conjunction with the Navaho, the Jemez twice plotted insurrection against the Spaniards. After the insurrection of 1680 the Jemez were attacked by Spanish forces led successively by Otermin, Cruzate, and Vargas, the last of whom stormed the mesa in July 1694, killed 84 Indians, and after destroying Patoqua and two other pueblos, returned to Santa Fé with 361 prisoners and a large quantity of stores. Gyusiwa was the only Jemez pueblo reoccupied, but in 1696 there was a second revolt and the Jemez finally fled to the Navaho country, where they remained for a considerable time before returning to their former home. Then they built their present village, called by them Walatoa, "Village of the Bear." In 1728, 108 of the inhabitants died of pestilence. In 1782 Jemez was made a visita of the mission of Sia. In 1838 they were joined by the remnant of their relatives, the Pecos Indians from the upper Rio Pecos. Their subsequent history has been uneventful.
- Jemez Indian Tribe History
- Mission at Jemez
- Jicrilla Indians
- Connections: An Apache tribe which ranged over the northeastern corner of New Mexico.
- Jicrilla Apache Indian History
- New Mexico Indian Tribe in the 1890 Census
- Jicarilla Indian Nation
- Keresan Indians
- Connections. These Indians constituted an independent stock having no affiliations with any other.
- Location. On the Rio Grande, in north central New Mexico, between the Rio de los Frijoles and the Rio Jemez, and on the latter stream from the pueblo of Sia to its mouth.
- History: Like the other Pueblo peoples of New Mexico, the Keressans traced their origin to the underworld, whence they had emerged at an opening called Shipapu. According to the tradition, they after-ward drifted south slowly to the Rio Grande, where they took up their residence in the Rito de los Frijoles, or Tyuonyi, and constructed the cliff dwellings found there today excavated in the friable volcanic tufa. Long before the coming of Europeans, they had abandoned the Rito and moved farther south, separating into a number of autonomous village communities. Coronado, who visited them in 1540, reported seven of these. In 1583 Espejo encountered them and in 1598 Oñate. Missions were established in most of the principal towns early in the seventeenth century, but they were annihilated and Spanish dominion temporarily brought to an end by the great Pueblo rebellion of 1680, which was not finally quelled until about the end of the eighteenth century. Afterward, missionary work was resumed but without pronounced success, while the native population itself gradually declined in numbers. Although some of the most conservative pueblos belong to this group, they will not be able indefinitely to resist the dissolving force of American civilization in which they are immersed.
- Kiowa Apache Indians
- Location: The Kiowa raided into and across New Mexico in the Spanish and early American period.
- Kiowa Apache History
- Lipan Indians
- Location: The Lipan were the easternmost of the Apache tribes.
- Lipan Apache Indian History
- Manso Indians
- Connections: The Manso belonged to the Tanoan division of the Kiowa-Tanoan linguistic stock.
- Location: About Mesilla Valley, in the vicinity of the present Las Cruces, New Mexico. The mission of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de los Mansos was founded among them but none of the native names of their villages are known.
- History: Shortly before the appearance of the Spaniards in their country, the Manso lived in substantial houses like the Pueblo Indians generally but changed these to dwellings of reeds and wood. They were relocated at a spot near El Paso in 1659 by Fray Garcia de San Francisco, who established the above-mentioned mission among them. The remnant of the Manso are now associated in one town with the Tiwa and Piro.
- Manso Indian History
- Navaho Indians
- Connections: With the Apache tribes, the Navaho formed the southern division of the Athapascan linguistic family.
- Location: In northern New Mexico and Arizona with some extension into Colorado and Utah.
- History: Under the loosely applied name Apache there may be a record of this tribe as early as 1598 but the first mention of them by the name of Navaho is by Zarate-Salmeron about 1629. Missionaries were among them about the middle of the eighteenth century, but their labors seem to have borne no fruits. For many years previous to the occupation of their country by the United States, the Navaho kept up an almost constant predatory war with the Pueblo Indians and the White settlers. A revolution in their economy was brought about by the introduction of sheep. Treaties of peace made by them with the United States Government in 1846 and 1849 were not observed, and in 1863, in order to put a stop to their depredations, Col. "Kit" Carson invaded their country, killed so many of their sheep as to leave them without means of support, and carried the greater part of the tribe as prisoners to Fort Sumner and the Bosque Redondo on the Rio Pecos. They were restored to their country in 1867 and given a new supply of sheep and goats, and since then they have remained at peace and prospered greatly, thanks to their flocks and the sale of their famous blankets.
- Navaho Indian Tribe History
- Navaho Nation (Official Website)
- Pecos Indians
- From P'e'-a-ku', the Keresan name of the pueblo.
- Connections: The Pecos belonged to the Jemez division of the Tanoan linguistic family, itself a part of the Kiowa-Tanoan stock. Location.—On an upper branch of Pecos River, about 30 miles southeast of Santa Fe.
- History: According to tradition, the Pecos came originally from some place to the north of their historic seats, but their last migration was from the southeast where they occupied successively the now ruined pueblos at San Jose and Kingman before locating at their final settlement. Pecos was first visited by Coronado in 1540 and afterward by Espejo in 1583, Castano de Sosa in 1590–91, and Onate in 1598. During the governorship of Oñate, missionaries were assigned to Pecos, and the great church, so long a landmark of the Santa F6 Trail, was erected about 1617. The town suffered severely from attacks of the Apache of the Plains and afterward from the Comanche. In the Pueblo revolts of 1680–96 it took an active part and suffered proportionately. In 1782 the Pecos mission was abandoned, the place becoming a visita of Santa Fe. A few years later nearly every man in the Pecos tribe is said to have been killed in a raid by the Comanche, epidemics decreased the numbers of the remainder, and in 1838 the old town of Pecos was abandoned. The 17 surviving Pecos Indians moved to Jemez, where their descendants still live.
- Pecos Indian Tribe History
- Piro Pueblo
- Connections: They were a division of the Tanoan linguistic family, which in turn is a part of the Kiowa-Tanoan stock.
- Location and major subdivisions: In the early part of the seventeenth century the Piro comprised two divisions, one inhabiting the Rio Grande Valley from the present town of San Marcial, Socorro County, northward to within about 50 miles of Albuquerque, where the Tiwa settlements began; and the other, sometimes called Tompiros and Salineros, occupying an area east of the Rio Grande in the vicinity of the salt lagoons, or salinas, where they adjoined the eastern group of Tiwa settlements on the south.
- History: The western or Rio Grande branch of the Piro was visited by members of Coronado's Expedition in 1540, by Chamuscado in 1580, by Espejo in 1583, by Onate in 1598, and by Benavides in 1621-30. The establishment of missionaries among them began in 1626, and the efforts of the monks combined with the threats of Apache raids to induce the Indians to concentrate into a smaller number of towns. The first actual mission work among the Piros of the Salinas began in 1629 and was prosecuted rapidly, but before the Pueblo rebellion of 1680 Apache raids had become so numerous that all of the villages of the Salinas region and Senecu on the Rio Grande were abandoned. The Piro were not invited to take part in the great rebellion and when Governor Otermin retreated to El Paso nearly all of them joined him, while the few who remained subse quently scattered. Those who accompanied the governor were settled at Senecu del Sur and Socorro del Sur, where their descendants became largely Mexicanized.
- Pueblo Indians
- A general name for those Indians in the Southwest who dwelt in stone buildings as opposed to the tribes living in more fragile shelters, pueblo being the word for "town" or "village" in Spanish. It is not a tribal or even a stock name, since the Pueblos belonged to four distinct stocks. Following is the classification of Pueblos made by F. W. Hodge (1910) except that the Kiowa have since been connected with the Tanoans and a few minor changes have been introduced.
- Connections: The Pueblo Indians have become famous from the fact that, unlike all of their neighbors, they lived in communal stone houses and in stone dwellings perched along the canyon walls; from their peculiar customs and ceremonies, such as the Snake Dance; and from their real and supposed connection with the builders of the stone ruins with which their country and neighboring parts of the Southwest abound. In recent years they have been subjects of interest to artists and writers and an attempt has been made to base a style of architecture upon the type of their dwellings. They are of historic interest as occupants of one of the two sections of the United States first colonized by Europeans.
- Pueblo Indian History
- Tiwa Pueblo
- Connections: The Tiwa Pueblos are a division of the Tanoan linguistic family, itself a part of the Kiowa-Tanoan stock.
- Location and Subdivisions: The Tiwa Pueblos formed three geographic divisions, one occupying Taos and Picuris (the most northerly of the New Mexican Pueblos), on the upper waters of the Rio Grande; another inhabiting Sandia and Isleta, north and south of Albuquerque respectively; and the third living in the pueblos of Isleta del Sur and Senecu del Sur, near El Paso, Tex., in Texas and Chihuahua, Mexico, respectively.
- History: The first two Tiwa divisions above mentioned occupied the same positions when Coronado encountered the Tiwa in 1540-42. Relations between his followers and the Indians soon became hostile and resulted in the capture of two pueblos by his army. In 1581 three missionaries were sent to the Tiwa under an escort but all were killed as soon as the escort was withdrawn. In 1583 Espejo approached Puaray, which Coronado had attacked, but the Indians fled. Castano de Sosa visited the Tiwa in 1591 and Onate in 1598. Missionary work was begun among them early in the seventeenth century, and the Indians were withdrawn progressively until only four pueblos were occupied by them at the time of the great rebellion of 1680, in which they took part. In 1681 Governor Otermin stormed Isleta and captured 500 Indians most of whom he settled near El Paso. Part of the Isleta fled to the Hopi country and remained there until 1709 or 1718, when the people of Isleta returned and reestablished their town. The Sandia Indians, however, remained away until 1742, when they were brought back by some missionaries and settled in a new pueblo near their former one. Since then there have been few" disturbances of importance, but the population until very lately slowly declined.
- Ute Indians
- Location: The Ute were close to the northern border of New Mexico, extending across it at times and frequently raiding the tribes of the region and the later white settlements. (See Utah)
- Ute Indian Tribe History
- Ute Indian Tribe (Official Website)
- Zuñi Indians
- Connections: The Zuñi constitute the Zunian linguistic stock.
- Location: On the north bank of upper Zuñi River, Valencia County.
- History: According to Cushing (1896), the Zuñi
are descended from two peoples, one of whom came originally from
the north and was later joined by the second, from the west or
southwest (from the country of the lower Colorado), who
resembled the Yuman and Piman peoples in culture. Although
indefinite rumors of an Indian province in the far north,
containing seven cities, were afloat in Mexico soon after its
conquest, the first definite information regarding the Zuñi
was supplied by Fray Marcos de Niza, who set out in 1539, with a
Barbary Negro named Estevanico as guide, to explore the regions
of the northwest. In the present Arizona he learned that
Estevanico who, together with some of his Indian companions, had
been sent on ahead, had been killed by the natives of "Cibola,"
or Zuñi. After approaching within
sight of one of the Zuñi pueblos,
Fray Marcos returned to Mexico with such glowing accounts of the
"Kingdom of Cibola" that the expedition of Francisco Vasquez do
Coronado was fitted out the next year. The first Zuñi
Indians were encountered near the mouth of Zuñi
River, and the Spaniards later carried the Zuñi
pueblo of Hawikuh by storm, but it was discovered that the
Indians had already moved their women and children, together
with the greater part of their property, to their stronghold on
Taaiyalone Mesa. Thither the men also escaped. The invaders were
bitterly disappointed in respect to the riches of the country,
and, after the arrival of the main part of the army, they
removed to the Rio Grande to go into winter quarters. Later,
Coronado returned and subjugated the Zuñi.
In 1580 the Zuñi were visited by Francisco Sanchez Chamuscado, and in 1583 by Antonio de Espejo, the first to call them by the name they commonly bear. By this time one of the seven original pueblos had been abandoned. In 1598, the Zuni were visited by Juan de Onate, the colonizer of New Mexico. The first Zuñi mission was established by the Franciscans at Hawikuh in 1629. In 1632 the Zuñi murdered the missionaries and again fled to Taaiyalone Mesa, where they remained until 1635. On August 7, 1670, the Apache or Navaho raided Hawikuh, killed the missionary, and burned the church. The mission was not reestablished, and it is possible that the village itself was not rebuilt. In 1680 the Zuñi occupied but three villages, excluding Hawikuh, the central mission being at Halona, on the site of the present Zuñi pueblo. They took part in the great rebellion of 1680 and fled to Taaiyalone Mesa, where they remained until their reconquest by Vargas in 1692. From this time on the people were concentrated in the single village now known as Zuñi, and a church was erected there in 1699. In 1703 they killed the missionary and again fled to their stronghold, returning in 1705. A garrison was maintained at Zuñi for some years after this, and there were troubles with the Hopi, which were finally composed in 1713. The mission continued well into the nineteenth century, but the church was visited only occasionally by priests and gradually fell into ruins. In recent years the United States Government has built extensive irrigation works and established a large school, where the younger generation are being educated in the ways of civilization. - Zuni Indian Tribe History
- Pueblo of Zuni (Official Website)
- Apache Indians
