Pueblo of the Southwest
|
|
Pueblo of the Southwest |
|
United States map highlighting the Southwest region of the Pueblo Indians. |
The Pueblo Indians were the Indians of the
Southwest region.
They are found in Arizona, New Mexico, the bottom of Utah and Colorado,
and the western part of Texas.
The land where they lived consisted of high flatlands. This region had hot days, cold nights and little rainfall. Since there was little rainfall, cactuses grew. |
|
|
|
| The Pueblo Indians lived in cliff dwellings known as adobe buildings. They looked like multi-story terraced buildings. The buildings were made from clay bricks that were baked in the sun. These bricks are called adobe. Since the climate of the southwest was so dry, these bricks lasted for many years. The adobe bricks were laid like regular bricks. People would use ladders to get into their homes. In times of danger, they pulled up the ladders and no enemy could get inside. |
|
|
The
Pueblo Indians were mostly farmers. They mostly grew corn, beans
and squash. Corn was dried and
stored on the cob. Strips of dried squash hung in the storage rooms.
Wild plant foods were also stored and prepared for cooking. Piņon nuts,
sunflower and other seeds had to be cracked, hulled, winnowed and
parched before they could be cooked and eaten. Women spent hours each day grinding corn into flour. Beans were soaked and cooked in large jars. These jars were not placed directly over fires; instead, hot rocks were dropped into the jars for boiling. Corn was also put in jars which lay on their sides near the fire. There weren't many animals for them to hunt. But when they were able to kill a large animal, they were butchered at the kill site. Back at home the pieces were prepared for cooking, bones were cracked to get the marrow, and hides were cured for other uses. |
|
A Pueblo Indian |
The Pueblo Indians didn't use horses or canoes for transportation. To get from place to place, the Pueblo Indians traveled on foot. So their only way of transportation was by walking. |
These are from Mrs. Sauerwine's Native American site in Loudoun County, VA.
If you would like to read more about the Southwest Culture, try Germantown's site.
