III.

Historic Period

During the Modern Pueblo period (1700-present), cattle, goats, horses, and sheep were introduced by the Spanish, and wool replaced cotton as the principal textile.

The Pueblos, probably the Zuni, were first encountered by the Spanish in 1539, by the Spanish Franciscan missionary Marcos de Niza. A year later the Spanish explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, searching for the legendary Seven Cities of Cíbola, led an expedition among the Hopi; failing to find any treasure, he withdrew. In 1598 the Spanish occupied the Pueblo country, and by 1630 Spanish missions were established in almost every village. A mass Pueblo revolt in 1680 drove the Spanish from the territory. No other indigenous group had succeeded in doing this, and the Pueblo were not reconquered until 1692. Few of the missions were reestablished, and most of the villages continued their ancient religion. The number of villages during this time was reduced from about 80 to about 30. The Pueblo remained under Spanish, and then Mexican, domination until the close of the Mexican War in 1848, when they came under United States jurisdiction. Throughout this time, they preserved their traditional culture to an unusually high degree, often adopting superficial religious or governmental changes but maintaining the old ways in secrecy. The western villages, in particular, resisted Spanish influence; in the eastern villages, some Spanish elements were assimilated into the underlying indigenous ways.