pueblo people past & present - national park service · towa, keres and zuni. many pueblo...

About a million years ago, a huge volcano erupted near Bandelier NationalMonument. Volcanic ash covered the land hundreds of feet thick. Thousands ofyears ago, hunters and gatherers began living here. Then about 900 years ago,Ancestral Pueblo people came. They lived in the canyons and on the mesas. They made homes and gardens. About 450 years ago they moved away but they didn’t go very far. Today their relatives live in pueblos nearby.

This newspaper lets you see into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people. They lived here a long time ago. But they are not strangers. You may have friendswho are part of their family. Someday you may meet a Pueblo artist. Maybe hespeaks the same language they spoke then. You might meet a Pueblo potter.Maybe she uses the same designs they used then. Or you might go to a pueblo on a feast day. The dances and songs are the ones they used then. We hope youwill enjoy learning about the Ancestral Pueblo people. We hope you will likefinding connections between long ago and now.

PUEBLO PEOPLE PAST & PRESENT

Table of Contents

Long House

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JEMEZ MOUNTAINS EXPLORER GUIDES

What is Bandelier National Monument?....16

Pueblo People Today ....................................17

Speaking with Respect and Understanding 18

Learning about People in the Past ........19-20

Volcanoes, Axes, and Arrowheads ........21-22

Building Homes in Frijoles Canyon ......23-26

Making a Living......................................27-28

Using Native Plants ................................29-30

Drawing Thoughts ..................................31-32

Cooking with Clay ..................................33-34

Maria Martinez ............................................35

Pablita Velarde ............................................36

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THE ANCESTRAL PUEBLO PEOPLE OF BANDELIER

These articles willtell you a lotabout the people

who lived at BandelierNational Monument. But

what is Bandelier?

Bandelier is an area in the moun-tains near Los Alamos, New Mexico. In

the park archeologists tell us that there are atleast 3,000 sites where Ancestral Pueblo peopleused to live. Way back in 1916, people thoughtit was important to protect those sites. Theymade a law that the area would be a NationalMonument. That means that it belongs toeveryone in the United States. It means that noone can steal or destroy things here. It willalways be a place to come to learn and enjoy.

In 1880 a man named Adolph FrancisAlphonse Bandelier came to New Mexico tolearn all about the Pueblo people. He went toCochiti Pueblo, between Santa Fe andAlbuquerque. The Cochiti people took him tosee where their ancestors used to live. It was along hard hike to Frijoles Canyon. He thoughtit was very interesting and exciting.

He said it was “the grandest thing I ever saw.”Later he wrote a book about the Pueblo peoplewho lived there. When the land all aroundFrijoles Canyon became a park, it was namedfor Adolph Bandelier.

Now a road goesto the park. More

than 300,000 peoplevisit every year. Thereis a campground, andmore than 70 miles oftrails for hiking. Thevisitor center in FrijolesCanyon has a muse-um about the Pueblopeople. Many kinds of animals, birds,

and plants live on the mesas and in thecanyons. The National Park Service managesBandelier National Monument. Rangers takecare of the park and help people learn aboutit. If all the visitors follow the rules, the park

will stay exciting and interesting for a long,long time.

What is Bandelier National Monument?

Ancestral Pueblo people have known Bandelier ashome for hundreds of years. Bandelier Black-on-Grey pottery 1400-1550

Bandelier National Monument is one of many NationalPark sites throughout the United States. The NationalPark Service protects special places so that people from allover the world can enjoy these unique treasures.

The Arrowhead is the symbolof the National Park Service.

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Many small villages looked like this. Jaso

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Pueblo people believe thatwith the help of differentanimals, we came up from

a world below this one. The people then went on a longjourney to find their homeland.As they walked they foundmany different landscapes.Some were cold and had ice andsnow. Others were dry and hot.But the place they settled had alittle of all the places they visit-ed. The people were told tomake the area we know as theSouthwestern United States theirhome. So my people began tomake homes on the mesas andin the canyons. Bandelier isonly one of many AncestralPueblo areas.

When the people left Bandelierthey moved to various pueblos.We know this because the people still live in these places.The different dances, songs, stories and languages are stillcarried on today. The people still remembertheir ancestors. In New Mexico, there are nine-teen pueblos. Among these pueblos, there are 5 languages spoken. They are Tiwa, Tewa,Towa, Keres and Zuni. Many Pueblo peopletoday are related to the people who lived inBandelier. These pueblos include Cochiti, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, San Felipe, SantoDomingo, and Zuni. Bandelier is a very specialplace to the Pueblo people. We ask everyone totreat it with respect and care.

Pueblo people continue many of the thingsour ancestors taught us. Languages, songs,dances, stories, and ceremonies continue in the pueblos today. Knowledge of thenative plants, growing crops and using thegifts of nature are still passed on to theyounger people. Pottery is still made in thetraditional way. Although Bandelier is notlike it used to be in the 1200s, it is stillimportant to the Pueblo people of today.

-Park Ranger Cecilia ShieldsPicuris Pueblo

Pueblo People Today

“Bandelier is important to me because mypeople lived here. I always feel like I am goinghome. It is a place to get in touch with the oldones. It is a place to connect with my ancestors.You can feel the spirits all around you.I think it is important to keep your ears open.To learn to listen to the old ones. I think thatwe as Pueblo people need to be willing to say, ‘Iam!’ I am young and I am the next generationand we will continue the ways of our ancestors.”-Carlos Herrera, Cochiti Pueblo

Pueblo people continue some of thebuilding styles of their ancestors.

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New Mexico

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Santo DomingoSanta Ana

San Felipe

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San IldefonsoBandelier NM

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There are nineteen pueblos in New Mexico. Many are located along the Rio Grande. The pueblos still continue the traditions of the AncestralPueblo people. Have you visited any of the pueblos? Have you been to any ofthe pueblo dances?

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Igrew up in a small pueblo. I am still learning the stories of my ancestors. As aPark Ranger at Bandelier National

Monument, I feel connected to the ancientdwellings here. From all over the world peoplecome and visit these special places. They cometo learn and explore this beautiful place.

Thinking about the past, I think about how I am connected tothese places.The peoplewho lived here are myancestors. We rememberthem and their ways. Mygrandmother told memany stories. She alsotaught me to make pot-tery. My mother taughtme to make traditionalfoods. And my aunttaught me how to grindplants for medicine.

I love Bandelier. Thisplace is very special tome. When I first came toBandelier to work, mydad told me about thesites. He said that theseare places that are to berespected. He said that alot of people call them“ruins,” but to Pueblopeople they are notruins. He says the old ones are still here. So Idon’t call them “ruins,” I call them archeologi-cal sites, structures or dwellings. I don’t saythey are “abandoned.”

I learned a lot from my dad. I learned abouthow life was when he was young. I think thatit is really amazing how smart our ancestorswere. They built their homes to stand strongagainst rain and wind. They grew crops wherethere was not much water and they knew a lotabout the movement of the sun, the moon andthe stars. So when people use the word “primi-tive” or “prehistoric,” I don’t think that is verytrue. I think they were very smart people.

One of my jobs as a Park Rager is to give guid-ed walks along the Main Loop Trail. SometimesI talk with two people, other times I talk withas many as 60 people! I talk about theAncestral Pueblo people and how they lived. I

talk about how the people used the rocks andthe plants. And I talk about how the AncestralPueblo people did not “disappear” or “vanish.”We know where they went.

Well, oral tradition tells us that there wereno longer enough resources for the people to

survive. So they moved. Taking only what theycould carry, they moved to the different Pueblos

of today. The people ofFrijoles Canyon movedto Cochiti Pueblo. Andtheir descendants arestill there.

When I give guidedwalks, people ask manyquestions. One of themis, “Were these theAnasazi?” And I say,“Yes, but that we don’tuse that term here atBandelier.” The reason isthat Anasazi comes froma Navajo word meaning“ancient enemies.” For along time archeologistshave used Anasazi totalk about the peoplewho lived here long ago.I am a Park Ranger andI am from a Pueblo. Ifeel really weird callingmy own ancestors

“ancient enemies,” because they are not myenemies, they are my elders, my grandparentsand my teachers. So when I talk about thepeople who lived in Bandelier and throughout

the Southwest, I call them “Ancestral Pueblopeople.” I do this because it is more respectful.

Words are very important to Pueblo people,past and present. They are very powerful. I amhappy to be part of this culture. I have alwaysbeen taught to respect these special places andI hope you will too. I hope you will learn manynew things. And I hope that you will sharethem with others.

-Park Ranger Cecilia ShieldsPicuris Pueblo

Speaking with Respect and Understanding

This is a drawing by 7-year-old Lorenzen Gonzales fromSan Ildefonso Pueblo. He is very interested in learningabout his ancestors and about how they lived. Lorenzenloves to make abstract drawings. His mother, Melanie,paints designs on her pottery. Many of the symbols arepassed on from Ancestral Pueblo people. They representclouds, feathers, and lightning.

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Archeologists are scientists who havean interesting job. They ask questionsabout how people lived in the

past. Even people hundreds or thousands of years ago.

Some questions are easy to answer. What didpeople eat? Did they maketools out of stone or wood?Did they live with lots of otherpeople in big cities? Anarcheologist might answerquestions like this by findingthings. She might find theremains of a cooking fire, orold tools, or the walls of anold town.

Other questions are harder toanswer. What did it sound likewhen they spoke to eachother? What stories did theytell? What did they thinkabout when they looked at the stars, or when they saw a special animal like a bear or an eagle?

To solve these mysteries of the past,archeologists need to look for clues. Some cluesare objects that archeologists find when theyexplore an ancient town or home. In that case,the clues are called artifacts. An artifact can besomething like a big stone that was used forgrinding corn. It could be a piece of wood thatheld up the roof of a house. Or it could be acooking pot, or an arrowhead.

A good archeologist can learn a lot from anartifact. Maybe she finds a knife that was madeout of a sharp stone. She can look closely at theedge under a microscope and tell if the knifewas used to cut plants or to cut meat.

Sometimes she can even tell if the person who used it was right-handed or left-handed!Archeologists can learn a lot from old things.But all by itself, an artifact cannot tell her everything.

The people who once lived in Bandelier arecalled the AncestralPueblo people. They arethe ancestors of thePueblo people who livein New Mexico today.Almost 500 years agopeople left the old townshere in Bandelier.However, they onlymoved a few miles away.They built new homesalong a big river calledthe Rio Grande. Theirchildren lived there. Thechildren of those childrenlived there. Through

many generations the people have been livingin the same towns on the banks of the RioGrande. They remember a lot about what lifewas like in the old times. Pueblo people todaystill do things that their ancestors did manycenturies ago.

The elders tell stories to the children. Whenthose children become parents, they tell thesame stories to their children. Pueblo peoplespeak their traditional language and continuethe ceremonies of their ancestors. These thingsare important for keeping their culture alive.

Maybe a wise old grandmother today makes abeautiful clay pot. She paints a design on it,and recognizes that same design on a pot from

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Learning About People in the Past

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Ancestral Pueblo people often made tools byshaping stone and using wood for the handle.

Think about your own house. What if an archeologist of the future didn’t know anything about the games we play today. What would shethink if she found a pair of dice in what used to be your room? Maybeshe would guess that it was for a game. But she could also guess thatthose little white cubes with dots were used to tell time. Or maybe shewould think they were for a healing ritual for someone who was sick. Tounderstand something, you need to know about the life of the personwho used it. Otherwise you might end up making wild guesses.

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long ago. Maybe a Pueblo man plants beans in a field. To help them grow he mightsay the same prayer that his great-great-grandfather said. An archeologist can learn alot from the stories, memories and knowledge ofPueblo people. If she finds a big flat rock, sheknows it was used for grinding corn. She learnsthat Pueblo people today remember how it wasused. In fact, on certain special days, such asFeast Days, they still grind corn. And if thearcheologist finds a big, circle-shaped roombuilt down into the earth, she knows it is a kiva(KEE-vah). A kiva is a sacred place for gatheringand learning. Kivas are still very important tothe Pueblo people today.

Learning About People in the Past (continued)

Try to imagine who made this beautiful bowl and whatthe design means. Many types of designs were paintedon pottery using paintbrushes made from yucca.Ancestral Pueblo Bowl, 1315-1425

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Pueblo people continue to carry on the traditionsof their ancestors such as the Buffalo Dance. It isa dance to honor the animals. Archeologists alsolearn from the Pueblo people today.

Bandelier has very old villages

and cliff dwellings. You would enjoy

walking there. What can you do to

help preserve these special places?

You might see the walls of an ancient

home. They would crumble if some-

one walks on top of them. You will see

the walls of an old cave room. It

would be disrespectful for someone to

carve their name or other graffiti

there. Be sure you don’t do those

things yourself. Stay on the trail as

you walk and you’ll know that you

aren’t damaging the old dwellings.

Only climb where there are ladders.

Don’t scratch the cliffs or cave walls.

You can take good care of these fragile

places and enjoy exploring too. If you

see somebody climbing an ancient

wall or carving graffiti into the rock,

tell them to stop! Pueblo people care

about the caves and villages where

their ancestors lived. They ask park

visitors to treat them with respect. It is

a good feeling when you know you

have done your part.

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Bandelier is on the slopes of a very big volcano called the Valles Caldera (VY-yays call-DARE-uh). The volcano

is so large that the bumps around its rim arethe size of mountains! People call them theJemez (HAY-mess) Mountains. Many kinds ofrock erupted from this volcano. These rocksreally helped theAncestral Pueblopeople. They built theirhouses from volcanicrocks. They farmed onvolcanic soil and hadsharp volcanic stonepoints on theirweapons. Archeologistscall things made fromstone "lithics." The early people ofBandelier used a lot of lithics.

When the volcanoerupted, flows of volcanic ash coveredeverything around it.These layers were hundreds of feet deep. The ash rock is calledtuff. If you visit Bandelier, you will see that theAncestral Pueblo people used tuff to build theirhomes. There are small natural caves in thetuff cliffs. The people enlarged them to makerooms. Along the base of the cliffs is a slope ofloose chunks of tuff. The people shaped thesestones to make bricks for their house walls.

The last time the volcano erupted, clouds oflight, "frothy" lava came out. This kind of rockis called pumice. It traveled through the airand covered wide areas of land. Rain and snowwashed a lot of it away. But in some places itstill covers big areas on the tops of the mesas.The Ancestral Pueblo people discovered thoseare good places to farm. When it rains, the

water soaks into the pumice layer. Plants have a better chance to grow.

In some places the tuff cooled slowly. It formedwelded tuff. Welded tuff is harder and denserthan the tuff the people used to build theirhomes. So they used pieces to cover the doorsin the roofs of their houses. and also used itfor the hearth stones by their fires.

The Ancestral Pueblo people had no metal.But they could make good weapons from stone.At first, they used a smooth, hard volcanic rockcalled basalt (buh-SALT). It made sharp pointsfor arrows and spears. They didn’t have to walktoo far to get this kind of basalt. But it is hardto make basalt into really sharp weapons. Thepeople found other kinds of stone they liked

better. Their favoritewas obsidian.

Obsidian is volcanicglass. It looks like regular glass, except itis usually black. It is akind of lava that coolsvery quickly. The people had to walkmuch farther to getobsidian instead ofbasalt but it was worthit. Like glass, obsidiancan be chipped tohave a very thin,sharp edge. It is verygood for makingknives, scrapers, spearpoints, and

arrowheads. People walked from far away to trade for the good obsidian from the Jemez Mountains.

Sometimes they used another rock, calledPedernal (PAY-der-nall) Chert, for points or knives. The pieces washed down the Rio Grande, from a mountain called CerroPedernal. It is over thirty miles away! Chert is colorful, often being white with red specks.It makes sharp, nice-looking tools. But notmuch was available, so obsidian was usedmore often.

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Volcanoes, Axes, and ArrowheadsThe Ancestral Pueblo people ofBandelier were always in contact withnature. In their daily lives this showedup in their ceremonies and what theyate. It was in the work they did. And itwas part of how they used the manykinds of rocks available to them.

Examples of spear points made of basalt and obsidian.Ancestral Pueblo people were skilled at working with the dif-ferent stones available to them.

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Obsidian and chertare very good forsharp tools, but theyare brittle. Tools likehammers and axeshad to be made ofsomething thatwouldn’t shatter. Just down the canyonfrom Tyuonyi the

people found another kind of basalt. It isn’tgood for sharp edges, but it is strong anddurable. They used this kind of basalt for

grinding corn. In Spanish these tools aremanos and metates (MAH-nose and may-TAH-tays.)This basalt was good for otherheavyduty tools too, like hammers.

Sometimes they found big pebbles of granite in the Rio Grande. Granite is very hard andstrong. The pebbles had washed down from theSangre de Cristo Mountains, many miles away.

The people also used stones for jewelry, paint,pottery, and trade. Turquoise is a beautiful bluestone. People today still use it to make jewelry.

The Ancestral Pueblo peo-ple at Bandelier got it bytrade. It came from minesnear the present town ofCerrillos, south of SantaFe. For clay, every potterknew her favorite place to find just the right kind.They used colored claysfor painting pottery anddrawing pictographs.They also used them forbody paint for the dancers

during ceremonies. Theyrubbed fine white clay into deerskin to makethe women’ s high white moccasins.

The Ancestral Pueblo people depended on theland for everything they needed. They knewwhere to find many kinds of stones and theyknew how to use them. When you visitBandelier you can see the caves, houses,weapons, and tools they made. Pueblo peoplestill use stones today.

Volcanoes, Axes, and Arrowheads (Continued)

Obsidian was used to make knives, spearpoints and scrapers.

Ancestral Pueblo people usedbasalt to make stone tools.Can you imagine what hard workit was to make these tools?

Turquoise is a soft bluestone used to makebeautiful jewelry.

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Women ground corn between two stones.The meal that was ground was mixedwith water and used as a flour to makecorn cakes and other foods.

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This young woman is wear-ing a traditional mantadress, sash, and high wrapmoccasins. Her moccasinsare made of deerskin. Finewhite clay was rubbed intothe deerskin to make it white.A strip of the leather iswrapped warmly aroundeach of her legs. Moccasinstoday are still made usingwhite clay. Now these tradi-tional clothes are usuallyonly worn for dances.

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To build theirhomes, there werepieces of tuff at

the base of the cliffs.The people cut thesepieces to the right sizefor bricks. Then theyused the stone bricks tobuild their houses. Firstthey stacked the bricksto form walls, then usedmud mortar to holdthem together. Roofswere made of long pinelogs, branches, andmud. Walls were thencoated with mud plas-ter. The houses weresquare, with a flat roof.Many houses in NewMexico today look likethat. Some houses werebuilt in the bottom ofthe canyon. Otherswere along the base ofthe cliffs, and some of

them had small caves for back rooms. Therewere also rooms which were kivas (KEE-vahs).

KivasA kiva is a special place to Pueblo people. It isa sacred place for gathering and learning.Kivas are still very important to Pueblo peopletoday.

Most kivas were round and built underground.To go in you used a ladder through a hole inthe middle of the flat roof. The smoke alsowent out through that hole. Roof beams made

from tree trunks held up the roof. Branchesfrom aspen and cottonwood trees went over thebeams. Then there was a layer of mats. On thetop was a thick layer of mud. In the kiva asmall fire made heat and light. They made aventilator shaft to bring in fresh air. It lookslike a chimney, but air came in instead ofsmoke going out.

Usually kiva floors were plastered smooth withclay. Many have a hole carved into the floor. InFrijoles Canyon people spoke the Keres (CARE-ayz) language. In Keres the hole is called ashipahp (She-PAH-p). It is a symbol of the

Pueblo creation story. Many Pueblo groups tellthat, long ago, they came up from an under-world. They came up through the shipahp. Inthis world they were told to migrate until theyfound the “center place.” It would be the placethat was just right for them to live.

(continued)

Building Homes in Frijoles CanyonAncestral Pueblo people in Bandelier built their homes of stone.Bandelier is on the slopes of a huge volcano. It erupted over a million years ago and covered the land for miles around with vol-canic ash. The ash became soft rock called tuff. Ancestral Pueblo peo-ple settled there thousands of years later. They used the tuff to buildtheir homes. They didn’t have bulldozers, cranes, or electric drills forbuilding. In fact, the Ancestral Pueblo people didn’t have electricity,motors, or even metal. Work was all done by hand using strong toolsmade of stone, wood, and animal bones.

Entry into homes was byladders made of wood.

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This is an example of an Ancestral Pueblo home. Entry wasoften through the roof and then down a ladder. Walls wereplastered with mud. Wood beams supported the roof. Manyvillages stood two or three stories high!

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Villages WithPlazas

On the bottom ofFrijoles Canyon is anold village, Tyuonyi(Qu-weh-nee). Manyhouses were builtnext to each otherwith an open space,called a plaza, in themiddle. The housewalls were tuff bricks.They were coveredwith plaster. Theroofs were made ofstrong woodenbeams, just like thekiva roof. Tyuonyihad about 400rooms. It was one totwo stories tall,maybe three in someplaces. People wentinto the rooms byladders through theroofs. We don’t knowif they had any ene-mies. But it looks like

they built their village for defense. If there wasdanger, they would need to protect their fami-lies. Tyuonyi has no doors or windows in the outside walls or first floor rooms. There was only oneway to getinto the vil-lage. It was asmall open-ing with anarrow hall.Maybe ifthere wastrouble, thepeople couldkeep enemiesout byremoving theladders andblocking thelittle opening.

Some of the rooms were for living and otherswere for storage. They needed to store lots ofdried corn, beans, and squash to have for thewinter. Rooms for living seem small compared

to houses now. Many were about six feet wideand eight feet long. But most people were onlya little over five feet tall. That’s shorter thanmany people today. They didn’t have big piecesof furniture to take up space, either. And eachfamily could have as many rooms as they werewilling to do the work to build.

Most rooms didn’t have windows. They didn’thave glass, so windows would have just beenopenings in the wall. That would be cold in thewinter! So usually it was pretty dark and smokyinside. Probably people spent time outsidewhenever they could.

People often spent time in the plaza. Therewould be lots of things going on. Children

would beplaying.Womenwould bemaking pottery. Girlswould carrywater fromthe creek.Men wouldbring cropsfrom the gar-dens. Boyswould run by on theirway to huntrabbits. Good

smells from cooking would make you hungry.In Tyuonyi there were three kivas in the plaza. Maybe you would hear people singing inthe kivas.

Building Homes in Frijoles Canyon (Continued)

An artist’s idea of what Tyuonyi looked like. Noticethere is only one entrance to the village. Maybe it wasfor defense. It also marks December 21, the winter sol-stice. On that day, the shortest day of the year, the ris-ing sun lines up directly with the entry. N

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Ancestral Pueblo people didn’t have grocery stores like we do today. Peoplehad to be very careful with food. Most of the pueblo structures had roomsthat were used for storage. Crops, seeds, dried meat, water and other thingswere stored in the bottom level rooms. They were very dark and dry and keptthings stored very well for months, even years!

Ladders were made in differ-ent styles. This one was madeby carving notches into awooden pole. Women oftenwrapped small children inwarm cotton blankets and tiedthem to their backs to do dailychores and also to climb upladders to their homes.

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CavatesIf you visit Frijoles Canyon, you will noticesmall, odd-shaped holes in the canyon walls.They were formed by wind, rain, and frost.Then you will see ones that look like they wereshaped. They have flat floors and door-shapedopenings. You may even notice soot on the ceilings and plaster on the walls. This tells youthat these are cavates (cave-EIGHTS). The Ancestral Pueblo people dug these holes inthe cliff for living and storage. Cavates are notvery big. Many are only about five feet wideand five feet tall. Often the people covered thewalls with mud plaster. Sometimes they paint-ed designs on the walls. If there was a fire, thesmoke would make soot on the cave ceiling.The plaster and the soot would help keepthe tuff walls from crumbling onto people.

Usually a cavate wasn’t used by itself. The people built a house in front, and thecavate was the back room.

Talus HousesThe loose rock at the base of a cliff is calledtalus (TAL-luss). So the houses built along thecliffs are called talus houses. Sometimes theyare called cliff dwellings. They have cavates forback rooms. Talus houses blend in with thecliffs. Their stone walls look like they havealways been there.

Talus houses were built like kivas and Tyuonyi.The walls were stone bricks. The roof was pine

beams, branches, and mud. People went intothe house by a ladder in the roof. Maybe therewas a cavate for a back room.

Along one cliff in Frijoles Canyon, the peoplebuilt many talus houses next to each other. Thegroup of houses is 800 feet long! That is a longline of houses. So it is called Long House.

Good Homes Maybe you wonder whether it was better to livein the cliff dwellings, or in Tyuonyi on thecanyon bottom? Tyuonyi is closer to the creekand the corn fields in the canyon. That wouldbe nice for getting water. In summer it wouldbe easy to get to your garden. But living in thetalus houses would be nice in winter. They areon the south-facing side of the canyon. That isthe good place for sunlight. On short winterdays the sun shines on those houses in theafternoon. Every winter day they had sunshinefor more than an hour longer than the housesin Tyuonyi. So maybe the talus houses wouldbe the place to be on winter days. You could siton your roof in the sun longer. But at darkeveryone in both places had to go indoors forthe long cold night. Inside there were warmfires. Winter was the time for telling stories.

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There are many cavates in Frijoles Canyon. Along thecliff are lines of holes. They show where the roof beamsused to be. Can you tell how many stories this area wasby looking at the roof-beam holes?

Cavates usually were not the whole house. Usually thecavate was a back room. The people built stone rooms alongthe cliff to be the rest of the house. You went through thestone rooms to get to the cavate room. It would be a niceplace to grind corn or to make a good hot meal.

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Answer: Three stories tall.

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So both kinds of homes had advantagesand disadvantages. Everybody was living

in a good place.

All the Ancestral Pueblo houses were strong. They were warm in the winter and cool in thesummer. Do you think you would like to livein one of the stone houses in those days? Therooms were smaller than the ones in yourhouse. They didn’t have electricity, faucets,refrigerators, or video games. But they keptyou dry when it rained or snowed. You wouldbe proud because you helped build the house.Your family was close all around you.Grandparents told stories. Food was stored soyou wouldn’t be hungry even in the winter.

Imagine being there on a dark, windy night.Good stone houses are all along the canyonwall, and in the big circle of Tyuonyi. Familiesgather inside their homes. Your fire is warm

and bright. The cooking food smells so good!Soon it will be time for bed. Tucked in yourturkey-feather blanket, cozy and secure, youdrift into pleasant dreams.


Talus houses were built along the cliffs. In Frijoles Canyonthere is a reconstruction of a talus house. By looking at thisdrawing can you tell what is wrong with the reconstruction?Notice the doorways. Would the door to the home really be inthe front of the house? Where should the entrance be? Actually,the ancient people at Bandelier only put doors in the roof. Thedoors on this building were put in the front walls to give parkvisitors a chance to look inside a talus house.

Pablita Velarde painted this pueblo scene in the 1940s. Many pueblo houses still look like ones long ago.

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The Ancestral Pueblo people were hunters,gatherers, and farmers. For thousands ofyears they moved from place to place in

small groups looking for plants to eat. Theyhunted deer, rabbits,and other wildlife.About a thousandyears ago, theybegan to learn aboutfarming. Their wayof life changed. Inthe 1100s theAncestral Pueblopeople moved intoFrijoles Canyon. Bythen they wereskilled farmers andhad experience ingrowing crops insuch a dry area.

If they could, theylived near a river orstream. There they

could dig ditches to bring water to their gar-dens, or use pottery jars to carry water to the

plants. But there aren’t verymany rivers and streams.There wasn’t enoughspace for everyone tomake gardensthere. In manyplaces water onlycame from summer rains and winter snows. The mesa tops inBandelier were like that. Oftenthey would plant gardens in many different places. Someplaces would be good in dry years.Some places would be good in wetyears. That way some food wouldgrow every year.

For food they grew corn, beans,and squash. This was a very goodcombination. To be strong, andto grow, you need to eat protein.

Meat has a lot of protein. But the people didn’t have much meatto eat. If you eat corn and beanstogether they give you protein.Squash also has good vitamins.

Besides growing food in theirgardens, people around Bandelier

also grew cotton. They spun the cotton fibersinto thread. Then they used looms to weave the thread into cloth for make clothesand blankets.

They were good farmers. But some years arejust too dry for gardens to grow. People needfood every year. So in good years they stored as much food as possible. They didn’t haverefrigerators or freezers. There weren’t anymetal cans or glass jars. To store food, the people dried it in the sun. Dry corn and beanswill keep for years. Women cut the squash inlong strips and hung the strips to dry. Theygathered and dried edible plants. Meat was cutinto thin pieces to dry into jerky. All the dryfood was put in storerooms. The rooms had nowindows. The walls were plastered with mud.That way no bugs or mice could get in and eattheir food. Then they knew they would havefood even in hard times.

At Thanksgiving you see bright-colored cornwith hard kernels. People call it "Indian corn”.That is the kind of corn the Ancestral Pueblo

(continued)

Making a Living

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The three main crops of theAncestral Pueblo people werecorn, beans, and squash.What do you think yourfavorite food would be?

People around Bandelier grew cotton. The men set up looms and wovethe cotton into cloth for warm clothes. This loom is in a cavate.

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people grew. In those days ears of corn were smaller than now. When they were full grown, the people dried and stored them. To make food for their families, the women rubbed the cobs together.That made the kernels come off. They used two stones to grind thekernels into corn meal. Now we often call those stones by theirSpanish names. The flat stone is called a metate. The stone you hold in your hand is called a mano. The women put the corn mealinto stew or used it to make mush. They made thin corn cakes andother good foods. The beans were the brown-and-white kind. Whenyou boil them a long time they are tasty and nutritious. To use thesquash they cut the dried strips into small pieces. Then they put the pieces into boiling soup or stew.

Today, farmers often have lots of animals around. For Ancestral Pueblo farmers the only domestic animals were dogs and turkeys. They didn’t have horses, cows, sheep, or chickens. All those animals came later with the Spanish. Probably the dogs were pets and for hunting.You might think the turkeys were to eat. But mostly they were important for their feathers. Thelong, hard wing feathers went on arrows and dance clothing. The people twisted the soft, small

feathers with yucca-fiber string. Then they wove the fuzzystring into warm turkey-feather blankets.

Hunting was also important. Hunters used bows andarrows, snares, and rabbit sticks. They hunted animalsincluding rabbits, deer, and elk. Pueblo hunters know thathunting is very special. They know that a hunter must berespectful. He must not waste any part of the animal. Themeat was used for food and the skin for leather or fur. Thebrains were good for tanning the hide. The bones weremade into tools. Sinew made strong thread for sewing.Antlers were used for making arrowheads and deer hoovesfor rattles. The people knew many other ways to use partsof animals. Hunters respected the animals.

Pueblo people have always known that their lives dependon water. They need snow to come in winter. When itmelts in spring, seeds can sprout. They need the rain in the summer. Then crops and wild plants can grow. Peopleand animals will have food. They believe that everyonemust stay in harmony with all living things. Everyonemust be in harmony with the spirits. Then people willhave good lives. Pueblo people show their respect in theway they live every day. They have special dances, prayers,and songs. The ceremonies ask for rain, healthy families,and long life. Farming isn’t just about picking the rightplace to plant. Pueblo people know that the way they liveis just as important.

Making a Living (Continued)

Ancestral Pueblo men had many jobs.They were farmers, hunters, tool makers, and weavers. Some were alsotraders, traveling to different places totrade for things like feathers, cotton, oreven copper bells!

Squash and beans were a mainpart of the Ancestral Pueblo diet.

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People have lived around Bandelier for more than ten thousand years. Onereason they survived is because they knew

so much about using native plants. They usednative plants for food, clothing, tools, medi-cines and dyes. Knowledge was passed on gen-eration after generation. Parents taught theirchildren, who taught their children. Everyonerespected the elders who knew the most aboutusing plants. Survival depended on knowinghow plants could be used.

Different plants grow in different environments.Plants must have certain things to survive.

They need the right amount of water. Theyneed the right amount of sunshine. They needthe right kind of soil. A plant that needs a lotof water might live by a stream. One that isstronger could live in a canyon or arroyo wherethere is only water now and then. Plants thatneed lots of sunshine and not much water canlive in open, dry places. Mesa tops are like that.Over hundreds of years the ancient peoplelearned all about plants. They learned where tofind the kinds they wanted to use. They learnedwhen they bloomed, when they had berries,and they learned how get there before wild animals ate everything. Ancestral Pueblo peo-ple knew as much about plants as some mod-ern scientists do.

Would you believe you can learn about plantsfrom middens? Middens are places that peoplethrow away things that they do not need anymore. Archeologists get a lot of informationfrom studying middens. Maybe someone madea yucca sandal. Later it wore out and theythrew it away. Hundreds of years later an

archeologist finds it. The archeologist studiesthe sandal. She finds out what plants peopleused. She finds out how sandals were made. Ifshe keeps looking, she may find out other waysthey used the yucca plant. She may find outthat different people used plants for differentthings. She can also learn about the old waysfrom Pueblo people today.

Now, Pueblo people use yucca roots for soap.They use the flowers and fruit for food. Theymake string, baskets, and paintbrushes fromthe tough leaves. Probably people long agoused yucca in the same ways.

Maybe you are hungry. You can eat berriesfrom one-seed junipers. They don’t taste verygood, but they might help people have enoughfood in hard times. Something with much bet-ter flavor comes from the piñon tree. Piñonnuts are tasty and give you lots of energy.Piñon nuts had more calories than anythingthe people grew. You could use piñon sap onthe inside of a basket to keep water from leak-ing out. The wood is good firewood. You couldeven chew piñon sap like gum.

Another very useful tree is the Ponderosa pine.They are tall and straight. The bark of thePonderosa smells like vanilla. The AncestralPueblo people used Ponderosa for beams tohold up their roofs and to make ladders. Theyexplored all the possible ways to use plants.

The Ancestral Pueblo people grew most of theirfood in their gardens. They planted corn, beansand squash. However, native plants were stillvery important to them. They helped them

(continued)

Using Native Plants

Can you imagine what it would feellike to wear yucca sandals? Thesewere the shoes worn by AncestralPueblo people every day.

Yucca Baskets were used to carry manythings including crops, plants and evenwater! Ancestral Pueblo people used sapfrom the pine trees to fill the holes and thenhad a container that could carry water.

To the Ancestral Pueblo peo-ple, the yucca was like a mini-grocery store. Today, it is theNew Mexico state flower.

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have a healthier diet. If not enough food grewin their gardens, they still had native plants.When someone was sick, they knew the plantsto use for medicine.

The elders today still teach children the knowledge of their ancestors. Children learn the importance of native plants.They learn how to use them. And they learn to respect them.

Using Native Plants (Continued)

The piñon tree is a remarkable tree.Piñon nuts are not made every year,only every 5 to 7 years. Also, before apiñon tree makes a cone, the treeneeds to be at least 50-75 years old!

Ponderosa pine trees made very sturdy roofbeams. The Ancestral Pueblo people did nothave the wheel or horses, so they had to carrythe heavy beams themselves.

The piñon tree was very valuable to the Ancestral Pueblopeople. When the piñon nuts were in season, the peopleharvested them. The nuts are filled with protein and fat. Apound of piñon nuts has about 5,000 calories!

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How did they use other plants?Imagine that you are anAncestral Pueblo parent. Yourbaby has a wet bottom, just likebabies now. But you can’t buydiapers. What do you do?Ancestral Pueblo mothers gottheir diapers from trees! Juniperbark is "shreddy." That means itcomes off the tree in long strips.If you pound it with a rock itgets soft. It will soak up water. Itmakes a great diaper!

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Humans have always wanted to write or draw special things. Drawings mayshow things that happened. They

may show someone’ s ideas. They may showceremonies. Now we write about things usingwords. But most early people in America didn’thave alphabets. They used drawings to showtheir thoughts.

The word "petroglyph" is from two old words. In Greek, petro means rock. Glyph meanssomething that is carved or engraved.Petroglyphs are designs that people make by pecking, grinding, incising, or scratching.You can see petroglyphs on rocks, boulders, and canyon walls.

A pictograph is a drawing painted onto rocks.Ancient people made them with colors madefrom dirt and clay. Pictographs are very fragile.Most of them washed away centuries ago.Almost all of them you see today are in placesprotected from the weather.

Petroglyphs and pictographs are not graffiti.Graffiti is writing or drawing that someonemakes without permission. Usually it evendamages something. When an ancient personmade a petroglyph or pictograph, probably itwas special and important to everyone.

(continued)

Drawing Thoughts

This is an example of a spiral petroglyph.Spirals are very common.

Some people from Cochiti Pueblo say thatthis petroglyph is related to Tyuonyi.

One of the many petroglyphs at Long Housemay show a macaw. Ancestral Pueblo peopletraded obsidian and other things for brightly-colored macaw feathers.

Here in the Southwest there have

been many groups of Native

Americans. Different groups make

different kinds of drawings. Every

one was important to the person

who made it. Every one is impor-

tant to Native Americans now.

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When you walk on the main loop trailat Bandelier you can see petroglyphs

and pictographs. They were made by theAncestral Pueblo people. Frijoles Canyon wastheir home for centuries. What do the picturesmean? Many symbols are familiar to Pueblopeople today. But unless you can talk to theperson who made it, you will never really know why they put it there.

At Bandelier National Monument visitors enjoyfinding petroglyphs and pictographs. If youvisit you may see lots of symbols. There arethings that look like animals, suns, spirals, and people. There are plumed water serpentsand birds. They are beautiful and very fragile.We want them to last a long time. So everyoneneeds to protect them. We need to rememberthat they are important. We need to berespectful. Please don’t get too close to them.Don’t touch them because little by little theywill wear away. Remember that rock won’tgrow back! They were made by ancestral handshundreds of years ago. You will be glad thatyou helped preserve them.

Drawing Thoughts (Continued)

Artist depiction of plumed water serpeant pictograph in a cavate in Bandelier. It is more than three feet long!Pictographs are designs that are painted on the rock. Pictographs are rare because they erode away more quicklythan petroglyphs.

Turkey petroglyph at Long House.Ancestral Pueblo used turkey feathers toweave blankets.

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We do not know what the AncestralPueblo people were saying with theirpictographs and petroglyphs.

Besides making drawings, they alsospoke to each other. Probably presentday Pueblo people are still usingmany of the words they used so longago. The Pueblos who are most closelyrelated to Bandelier speak three languages: Keres, Tewa, and Zuni.

Here are some words from those languages:

WaterTewa: p’oKeres: tsehtsZuni: k’ah way

CornTewa: k’hunKeres: yahkZuni: doe wa

HomeTewa: te-whaKeres: sah mahZuni: de yat chi nan ne

FoodTewa: hoo-geeKeres: ooh-peh-wahZuni: he shod an ne

ClayTewa: pe’ingKeres: meetzZuni: hayi k’ha choe

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People in the Southwest moved from place toplace for many reasons. After many years theystarted living in permanent villages. That waswhen they started using pottery. People inCentral America and Mexico had known howto make pottery for a long time. Probably themethods for making pottery moved north.Pottery was ideal for storing the corn andbeans they harvested. It kept animals out and lasted for a long time.

The first pieces made were very basic and are often called plainware. These were simplebrown or grey bowls. Over time, Pueblo peoplebecame experienced potters. They began to polish the pot’ s surface. Potters created newshapes and sizes of pots. They made cookingpots, bowls, storage jars,and serving bowls.There were ladles

(or scoops), mugs, andfigurines. They painted

designs on some pieces.

Pots used for cooking are“corrugated.” That meansthey have bumps andridges where the potterpinched the wet claybetween her fingers. Oftenthey have burn marks onthe outside, from beingused over a fire. Pottersdidn’t put painted designson cooking pots. Most pot-tery from early times wasunpainted cooking ware.

Later, some people began painting interestingdesigns on bowls and jars. These pieces wereused for eating, drinking, or serving food. Anearly style is Black-on-White. Potters put a thinlayer of white clay all over the pot. Thin clay is called slip. Then they made drawings on itwith black paint. The designs were simple but beautiful. Today some potters still do Black-on-White designs. It has been done for 1,400 years.

Some potters put red slip on their pieces. Thenthey added intricate designs of red, white andblack. Designs were mostly geometric. Somerepresented clouds, rain, and lightning. Othersshowed arrows, steps, and feathers. A few weredrawings of animals. Some potters along theRio Grande River in New Mexico made a special paint called glaze. It melts a littlewhen the pot is fired, and comes out shiny.

Today glaze is often used to cover a wholepiece. Then it was only used to make designs.

People in different times and places made different styles and kinds of designs. There weremany different groups of Ancestral Pueblo people. Each group had its own designs andways to make pottery. If you look very carefullyat a pot you can tell which Ancestral Pueblogroup made it. You can tell how long ago. This information is extremely important toarcheologists. They are trying to figure out thewhole story of the Southwest. Today, differentpueblos still have their own ways to shape and decorate pots.

Many potters use designsthat they find on pots madeby their ancestors. Like inthe old days, you can tellwhich pueblo a pot is fromjust by looking at its design.

Pottery is still made the wayit was made long ago.Potters gather clay to makethe pots. They gather min-erals or plants to make thepaints. Potters chew onyucca leaves to make paintbrushes. Potters mix just theright amount of clay andwater. They pull the clayout into long thick strips.They coil the strips aroundand around to build the

body of the pot. The potter then pinches thecoils together so the pot won’t fall apart. Theyscrape the pot inside and out to make the sur-face smooth. They let it dry slowly, and sand it.Then they decorate it.

(continued)

Cooking with Clay

The pottery made by Pueblo peopleis beautiful to look at. It also tells us a lot about those who made it. Eachpot tells a story.

Corrugated Pottery, one of the earliestkinds, was mostly used for cooking.

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Last they fire it to make it strong and hard. To do the firing, potters take the pots outside.They carefully and skillfully surround themwith wood or something else that will burn.They want to make a very hot fire. When it isburning they leave the pots in until they knowthey are done. Some groups leave them for anhour. Some groups take more time, some less.

When the Spanish came to the Southwest theynoted that women were making most pottery.Today in many pueblos there are both menand women who are excellent potters. In somepueblos, women make the pots and men paintthem. Sometimes other combinations of peoplehelp each other.

Pottery was surely important in the lives of theAncestral Pueblo people. They used it to collectand carry water and store crops. They used it tocook and serve food. Archeologists find that

many pueblos traded pots. So we know it wasimportant for trade. Pottery is still importantto Pueblo people of today. For some it is an

important way to make a living. For all Pueblo people it holds thousands of years oftheir traditions.

Cooking with Clay (Continued)

This is a bowl from Cochiti Pueblo. It was made in about 1940.

Pottery with painted designs was usually used forserving and storing food. This is a drawing of aBandelier Black-on-Grey bowl made between1400-1550.

In Spanish, large jars like this are called ollas(oy-yahs). They were often used for carryingwater and storing food. The drawing is aBandelier Black-on-Gray pot. It was madebetween 1400-1550.

In Ancestral Pueblo times, women made the potteryin the villages. When the women went for water, theycarried the pots on their heads.

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MariaMartinezwas a potter

from San IldefonsoPueblo. That is onlyabout 20 miles fromBandelier. In 1908,her husband Julianwas working for Dr.Edgar Lee Hewett, anarcheologist. Julianwas digging in theAncestral Pueblohouses in FrijolesCanyon. Dr. Hewettfound some of theold pottery. He askedMaria and Julian to

make copies of it. He liked the pots they made.

Later he helped them start selling their pots topeople outside of their village. Before that,most potters just made pieces for their ownfamily or other people they knew. Selling pot-tery to tourists gave Maria and other potters anew way to earn money. That helped theirfamilies and their whole community.

Maria and Julian became very famous forbeautiful black pottery with black designs. It iscalled black-on-black. And they made otherkinds too. They made red and polychrome.Polychrome means it has more than two colors.

Maria and Julian worked together. Mariashaped the clay into beautiful pots. She let thepot get dry. Then she sanded it until it was verysmooth. She painted slip all over the pot. Slip isclay with lots of water. Her sister Clara helpedher polish the pot carefully with a smooth

stone. That made it shiny. Then Julian painteddesigns on it. For paint he usually used slip. Hepainted designs with slip on the polished sur-face of a pot. The lines would show becausethey were matte (not shiny). Polychrome potswere cream-colored. He painted them withdesigns in red and black.

When a piece was finished, it had to be fired.Firing makes it hard and strong. Maria andJulian took the pots outside. They carefullybuilt a fire around them. Julian figured out away to make red pots come out black. He covered the fire with dry, powdered horsemanure. That made the pots change color.

For many years Maria and Julian workedtogether to make beautiful black-on-black pot-tery designs. Julian passed away in 1943. ThenSantana, the wife of their son Adam, helpedMaria. Later their son Popovi Da (poh-POH-veeDAY) made the designs. He also made beautifulpots of his own. Maria Martinez was alwayswilling to teach others how to work with clay.She passed away in 1980. To this day her family and many other Pueblo people makebeautiful, traditional pottery.

Maria Martinez

This polychrome pot is red, black, andcream. Maria Martinez and her sonPopovi Da created it in 1960.

This pot was made by Tony Da,Maria’ s son. It was made in the1970s. The design is the Awanyu,or the water serpent.

This pot was made by MariaMartinez and Popovi Da in the1960s. The feather design isblack-on-black.

Julian and Maria Martinezwere an amazing team.Maria made the pottery andJulian painted designs on thepots. Together they madevery beautiful Pueblo potteryfor the world!

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“I am happy because I know thatpottery will not die. My great-grand-mother, Maria, taught me and nowI teach my grandchildren.”

~Eveyln Naranjo, San Ildefonso

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Pablita Velarde came from Santa ClaraPueblo. She worked at Bandelier in the1940s. People know her for her wonderful

paintings. They also know her because shewas a pioneer. She opened the way for otherwomen artists.

Pablita went to St. Catherine’s School in Santa Fe. Then she finished high school at theSanta Fe Indian School. There, she took artclasses with Dorothy Dunn. She found out shewas good at painting. Ms. Dunn encouragedPablita in her artwork. In those days mostPueblo people didn’t think women should bepainters. They thought women should just cookand raise children.

Pablita did pursue her dream to become a full-time painter. It was not an easy road. Butafter she finished school in Santa Fe, she got agood job. Bandelier National Monument wasmaking a new museum. They hired Pablita topaint Pueblo scenes. She wanted park visitors tolearn about her people. She was very careful tomake sure every detail in thepaintings was right. At thattime she worked with casein(kay-SEEN). That is a kind ofpaint that is based on milk.

Later she started makingwhat she called "earth paint-ings." She made the paintfrom colored dirt, glue, andwater. Over her lifetime shebecame famous for her art.She also wrote and made thepictures for a book of legendsher father told when she wasyoung. It is called “Old Fatherthe Storyteller.”

Pablita lived in Albuquerque for a long time.She passed away in 2005 when she was in her eighties.

Pablita opened the doorfor Pueblo women to beartists. If they have artistictalent, they can followtheir dreams. This is eventrue in her own family. Herdaughter Helen Hardinwas a very famous painter.Sadly, she has passedaway. Helen’ s daughterMargarete paints andmakes pottery. Pablita’s son Herbertis an artist too. He is a sculptor.

Pablita was very famous. She received manyawards. And she made a legacy of stories inpictures. Her pictures tell of Pueblo life froman inside eye.

Pablita Velarde

This is “Old Father Storyteller”, by Pablita Velarde.Pablita wrote a book of Pueblo stories her father toldher as a young girl. This is on the cover of her book.

This is an example of a painting by Pablita Velarde.She painted it in the 1940s. It is a men’ s dance withdancers representing buffalo, deer, and antelope. Thedance is usually done in the winter.

Along with painting,Pablita Velarde alsomade Pueblo dolls.

pueblo people past & present - national park service · towa, keres and zuni. many pueblo...

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