Native Americans

The southwestern United States, site of the continent’s longest continuous human habitation outside of Mesoamerica, is also its most environmentally diverse region. Roughly including the states of Arizona and New Mexico, extreme southwest Colorado, extreme southern Utah and Nevada, and extreme southeast California, the region contains three major river basins: the Rio Grande, Colorado, and […]

Acoma Pueblo (Native Americans of the Southwest)

Acomais from the Acoma and Spanish Acoma, or Acu, meaning "the place that always was" or "People of the White Rock." "Pueblo" is from the Spanish for "village." It refers both to a certain style of Southwest Indian architecture, characterized by multistory buildings made of stone and adobe, and to the people themselves. The Rio […]

Apache, Chiricahua (Native Americans of the Southwest)

Chiricahua, a name taken from their stronghold in the Chiricahua Mountains, in southeast Arizona, and Apache, from the Zuni word Apachu, meaning "enemy." The Apache call themselves Ndee, or Dine’e, "the People." Location The Apache arrived in the Southwest from present-day Canada around 1400. By the early 1600s, the Chiricahua were living in southwestern New […]

Apache, Jicarilla (Native Americans of the Southwest)

Jicarilla is from the Spanish for "little basket," or "chocolate basket," and Apache is from the Zuni word Apachu, meaning "enemy." The Apache call themselves Ndee, or Dine’e (Di ‘ iie>), "the People." Location The Apache arrived in the Southwest from present-day Canada around 1400. By the early 1600s, the Jicarilla were living from the […]

Apache, Lipan (Native Americans of the Southwest)

Lipan may mean "warriors of the mountains." Apache comes from the Zuni word Apachu, meaning "enemy." The Apache call themselves Ndee, or Dine’e, "the People." Location The Apache arrived in the Southwest from present-day Canada around 1400. By about 1700, the Lipan were living on the south-central Texas plains, as far south as Texas’s Colorado […]

Apache, Mescalero (Native Americans of the Southwest)

Mescalerol, from mescal, a food derived from the agave or century plant and an important part of their diet. Apache comes from the Zuni Apachu, or "enemy." The Apache call themselves Ndee, or Dine’e, "the People." Location The Mescalero traditionally lived from east of the Rio Grande to the Pecos and beyond to the west […]

Apache, Western (Native Americans of the Southwest)

Apache comes from the Zuni Apachu, meaning "enemy." These people are properly known as Ndee, or Dine’e, "the People." Western Apache is a somewhat artificial designation given to an Apache tribe composed, with some exceptions, of bands living in Arizona. After 1850 these bands were primarily the San Carlos, White Mountain, Tonto (divided into Northern […]

Chemehuevi (Native Americans of the Southwest)

Chemehueviis Yuman for "nose-in- the-air-like-a-roadrunner," referring to a running style of the original settlers of the Chemehuevi Valley. Measuring cloth during a government issue at the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona (1887). These Indians traditionally called themselves Nuwu, "the People," or Tantdwats, "Southern Men." Location Since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the people […]

Cochiti Pueblo (Native Americans of the Southwest)

Cochitifrom the original Keresan via a Spanish transliteration. The word "pueblo" comes from the Spanish for "village." It refers both to a certain style of Southwest Indian architecture, characterized by multistory, apartmentlike buildings made of adobe, and to the people themselves. Rio Grande pueblos are known as eastern Pueblos; Zuni, Hopi, and sometimes Acoma and […]

Cocopah (Native Americans of the Southwest)

Cocopahfrom the Mojave kwi-ka-pah. The Cocopah called themselves Xawil Kunyavaei, "Those Who Live on the River." Location The traditional home of the Cocopah is near the Colorado River delta. Presently, many tribal members live in northwestern Mexico and on a reservation near Somerton, Arizona. Population There may once have been as many as 5,000 Cocopahs. […]