320 



PUEBLOS 



[ B. A. E. 



ni.ststook refuge in the government build- 

 ings at Santa Fe, and withst(Jod a siege by 

 about 3,000 Indians for 10 days, when, 

 after a desperate sortie, the Indians were 

 forced back with a loss of 300 killed and 

 47 captured. The prisoners were hanged, 

 and the next day (Aug. 21) the Spaniards, 

 numbering about 1,000, commenced their 

 long retreat to El I'aso. Evidently in 

 fear lest the Spaniards should return at 

 any time with a strong force, many of the 

 Pueblos abandoned their settlements and 

 took refuge in new ones on less pregna- 

 ble sites, leaving the former villages to 

 crumble. For 12 years the Pueblos re- 

 mained independent of the Spaniards, 

 but not free from dissension among them- 

 selves or from dejiredations by their old 

 enemies, the Navaho and the Apache. In 

 1692 Diego de Vargas reconquered the 

 provini'e after severely chastising many 

 of the natives and destroying some of 

 their towns. Of all the pueblos of New 

 Mexico at the 

 beginning of the 

 revolt (at which 

 time there were 

 33 active mis- 

 sions, while otli- 

 ers were mere 

 visitas) only 

 Acoma and pos- 

 sibly Isleta con- 

 tinued to occu])y 

 their former 

 sites after the 

 conquest. In 

 1696 some of the 

 Pueblos once 

 more rebelled, 

 killing seveial 

 missionaries, 

 but they surren- 

 dered after hav- 

 ing been again 

 seveiely punished by Vargas. From this 

 time the Pueblos have been notably peace- 

 ful toward the whites, the only exception 

 being in Jan., 1847, when the Taos In- 

 dians, instigated by some misguided Mexi- 

 cans, killed Gov. Charles Bent and some 

 other Americans and took refuge in their 

 fortified town and mission church, which 

 were stormed by troops with a loss to the 

 Indians of about 150 killed outright, while 

 a number were later tried and hanged. 



Artsandiiidustrics. — While the material 

 culture of the sedentary ])eople of this 

 great territory, as revealed by ethnolog- 

 ical and archeological investigations, is 

 sufficiently homogeneous to warrant its 

 designation as "the Pueblo culture," 

 there are many local differences in archi- 

 tecture and in building materials, due 

 chiefly to the influence of environment. 

 In the northern portions particularly, and 

 scattered here and there almost through- 



CLIFF-DWELLrNGS IN NEW MEXICO 



out the area, are the remains of dwellings 

 built in recesses of cliffs or canyon walls, 

 in some cases the natural cavities having 

 been enlarged or modified by artificial 

 means, in others the cliff face having 

 been practically honeycom1)ed to serve 

 as habitations. These are the cliff-dwell- 

 ings (q. v. ) built and occupied by the 

 ancestors of the present Pueblos, no doubt 

 for purposes of defense against ancient 

 enemies. In the valleys and on the mesa 

 tops the structures varied according to the 

 available buildingmaterialsandtotheexi- 

 gencies of the sites. In the northern parts 

 of the Pueblo area the houses were gener- 

 ally of sandstone, readily quarried near at 

 hand ; in some places blocks of lava, or tufa, 

 were used. In the southern valleys, espe- 

 cially along the Gila and the Salt, adobe 

 (q. V.) was the material usually employed. 

 The groups of dwellings were generally 

 compact structures of several stories, with 

 many small rooms made necessary owing 

 partly to the 

 scarcity of suita- 

 ble timber for 

 roofing larger 

 structures and 

 partly to the 

 lack of means of 

 transporting it, 

 for,likeotherln- 

 <lians,the Pueb- 

 los had nohorses 

 or donkeys be- 

 fore the coming 

 of the whites. 

 The villages 

 were often rec- 

 tangular, with 

 open courts, but 

 usuallytherewaa 

 little fixed plan 

 of outline, new 

 dwellings being 

 added wherever and whenever need de- 

 manded (although sometimes influenced 

 bythedirectionof thesun),oftenresulting 

 in great community groups of houses form- 

 ing irregularly oblong, square, semicircu- 

 lar, circular, and elliptical ground-plans, 

 with wings and minor projections. The 

 ])ueblos were generally built in terrace 

 fashion; i. e., the upper tiers of houses 

 were set back of those next below, so that 

 the roofs of the lower stories formed a 

 kind of front yard for those next above. 

 Unlike the dwellings of to-day, the lower 

 stories were without doors, entrance being 

 gained by means of ladders and a hatch- 

 way in the roof. The upper houses were 

 and still are reached by means of movable 

 ladders, or by masonry steps built against 

 the outer walls and resting on the roofs 

 of the houses below. In the ancient pue- 

 blos the fireplace was generally in the form 

 of a shallow box or pit in the middle of 



