IL' INDIANS OK THE SOUTHWEST. 



nients of New Mexico. J^etweeii the Southwest and 

 the great Aztec civiUzation in the Valley of Mexico 

 were rough mountains and deserts inhabited by savage 

 tribes. Articles passed northw^ard in pre-Spanish 

 times we know, but just how much influence these two 

 advanced cultures had on each other is yet to be 

 definitely determined. On the west a mighty river, 

 the Colorado, backed by a real and pitiless desert 

 furnished a barrier between the cultures of the South- 

 west and that of the California coast which is best 

 illustrated by the remains found on Santa Barbara 

 Islands. To the north, are rugged and snow-covered 

 mountains around and through which, how^ever, the 

 Ute came, bringing w^ith them the prevailing language 

 and the customs of the Great Basin. Only on the 

 northeast w^as a physical barrier lacking. The people 

 of the Southwest and those of the Plains frequented 

 the same hunting grounds for buffalo and were con- 

 stantly either avoiding each other or having unsought 

 and hostile meetings. When once partial isolation of a 

 people has resulted in peculiar dress, habits, customs, 

 and language, these differences are apt to become added 

 barriers preventing free social intercourse and inter- 

 marriage. The existing barriers, both physical and 

 social, were sufficient to allow the origin and mainte- 

 nance in the Southwest of typical and distinct cultures 

 with gradual transitions toward the Plains on the part 

 of the nomadic peoples of the northeast and tow^ard 

 Mexico by the Pima speaking peoples in the southwest. 



