Zuni Indian Culture

Zuni Indian Pueblo Culture

                                                                                   Above: Zuni Pueblo, 1879

                                                                                      Zuni Indian Making Pottery

This trade network distributed a number of luxury items and commodities including: turquoise;
worked buffalo hides from the Great Plains, shells and corals from the California and Gulf coasts,
macaw feathers, peridot; salt from Zuni Salt Lake; blankets; cloth or cotton; finished jewelry;
wicker baskets, and ceramics.

Hawikku was a nexus in this trade network, serving as a redistribution point for products moving
along an east-west axis from the Great Plains to the Colorado River, and a north-south axis leading
down into Northern Mexico. The exact nature of this trade is not well known, although Bandelier
thought it was irregular, and may have involved a system of trading partners rather than any
market system. It is unlikely that the economic leaders in trade at Zuni were the same men who
governed the tribe as religious leaders.

When the Spanish made contact with the Zuni Indians, the Zuni did readily accept some things
introduced by the Spaniards, such as wheat and other new crops, and livestock; but native Zuni
culture appears to have been little changed in fundamental ways.


                                                                    Zuni Indian Village in 1915

The Zuni Indians were not weak people. Castaneda, the historian of Coronado's military expedition
into New Mexico in 1541, described the Zuni Pueblo inhabitants as a great brigand, much dreaded by
all the provinces." The pueblo could bring up to 200 warriors to prevent a threat. Their stronghold
was impregnable and their fighting spirit was high.

                     Two Zuni Warriors Pictured in 1903

This allowed the Zuni to defy the other pueblos, as well as their hereditary enemies the Navajos.
Castaneda's description of the village applies almost precisely to its appearance to-day. He states
that the sides of the rock on which it stood were so precipitous that the ascent of it by human
beings was impossible except at one place, where a stairway led from the plain up to the village.

This stairway was of sufficient width for the first two hundred steps, but after ascending these,
there were encountered one hundred steps far more difficult, and then a perpendicular ascent of
twelve feet remained, which could only be climbed by the use of holes made in the face of the rock,
which compelled the climber to make use of both hands and feet.

The ability to resist being conquered by invading peoples allowed the Zuni culture to remain
relatively unchanged for hundreds of years.

                                                                                       Below: The costume of the Corn Dance
Zuni Indian Corn Dance
The Corn Dance has remained one of the Zuni Indians most
important rituals.

During the Corn Dance the six Corn Maidens stay in a shelter
of boughs in the plaza. One of the bow priests desires the
eldest sister and attempts to touch her. Offended, the Corn
Maidens depart for the ocean in the southeast, taking all the
corn in the village.

Duck aids the maidens by tucking them under her wings and
diving under the water. Without corn, the people endure
famine for seven years. Every night the priests hold council,
seeking help in finding the Corn Maidens. Finally, Newekwe
Youth agrees to search for them, but demands that the
priests keep strict retreat and make prayersticks for him while he is gone.

With the power gained from the retreating priests, Newekwe Youth is able to find the Corn
Maidens, and returns with them. They come into Zuni Village, thus setting the precedent for the
arrival of the Corn Maidens in the molawai ceremony on the last day of Shalako.

One version of the story includes the calling of the Ahayuta, the warrior twins, to search for the
Corn Maidens. Although they are unsuccessful, their travels all over the world create the Milky Way.

           Corn Dance Ritual Performed in 2010

As a tribal society, the basic economy of Zuni
was based on the subsistence activities of
agriculture, gathering of wild plant
resources, and hunting. The herding of
domesticated turkeys was also a prominent
economic activity, although the birds were
perhaps more important for their feathers
than they were for their nutritional value.
There is some indication that the Zuni were
intensifying their agriculture through small
scale irrigation, as Luxan in 1583 states that
there were two canals near Hawikku.

The location of the historic villages near good
water sources, and the apparent lack of
associated field houses or limited activity
sites, might be further evidence for this
intensification. While the economic system of
the Zuni was based on agriculture, they did
participate in a regional trade network with
pueblo and non-pueblo groups.

For instance, their native architecture appears to have not
been influenced by the Spanish. However, the Zuni did
accept selected aspects of Spanish material culture when
it was to their advantage, but consistently resisted
Spanish intrusions and attempts to change Zuni beliefs and
culture.

Where the Spanish cultural domination could not be
resisted, attempts were made to accommodate and isolate
this domination from the cultural core of the Zuni people.

By 1696 the Zuni people had come to the point where they
could no longer actively resist the Spaniards, and they
thereafter set out on a course of accommodation.